14 amazing Amazon Original TV series that’ll have you hooked
Choice picks from Amazon’s homegrown crop of streaming TV shows
The best Amazon-made shows on the steaming service
Netflix’s House of Cards might be the most famous streaming show but Amazon Prime has also given its subscribers some award-winning stuff on-demand – with a fair chunk of it in 4K too.
So while Amazon’s in-house production library isn’t as extensive as Netflix’s, there’s still piles of great material to get your teeth into, from glossy crime shows to affecting dramas and sweeping period epics.
Here’s our pick of the best of them.
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1. Transparent (S1-4)
Transparent tells the story of a 60-something divorcee announcing to his three grown-up kids that he’s always felt different and is now going to live as a woman. Sounds heavy, and it sort of is, but it’s also bold, inventive and darkly funny, with a degree of wit and sharpness that’s still rare even in this golden age of TV.
Watch Transparent on Amazon Video
2. Sneaky Pete (S1)
When a likeable conman (played by Giovanni Ribisi) turns up on a family’s doorstep falsely claiming to be their long-lost grandson, he soon has to extricate himself from a plethora of tense situations. With a charming rogue’s gallery of a cast and a plot that keeps you gripped and guessing, Sneaky Pete is the perfect choice for Breaking Bad fans looking for a new addictive TV fix.
Watch Sneaky Pete on Amazon Video
3. Comrade Detective (S1)
Comrade Detective is like nothing else on TV – a spoof 1980s Romanian cop drama, filmed in Romania with Romanian actors, then dubbed over with a host of Hollywood talent including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nick Offerman and Channing Tatum. With a pacy plot packed full of Cold War menace, good bad acting and comedic communist propaganda, it’s much more than just a one-note joke.
Watch Comrade Detective on Amazon Video
4. The Grand Tour (S1)
Clarkson and co’s Top Gear-beater is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of deal. Oily fingered petrolheads will adore it, but if you can’t stand the ageing trio of boy-men’s brand of overbearing laddishness, The Grand Tour isn’t going to transform you into a believer. For anybody looking for some beautifully shot mindless entertainment to grace that new Ultra HD telly, this impeccably-produced show fits the bill perfectly.
Watch The Grand Tour on Amazon Video
5. American Gods (S1)
Based on the beloved Neil Gaiman novel, this mega-budget drama weaves together threads of ancient mythology, modern mythology, Americana and pop culture to create a modern fantasy tale. The cast includes the likes of Ian McShane, Peter Stormare and Gillian Anderson, but British viewers will be surprised to see former Hollyoaks hunk Ricky Whittle in the leading role – and doing a very decent job with it.
Watch American Gods on Amazon Video
6. Patriot (S1)
This quirky spy drama blends deadpan humour, action and a bunch of truly great characters for a truly original whole.
Michael Dorman is superb as permanently put-upon spook John Tavner, who really just wants to be a folk singer – only for life to keep conspiring against him.
The clever plot takes in Iran, nuclear weapons, a single-minded Luxembouger cop and a lot more info about industrial piping than you could ever care for, it’s genuinely laugh-out-loud funny at times and the acting throughout is excellent. A real winner.
7. Preacher (S1-2)
It was always going to be tough adapting such a beloved comic book series into a TV show, but the makers of Preacher have done an impressive job so far. An Amazon exclusive rather than Original Series, it’s not afraid to go its own way, using the first season to establish the characters rather than plunging straight into the comic’s storylines, but its style, humour and (often incredibly violent) drama suggest it could attain cult status of its own.
Watch Preacher on Amazon Video
8. The Man in the High Castle (S1-2)
What if the Allies had lost the Second World War, and America was ruled by Germany in its eastern half and Japan in its western half, with a lawless neutral zone keeping the two new superpowers apart? Dealing with underground resistance groups, various shadowy plots and a new Cold War, The Man in the High Castle is the kind of series that’ll appeal to history buffs, sci-fi fans and anyone who’s just into high-concept television.
Watch The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Video
9. Ripper Street (S1-5)
Originally a BBC series but now produced in conjunction with Amazon, Ripper Street is a police drama set in East London in the wake of the Jack the Ripper murders. Despite the show’s name, the Ripper is only one of a host of criminal subjects touched on throughout the series, which manages to weave in plenty of real-life period characters and events without becoming too much of a “greatest hits” compilation of Victorian malfeasance.
Watch Ripper Street on Amazon Video
10. Red Oaks (S1-3)
A hidden gem in Amazon’s catalogue, Red Oaks‘ unremarkable premise belies a nuanced show that blends humour and pathos with surprising aplomb. Set in ’80s New York suburbia, Red Oaks follows the bumbling but tumultuous life of David Myers. From the enigmatically aloof love interest to parental turmoil at home, all the classic teen drama tropes are ticked off here with just enough of a twist to sustain your intrigue.
Watch Red Oaks on Amazon Video
11. Bosch (S1-3)
The brooding, loose-cannon cop who gets the job done while rubbing pen-pushing top brass up the wrong way might be a huge cliche, but this three-season series about LA detective Harry Bosch is so enjoyable that you’ll overlook it. Based on Michael Connelly’s novels, the show weaves together various season-spanning cases while also delving periodically into Bosch’s own troubled backstory and his ongoing search for the man who murdered his mother.
12. Betas (S1)
Set (and first aired) in the heady pre-Tinder days of 2013, Betas follows four geeks trying to develop a dating app – while simultaneously proving right all those cliches about their own social skills. As well as being remarkably prescient and darkly humorous, it’s also genuinely and unexpectedly moving in places, so it’s a real shame it never got renewed for a second series.
13. Just Add Magic (S1-2)
It may be billed as one for the kids, but this excellent adaptation of the book by Cindy Callaghan makes great viewing for the whole family.
The story centres around a trio of pre-teen girls who stumble upon an ancient cookbook. They quickly realise the recipes are all magical, and affect anyone who eats the end results; queue lots of funny episodes where characters can’t stop talking or act like babies and so on.
As the show develops the girls realise the whole town is in the grip of a strange power, with this wider storyline playing out across the two series so far. Smart, superior family viewing.
Watch Just Add Magic on Amazon Video
14. The New Yorker Presents (S1)
The New Yorker Presents is the show for people who’d like to think they’re cultured enough to read an edition of the iconic magazine cover-to-cover, but know deep down their knowledge of the latest word-of-mouth Broadway sensation just isn’t up to scratch.
Within the highly bingeable 30 minute episodes you get investigative reports, interviews, poems, surreal comedy routines and fiendishly clever cartoons, all presented as digestible vignettes. Sure, not everything will land, but it’s the unpredictable topic-jumping that will have you hooked. There’s nothing else like it on TV.
Watch The New Yorker Presents on Amazon Video
