Prime Video tends to get overlooked since most people get it bundled with Amazon Prime, but it’s a full-blown streaming service with big-budget original series, movies, and sports exclusives like Thursday Night Football that are worth checking out.

If you’re looking to watch cinematic stories without heading to the theater, you can fire up Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Wheel of Time, Fallout, or Citadel. There’s also calmer teen fare like The Summer I Turned Pretty and Angry Birds Mystery Island.

If you’re looking to get your money’s worth from a Prime membership, I dug deep into Prime Video’s catalog to find a mix of viewing options across various categories. Be aware that Prime Video mixes free titles with paid and rental options, which can get confusing. All of the selections below are included with Prime, however.

Excellent Shows That Flew Under the Radar

There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of these excellent shows, but each deserves more viewers. From covert ops to symphony drama, at least one should appeal to your tastes.

The Night Manager

The Night Manager has Tom Hiddleston playing a spy in an adaptation of a John le Carré novel. What more could you want? The show debuted in 2016 in a short six-episode run. As a standalone series, it’s full of suspense and action, though a second and third season are now on the way, nearly 10 years later.

Director: Susanne Bier / Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, Hugh Laurie / Genre: Thriller / Rating: TV-14 / Released: 2024 / IMDb Rating: 8/10

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine star in this series remake of the 2004 movie. This updated version tweaks the storyline slightly, but it keeps all the tension of two double agents in a relationship who are ordered to take the other one out.

Director: Karena Evans / Cast: Donald Glover, Maya Erskine / Genre: Thriller / Rating: TV-MA / Released: 2024 / IMDb Rating: 7/10

Mozart in the Jungle

Mozart in the Jungle was an early Amazon Prime Video original series. It debuted in 2014 and follows a new maestro and oboist in a big city symphony who is trying to change things up. It comes from Paul Weitz, Roman Coppola, and Jason Schwartzman.

Director: Paul Weitz / Cast: Gael García Bernal, Lola Kirke / Genre: Drama / Rating: TV-MA / Released: 2014 / IMDb Rating: 8.1/10

Feel-Good Stories

Whether it’s a passionate speech about finding success or a message about caring for people during hard circumstances, these titles should leave you feeling uplifted.

The Big Sick

The Big Sick is the Oscar-nominated, semi-autobiographical tale of a comedian (Kumail Nanjiani) whose girlfriend comes down with a serious illness shortly after they start dating, and how he, as a Pakistani-American, deals with her less-than-accepting parents. It’s heavy, but Nanjiani’s comedic moments leaves you feeling feeling hopeful.

Director: Michael Showalter / Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano / Genre: Drama / Rating: R / Released: 2017 / IMDb Rating: 7.5/10

Air

Air explores the beginning of Nike’s Air Jordan brand and how the company injected itself into the sport of basketball before it became the behemoth it is now. It’s a pointed movie that hinges on a motivational speech during a business meeting.

Director: Ben Affleck / Cast: Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck / Genre: Drama / Rating: R / Released: 2023 / IMDb Rating: 7.4/10

Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter

This is a fun, single-season, animated series about a girl born into a clan of robbers living in a castle. Over 26 episodes, the show follows her as she grows up and befriends a boy from a rival clan. Suitable for kids or adults, it’s produced by Studio Ghibli and directed by Hayao Miyazaki’s son, Goro Miyazaki. 

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Director: Goro Miyazaki / Cast: Gillian Anderson, Teresa Gallagher / Genre: Fantasy / Rating: TV-Y7 / Released: 2014 / IMDb Rating: 7/10

Give Yourself a Well-Needed Laugh

If life is feeling heavy at the moment, these shows might be able to provide some laughs to keep things lighter. 

Jury Duty

All of the supporting actors in Jury Duty have a script they’re (mostly) following. The only one who isn’t clued in on what’s happening is the main character, Ronald, who doesn’t even know he’s on camera. The results of this hybrid sitcom and reality show are hilarious.

Director: Jake Szymanski / Cast: James Marsden, Alan Barinholtz / Genre: Comedy / Rating: TV-14 / Released: 2023 / IMDb Rating: 8.2/10

The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh

Fans of shows like The Middle or The Goldbergs should find another favorite with The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh. The modern-style sitcom follows an Indian family immigrating to the US, as told by them from a police facility. (It’s not quite as dark as it sounds.) The show only ran one season, but it’s still funny and witty enough to watch.

Director: Satya Bhabha / Cast: Naveen Andrews, Sindhu Vee / Genre: Comedy / Rating: TV-14 / Released: 2024 / IMDb Rating: 6.1/10

Mr. Mayor

The series starts with an underdog candidate, played by Ted Danson, becoming the mayor of Los Angeles. It’s a fairly standard sitcom, but it’s created by Tina Fey, so it has plenty of the 30 Rock-style humor layered throughout the episodes. Two seasons are available on Prime; Danson has since moved on to a similar comedy on Netflix, Man on the Inside.

Director: Maggie Carey / Cast: Ted Danson, Holly Hunter / Genre: Comedy / Rating: TV-PG / Released: 2021 / IMDb Rating: 6.4/10

A Few Risky Picks

Call me crazy, but sometimes it’s worth pushing play on a show that you don’t know if you’ll fully be into. Sometimes they turn out to be just what you needed. 

Upload

Greg Daniels, creator of The Office, is behind Upload, a show about being able to upload your consciousness to the cloud to live digitally, instead of dying. The show has an outrageous premise that stretches across the virtual and physical worlds, and it definitely gets weirder as it goes on. Still, there are plenty of laughs and moments of human connection throughout that make it worth checking out.

Director: Jeffrey Blitz / Cast: Robbie Amell, Andy Allo / Genre: Comedy / Rating: TV-MA / Released: 2020 / IMDb Rating: 7.8/10

Beast Games

Beast Games is the type of big, bombastic game show you would expect from MrBeast, a creator known for his extravagant YouTube videos. It isn’t a sophisticated watch, but the extreme game show has enough antics and interesting elements that it might be able to pull a family together as a show you can watch together. 

Director: Tyler Conklin / Cast: MrBeast, Karl Jacobs / Genre: Gameshow / Rating: TV-PG / Released: 2024 / IMDb Rating: 5.7/10

Daisy Jones & the Six

If the recent Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown struck a chord and you’re looking for something else in the realm of fictionalized music history, then Daisy Jones & the Six might be it. The story revolves around a fictional band that was the biggest thing in music during the 1970s before they suddenly broke up. The show is shot in a documentary style with present-day interviews to answer the questions: What happened? And how did it get to that point?

Director: James Ponsoldt / Cast: Riley Keough, Sam Claflin / Genre: Drama / Rating: TV-MA / Released: 2023 / IMDb Rating: 8.1/10

About Tyler Hayes

Contributor

I’ve contributed to PCMag since 2019, covering all kinds of consumer electronics. As a self-identifying early adopter of technology, I’ve stumbled through the changing devices over the years and usually end up writing about how they work, why they’re great, or how they could be better.

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