Amazon Prime Video’s labyrinthine menus hide some of the best shows streaming right now. Megan L. Whitfield at News Of Fort Worth has curated the 25 essential series included with your subscription, from post-apocalyptic epics to gritty crime thrillers and surreal comedies.
**At a Glance
- Fallout returns faster than most prestige series, delivering grisly post-nuke delight
- The Boys season 4 drops with the team fractured amid a super-powered political crisis
- Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power accelerates into richer, faster-paced second season
- Why it matters: Skip the scroll and head straight to the platform’s sharpest, most binge-worthy titles
Sci-Fi & Fantasy Powerhouses
Fallout keeps the wasteland weird. Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), the Ghoul (Walton Goggins), and Maximus (Aaron Moten) resume their irradiated road trip toward New Vegas while the Brotherhood of Steel teeters on civil war.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power leaves the slow burn behind. Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) races to stop Sauron (Charlie Vickers), Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) finally appears, and Orc-Elf battles look every bit the rumored stratospheric budget.
The Rig relocates surviving crew from North Sea rig Kinloch Bravo to Arctic facility The Stac. Pictor corporation still wants something ancient beneath the waves, and eco-metaphors punch as hard as Iain Glen and Alice Krige’s performances.
The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy gives alien docs Dr. Sleech (Stephanie Hsu) and Dr. Klak (Keke Palmer) 30-minute missions to cure anxiety-eating brain worms and shape-shifting STIs. Natasha Lyonne voices an occasionally invisible nurse.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX asks what if Zeon’s “space Nazis” had won. High-schooler Amate Yuzuriha pilots an experimental Gundam after Khara’s neon-bright mecha crashes into her colony. New episodes land Tuesdays.
Adult Animation That Hits Hard
Invincible season 3 finds Mark Grayson still cleaning up after Omni-Man’s betrayal while mentoring his super-powered little brother and navigating murky global politics. Robert Kirkman’s adaptation lets heroes actually grow up.
The Legend of Vox Machina returns for a third round against the Chroma Conclave’s dragons. The Critical Role crew detours through Hell itself, keeping the bawdy humor and lush animation that made it a fantasy standout.
Batman: Caped Crusader revives Bruce Timm’s 1990s noir. Hamish Linklater voices Batman in a 1930s-tinged Gotham where Penguin and Harley Quinn get fresh, pulpy reinventions.
The Mighty Nein moves Critical Role’s second campaign to the screen. Outcast adventurers Caleb, Nott, Beau, Mollymauk, Fjord, and Jester face reality-rewriting stakes across 45-minute episodes with top-tier animation.
Bat-Fam picks up after Merry Little Batman. Luke Wilson’s Bruce Wayne trains son Damian as “Little Batman,” wrangles reformed 12-year-old Volcana, and hosts a Manor full of allies and ghosts. The result: bright, chaotic family comedy.
Crime & Conspiracy Thrillers
Reacher season 3 adapts Persuader. Alan Ritchson’s ex-MP faces 7′2″ Paulie (Olivier Richters) while undercover for the DEA. Expect bigger brawls and sharper dialogue as the show leans into its pulpy strengths.
**Cross stars Aldis Hodge as James Patterson detective Alex Cross, chasing a killer who copies infamous murderers. The eight-episode first season charts an unpredictable path already renewed for round two.
Ballard spins out of Bosch. Maggie Q heads a cold-case unit with no budget, retired partner John Carroll Lynch, and ex-cop Courtney Taylor. Titus Welliver cameos as Harry Bosch while the team digs into cases powerful people want buried.
Jack Ryan closes John Krasinski’s four-season run. The analyst-turned-agent investigates a drug cartel-terrorist alliance and a CIA-linked assassination in Nigeria, delivering cinematic action and political barbs.
Relationship Dramas With an Edge
Mr. & Mrs. Smith reimagines the 2005 film. Donald Glover and Maya Erskine play married spies whose real feelings blur with their cover stories across eight episodes of Mission: Impossible-level set pieces and crackling chemistry.
The Girlfriend pits Olivia Cooke’s working-class Cherry against Robin Wright’s über-controlling Laura over son Danny. Six episodes twist perceptions until viewers can’t decide who’s predator and who’s protector.
Butterfly turns family reunion into South Korean action spectacle. Daniel Dae Kim’s ousted spy chief and daughter-assassin Reina Hardesty outrun their own agency after a Russian ambassador hit, blending Seoul set-pieces with abandonment themes.
Overcompensating follows Benny (creator Benito Skinner), a freshman so deep in the closet he’s in Narnia. Booze, girls, and weapons-grade cringe collide in a foul-mouthed college comedy about self-exploration gone sideways.
Prestige Limited Series
The Underground Railroad adapts Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer winner. Barry Jenkins reimagines the escape network as an actual subway, blending magical realism with unflinching historical horror.
I’m a Virgo boots Riley’s absurdist lens on Oakland. Jharrel Jerome’s 13-foot-tall Cootie navigates first love, public spectacle, and a superhero idol with authoritarian streaks. Behind-the-scenes extras live under Prime’s “Explore” tab.
Three-Body delivers the Chinese 2023 adaptation of Cixin Liu’s novel. Thirty subtitled episodes track nanotech expert Wang Miao and detective Shi Qiang as scientists suicide after claiming “Physics doesn’t exist,” leading to first-contact intrigue.
Comedies Worth Binging
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel sends 1950s housewife Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) from scandalous stand-up in her nightgown to Greenwich Village clubs and national tours. Four seasons mine Joan Rivers-era sexism and punch-line perfection.
Key Takeaways
- Prime Video’s originals span every major genre and push boundaries on violence, politics, and emotional depth
- Weekly drops for Gundam GQuuuuuuX and The Mighty Nein give fans reason to return
- Crime universes (Reacher, Cross, Ballard) rival Netflix’s volume with tighter, cinematic storytelling
- Animation dominates the must-watch list, from superhero satire to fantasy epics and family-friendly Bat-comedy
