Best TV shows to watch on Amazon Prime Video UK

Whether you’re a fan of the Coen Brothers’ 1996 comedy drama film or not, this follow-up series is still definitely worth checking out. It tells a different story at a different point in the timeline each season, focussing on new characters played by the biggest of stars – Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Kirsten Dunst, Ewan McGregor, Chris Rock and many more have all popped up over the years.

Each season follows a different tale of crime and scheming, with all of the stories deftly plotted out and constructed to balance drama and seriously black comedy.

James Hibbs

James Corden makes a rare foray into television drama in a six-part examination of loss, betrayal and the magnificent absurdity of monogamy. Set in a world beset by a sort of exquisitely agonised privilege that recalls the Sky Atlantic drama Patrick Melrose, it’s written by Jez Butterworth – the acclaimed playwright of Jerusalem and The Ferryman – who brings his showy, epigrammatic style to the small screen.

Not everyone will readily acclimatise to the heightened dialogue but it’s a boldly different piece with a dark energy that Corden fully embraces. Sally Hawkins, Colin Morgan and, as himself, Tom Jones co-star.

Jack Seale

With the release of this supernatural thriller from executive producer Steven Moffat, Prime Video invites audiences to ask the question – what exactly is The Devil’s Hour?

With a season premiere that features abstract imagery and a cavalcade of sensory assaults, the series never proves to be an easy watch. Five minutes in, Lucy (Jessica Raine) and Gideon (Peter Capaldi) are captured conversing in a blacked-out room. She is pale, bruised and defiant in the face of her interrogator who sits opposite, handcuffed yet commanding. Exposition is limited and other storytelling staples are thin on the ground, making this show almost impossible to pin down for audiences seeking context.

Martin Carr

The way young Black people living in Britain’s big cities are viewed by the rest of society is often wrapped up in music, with rap, drill and grime regularly the subject of tabloid scare stories. Whether new six-part drama Jungle (Amazon Prime) gives those genres a new popularity is yet to be seen, but it uses them in a fascinating way: they’re woven tightly into an anthology of stories set in the neon-lit darkness of a stylised, dystopian London where gun crime is dominant, to the point where the characters break into rapping as part of the dialogue. Yes, like in a Hollywood musical…

That conceit, and the odd blast of sly humour, leavens what’s generally a pretty intense ride, as grudges are acted on and plans to make money inevitably unravel. The cast includes Bulletproof star Ezra Elliot (pictured left), and rapper Tinie Tempah as himself.

Jack Seale

This new comedy-drama series is a loose adaptation of the 1992 film of the same name – which starred Tom Hanks and Geena Davis and told the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the Second World War.

The new version is also about the formation of a World War II-era women’s professional baseball team, but introduces us to a new cast of characters and various new storylines – with Broad City star Abbi Jacobson co-creating and playing a leading role. Highly praised for its warmth and humour, the show’s refreshingly diverse cast has also seen it win many admirers.

Hacks has become a firm favourite among critics since its debut just last year. The showbiz comedy stars Jean Smart as Deborah Vance, a legendary Las Vegas comedian whose popularity is starting to wane. On a mission to revitalise her act, Vance reluctantly teams up with a “cancelled” young comedy writer named Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder).

It makes for a dynamite comedy pairing as the two take an instant disliking to one another but are forced to stick together for the sake of both their careers. The show just earned another round of Emmy nominations to go with last year’s wins, so be sure to catch up on the first two seasons now.

The Boys is set in a world where a sinister corporation owns a team of superheroes, who are secretly awful people with nothing but contempt for those they claim to protect. A ragtag group make it their mission to take down the corrupt “Supes” once and for all, by any means necessary. The result is a violent, inappropriate, shocking and riotously entertaining new spin on the saturated genre. Look out for stand-out performances from Antony Starr as unstable Superman allegory Homelander and Karl Urban as no-nonsense brute Billy Butcher. Season 3 is now streaming in full.

If you enjoyed seeing Jensen Ackles portray despicable wartime superhero Soldier Boy in The Boys season 3, you might be interested in revisiting his breakthrough role in this fantasy drama, also created by Eric Kripke. Here he plays Dean Winchester, who joins forces with his brother, Sam (Jared Padalecki), to battle all manner of demons, ghosts, monsters and other spooky beings. Originally envisioned as a five-season story, the show’s huge success ultimately kept it going for a whopping 15 years, culminating in its emotional end in November 2020. The whole saga is streaming now.

This comedy-drama follows the lives of Jack, Harrison and Violet, three roommates on the autism spectrum, as they strive to keep jobs, make friends and find love. While they do encounter setbacks along the way, the show always takes time to celebrate the loveable trio’s successes as they take major strides towards independence. Lead actors Rick Glassman, Albert Rutecki and Sue Ann Pien are on the spectrum in real-life, with their casting bringing a sense of authenticity to the story, which was perhaps lacking at times from Netflix’s Atypical.

If you enjoyed cartoon comedy/existential drama Bojack Horseman, then you’ll love this trippy animation from the same creators. Starring Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk, the series is a psychological comedy-drama, which tells the story of Alma, a young woman who, after getting in a car accident, discovers she has a new relationship with time and uses this ability to find out the truth about her father’s death.

Dealing with themes surrounding mental health, family and culture, with a (potential) sci-fi twist, it’s at once hilarious and also devastatingly sad. The show’s unique look is created using rotoscope animation, meaning the actors performed the scenes live and animators then drew on top of them. It makes for a gorgeous looking series, which helps to heighten the un-reality of it all.

Man mountain Alan Ritchson follows in the footsteps of Tom Cruise (no mean feat) to take on the titular role of military veteran in Amazon’s new adaptation of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels. RadioTimes.com‘s review describes the drama as “cleverly plotted, perfectly paced and isn’t short of depth. From his arrival in Margrave by bus, this Reacher consistently tips a hat to its cinematic second cousins, if only to mirror specific scenes. The dialogue is slick, characterisation concise and there are a smattering of bone dry comedic moments that loosen tensions slightly as the murders continue to stack up.”

The kids are back! This reboot of iconic Canadian Sketch show The Kids in the Hall, which premiered in 1989 and ended almost three decades ago, brings back all the original members of the troupe, producer Lorne Michaels (known for Saturday Night Live), and the exact same edgy, off-kilter sensibility. Fans of the original will recognise characters they love, while there are plenty of new creations to keep old and new fans alike in hysterics. Some of its near-the-knuckle, crude comedy might not be for everyone, but for those who go with it, it’s sure to keep you entertained.

David E Kelley previously had great success adapting Liane Moriarty’s bestselling novel Big Little Lies, so it’s no surprise that he returned to her work this year for new series Nine Perfect Strangers. With an extremely star-studded cast – including Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon and Luke Evans – this is glossy prestige TV at its most intriguing, telling an unusual and unpredictable story about nine strangers who arrive at a wellness retreat where strange things very quickly begin to occur.

Hit French comedy Call My Agent! has created a big buzz worldwide since it started airing in 2015, so it’s no surprise that this British version has now landed on Prime Video. The series explores the world of talents agents and their celebrity clientele, and features some seriously starry guest appearances (hello, Helena Bonham Carter!). However, the real highlight is the delightfully crafted and perfectly cast characters and their relationships – from Jack Davenport’s smarmy son of the agency’s founder to Lydia Leonard’s often fearsome agent character Rebecca, they all get their own arcs and are properly fleshed out as individuals beyond their work lives. With a biting humour but a warm heart, it’s one not to miss.

For viewers missing the To All the Boys film franchise, adapted from Jenny Han’s bestsellers, look no further than this next Prime Video offering, based on Han’s other famous teen book series.

The Summer I Turned Pretty is a coming-of-age, multi-generational trilogy of books now adapted for the screen, with Lola Tung in the role of Belly, a girl who suddenly finds herself in a love triangle with two brothers who also happen to be the sons of her mother’s best friend.

Following in the wake of Yellowjackets (Paramount+) and The Wilds (Prime Video), this Australian series offers a purely comedic take on the increasingly popular “young women get stranded together and go bananas” genre. Ten years since they left their girls-only high school, a group of women reconvene there for a fractious reunion, only for a tidal wave to turn the hilltop campus into a remote island. As they fight to survive, they relitigate their teenage friendships, rivalries and betrayals. Emily Browning (American Gods) leads the ensemble cast.

Jack Seale

Swarm is the kind of series that’s rather difficult to put into words – you just have to watch it. Created by Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, who both worked together on Atlanta, the series shares the same slightly comedic tone and is unexpectedly thought-provoking throughout.

We follow Dre, brilliantly played by Dominique Fishback (Judas and the Black Messiah), a devoted fan of fictional R&B icon Ni’Jah. But Dre takes things all too far in her quest to get closer to her icon, resulting in her taking a dark cross-country journey, leaving devastation in her wake.

The series has glaring (intentional) similarities to the real-life Beyhive, but also shines an important light on fandoms, parasocial relationships and the pile-on culture that dominates the internet.

Morgan Cormack

It’s the big one – the one we’ve all been waiting for. Amazon purchased the rights to The Lord of the Rings back in 2017, and have been steadily putting together this series, based largely on appendixes from those books, ever since. The result is The Rings of Power, a visually dazzling series which is reportedly the most expensive show ever made.

It takes us back to Middle Earth but not as we know it, with the series set thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and features, elves, dwarves and the Hobbit-like Harfoots. If you’re looking for sweeping fantasy, epic vistas and a plot to intrigue as we delve in the world JRR Tolkien first created like never before, then this one’s for you.

If you’re looking for a taste of musical nostalgia then look no further than Daisy Jones & The Six, which transports you into the heady world of ’70s rock and roll, where the titular band reigns supreme.

They’re on top of the world, touring America and living out the kind of lifestyle they’d previously only ever dreamed of. But one fateful night, that all comes crashing down and the band disbanded soon after. What was the fateful catalyst that broke Daisy Jones & The Six up?

Through the talking heads style of the ’90s documentary that’s being made about the band, we see how the events of the ’70s impacted them and continue to, making for an easy watch of a series with songs you’ll struggle to get out of your head.

Morgan Cormack

In the years since Game of Thrones drew to a close, several new fantasy shows have emerged in an attempt to become the next big thing – and the latest is The Wheel of Time. The show is based on Robert Jordan’s book series of the same name, and given that series is made up of 14 novels it’s not likely they’ll run out of source material anytime soon. Starring Rosamund Pike in the lead role, this is high production value, grippingly told stuff – and seems sure to appeal to all fantasy fans.

One for the horror fans, this short-lived television series serves as a direct sequel to 1973’s all-time classic of the same name. Alfonso Herrera (Sense8) and Ben Daniels (The Crown) star as a pair of priests investigating cases of demonic possession, with each season focusing on a different terrifying case. While it wasn’t on the air for long, The Exorcist built up a cult fanbase and impressed critics with its suspenseful storylines and creepy visual effects. Hollywood stars Geena Davis and John Cho are among the supporting cast.

This account of Viking life isn’t always historically accurate, but has nonetheless enthralled viewers with its action-packed and unpredictable story. The series began by adapting the Norse legend of Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel), but has since shifted focus towards other key figures in his tribe of warriors. The final episodes of Vikings debuted on Amazon Prime Video at the tail end of 2020, bringing the epic saga to a close after seven years of thrilling twists and turns – so there’s never been a better time to binge watch.

Elisabeth Moss stars in this harrowing dystopian drama set in an authoritarian regime called Gilead, where the few remaining fertile women are forced to have children for ruthless wealthy elites. Moss plays June, now known as Offred, whose timid persona disguises a desire to tear down the nightmare world she finds herself trapped in. The series follows her attempts to do just that, facing opposition from Ann Dowd’s formidable Aunt Lydia and Joseph Fiennes’ imposing Commander. Based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale delivered four stellar seasons featuring some truly unforgettable moments.