Top 7 Shows on Prime Video; From ‘Invincible’ to ‘Fleabag’ and Everything In Between
Top 7 Shows on Prime Video; From ‘Invincible’ to ‘Fleabag’ and Everything In Between
It’s a big week for Prime Video as two of its most popular and acclaimed series, “The Devil's Hour” and “The Legend of Vox Machina,” debut new seasons this Thursday, Oct. 3. So to celebrate both premieres, I am counting down my top-seven favorite TV shows on the streamer!
Prime Video makes it difficult to narrow down its options to just a handful and a half (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”? “Good Omens”? “The Boys”?!), but whether you’re a fan of absurdist comedies, post-apocalyptic space westerns, or explosive animated series, there is something for everyone.
Here are the top seven TV shows streaming currently on Prime Video!
Top 7 Prime Video Series Streaming Right Now:
No. 7: “Fallout” (2024) | Post-Apocalyptic Drama
It is apparently all-but-impossible to successfully adapt a video game franchise for the screen, if this year’s “Borderlands” film, Paramount+’s ill-fated “Halo” series, or literally any “Resident Evil” property has proven, so Amazon’s recent “Fallout” series gets passing marks just for doing the all-but-impossible.
But beyond being a faithful adaptation that made “Fallout” fans happy (including this one), “Fallout” is just good TV, bolstered by contrasting but equally compelling performances from Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, and Aaron Moten. The first season was nominated for 16 Emmy Awards, and Amazon has already committed to more post-modern warfare: Season 2 is on the way.
Fallout
The story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.
No. 6: “The Expanse” (2015) | Sci-Fi
I don’t know that you can say everything was running smoothly at “The Expanse” Mission Control—the SyFy-originated series was canceled after three seasons before being picked up by Amazon before it was canceled after another three seasons—but unconventional means still yielded excellent results.
Set in a future where humanity has colonized the Solar System, the six-season space opera followed the Rocinante crew (played by Steven Strait, Cas Anvar, Dominique Tipper, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Wes Chatham, and more) as they dealt with conspiracies and crises. A rough path for the criminally underpromoted show, but rich characters, political intrigue, spectacular visuals, and technical accuracy to please the nerds? Mission accomplished.
The Expanse
A thriller set two hundred years in the future following the case of a missing young woman who brings a hardened detective and a rogue ship’s captain together in a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.
No. 5: “One Mississippi” (2016) | Comedy-Drama
Truthfully, Tig Notaro and Diablo Cody’s “One Mississippi” never got the homecoming it deserved, with Amazon canceling the acclaimed comedy after two seasons, citing plans to move towards wider-audience shows. This was in 2018; that plan has, to say the least, been inconsistent.
The show had everything it needed, though: heart, humor, and the “Handsome” observational comic, who is as good an actor as she is a standup, playing a version of herself in the semi-autobiographical series where she returns to her Mississippi hometown after her mother’s unexpected death.
One Mississippi
This semi-autobiographical dark comedy starring Tig Notaro follows her as she returns to her hometown after the sudden death of her mother. Still reeling from her own declining health problems, Tig struggles to find her footing with the loss of the one person in her life who understood her. All while dealing with her clingy girlfriend and her dysfunctional family.
No. 4: “I'm a Virgo” (2023) | Comedy
Co-creators Boots Riley and Jharrel Jerome both exploded onto the scene within the past decade—Jerome with his feature acting debut in 2016's "Moonlight," Riley with his feature directorial debut "Sorry to Bother You" in 2018—and you know what they say about when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object.
Jerome leads the cast of last year’s absurdist miniseries as the 13-foot, Oakland-based 19-year-old who has been shielded from the outside world until he’s accidentally discovered by a group of teenage political activists. Offbeat, ambitious, and wholly unique (how often can you say that?), the absurdist satire towers as big as its protagonist, with a superpowered ensemble to boot (Olivia Washington, Brett Gray, Walton Goggins, Mike Epps, Allius Barnes, and Tony Award winner Kara Young, who if you don’t know, now you know).
I’m a Virgo
A coming-of-age joyride about Cootie, a 13ft tall young Black man in Oakland, CA. Having grown up hidden away, Cootie soon experiences the beauty and contradictions of the world for the first time. He forms friendships, finds love, navigates awkward situations, and encounters his idol, a real life superhero named The Hero.
No. 3: “Invincible” (2021) | Adult Animated, Superhero
“Invincible” hits the uninitiated with an unbelievable bait-and-switch in its first episode and doesn’t stop pummeling you from there. No sooner are you lured into J.K. Simmons’ resonant tones when you realize this isn’t going to be the loving family coming-of-age superhero series the first 40 minutes led you to believe, and by the first season’s end, you’ll shudder every time you think of a train.
Steven Yeun steals the show as the title superhero, a teen who is just getting his powers and begins increasingly difficult superhero lessons with his dad in the ultimate bonding exercise, an ensemble led by Sandra Oh, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, and others balance out the pulp with sweetness. Even if superhero or animated shows aren’t your thing, the parts and sum alike are pretty— (cut to title card).
INVINCIBLE
Mark Grayson is a normal teenager except for the fact that his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet. Shortly after his seventeenth birthday, Mark begins to develop powers of his own and enters into his father’s tutelage.
No. 2: “The Legend of Vox Machina” (2022) | Adult Animated, Fantasy/Action
From Kickstarter campaign to the top of the animated heap, Critical Role has adapted its first 115-episode Dungeons & Dragons campaign into what has so far been 24 concise and clever episodes, with its original cast (Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, etc.) reprising their roles as they set out across Tal’Dorei. No one is into D&D like D&D fans, but “Vox Machina” is taking over two years of complex plots and lore and giving it back to an audience of anyone interested in great storytelling.
The series holds a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes through its first two seasons. The third season is due this Thursday, Oct. 3.
The Legend of Vox Machina
They’re rowdy, they’re ragtag, they’re misfits turned mercenaries for hire. Vox Machina is more interested in easy money and cheap ale than actually protecting the realm. But when the kingdom is threatened by evil, this boisterous crew realizes that they are the only ones capable of restoring justice.
No. 1: “Fleabag” (2016) | Comedy-Drama
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Andrew Scott lied to us all: it won’t pass.
Was there any ever doubt? How often do you get a show so sure of itself that it can call it quits after one of the most perfect seasons of TV in TV history? Waller-Bridge’s black comedy-drama series, birthed from her one-woman show of the same name, is the epitome of a “culture reset,” a show so good you just begrudgingly have to accept you’ll only get two seasons. Waller-Bridge leads her brainchild as the title reliably “unlikeable” narrator, processing her rage and grief and who may need a therapist but not as much as she needs a priest.
The six-time Emmy winner (including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress, and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series) holds a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and birthed a new generation of what “women’s stories” can look like on stage and on screen if we’re trusted to tell them ourselves.
Fleabag
A portrait into the mind of a dry-witted, sexual, angry, porn-watching, grief-riddled woman, trying to make sense of the world. As she hurls herself headlong at modern living, Fleabag is thrown roughly up against the walls of contemporary London, with all its frenetic energy, late nights, and bright lights.