Amazon Prime Video has this type of massive library of TV indicates and movies to observe that looking to decide what’s absolutely excellent may be an exhausting project. That’s why we’re here! The most current additions we have given our seal of approval to consist of Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos, which stars Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, the vacation rom-com series With Love, the 6th and final season of the sci-fi series The Expanse, the Riz Ahmed-starring alien movie Encounter, and extra. If none of those talk to you, our list of recommendations is quite wide-ranging, so we are quite assured that you will discover some thing else you want.
An essential observe approximately how this list changed into made: In order to hold it as relevant as viable, we’re stressing the exceptional latest releases, Amazon Prime Video originals, and critics’ favorites. But we’re also placing our own private spin on the listing, with underrated gems we’ve got been recommending to our friends, ageless classics, and essential choices that highlight diverse voices.
Looking for extra suggestions of what to look at subsequent? We have a ton of them! We additionally have hand-picked selections based on shows you already love.
Last up to date Jan. five, 2022; the most latest additions are on the topBeing the Ricardos
For lovers of: Aaron Sorkin, behind the curtain drama
Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos Amazon Studios
Ever need to peer Aaron Sorkin stuff the mouths of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz together with his wordy monologues? Sorkin wrote and directed Being the Ricardos, a biopic following I Love Lucy’s Ball and Arnaz at some stage in a important second of their careers when Ball became accused of being a communist and the gossip rags questioned if their courting changed into at the fritz. Early reviews are middling, but the draw right here is looking Nicole Kidman as Ball and Javier Bardem as Arnaz, accompanied by means of J.K. Simmons, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development reunion!), and Nina Arianda. -Tim Surette [Trailer]
For fanatics of: Having a healthy desirable time, own family holidays
Number of seasons: 1
Emeraude Toubia, With Love Kevin Estrada/Amazon Studios
One Day at a Time co-creator Gloria Calderón Kellett is aware of her way around a own family comedy. With Love is her trendy, a vacation-themed Latinx rom-com that stars Shadowhunters’ Emeraude Toubia and Ugly Betty’s Mark Indelicato as siblings Lily and Jorge Diaz, who’re every unfortunate in love but nevertheless accessible searching out it. The gimmick right here is that every of its five episodes takes vicinity on a unique vacation: one is set on Nochebuena, in which Jorge brings his new boyfriend home to satisfy the parents; any other on Independence Day, where Lily and her new boyfriend circulate in collectively. Like the quality rom-coms, With Love is a candy watch that is aware of how to interrupt your heart and positioned it returned collectively again by means of the end. [Trailer]
For enthusiasts of: Spaaaaaace, complicated political and social conditions, fedoras
Number of seasons: 6
Shohreh Aghdashloo, The Expanse Shane Mahood/Amazon Studios
You may additionally have heard humans calling The Expanse “the first-class sci-fi collection on TV proper now,” and gosh darnit, they’re proper. The series that Jeff Bezos reportedly for my part saved from cancellation after Syfy axed it is a splendidly complicated political mystery that just so takes place to take region in area as Earth and Mars are on the brink of war and an alien somethingorother threatens all of humankind. Telling an intragalactic story from more than one planets and more than one factors of view, The Expanse is Game of Thrones-degree wealthy. Well, when Game of Thrones was appropriate. Plus, Thomas Jane plays a detective with a dope hat. -Tim Surette [Trailer]
For fanatics of: Espionage, bone-crunching action, excursions of Europe
Number of seasons: three
Esmé Creed-Miles, Hanna Christopher Raphael
Joe Wright’s 2011 film Hanna purposefully saved its focus tight on a story of a teenage girl skilled to be an murderer through a secret company, limiting most of the movement to 3 places and binding the story to a small institution of characters. But there was in reality greater story to tell, and the film’s screenwriter, David Farr, branched matters out with Hanna the collection. Esmé Creed-Miles is fantastically blunt as Hanna, who knows how to weigh down a windpipe with a rapid strike however doesn’t understand the primary thing approximately being a everyday teenage girl, and Mireille Enos gives one in every of her satisfactory performances as Marissa, Hanna’s enemy-turned-best friend. While the primary episode follows the shape and plot of the movie for maximum of its run, the additions — along with one huge and meaningful distinction to the individual of Marissa — and adjustments experience herbal and profitable within the TV show as it expands its universe and digs deeper into its characters. Season 2 is an specially first-rate instance of this, and Season three, the display’s very last season, which was released in overdue 2021, wraps things up more often than not satisfactorily. Like a lot of Amazon’s suggests, budget wasn’t spared, and Hanna doubles as a holiday travelogue for Europe as a good deal as it’s miles a excessive-stakes secret agent mystery. -Tim Surette [Trailer]
For enthusiasts of: Female friendships, New Yawk City
Number of seasons: 1
Grace Byers and Meagan Good, Harlem Sarah Shatz/Amazon Studios
In the excellent subculture of Sex and the City and Living Single, Harlem is a show approximately a set of four women navigating life in New York City. It changed into created through Tracy Oliver, who formerly gave us Girls Trip and consequently absolutely knows her way around Black lady friendship, and it is a fun, comfy series it’s very plenty all approximately the vibes, hinging on the easy chemistry and humorous rapport of the primary solid, which incorporates Meagan Good, Grace Byers, Shoniqua Shandai, and Jerrie Johnson. It deals with troubles like gentrification, sexuality, and wealth, making them critical elements of the main plot. Call it a hangout display with substance. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]
For fanatics of: Aliens, bugs, extraterrestrial beings that appear to be bugs
Lucian-River Chauhan, Riz Ahmed, and Aditya Geddada, Encounter Amazon Studios
Riz Ahmed follows up his Oscar-nominated turn in final yr’s The Sound of Metal with this paranoid sci-fi mystery that looks as if a mixture of Take Shelter and War of the Worlds. Ahmed plays Malik Khan, a adorned Marine who takes his sons and is going AWOL to protect them from an alien threat and navy operatives who are seeking to ensure that mystery doesn’t get out. It comes from author-director Michael Pearce, who made the amazing 2017 psychological thriller Beast, so that you can wager there can be a few intestine-punching twists and some meaty cloth for Ahmed to paintings with. The supporting solid includes Octavia Spencer, Janina Gavankar, and Rory Cochrane. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
For fanatics of: Expansive myth worlds, Game of ThronesNumber of seasons: 1
Rosamund Pike, The Wheel of Time Amazon Studios
It’s no billion-greenback Lord of the Rings TV series (it really is coming soon courtesy of Prime Video), however Amazon’s Wheel of Time is based totally on another popular excessive delusion e book collection and has its personal desires of turning into the following Game of Thrones. It’s got the same old fable containers to check off: a prophecy approximately a effective younger individual who will save the world, widespread global-building that requires its personal atlas to preserve music of, British accents (why is anybody constantly British?), and a roster of characters so one can take you some seasons to get yourself up to speed with. But when you get beyond the preliminary premise — a magician (Rosamund Pike) takes five young people on an journey to parent out which one of them is “the dragon reborn” — and the deeper you cross past the initial episodes, the extra this looks as if it can definitely be the subsequent large component, way to an enticing universe and characters you may virtually care about. -Tim Surette [Trailer]
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
For fans of: Benedict Cumberbatch, cats
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain Amazon Prime Video
Benedict Cumberbatch plays the eccentric overdue nineteenth and early twentieth century artist Louis Wain, known for his cat pix, who falls for his sisters’ governess (Claire Foy), in this fanciful biographical drama. Reviews for the film had been polite but rarely glowing — which is to be expected from a film created and directed by using the dark and eccentric Will Sharpe (Flowers) — but it’s got Benedict Cumberbatch and cats, so there are loads of very on-line individuals who will honestly like it. Plus, Olivia Colman narrates. [Trailer]