Special Report

Best Amazon Prime Original Series of All Time

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With high-speed internet widely available to most Americans on a variety of devices, instantaneous enjoyment of countless hours of television is more or less always a click away.

Like Netflix and other streaming services, Amazon Prime now produces original content. Their first effort was “Alpha House,” a political comedy starring John Goodman, that premiered in 2013. Since then, Amazon has produced a steady stream of comedies, dramas, comedy-dramas, and other types of series. (These are the best live-action sitcoms of all time.)

As with Netflix, the results have been missed, but some of their efforts really stand out. (Amazon is also known for its ever-changing library of new and classic films. See the best movies to stream on Amazon right now.)

To determine the best Amazon Prime original series, 24/7 Tempo audience ratings on IMDb – an online movie and TV database which happens to be owned by Amazon. Shows that were developed or co-developed by Amazon Studios and originally streamed on Amazon Prime were ranked based on IMDb audience rating as of August 2022. Only shows with at least 1,000 IMDb user votes were considered. Cast information also came from IMDb.

Click here to see the best Amazon Prime original series

The list is rich in variety. From legal dramas and fantasy shows to romantic comedies and adult animated series that have run for multiple seasons. If your taste runs toward the noir genre, there is “Carnival Row,” pairing Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne. If alternative history is your thing, check “The Man in the High Castle.” Like spy stories? Try “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.” The possibilities are endless.

Courtesy of Siesta Productions

25. Carnival Row (2019-present)
> IMDb user rating: 7.8/10
> IMDb user votes: 60,632
> Stars: Jamie Harris, Orlando Bloom, Cara Delevingne

“Carnival Row” is a noir fantasy about mythological creatures who are forced to live as refugees among humans. A human detective teams up with an ex-lover who’s a fae (faerie) to solve murders threatening the little peace that still exists in society.

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Courtesy of Amazon Studios

24. Red Oaks (2014-2017)
> IMDb user rating: 7.9/10
> IMDb user votes: 11,703
> Stars: Craig Roberts, Ennis Esmer, Oliver Cooper

This coming of age comedy-drama follows a college student working at a country club in New Jersey in the mid 1980s. Everybody offers him advice but he has to find his own way as he prepares to move to New York after the summer.

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

23. Modern Love (2019-present)
> IMDb user rating: 7.9/10
> IMDb user votes: 31,903
> Stars: Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey, Andy Garcia

“Modern Love” is an anthology series based on a New York Times weekly column of the same name. Every episode has different characters and explores love in many forms – from romantic relationships to simple human connections.

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

22. Upload (2020-present)
> IMDb user rating: 7.9/10
> IMDb user votes: 65,185
> Stars: Robbie Amell, Andy Allo, Allegra Edwards

This series tells the story of a man who is uploaded to a virtual reality world at the time of his death. The show has been generally well received by viewers and critics alike thanks to its deft blend of dystopian sci-fi and comedy.

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Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

21. The Man in the High Castle (2015-2019)
> IMDb user rating: 7.9/10
> IMDb user votes: 99,793
> Stars: Alexa Davalos, Luke Kleintank, Rufus Sewell

“The Man in the High Castle” shows what might have happened if Germany and Japan had won World War II. The series follows a young woman who discovers a tape that could help end the totalitarian regimes, and the man who can stop her.

Courtesy of BBC Studios

20. Good Omens (2019-2022)
> IMDb user rating: 8.0/10
> IMDb user votes: 74,232
> Stars: David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Frances McDormand

This fantasy comedy is based on Terry Pratchett’s 1990 hit novel of the same name. The series concerns a demon and an angel who, after adapting to life on Earth and liking it, form an unlikely team to save the world from an Armageddon.

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Courtesy of Amazon Studios

19. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (2018-present)
> IMDb user rating: 8.0/10
> IMDb user votes: 114,851
> Stars: John Krasinski, Wendell Pierce, John Hoogenakker

This is a political thriller based on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan book and movie franchise. Ryan is a former U.S. Marine who is now an up-and-coming CIA analyst. He uncovers a possible terrorist plot which leads to him beocming involved in dangerous field assignments.

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

18. As We See It (2022-present)
> IMDb user rating: 8.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 3,201
> Stars: Rick Glassman, Sue Ann Pien, Albert Rutecki

“As We See It” is an original drama-comedy about three autistic roommates. The series shows how each of them sees a world that eludes them, and follows their journeys as they try to navigate it.

Courtesy of Amazon

17. Good Girls Revolt (2015-2016)
> IMDb user rating: 8.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 5,885
> Stars: Genevieve Angelson, Anna Camp, Erin Darke

This series, drawn from real-life events, takes place in the 1960s at a Newsweek-style magazine. As three female employees fight for equal rights, they end up changing America’s workforce culture at large.

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Courtesy of Amazon

16. Mozart in the Jungle (2014-2018)
> IMDb user rating: 8.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 24,676
> Stars: Gael García Bernal, Lola Kirke, Saffron Burrows

“Mozart in the Jungle” is a comedy drama series about the young and talented new director of the New York Symphony and a young and talented oboist, his girlfriend, who is scrambling for gigs and looking for her big break.

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

15. Sneaky Pete (2015-2019)
> IMDb user rating: 8.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 36,116
> Stars: Giovanni Ribisi, Marin Ireland, Shane McRae

The crime drama centers on a recently released convict who assumes his former cellmate’s identity as a way to leave his old life behind, only to find himself in a new but just as dangerous set of circumstances.

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Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

14. Goliath (2016-2021)
> IMDb user rating: 8.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 47,808
> Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Nina Arianda, Tania Raymonde

“Goliath” is a legal drama about a formerly powerful lawyer, now an alcoholic ambulance chaser, who seeks redemption. In the first season, he takes on a risky case that leads to the uncovering of a deadly conspiracy and lets him take revenge on the firm that fired him.

Courtesy of Amazon

13. The Terminal List (2022-present)
> IMDb user rating: 8.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 55,170
> Stars: Chris Pratt, Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch

The action thriller series follows a former Navy SEAL officer who investigates how and why his entire platoon was ambushed during a covert mission.

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

12. Reacher (2022-present)
> IMDb user rating: 8.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 108,645
> Stars: Alan Ritchson, Malcolm Goodwin, Willa Fitzgerald

“Reacher” is a crime thriller series based on Lee Child’s best-selling books about a former military police officer, now a drifter. In the debut season of “Reacher,” he is falsely accused of murder and the police need his help in finding out the truth.

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Courtesy of Amazon Instant Video

11. Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street (2014-2016)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10
> IMDb user votes: 1,491
> Stars: Sloane Morgan Siegel, Ashley Boettcher, Drew Justice

This live-action family show centers on a boy and his two best friends and their lives on Normal Street, a seemingly ordinary thoroughfare in the suburbs that turns out to be magical.

Courtesy of Amazon Instant Video

10. Patriot (2015-2018)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10
> IMDb user votes: 14,819
> Stars: Michael Dorman, Kurtwood Smith, Michael Chernus

“Patriot” is a comedy spy drama that follows an intelligence officer who goes undercover at an industrial piping firm in order to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear bomb capability.

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Courtesy of Amazon Studios

9. Catastrophe (2015-2019)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10
> IMDb user votes: 19,236
> Stars: Sharon Horgan, Rob Delaney, Mark Bonnar

This British sitcom shows how an American businessman and an Irish teacher become involved and try to make it as a couple after she gets pregnant during their week-long fling in London.

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

8. Undone (2019-present)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10
> IMDb user votes: 19,872
> Stars: Rosa Salazar, Angelique Cabral, Constance Marie

“Undone” is an adult animated psychological drama that centers on a woman who somehow acquires the ability to travel through time after a serious car accident. She uses her new ability to find out the truth about her father’s death.

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

7. Just Add Magic (2015-2019)
> IMDb user rating: 8.3/10
> IMDb user votes: 2,937
> Stars: Abby Donnelly, Aubrey K. Miller, Olivia Sanabia

“Just Add Magic” is a family series about three friends who find a cookbook with magic recipes they use to uncover secrets and lift curses in their hometown.

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Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

6. The Legend of Vox Machina (2022-present)
> IMDb user rating: 8.4/10
> IMDb user votes: 21,949
> Stars: Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson

The second of three adult animated series on this list, “The Legend of Vox Machina” is a fantasy about a fictional world that is in danger from dark forces. Eight misfits join forces to save it.

Courtesy of Amazon Instant Video

5. Bosch (2014-2021)
> IMDb user rating: 8.5/10
> IMDb user votes: 68,997
> Stars: Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector, Amy Aquino

In “Bosch,” an LAPD detective works to solve complicated cases while struggling with the stress of the job. A spinoff of the show, “Bosch: Legacy,” made its debut this year on Amazon Freevee. It picks up where “Bosch” left off, after the title trades his badge for a private detective’s license.

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Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

4. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-present)
> IMDb user rating: 8.7/10
> IMDb user votes: 111,461
> Stars: Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Michael Zegen

Against the backdrop of 1950s New York City, “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino presents the inspiring and hilarious story of Mrs. Maisel – a Jewish divorcee and single parent who defies convention by pursuing a career in stand-up comedy.

Courtesy of Amazon

3. Invincible (2021-present)
> IMDb user rating: 8.7/10
> IMDb user votes: 124,888
> Stars: Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh

“Invincible” is a superhero series based on a comic book series of the same name. The show follows a 17-year-old young man who transforms into a superhero and is trained by his father, the most powerful superhero on Earth. The series shows the boy’s struggles as he adjusts to his new life.

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

2. Fleabag (2016-2019)
> IMDb user rating: 8.7/10
> IMDb user votes: 145,875
> Stars: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sian Clifford, Olivia Colman

This BBC-Amazon co-production is a British comedy-drama about a self-centered, sex-mad woman living in London who is coping with the tragedy of her best friend’s (possible) suicide while falling in love with a priest.

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Courtesy of Amazon Studios

1. The Boys (2019-present)
> IMDb user rating: 8.7/10
> IMDb user votes: 434,845
> Stars: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr

Based on a comic book of the same name, the show follows a group of vigilantes trying to catch rogue superheroes who abuse their powers.

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