15 Must-Watch Prime Video Drama Shows (September 2025)

Amazon’s new teen rock band drama series from Outer Banks creator Jonas Pate is part scripted series, part social experiment. In a metatextual twist, Pate put out a casting call for young musicians and built a band first, eventually writing a show around the five young men he discovered. Will Lipton, Zendé Murdock, Axel Ellis, Jesse Golliher and Jeremy Yun star in the series as five friends who start a band in an effort to get out of their small North Carolina town. They had very little acting experience, so after they started playing together, Pate had the guys work with an acting coach and wrote their characters around their own backstories, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Consider us intrigued.

With a tantalizing mix of original music and juicy teen drama, The Runarounds feels like a cross between The Monkees and Dawson’s Creek. Check it out now.

Based on Colson Whitehead‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, The Underground Railroad vividly reimagines a world in which the Underground Railroad is an actual subterranean network of trains. This limited series was created and directed by Moonlight auteur Barry Jenkins, and it’s a moving but hopeful story that looks squarely into the face of American slavery’s dark history.

The series follows Cora Randall (Thuso Mbedu) as she attempts to escape slavery via the hidden network of underground trains. As she travels through several states and sees their distinct social ecosystem, Cora’s story is compelling and intense. It’s a vivid narrative of trauma, resilience and the nature of freedom.

The dark and foggy streets of Victorian London hide terrifying secrets in Penny Dreadful, a horror drama series originally created for Showtime. It brilliantly weaves together elements of horror, suspense, and drama by incorporating characters from classic 19th-century literature, such as Dr. Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney), and iconic figures from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The main narrative follows powerful medium Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), hardened explorer Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) and American sharpshooter Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett).

Penny Dreadful explores the classic themes of Victorian Gothic literature, such as obsession, redemption, greed and hubris. The interplay of fiction, history and fantasy is intriguing, and the production design is spookily breathtaking.

Ballard is one of Amazon’s biggest hits of the year — a spinoff of Bosch, it follows Detective Renée Ballard (Maggie Q), who is reassigned to the LAPD’s cold case department after a fall from grace at work. Ballard is smart, kind, empathetic and clever, and it’s great to watch her pick apart the cases that everyone else in the system has left behind.

Ballard’s motley crew of helpers in the cold case department quickly becomes a scrappy but powerful team. But among the cold cases, she also uncovers a police conspiracy and a ruthless serial killer. But the biggest mystery is this — will it get renewed for a second season?

Based on the best-selling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & the Six is a passion-fueled drama about a 1970s rock band that bears more than a passing resemblance to Fleetwood Mac. Filmed in the style of a Behind the Music-esque documentary, the show documents the rise of the band as well as the personal drama that tore them apart. Elvis Presley‘s granddaughter, Riley Keough, shows off her rock ’n’ roll bona fides as Daisy Jones, a charismatic and talented singer whose dynamic presence drives much of the band’s success and tension. Sam Claflin stars as Billy Dunne, the group’s lead singer and songwriter, whose personal struggles and creative clashes with Daisy form the emotional core of the storyline.

The original music — also adapted from the novel — is one of the best parts of this series, evoking the sound of the era with catchy melodies and insightful lyrics. Keough and Claflin have excellent chemistry that makes the viewer immediately invest in their characters’ fraught relationship. For music historians and drama fans alike, Daisy Jones is a worthwhile watch.

Nothing says “drama” like a love triangle. In The Summer I Turned Pretty — based on a novel by To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before writer Jenny Han — Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung) is romantically torn between the two Fisher brothers. Brooding Conrad (Christopher Briney) and jokester Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) are the sons of Belly’s mom’s best friend, and the two families have vacationed together for Belly’s entire life. But Belly’s love life isn’t the only thing at stake in this surprisingly meditative series — it’s about grief, love and growing up. It perfectly captures the feeling of teenage summers, when bike rides and beach parties collide with first heartbreaks and hard truths.

The Summer I Turned Pretty recently returned for a third and final season, so now is the perfect time to get hooked on this popular teen drama.

Lord of the Rings fans, rejoice! This prequel series, The Rings of Power, has been a hit with fans of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s world. Set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power explores the legendary Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. The narrative unfolds across various locations, from the majestic kingdoms of elves and dwarves to the awe-inspiring island kingdom of Númenor, delving into the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron (Charlie Vickers), the creation of the iconic Rings of Power, and the epochal Last Alliance between elves and men. 

The series boasts an ensemble cast featuring Morfydd Clark as the elven warrior Galadriel, Robert Aramayo as the young Elrond, and Markella Kavenagh as an original character named Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot. Additional notable performances come from actors like Ismael Cruz Córdova, who plays Arondir, and Owain Arthur as Prince Durin IV. This series blends thrilling fantasy with intricate character development while remaining true to Tolkien’s vision and spirit.

Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk‘s television empire (which now includes spinoff shows like American Horror Stories and American Crime Story) began with this anthology series, which tells stories of ghosts, murderers, witches and so much more. Each season recasts many of the same actors, all frequent collaborators of Murphy’s: Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, Zachary Quinto, Evan Peters and Kathy Bates are just a few of these talented performers. The first season, Murder House, is perhaps the best — it features Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott as a married couple who move into a haunted house beset by spirits of people who died there. 

Not every season of AHS is a winner, but when it hits, it really hits. If you’re in the mood to be shocked, scared, and maybe even a little titillated, check this one out.

With six seasons, two movies and a third on the way, Downton Abbey might be one of the most successful period dramas of all time — and with good reason. The story of the Crawleys, a wealthy family who runs an estate in the English countryside, is full of upstairs-downstairs drama, romance, scandal and history. It begins in 1912, and the story continues all the way through 1926.

At the heart of this PBS series is the romance between Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery), the eldest daughter of the family, and distant relative Matthew Crawley, (Dan Stevens), who becomes the heir to the estate (which is not allowed to pass to a woman) when the previous heir dies aboard the Titanic. Mary’s two younger sisters, Edith (Laura Carmichael) and Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay), are also seeking marriages and daring to dream bigger as rights for women begin to expand.

The staff of Downton also experiences its fair share of romantic drama, especially between valet Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle) and lady’s maid Anna (Joanne Froggatt). Perhaps the most memorable character of all is Lady Violet, the snarky and sharp Dowager Countess, played by the late, great Maggie Smith. Downton earned 69 Primetime Emmy nominations during its run — the most of any international series. 

If superheroes were real, what would they be like behind the scenes? According to The Boys, not very nice. (That’s an understatement.) This gory, funny and shocking show is based on the popular comics by Garth Ennis and follows Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), an ordinary man whose girlfriend is accidentally killed by a speedster superhero. Desperate to get justice, Hughie goes down a rabbit hole that takes him behind the facade of superheroes, which are all controlled by a Marvel-esque corporation called Vought. At the head of the “Supes” is Homelander (Antony Starr), the narcissistic and super-strong head of the crime-fighting team, “The Seven.”

Hughie gets recruited by Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) into a rebel group seeking to expose the collateral damage and excessive harm caused by the Supes and take down Vought. The Boys is one series that seems determined to outdo itself in every episode, and it’s never failed yet. Each season is more grotesque, yet strangely more insightful, than the last. The fifth and final season is on its way, so now’s the perfect time to catch up.

People who complain about “superhero fatigue” probably aren’t watching Amazon Prime. Not only does the streamer feature The Boys and its spin-off Gen V, which are both excellent, but it also streams the animated drama Invincible, some of the most unique and captivating superhero content we’ve ever seen.

Invincible is the story of Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun, The Walking Dead), a seventeen-year-old boy whose father is Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), the world’s greatest superhero. When Mark finally develops superpowers of his own, he can’t wait to join his father in saving the world — but Omni-Man’s vision of saving the world turns out to be much darker than Mark could ever have predicted. While The Boys takes a cynical view of almost all superheroes, Invincible presents its genuinely heroic characters with moral dilemmas and complicated questions about family, loyalty and ethics. The stellar voice cast also includes Walton Goggins (The White Lotus) as a ruthless government official, Gillian Jacobs (Community) as powerful heroine Atom Eve and a truly scene-stealing Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy) as Mark’s mother, Debbie. Don’t let the fact that it’s animated fool you — this series is as dark and thoughtful as it gets.

The series adaptation of Mr. and Mrs. Smith has little in common with the movie starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, but it builds on the “married spies” concept and still manages to feel like a worthy successor. “John” (Donald Glover, who co-wrote the series with fellow Atlanta writer Francesca Sloane) and “Jane” (Maya Erskine, Pen15) are recruited to a mysterious spy program that requires them to live as a married couple 24/7. It turns out that there is an entire network of “Johns and Janes” in this program, but the more they learn about the organization they’re working for, the more they doubt whom to trust. All this is complicated by the fact that they find themselves falling in love for real.

Glover and Erskine are engrossing to watch in this spy thriller romance, which has a second season coming sometime in early 2026.

Though it was an unfortunate victim of COVID-19 cancellations and therefore only ran for one season, this series adaptation of the 1992 film is an underrated gem. 

Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) wrote and stars in a new story about the Rockford Peaches, the real-life women’s baseball team who were part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II. The series explores elements of the period that were omitted from the film, like the relationships between queer women on the team.

Carson’s (Jacobson) romance with teammate Greta (D’Arcy Carden, The Good Place) is one of many beautiful and complicated love stories in the show. In a parallel story, Chanté Adams documents the experience of Black female players at the time in her role as Maxine “Max” Chapman. The witty, warm and complex series is a home run.

This spy-dramedy series was originally canceled after only two seasons, but it developed such a cult following that the fans successfully campaigned for Subway to sponsor the series and bring it back on the air. Chuck follows a college dropout and computer whiz named Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), whose hum-drum life in the “Nerd Herd” at a tech superstore is upended when he accidentally downloads the world’s most sophisticated computer database into his brain. (Don’t worry, it’s less confusing than it sounds.)

Because there’s no way to extract the database, known as the Intersect, from Chuck’s head, he gets recruited by CIA agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and NSA Major John Casey (Adam Baldwin) to join them on missions and save the world. Packed with action, romance and humor, this series is a wild ride with a warm heart.

Ever since Henry VIII started cycling through wives like he was swiping on Bumble, the world has been fascinated with the Tudors. This sensual drama depicts Henry’s (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) many romantic liaisons, as well as the political mores of the era after the establishment of the Church of England. Meyers is intense and magnetic as the young king, and the series also launched the careers of several phenomenal British actors, like Natalie Dormer (who would go on to play Margaery Tyrell on Game of Thrones) and Henry Cavill (who would star in Man of Steel and The Witcher).

The sumptuous costumes and sets are captivating, the cast is captivating and any historical inaccuracies just make the drama more juicy. The Tudors is a period drama turned soap opera, and it’s irresistible.

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