23 Must-Watch TV Shows on Amazon Prime Video Right Now (September 2025)

Hannibal pushed the limits of what could be shown on network television over a decade ago, and it’s still amazing that NBC went for it. Somehow, Mads Mikkelsen separates Dr. Hannibal Lecter from Anthony Hopkins‘ shadow and gives the cannibalistic doctor his own personality.

FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) takes the leading role in this show, as his boss, Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), encourages him to get back into the field. Will’s ability to visualize murders is driving him out of his mind, and Hannibal sees it as an opportunity to push Graham over the edge until he becomes a killer as well.

Hannibal is streaming on Prime Video.

It’s a wonderful afterlife for some people, but not for Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell) in Upload. After his untimely death, Nathan has been uploaded to a digital realm that’s anything but heavenly. And he’s essentially a prisoner of his still-living girlfriend, Ingrid Kannerman (Allegra Edwards).

Nathan’s customer service rep, Nora Antony (Andy Allo), is the only one keeping him sane in this insane digital world. But in the real world, Nora’s suspicion that Nathan was murdered may get her killed before she can explore her romantic feelings for him.

Upload is streaming on Prime Video.

Butterfly is a spy action thriller centered around David (Daniel Dae Kim), a fomer operative who faked his death nine years ago. David’s survival is quite a shock to his daughter, Rebecca (Reina Hardesty), who grew up to become one of the top assassins at a renegade organization known as Caddis.

As Rebecca considers reconciling with her father, her mentor at Caddis, Juno (Piper Perabo), will do anything to make sure that David dies this time, followed soon thereafter by Rebecca as well.

Butterfly is streaming on Prime Video.

Tina Fey created 30 Rock and starred in the show as Liz Lemon, the head writer of a weekly comedy sketch series on NBC. Any resemblance to Fey’s old job at Saturday Night Live was not a coincidence.

30 Rock never missed a chance to satirize its network or parent company, often through network executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). Between Jack’s clueless decisions and an insane leading man, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), somehow Liz needs to hold everything together long enough to keep her show coming out.

30 Rock is streaming on Prime Video.

The world of Bosch lives on in Ballard, and you’ll definitely see Titus Welliver reprise his role as Harry Bosch as a guest star in this series. But the focus is entirely Detective Renée Ballard (Maggie Q), a woman whose once promising LAPD career has hit a blue wall after she accused a fellow officer of sexual assault.

As Ballard rebuilds her life and her unjustly maligned reputation, she takes over a cold case unit that leads to a conspiracy with wide-reaching implications for the city of angels. There’s also a serial killer in Los Angeles, and Ballard’s team is running out of time to catch the murderer before they strike again.

Ballard is streaming on Prime Video.

In theory, Chloe Taylor (Jessica Biel) is supposed to be the title character of The Better Sister. Chloe is a successful editor, and she’s got a good family, while her sister, Nicky (Elizabeth Banks), is considered an unreliable alcoholic who is on the outs with her relatives.

Things change pretty quickly when Chloe’s husband, Adam Macintosh (Corey Stoll), is murdered, and the cops believe that his son, Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), is responsible. Suddenly, the cracks in Chloe’s perfect family are very apparent, and Nicky has to reenter her life because she has to. The two sisters really know how to wound each other with words, but can they count on each other when what’s left of their family is on the line?

The Better Sister is streaming on Prime Video.

Columbo is one of the rare shows that has defied the passage of time by becoming popular again decades after it went off the air. Peter Falk‘s performance as Lt. Columbo is just as iconic now as it was in the ’70s, and it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone else filling that role.

The series always begins with a murder and reveals who the killer is. Columbo‘s mysteries are never about whodunit; they’re about the way that the title character slowly unravels the truth. It’s the ultimate comfort food crime show, and it’s endlessly fun to revisit, even though almost every ending is the same.

Columbo is streaming on Prime Video.

Not every love affair is everlasting in The Narrow Road to the Deep North, but Dorrigo Evans (Jacob Elordi) would be lost without it. This adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s novel chronicles Dorrigo’s torrid romance with Amy Mulvaney (Odessa Young), a young woman who is his aunt by marriage.

Throughout World War II, the memory of what Dorrigo shared with Amy sustains him even while he’s a prisoner of war. As Dorrigo’s men die of disease and starvation around him, he holds on to the warmth and hope that Amy gave him. But his story doesn’t stop after the war, and Dorrigo’s life doesn’t play out like a romantic fairy tale with a happy ending for everyone.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is streaming on Prime Video.

Motorheads may remind some viewers of the first Fast and the Furious movie if it was envisioned through a YA lens. Michael Cimino and Melissa Collazo star as siblings Zac and Caitlyn Torres, a pair of teens who move back to their father’s hometown to live with their uncle, Logan Maddox (Ryan Phillippe).

Michael and Melissa are trying to escape the shadow of their father, Christian Maddox (Deacon Phillippe), who was a racing legend in his era. It doesn’t take long for the siblings to make an enemy out of Harris Bowers (Josh Macqueen), a rich kid with a reputation for being the best racer in town. To take Harris down, they’re going to need to restore their dad’s old Charger and enlist the help of their very reluctant uncle.

Motorheads is streaming on Prime Video.

Five years before Shawn of the Dead hit theaters, Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson co-created and starred in the British sitcom Spaced. They played Tim Bisley and Daisy Steiner, two strangers who decide to pretend to be a couple in order to land a new place to live that is run under a very strict set of rules by their landlady, Marsha Klein (Julia Deakin).

Edgar Wright — the director of Shawn of the Dead — helmed every episode of Spaced, while Pegg’s frequent co-star, Nick Frost, played Tim’s best friend, Mike Watt. Spaced had a very bizarre and even surreal sense of humor, while Tim and Daisy spent a lot of time denying they were a couple to their friends even though there is clearly an attraction between them.

Spaced is streaming on Prime Video.

Hub Halloran (Kevin Bacon) is dead, but he gets better in The Bondsman. While he was alive, Hub was one of the best bounty hunters in the south. That’s a talent that the devil won’t let go to waste. Through his intermediary, Midge Kusatsu (Jolene Purdy), the devil resurrects Hub with a new mission in life to hunt down escaped demons and send them back to Hell.

This wasn’t something that Hub asked for, but he’ll take his second chance at life to fix some of the mistakes he made the first time. That includes mending fences with his family and rediscovering some of the passions that he left behind. He’ll be a better man if he can keep up his end of the devil’s bargain.

The Bondsman is streaming on Prime Video.

Nathan Fillion had his first true breakout role as novelist Richard Castle on ABC’s Castle. After meeting NYPD Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), Castle is so taken by her that he decides to write a new book featuring a main character based on her. Castle then pulls some strings with the mayor to get permission to follow Beckett as she investigates homicide cases.

Although Beckett initially resents Castle’s presence, he helps her solve many murder investigations. And as the pair grows closer, Castle learns about the investigation that Beckett has been trying to solve her entire life: the murder of her mother, Johanna Beckett. That story takes years to play out.

Reportedly, Fillion and Katic didn’t get along very well, but that’s hard to tell from the early seasons when Castle and Beckett’s romantic tension was at an all-time high. They were fun to watch together, even in the later seasons.

Castle is streaming on Prime Video.

Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) wasn’t the most popular character on Cheers three decades ago, but he was the right choice to be featured in the spinoff Frasier. This sitcom equalled the 11-season run of its predecessor and became a classic in its own right.

The series expanded Frasier’s character development by introducing his brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce), their blue-collar father Martin (John Mahoney), and Martin’s physical therapist Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves). Frasier also reinvented himself as a radio show host alongside his producer, Roz Doyle (Peri Gilpin). This group of performers had outstanding chemistry, and they collectively ensured that Frasier is still one of the best comedy series two decades after its conclusion.  

Frasier is streaming on Prime Video.

Although The Wheel of Time recently returned for its third season on Prime Video, you should probably start at the beginning before diving into this show. This adaptation of Robert Jordan’s novels has a dense mythology that rivals Game of Thrones in scope, and it easily outshines Prime Video’s other big-budget fantasy show, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Rosamund Pike leads the cast as Moiraine Damodred, a powerful channeler of magic who is seeking the Dragon Reborn, the reincarnation of one of the few men who can use magic in this world. Moiraine believes she’s found the one she’s looking for among four young men and women, including Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) and Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden). All four have hidden abilities and a destiny that will slowly unfold, but not all of them will ultimately be aligned against the coming darkness.

The Wheel of Time is streaming on Prime Video.

The irony of Fallout’s breakthrough as one of Amazon’s top series is that the video game franchise hasn’t had a new game since 2018. But the retro-futuristic post-apocalypse of the games gives the TV series a rich backdrop and an intriguing mythology to explore.

Yellowjackets’ Ella Purnell stars as Lucy MacLean, a young woman who has lived inside a colony deep within a vault her entire life. Lucy didn’t really have any concept of what life was like outside until her colony was attacked by raiders who kidnapped her father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan). When Lucy sets out on a rescue mission in the wasteland, one of the first people she meets is The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a mutated man who was once an actor named Cooper Howard. The Ghoul has lived hundreds of years, and he’s no friend to Lucy, but he does have some very hard lessons to teach her.

Fallout is streaming on Prime Video.

Invincible may seem like an overnight success for Amazon, but the comic it’s based on is 22 years old and still resonates with this adaptation. Co-creator Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) has a knack for creating likable characters and then putting them through horrible things. This show may be animated, but it hits harder than many R-rated films with its brutal action. And it doesn’t shy away from the toll that violence takes on the heroes and the world around them.

Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) grew up in the shadow of the world’s strongest hero, his father, Omni-Man (J. K. Simmons). Once Mark comes into his powers as Invincible, he discovers his father’s true agenda for Earth. If Mark wants to save the only world he’s ever known from his own flesh and blood, then he’ll have to live up to his superhero name.

Invincible is streaming on Prime Video.

Alan Ritchson has played superheroes before, but he’s never played a larger-than-life character like Jack Reacher until now. Reacher makes Ritchson seem like an uncommon man among men as he drifts from town to town and takes on the rich and powerful while combating injustice.

The recently premiered third season puts Reacher in his toughest case to date as he goes undercover in a criminal organization to locate a missing DEA agent and to bring down a crime lord. And for the first time since the show began, Reacher has finally met an enemy who physically towers over him: Paul “Paulie” van Hove (Olivier Richters).

Reacher is streaming on Prime Video.

Moonlighting is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2025, and it made Bruce Willis famous while giving Cybill Shepherd a Hollywood comeback. This quirky comedy/drama featured Shepherd as a former model, Madelyn “Maddie” Hayes, who reinvents herself as a private detective alongside David Addison (Willis).

The dialogue in this series and the fantastic chemistry between Shepherd and Willis entertained a lot of fans in the ‘80s. Moonlighting took dramatic chances and big swings like few series do, and not all of them connected with its audience. But this series is more than just a footnote in history, it’s also one of the all-time greats.

Moonlighting is streaming on Prime Video.

If you know anything about English history, then you’re probably well aware that King Henry VIII didn’t look anything like actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers. And you’re probably not going to care about that level of historical fidelity when watching The Tudors. This series was a Showtime original, and it liberally blended historical fact and fiction as it chronicled Henry’s tumultuous reign.

Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer had one of her first big roles in this series as Anne Boleyn, one of Henry’s many wives. Unfortunately for the ladies, Henry rarely let his wives off easily when he wanted out of their union. And their heads aren’t the only ones that will roll in this entertaining series.

The Tudors is streaming on Prime Video.

There’s something so inherently charming about Hugh Laurie that it’s a pleasure watching him perform as Dr. Gregory House even when he’s being a huge jerk to his patients, his colleagues and even to himself. House was a medical procedural like no other, and the title character was modeled after Sherlock Holmes. If you watch the show’s entire eight-season run, you’ll see a lot of parallels between House and the great detective.

The secret to House’s success is that Laurie was surrounded by a very talented supporting cast, including Lisa Edelstein, Omar Epps, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Spencer, Olivia Wilde, Kal Penn, and more. Their characters added more dimension to the show and helped flesh out House himself.

House is streaming on Prime Video.

The Expanse has been described as Game of Thrones in space, and that’s not entirely inaccurate. Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck – who collectively write as James S. A. Corey – crafted a very believable future for humanity that’s not some idealized Star Trek fantasy. Who needs aliens when humans are still itching for a war against each other? The people of Earth and Mars are at each other’s throats, while the humans in the asteroid belt are considered second-class citizens by both sides.

James Holden (Steven Strait), Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) and Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar) are the only survivors of a mining ship that stumbles across a deadly conspiracy to reshape worlds. In another part of the galaxy, Detective Joe Miller (Thomas Jane) is unknowingly tied to their fate as his missing person case takes on a significance that goes far beyond his wildest dreams.

The Expanse is streaming on Prime Video.

If you feel like the creative team behind The Boys hates superheroes, then you’re probably right. This is perhaps the most cynical comic book adaptation ever, and it features “heroes” like Homelander (Antony Starr) who openly have contempt for the people they’re supposed to be protecting. Hugh Campbell (Novacaine’s Jack Quaid) discovers this unfortunate truth when his girlfriend is accidentally killed by one of the world’s fastest heroes, A-Train (Jessie T. Usher).

That’s where Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) comes in. No one despises “supes” more than Butcher, and he’s got a vendetta against Homelander for deeply personal reasons. Billy recruits Hugh to join his team, The Boys, to bring down all the heroes. But the odds are always stacked against them.

The Boys is streaming on Prime Video.

Comedy and mystery collide in Monk, an unforgettable series that was once one of the most popular shows on cable during its eight seasons on the USA Network. Tony Shalhoub brings a lot to his character, Adrian Monk, especially when Monk is so hilariously neurotic and ruled by his phobias.

Despite his overpowering OCD, Monk is a world-class detective, but he needs someone to keep him on track. In the first few seasons, that person was his assistant, Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram), while Traylor Howard’s Natalie Teeger took on that function from season 3 onward. Almost every episode is neatly tied up, but the mystery of who killed Monk’s wife is saved until the very end of the series.

Monk is streaming on Prime Video.

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