50 Best Shows On Amazon Prime

Over the last decade, Amazon has expanded from selling media to creating and distributing it — especially in the form of TV shows — through its Amazon Prime platform. Nowadays, Amazon Prime boasts a massive library of content spanning all genres, tones, and demographics. In the increasingly crowded world of streaming shows, this service has differentiated itself from the likes of Netflix and Hulu through its committment to quality. Amazon Prime's classic series, modern creations, and original programs can compete with anything else born of the Peak TV era. 

A prospective viewer presented with this abundance might find themselves wondering which Amazon Prime shows are the best of the best. Though the platform boasts many excellent series, some certainly do manage to stand out from the crowd. These are the 50 best TV shows currently available on Amazon Prime, from slow-burning family dramas to sweeping fantasy sagas.

The creepy, kooky, and mysterious family of Charles Addams' comic strips came to the screen for the first time in 1964. This gothic clan of vaguely monstrous and death-obsessed weirdos hangs out in their giant mansion all day, being both the scariest family on the block and the most deeply loving. Parents Gomez and Morticia are extremely affectionate with each other and their children — that is, when they're not fencing, blowing up model trains, feeding carnivorous plants, or sending their towering butler Lurch or pet disembodied hand Thing out to do their bidding. This usually involves freaking out the squares who come to visit and rarely return. It's their loss — the Addams family is a delight through and through.

• Starring: John Astin, Carolyn Jones, Jackie Coogan
• Creator: David Levy
• Years: 1964–1966
• Runtime: 64 episodes
• Rating: TV-G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Based on Anthony Horowitz's young adult spy novels, "Alex Rider" is a thrilling, ultra-contemporary take on the super-spy genre. For British teenager Alex, life is normal — until his uncle dies while working for the U.K.'s ultra-secret MI6 agency. A small and curious spinoff of MI6 cryptically known as The Department recruits Alex to look into why his uncle died. Along the way, he must untangle high tech, globe-trotting, ultra-urgent conspiracies with the use of a special set of skills that lay dormant until this very moment.

• Starring: Otto Farrant, Vicky McClure, Brenock O'Connor
• Creator: Guy Burt
• Years: 2020–
• Runtime: 16 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

A stark contrast in every way to today's dark superhero movies, the "Batman" TV show of the 1960s is a campy, candy-colored, and hilarious romp. Adam West and Burt Ward give tongue-in-cheek performances as Batman and Robin, fighting crime in Gotham City at the behest of Commissioner Gordon. Each week, there's a ridiculous villain to defeat, be it the barking Penguin, unhinged Riddler, or purring Catwoman. Certain hallmarks of the show became iconic, like awkwardly choreographed fight scenes where words like "BAM!" and "POW!" appear with each landed punch and Batman's never-ending supply of gadgets. They're so perfectly bizarre, they still crack modern viewers up.

• Starring: Adam West, Burt Ward, Alan Napier
• Creators: William Dozier
• Years: 1966–1968
• Runtime: 120 episodes
• Rating: TV-G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

An old-fashioned noir set in seedy Los Angeles, "Bosch" is about Harry Bosch, an LAPD detective who bristles at his partner and commanding officer's efforts to rein him in and make him conduct his investigations by the book. Bosch, who also has to face a judge for his own crimes of vigilante justice, will do whatever it takes to solve his cases and bring the truly bad criminals he's after to justice. As multiple mysteries intersect over season-long arcs, this turns out to be an ever-more-complicated task.

• Starring: Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector, Amy Aquino
• Creator: Eric Overmyer
• Years: 2014–2021
• Runtime: 68 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Adapted from the comic series of the same name, "The Boys" attacks not only superhero media, but the idea of the superhero itself. In this universe, superheroes exist, but they're tightly controlled (and monetized) by greedy corporations. The Seven, the most famous hero team around, are a thoroughly corrupt bunch of jerks who act like unaccountable gods among men. It's up to a vigilante group called the Boys to save the world from its terrible heroes, by any brutal means necessary.

• Starring: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr
• Creator: Eric Kripke
• Years: 2019–
• Runtime: 24 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

A viciously funny sitcom, "Catastrophe" is less about falling in love and more about what comes next. Sharon and Rob are a couple of singles who have a brief London fling. But then, Sharon becomes unexpectedly pregnant. These two witty individuals like each other so much, they decide to try and make a go of a relationship. It's an enormous pleasure to spend time with this cutting couple as they get to know each other, grow their family, and endure all kinds of personal and professional problems together — even the downright humiliating ones.

• Starring: Sharon Horgan, Rob Delaney, Ashley Jensen
• Creator: Sharon Horgan, Rob Delaney
• Years: 2015–2019
• Runtime: 24 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

The prairie town of Dog River, Saskatchewan is so tiny, it consists of little more than a gas station-slash-convenience store and the attached diner. This is where almost all the action on "Corner Gas" occurs, nearly all of it involving goofy gas station operator Brent, anxious diner owner Lacey, crafty coworker Wanda, dumb friend Hank, and Brent's always-bickering parents. Add in the mostly bureaucratic struggles of Dog River's bored two-person police force, and you've got a winsomely character-driven comedy about small town life.

• Starring: Brent Butt, Gabrielle Miller, Fred Ewanuick
• Creator: Brent Butt
• Years: 2004–2009
• Runtime: 107 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• IMDb Score: 8.3

A spy thriller with a sci-fi twist, "Counterpart" centers around Howard Silk, a low-level employee of a United Nations-affiliated spy agency. Soon, he uncovers the true identity of his employer's enemies: Themselves, from a parallel world they access through a mysterious portal. That world is battling this one, and both sides' efforts to undermine each other involve their respective Howard Silk. The Howards are vastly different, but in time, they become unlikely — and somewhat unreliable — allies.

• Starring: J.K. Simmons, Olivia Williams, Harry Lloyd
• Creator: Justin Marks
• Years: 2017–2019
• Runtime: 20 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

A  sci-fi anthology series in the tradition of classics like "The Outer Limits" and "The Twilight Zone," "Electric Dreams" features adaptations of Philip K. Dick's short stories from a variety of innovative filmmakers. Among the ambitious, effects-heavy tales are stories of deadly robots, brain transplants, alien body doubles, and ill-advised space colonies. The future is a vast frontier in "Electric Dreams," peopled with talented actors like Richard Madden, Steve Buscemi, and Janelle Monae. But every dazzling  advancement conceals a strange secret.

• Starring: Timothy Spall, Steve Buscemi, Benedict Wong
• Creators: Ronald D. Moore, Michael Dinner
• Years: 2017–2018
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

Adapted from the novels by James S.A. Corey, "The Expanse" is one of the most far-reaching science-fiction sagas ever made for television. Hundreds of years in the future, humanity has successfully conquered the Solar System. But Mars has declared independence, creating an intense détente. An unprovoked attack on an Earth freighter, seemingly by a Martian warship, leads Officer James Holden on an adventure to the outer reaches of the System. He wants to find out why the attack took place, but he soon unravels a shocking conspiracy that threatens life everywhere.

• Starring: Steven Strait, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham
• Creator: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
• Years: 2015–2022
• Runtime: 62 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

An ultra-contemporary satire of Los Angeles hypebeast culture, "Fairfax" examines modern teens who live for the hippest brands' next drop. Picking up a rare, much-wanted item can deliver social media clout and quantifiable coolness, but "Fairfax" isn't all snark — it earnestly tries to understand these kids. A sunny and earnest Oregon transplant named Dale serves as an audience guide into this strange and youthful world: He's the new kid at a way-too-online school, and soon adopted into a powerful hypebeast collective.

• Starring: Skyler Gisondo, Jaboukie Young-White, Kiersey Clemons
• Creator: Aaron Buchsbaum, Matt Hausfater, Teddy Riley
• Years: 2021–
• Runtime: 16 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge stars in the Emmy-winning "Fleabag" as the eponymous main character, a name that reflects her low opinion of herself and her compulsively destructive drives. As she mourns the death of a close friend and bounces through a series of brief relationships, Fleabag alienates her family and friends and draws the audience in. Her constant asides and glances to the camera, in which she mocks herself and those she encounters around London, are vivid, hilarious, and heartbreaking. Will Fleabag find her way? Answering that question is complicated — and absolutely enthralling.

• Starring: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sian Clifford, Olivia Colman
• Creator: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
• Years: 2016–2019
• Runtime: 12 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

A thoroughly unpredictable meditation on marriage, "Forever" examines the humdrum existence of long-hitched California couple Oscar and June. Life is pleasant, but dull, and they decide to switch things up with a ski trip. It ends in disaster, as well as a completely different plane of existence: Oscar and June both end up dead. Can they make it for the long haul after they inadvertently get another chance at connecting in the afterlife? And do they even want to try?

• Starring: Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, Catherine Keener
• Creators: Matt Hubbard, Alan Yang
• Years: 2018
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

This nontraditional, low-key, character-driven legal drama follows Billy McBride, a disgraced lawyer reduced to working sleazy cases to make rent while trying to maintain sobriety. Each season of "Goliath" focuses on one major case; Billy chooses them based on desires for redemption and revenge against the system that chewed him up and spat him out, but also because he's driven to do something good for his marginalized clients. They need him to be David and go after the Goliath of powerful, well-funded, and aggressively defensive entities enmeshed within an unfair system.

• Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Nina Arianda, Tania Raymonde
• Creators: David E. Kelley, Jonathan Shapiro
• Years: 2016–2021
• Runtime: 32 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

"Good Girls Revolt" is a period piece set in the rapidly changing era of the late 1960s, when the women's liberation movement was picking up steam. It all plays out in the newsroom of a major weekly current events magazine known as News of the Week, where the men are reporters and the women are researchers. Not content with being "good girls" who stay quiet and don't stick up for themselves, three female researchers fight for the right to get their shot as actual reporters while also advocating for equal treatment in the workplace.

• Starring: Genevieve Angelson, Anna Camp, Erin Darke
• Creator: Dana Calvo
• Years: 2015–2016
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

This star-studded comedy, which adapts the 1990 novel by beloved fantasy authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, concerns nothing short of the end of the world — and the unlikely figures trying desperately to stop it. An 11-year-old boy (who was inconveniently switched at birth) is starting to show signs of being the Antichrist, who will bring an end to all existence. Jaded emissaries from Heaven are fine with everything winding down, but ageless demon Crowley and timid angel Aziraphale, who've grown fond of life on Earth, are not. Thus, they join forces to stop Armageddon. Ancient prophecy, gourmet cuisine, and hilariously unlikely occult acts ensue.

• Starring: David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Adria Arjona
• Creator: Neil Gaiman
• Years: 2019–
• Runtime: 6 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Ostensibly produced for children, "Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street" is so quirky, clever, and surreal that audiences of all ages can enjoy its unpredictable delights. Tween Gortimer and his two best friends Ranger and Mel are a smart and supportive bunch of youngsters. In each episode, they find some kind of supernatural adventure or mystery happening on their inaptly-named suburban street. Over the course of the series, this merry band encounters (and always tries to help) ghosts, robots, haunted bookmobiles, a perpetually unlucky kid, and an imaginary friend. And that's just for starters.

• Starring: Sloane Morgan Siegel, Ashley Boettcher, Drew Justice
• Creator: David Anaxagoras
• Years: 2014–2016
• Runtime: 39 episodes
• Rating: TV-Y7
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100% (Audience Score)

"Harlem" is a breezy, light-hearted sitcom about a group of vividly-drawn friends. About a decade before the events of the series, Tye, Camille, Quinn, and Angie met at New York University and formed a tight-knit circle. Now they're in their 30s, and while they've taken wildly divergent paths and wound up with very different lives, they still seek each other out to celebrate the triumphs of their professional and personal lives and cope with obstacles and loss. Full of crackling humor and warm-hearted emotion, "Harlem" tackles a thorny life stage with candor and wit.

• Starring: Meagan Good, Jerrie Johnson, Grace Byers
• Creator: Tracy Oliver
• Years: 2021–
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

A massive hit during its original broadcast run, "House" is a hospital drama, but it's also a mystery. Each week, a team of diagnostic specialists race against the specter of death to find out what's wrong with that episode's patient, who's invariably checked into their New Jersey teaching hospital with a bizarre litany of symptoms. Their first few guesses tend to be wrong, but things typically turn out okay because of the diagnosticians' boss: Dr. Gregory House, troubled medical genius. Dealing with chronic pain, a painkiller addiction, and a seemingly pathological need to say the rudest thing possible, Dr. House digs deep to discern the rare medical conditions afflicting his patients.

• Starring: Hugh Laurie, Omar Epps, Robert Sean Leonard
• Creator: David Shore
• Years: 2004–2012
• Runtime: 177 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

"How I Met Your Mother" takes one of the most familiar and basic entertainment concepts — boy meets girl — and stretches it into a tale of a tight-knit friend group navigating their 30s. Ted Mosby, our unreliable narrator, frames the story from the future as he tells his kids how he met their mom. But he takes hundreds of hours to get there, because he's so preoccupied with exploring his failed romances and what his pals Barney, Robin, Marshall, and Lily were up to. Though it has a controversial ending, "How I Met Your Mother" remains a classic sitcom about life, love, and friendship.

• Starring: Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris
• Creators: Carter Bays, Craig Thomas
• Years: 2005–2014
• Runtime: 208 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Teenager Mark Grayson wants to be just like his father, Nolan. Nolan is kind, brave, and also the world's most dominant superhero, Omni-Man. When he turns 17, Mark manifests his own powers and becomes a new hero named Invincible. But this isn't some squeaky-clean, father-son superhero saga — Mark has to contend with the highly political superhero world, a powerful league of heroes called the Guardians of the Globe, and the trials of adolescence. Oh, and there's one more thing: His father is actually a murderous sham.

• Starring: Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh
• Creators: Robert Kirkman
• Years: 2021–
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan character makes the jump from pulpy novels and bombastic '90s action movies to the small screen with this Amazon original thriller. Set in the early days of his career, Jack Ryan begins with a safe desk job as a CIA analyst. Before long, he's being reluctantly sent out on dangerous, tense, and frightening missions involving matters of international security. His reluctance diminishes as he proves himself a valuable asset to the CIA's anti-terrorism operations, and an effective mix of spy and soldier.

• Starring: John Krasinski, Wendell Pierce, John Hoogenakker
• Creators: Carlton Cuse, Graham Roland
• Years: 2018–
• Runtime: 16 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

One of the most influential sketch comedy shows of all time, "The Kids in the Hall" makes silliness cool in both its original run and its Amazon revival. A frenetically-paced work that points out the absurdities of modern life, "The Kids in the Hall" is full of unbridled absurdity and indelible character pieces. Scott Thompson's Buddy Cole monologues, Bruce McCulloch's short films and songs, Mark McKinney's Chicken Lady, and Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald's two-guy scenes make for a varied, smart, and zany body of work.

• Starring: David Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald
• Creators: Mark McKinney, Scott Thompson, Kevin McDonald
• Years: 1988–1995, 2022-
• Runtime: 109 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Beloved 1992 film "A League of Their Own" tells the fictionalized tale of the Rockford Peaches, a World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League team. Soon-to-be-beloved 2022 series "A League of Their Own" expands the movie's world with new stories and characters set in the League. Star and co-creator Abbi Jacobson plays Carson Shaw, a small town woman who hits the road to fulfill her dream of becoming a pro baseballer — an otherwise impossible goal, were it not for the war and her husband's absence. She's joined by Maxine Chapman, a baseball diehard who faces adversity and closed doors as a Black woman, but refuses to give up on getting signed by a team.

• Starring: Abbi Jacobson, Chanté Adams, D'Arcy Carden
• Creators: Will Graham, Abbi Jacobson
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Amazon reportedly spent more than $1 billion to realize its ambitious, original chapter in J.R.R. Tolkien's classic Middle-earth fantasy saga with "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power." This direct-to-streaming prequel series of sorts is set in the same realm of elves, hobbits, and evil forces as the titular novels and blockbuster films, but it takes place thousands of years earlier, fleshing out this spectacular universe in sumptuous detail. The greatest source of pure evil, Sauron, begins his rise to power around the time of the forging of the important Rings of Power, which bring untenable control to whoever is in their possession. As Sauron and his allies bring darkness to the world, young warrior elf Galadriel and Rivendell ruler Elrond prepare to defend their kingdom with the help of the humans of Numenor.

• Starring: Robert Aramayo, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle
• Creators: Patrick McKay and John D. Payne
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

From the outset, the binge-able, early-2000s cultural sensation that is "Lost" appears to be a survival show about a couple dozen people stuck on a tropical island after their plane crashes. But then things get progressively weirder and more mysterious for everyone on Oceanic Flight 815, all of whom harbor some kind of important secret and have been changed by the island in some way. The island itself has many anomalies and oddities, like a smoke monster, underground industrial bunkers, and a small community already in residence. By the time "Lost" wraps up, Oceanic Flight 815's survivors travel through time and space and blur the lines between life and death.

• Starring: Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia
• Creators: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof
• Years: 2004–2010
• Runtime: 121 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

Quiet, cool, and smoldering, "Mad Men" reckons with the 1960s through the lens of a New York advertising agency. What it means to be a man is a rapidly changing concept in this era, as experienced by Don Draper, a creative director who is brilliant at what he does but haunted by guilt and shame. He has a lot to feel bad about, from his extramarital affairs to the fact that he stole the identity of a Korean War soldier to escape his ugly early life. His office is also the setting for a lot of exciting corporate machinations, cultural commentary, and the slow but steady elevation of women in the workforce.

• Starring: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser
• Creator: Matthew Weiner
• Years: 2007–2015
• Runtime: 92 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Based on Philip K. Dick's novel of the same name, "The Man in the High Castle" is set in the 1960s, in a world where the Axis Powers won World War II. Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany rule a split United States with a particularly vicious form of fascism. But there's an underground movement at play: Jewish people live under fake identities, many make daring attempts to reach a neutral zone, and an organized resistance works to undermine the authorities. But then footage of the Allied Powers winning World War II surfaces, hinting at a parallel universe.

• Starring: Alexa Davalos, Luke Kleintank, Rufus Sewell
• Creator: Frank Spotnitz
• Years: 2015–2019
• Runtime: 40 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Miriam "Midge" Maisel is a witty '50s housewife who thinks she's got it made. She has a gorgeous apartment, healthy kids, and a husband she occasionally accompanies to a Greenwich Village dive bar, where he does stand-up comedy. But when he abruptly leaves her, Midge verbally unloads at that same bar. She soon realizes she has stage presence and a major talent for comedy. With the help of prickly manager Susie, Midge ventures into a new life on her own terms, hones her act, and claws her way into show business. It's not what a nice Jewish wife of the Upper West Side is expected to do — but as she soon discovers, she's no longer interested in playing by the rules.

• Starring: Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Tony Shalhoub
• Creator: Amy Sherman-Palladino
• Years: 2017–
• Runtime: 34 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

A world-class orchestra is a hotbed of political machinations, infidelity, and highly competitive one-upmanship. "Mozart in the Jungle" finds all this and more in the New York Symphony. The organization is entering a new chapter in its storied history with the arrival of a young maestro named Rodrigo who boasts as much charisma as flakiness. Elsewhere in this ensemble dramedy, aging symphony musicians deal with economic and physical woes and ambitious but unsure oboist Hailey patiently waits for her chance at a spot in the orchestra.

• Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Lola Kirke, Saffron Burrows
• Creators: Alex Timbers, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman
• Years: 2014–2018
• Runtime: 40 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

At first, Franklin and Irene York seem like an average and unassuming older couple. "Night Sky" follows them as they deal with familiar problems, such as health issues, the death of their son, and a move out of their large family home. But they won't be doing that last one anytime soon, because they've become guardians of a baffling portal to another land. Years earlier, the Yorks found a chamber buried in the yard that provides an instantaneous trip to another planet. That other world is seemingly desolate and deserted, and really doesn't interest Franklin and Irene too much ... until someone enters their world through it.

• Starring: Sissy Spacek, J.K. Simmons, Chai Hansen
• Creator: Holden Miller, Daniel C. Connolly
• Years: 2022
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%

Dry, confessional comic Tig Notaro stars in this quiet and affecting dramedy loosely based on her own experiences. After her mother suffers a fatal fall, radio host Tig returns to the small Mississippi town where she was raised. Though she only intends to stay to help her directionless brother and shattered stepfather cope, Tig — who's coping with her own health issues — winds up staying for a while. Her hometown is more than she remembered it being — and so, it turns out, was her mother. Little by little, Tig comes to understand the town and family that shaped her, while also learning who her mother truly was.

• Starring: Tig Notaro, John Rothman, Noah Harpster
• Creators: Diablo Cody, Tig Notaro
• Years: 2015–2017
• Runtime: 12 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

At first, "Outer Range" seems like a perfectly agreeable modern-day Western soap. Wyoming rancher Royal Abbott keeps up with chores on the gorgeous and sprawling land he's struggling to keep, while also coping with his daughter-in-law's mysterious disappearance. That's where the mysteries and spookiness begin. "Outer Range" slowly doles out its secrets until it's a full-on sci-fi oddity, especially after a giant, enigmatic hole opens up in the ground, unleashing some kind of brain-scrambling menace to body and soul.

• Starring: Josh Brolin, Imogen Poots, Lili Taylor
• Creators: Brian Watkins
• Year: 2022–
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

"Paper Girls" starts in 1988 with four tween girls who make a little money delivering newspapers in their Cleveland suburb. When they pursue some thieving teens the morning after Halloween, they discover a time machine. They soon learn that the teens they're chasing are time travelers from the 21st century, and that they're in the midst of a war with a rival time-hopping group known as the Old-Timers. The conflict and attendant ethical quandary over altering the past for the sake of a better future pulls the girls into a dazzling adventure across the centuries.

• Starring: Camryn Jones, Riley Lai Nelet, Sofia Rosinsky
• Creator: Stephany Folsom
• Years: 2022–
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

John Tavner is a special breed of intelligence operative. In order to help federal spy agencies prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons program, he has to find a plausible cover for his regular trips to Luxembourg that won't arouse interest or suspicion from rival spies or the public at large. Thus, John balances his secret work life with his above-board job at a piping company. However, a police officer from Europe may have figured his two identities out — and a couple of nosy coworkers might blow his cover, too.

• Starring: Michael Dorman, Kurtwood Smith, Michael Chernus
• Creator: Steven Conrad
• Years: 2015–2018
• Runtime: 18 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Imagine a buddy cop drama where the buddy cops aren't shy about their disdain for each other. That's the idea behind "Pretty Hard Cases," a comedic police drama about Toronto gang task force officer Sam and narcotics detective Kelly. Sam is tense, rigid, and does everything the "correct" way, while Kelly plays things far more fast and loose. Neither cares for the other's techniques, finding them unpalatable. But they quietly and begrudgingly bond over a passion for law enforcement and their complex personal lives. 

• Starring: Meredith MacNeill, Adrienne C. Moore, Al Mukadam
• Creators: Tassie Cameron, Sherry White
• Years: 2021–
• Runtime: 22 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" action novels, which star a U.S. Army police officer-turned-mercenary investigator, come to television in the form of "Reacher." Season 1 of the pulse-pounding series follows a single story about the dirty underbelly of corruption and conspiracy in the tiny town of Margrave, Georgia. During his visit, Reacher, an absolute giant of a man and a total charmer, is arrested for a murder he could not possibly have committed. Post-release, he joins forces with a couple of locals to take down the shamelessly insidious forces that secretly run everything in town.

• Starring: Alan Ritchson, Malcolm Goodwin, Willa Fitzgerald
• Creator: Nick Santora
• Years: 2022–
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

The nostalgic, airy, and gently humorous "Red Oaks" tells a coming-of-age story set in a mid-1980s Jewish country club. After college student David takes a summer job at the establishment, he works hard to find his place in its structure. But learning which workers are fun to hang out with and which members to avoid at all costs is just the beginning. Over the course of a few years, David finds a mentor in Red Oaks' owner, weighs his romantic options, and considers the adult responsibilities that await him. It's heavy stuff, but "Red Oaks" makes it hilarious and affecting.

• Starring: Craig Roberts, Ennis Esmer, Paul Reiser
• Creators: Joe Gangemi, Gregory Jacobs
• Years: 2014–2017
• Runtime: 26 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Marius is a convicted con artist just getting out of prison for various low-level schemes. Seeking to avoid the powerful criminals he wronged before his incarceration, he assumes the identity of his still-imprisoned cellmate, Pete. Though Pete's family is happy and tightly-knit, he's long been estranged from them, which means they unblinkingly accept Marius as their own. Thus, Marius joins their brood and is put to work in the family business of bail bonds. But this lie can't last forever — especially since Pete's family has its own secrets.

• Starring: Giovanni Ribisi, Marin Ireland, Shane McRae
• Creators: Bryan Cranston, David Shore
• Years: 2015–2019
• Runtime: 30 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Two long years after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, Greg Garcia, creator of sensitive-but-raucous comedies like "My Name is Earl" and "Raising Hope," debuted "Sprung," a humorous and thoughtful look at the confusing days of early 2020. To limit the spread of COVID-19, prison officials release nonviolent offender Jack. Gloria, his prison girlfriend (whom he's never seen), and Rooster, his cellmate, are freed as well. They all wind up bunking with Rooster's daffy mother Barb, who enlists them in her low-level criminal enterprise. It's the early days of the pandemic, and exploitation and opportunism are omnipresent. Barb's gang endeavors to rob only bad people, like toilet paper hoarders and a corrupt member of Congress, but things soon become complicated.

• Starring: Garret Dillahunt, Martha Plimpton, Shakira Barrera
• Creator: Greg Garcia
• Year: 2022
• Runtime: 9 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Set in and around a town in Ohio during an indeterminate time in history, "Tales from the Loop" examines the ramifications of a machine called the Loop, which scientists created to make every wild, straight-out-of-sci-fi scenario real, explorable, and exploitable. But "Tales from the Loop" isn't really about that mystifying device — it's about the regular people who live in the town above the secret research facility where the Loop is kept. Their tales are empathetic and human, with each episode following a different person whose life has been irreversibly altered, for better or for worse, by the reality-bending activities happening nearby.

• Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Paul Schneider, Rebecca Hall
• Creator: Nathaniel Halpern
• Years: 2020–
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

The latest screen adaptation of Ben Edlund's beloved superhero series, "The Tick" is set in a universe where superheroes are a humdrum part of daily life. Arthur, a nervous accountant without any natural powers, puts on a suit and declares himself a hero — but to actually get anything done, he must team up with a delightfully daffy and nigh-invulnerable guy in a blue suit who calls himself the Tick. The Tick has little recollection of his life before he declared himself the sworn protector of his city. Their team-up is well-timed, as a supervillain fittingly known as the Terror who controls a vast network of bad guys is stirring once more.

• Starring: Peter Serafinowicz, Griffin Newman, Valorie Curry
• Creator: Ben Edlund
• Years: 2016–2019
• Runtime: 22 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

In this pulpy, stylish, and noir-inspired series from the director of 2011's "Drive," Los Angeles detective Martin Jones does double-duty on the other side of the law as a contract killer. Laden with grief after the death of his partner, he dives into crime with new fervor. This puts him into contact with an array of highly skilled and extremely deadly bad guys from all over the world. But Jones can't keep his two lives separate forever — especially when he gets involved with a former FBI agent and a woman with seemingly magical powers.

• Starring: Miles Teller, Augusto Aguilera, Nell Tiger Free
• Creators: Ed Brubaker, Nicolas Winding Refn
• Years: 2019
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%

An empathetic, emotional, and complicated examination of identity, "Transparent" follows a California family as they examine their past and move into the next phase of life. Retired academic Maura comes out as a trans woman at the series' outset. This news sends her three adult children reeling. What ensues is a dazzling exploration of gender, sexuality, Jewish history, divorce, and the ever-complex nature of trauma. Flashbacks explore the family's experiences in Nazi Germany and Maura's personal history to especially vivid effect. This is family drama at its most rich.

• Starring: Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Landecker, Gaby Hoffmann
• Creator: Joey Soloway
• Years: 2014–2019
• Runtime: 41 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Barry Jenkins ("Moonlight") directs this deeply affecting adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. After they witness a recaptured slave's vicious execution, Cora and Caesar, enslaved on a Georgia plantation, endeavor to flee to the north. To do this, they make use of the Underground Railroad, which in this story is a literal train that runs along a series of well-hidden tracks. This surreal twist isn't just interesting — it illuminates the era in an entirely new (and deeply magical-realist) way.

• Starring: Thuso Mbedu, Chase Dillon, Joel Edgerton
• Creator: Barry Jenkins
• Years: 2021
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

After surviving a horrific car accident, Alma Winograd-Diaz finds that her relationship to time, and reality itself, has drastically shifted, allowing her to communicate with her dead father. At least, that's what seems to be happening — it all might be a symptom of trauma-induced mental illness. As she uses her mysterious new abilities, Alma's grasp on reality as others perceive it grows ever more tenuous. "Undone" uses rotoscoping to create a potent sense of surreality, which doesn't just give the series unique flavor — it heightens the emotions at its core.

• Starring: Rosa Salazar, Angelique Cabral, Constance Marie
• Creators: Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Kate Purdy
• Years: 2019–
• Runtime: 16 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

It's the year 2033, and technology has advanced to the point where humans no longer have to roll the dice on the existence of the afterlife. Rather than taking their chances with old-fashioned death, they can simply upload their consciousnesses into a virtual afterlife. When Nathan, a programmer working on a new breakthrough in this tech, dies in a mysterious self-driving car accident, he finds himself in the resort-like Lakeview afterlife. But life after death turns out to be complicated — especially since he's still tied to the realm of the living through his account-controlling girlfriend, Ingrid. Oh, and he's falling in love with the hologram of his real-world handler, Nora. Heaven this ain't.

• Starring: Robbie Amell, Andy Allo, Allegra Edwards
• Creator: Greg Daniels
• Years: 2020–
• Runtime: 17 episodes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" ranks among the all-time grandest literary fantasy sagas, and Amazon Prime spared no expense in bringing it to vivid life. Moiraine Damodred guides a secret society of women who possess the magical ability to control the One Power. As the series begins, Moiraine sets off on a quest to locate and train the chosen one, a young person who is the new incarnation of the Dragon. This enormously powerful figure, whose arrival has been foretold, will help Moiraine and the forces of good finally defeat the forbiddingly evil entity known as the Dark One.

• Starring: Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, Madeleine Madden
• Creator: Rafe Judkins
• Years: 2021–
• Runtime: 8 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

When a plane crash strands them on a remote island, a group of teenage girls are forced to work together to survive. They come from hugely different walks of life: The group includes a California cellist, a sweet-natured girl from an Ojibwe reservation, and a pageant queen with a major secret. Yet they discover that they have more in common than the world would have them believe. But all is not what it appears to be on the island. Through a framing device of interrogation sessions held after the girls are rescued, "The Wilds" slowly uncovers what exactly is going on.

• Starring: Sophia Ali, Shannon Berry, Reign Edwards
• Creator: Sarah Streicher
• Years: 2020–2022
• Runtime: 18 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

This biographical series recounts the early adulthood of Zelda Sayre, later Zelda Fitzgerald, a 1920s icon and eventual wife to legendary writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Zelda's lesser-known story proves to be worth telling: Raised in a wealthy Southern family, she becomes one of the first flappers, a living emblem of the freewheeling Jazz Age. Being the toast of society can't last forever, though. "Z: The Beginning of Everything" follows Zelda as she moves through her courtship and troubled marriage to Fitzgerald, publishing tragedies and triumphs, parties that grow steadily more dysfunctional, and a rapidly changing culture.

• Starring: Christina Ricci, David Hoflin, Kristine Nielsen
• Creators: Dawn Prestwich, Nicole Yorkin
• Year: 2015–2017
• Runtime: 10 episodes
• Rating: TV-14
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%