There is plenty to watch onAmazon Prime Video, but these hidden gem TV shows are worth turning on next.Amazon Prime Original TV showshave been getting better and better over the years. The streamer still isn’t quite at the level of HBO or Netflix in terms of originals, but it’s not far off.
Everyone knows aboutThe Boys, the superhero-skewering satire,Fleabag, an impossibly clever comedy, andJury Duty, one of the few surprises in the recent decade. However,the streamer offers more than those classic hits. There are several hidden gems that are worth entering your queue if you’re looking for something new and good.
Set in Australia,The Lost Flowers of Alice Hartfollows the titular Alice, played by Alya Browne as a child and Alycia Debnam-Carey as a young adult. Sigourney Weaver co-stars as June Hart, Alice’s grandmother, who takes Alice in after her parents are killed in a fire. It’s a confusing moment, as Alice’s father was abusive before he died.
This is not the first time that June has helped a young girl in need of rescue. The flowers of the title refer to a plant nursery that June runs, which doubles as a haven for a different type of “flower”: girls and other women who were victims of domestic abuse and need a place to hide.
It’s a beautiful series, and though it dips into melodrama often,the desperate nature of the plot means that even the particularly harrowing moments never feel too big for the story. Weaver is incredible in her role, and her performance as a prickly matriarch doing the best she can is one of her best.
Patriotis a comedy-drama from 2015 that stars Michael Dorman as John Tavner, an intelligence agent and folk singer who assumes the non-official cover of a mid-level employee at a Milwaukee piping plant in a convoluted plan to prevent Iran from going nuclear. Savvy, funny, and off-beat, there’s not much like it.
The series has a 91% onRotten Tomatoes, and the second season improves over the already impressive first season. The cast includes some classic TV faces, like Terry O’Quinn, bestknown as John Locke onLost, and Kurtwood Smith, who famously played Red onThat ’70s Showand the revival series,That ’90s Show.
Patriotis a smart series that balances the comedy and the thrilling plot lineto great effect. Sadly, the series was canceled after the second season, meaningPatriotis lacking some closure, but those first two seasons are still a very enjoyable watch for the writing and acting alone.
The forgottenTV show in the Greg Daniels canon, the series was overshadowed by his Apple TV+ original show that came out the same year,Space Force. However,Uploadis the better series. The show is set in the year 2033, when humans can upload themselves into a virtual afterlife of their choosing.
It’s a strange series that stars Robbie Amell as Nathan Brown, a 27-year-old programmer who dies and is uploaded to the expensive afterlife world of Lakeview. However, not everything is as perfect as it seems, and Nathan struggles to deal with a virtual life while trying to figure out what was really the cause of his death.
Uploadseason 4 has already been filmed.
The series has a 90% onRotten Tomatoes, and Amazon has ordered thefourth and final season ofUpload, though there’s no release date yet.It’s as witty and charming a series as you’d expect from the creator ofThe OfficeandParks and Recreation, but also has an intriguing and philosophical exploration of our dependency on technology.
The Italian crime dramaZeroZeroZeropremiered on Prime Video in 2020 and is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Roberto Saviano.ZeroZeroZerofollows the complex and dangerous journey of a cocaine shipment, tracking it from its production in Mexico to its sale in Italy.
It’s a fascinating series that’s part crime-drama, part travel series, and partHow It’s Made.
It’s a fascinating series that’s part crime-drama, part travel series, and partHow It’s Made. The show tracks three separate, though intrinsically connected, storylines showing the difficulties that come from trying to make, transport, buy, and sell illegal drugs across nations, investigating the people willing to take these risks.
The point of the series is clear. The desire for cocaine is so strong and the profit that can be made from its sale so large, that no amount of disruption or trouble will ever stop its distribution.It’s a beautifully shot series, with plenty of on-location filming, and the deep characterizations are why you’ll stick around.
Peter Capaldi stars inThe Devil’s Hour, a highly underrated science fiction drama thriller that takes its time to explain the full breadth of its surreal aspects. In the show, a serial killer named Gideon Shepherd (Capaldi) has a strange claim: he has lived multiple lives, as has everyone else on Earth.
In this version of the world, people live their lives over and over again. No one remembers these past lives, except for Gideon, and his murders are not out of hate, but as a way to preemptively stop even greater catastrophes from happening, catastrophes he knows about because of his ability to perceive past lives.
The two-season series has a 95% onRotten Tomatoes, and a third season is on its way. It takes a while for the series to really get moving, but once it does,it’s a haunting and mysterious show that injects a not-insignificant amount of horrorinto what would otherwise be a standard “time-traveling” science fiction series.
Giovanni Ribisi stars as the titular Pete Murphy inSneaky Pete, though his real name is Marius Josipović. After Marius gets out of prison, he’s hunted by a gangster, the last victim of one of his cons. Marius does what he does best to escape: he cons. This time, by taking on the identity of Pete Murphy.
As funny as that premise is,Sneaky Petecan get pretty bleak.
Marius spent his time in prison with his cellmate, the real Pete Murphy, and gleaned enough from their conversations that he easily slots into the man’s family, boosted by the fact that Pete was estranged, and they barely know him at his point. As funny as that premise is,Sneaky Petecan get pretty bleak.
It’s an immensely entertaining, underrated gem of a TV series onAmazon Prime Videothat has not received the attention it deserves. Equal parts funny, gripping, with something fun at every turn,Sneaky Peteknows what it has in its talented cast, which includes Bryan Cranston, Margo Martindale, and Marin Ireland. Everyone is given a chance to shine.
