The best Amazon Prime original series right now

There are plenty of superhero movies and TV shows out there, but none of them are quite like The Boys, which might offer the darkest, most depraved and dysfunctional view of super-powered heroes and villains we’ve seen so far. Based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic book series of the same name, The Boys follows a group of non-powered vigilantes who take it upon themselves to mete out justice to super-powered heroes who abuse their abilities and take advantage of the trust the public has placed in them. As grim and shockingly violent as it is clever, the series also offers a powerful deconstruction of traditional superhero stories and presents a world in which superpowers, corporate greed, and media consolidation have bled together to create a particularly frightening form of corruption. The audience sees it all through the eyes of Hughie, an average guy who is brutally changed by a chance encounter with a superhero. The highly anticipated fourth season begins airing June 13, 2024, only on Prime Video.

Once considered “unadaptable,” Amazon Prime Video has brought Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series to the small screen. In a mythical country, the world’s most powerful magicians believe the Dragon may have been reincarnated. Prophecy foretells that this individual will have the power to save the world or destroy it. Narrowing down her search to five young people, Aes Sedai Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) takes them on a journey to the Eye of the World to determine who is the Dragon, knowing full well most of them will not survive.

In 1958, New York City, Jewish housewife Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) finds out her husband — a businessman who does stand-up comedy on the side — is stealing his jokes from big-time comic Bob Newhart and, worse, having an affair. To cope with the upheaval, Midge begins to tell jokes of her own, and finds she has something of a knack for it. In the vein of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a comedy that doesn’t allow itself to be weighed down by its more serious moments, resulting in a joyous, fun tone. Similarly, the series tactfully handles issues of gender and religion in a period when people weren’t quite as enlightened or politically correct as (most) people are today. Brosnahan’s character work is outstanding, painting a picture of a woman who uses her pain to strengthen her resolve and bolster her act. The fifth and final season is now available on Prime Video.

A fictionalized tell-all about a rock band that abruptly called it quits, Daisy Jones & The Six is a creative examination of the real music and culture of the 1970s. In 1977, Daisy Jones & The Six — led by Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) and Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin) — had risen from obscurity to fame. They seemed poised for superstardom.

And then, after a sold-out show at Chicago’s Soldier Field, they disbanded. The limited series picks up decades later as the band members recount the true story of why it all fell apart.

Based on Naomi Alderman’s bestselling novel, The Power is a global thriller about a twist of nature. When teenage girls from London to Seattle and Nigeria to Eastern Europe suddenly gain the ability to electrocute people at will, the global balance of power is suddenly at risk. As teenage girls across the world harness this newfound ability and sense of agency, the entire world order comes into their crosshairs.

Christoph Waltz stars in the comedic thriller The Consultant based on Bentley Little’s novel of the same name. After an unspeakable tragedy at downtown Los Angeles games studio, CompWare, consultant Regus Patoff (Waltz) is brought in to lead the company back into the black. But the mysterious, eccentric Patoff takes charge in ways that feel provocative in the extreme.

Despite a rocky release dominated by bigoted trolls and bots spamming review sites with terrible reviews, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has still drawn a massive following. The lesson, as always, is that trolls are idiots who are not to be trusted. Set millennia before the events of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Rings of Power finds Middle-earth in a period of relative peace. One elf, however, senses that the evil of Morgoth has not disappeared for good. Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) has dedicated her life to ensuring Morgoth and his lieutenant, Sauron, are eliminated for good. But as she discovers more and more clues that her concern was justified, the leaders of elves, dwarves, and men find themselves consumed by other matters, allowing evil to thrive in the shadows.