- Amazon Prime Video has beefed up its offering of original TV shows in recent years with genre titles like “The Boys” and “The Expanse.”
- It’s also expanded its comedy content with Emmy-winning shows like “Fleabag” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
- We ranked every notable Prime Video original series from worst to best by Metacritic scores.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Amazon Prime Video has delivered an impressive collection of original TV shows in recent years.
It’s notably broken through with comedy, picking up major Emmy wins for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Fleabag.”
The tech giant is also exploring ambitious genre projects. Along with the hit comic-book adaptation “The Boys” and the revival of “The Expanse,” Amazon also paid a reported $250 million to acquire rights to “The Lord of the Rings” series in 2017.
And season two of its acclaimed series “Homecoming” debuts May 22.
But with Amazon's catalog continuing to grow, which shows are worth your time? To understand how Amazon's shows ranked against each other, we turned to critic scores on reviews aggregator Metacritic. We excluded kids and unscripted shows, and broke ties with audience scores when available.
Nathan McAlone and Carrie Wittmer contributed to an earlier version of this post.
Here are Amazon's original shows, ranked based on their critical reception:
41. "Hand of God" — 44/100
Average critic score: 44/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "A psychological drama about a morally-corrupt judge who suffers a breakdown and believes God is compelling him onto a path of vigilante justice."
What critics said: "There's a much more entertaining but less intensely violent show buried in Hand of God somewhere." - The Atlantic
40. "Crisis in Six Scenes" — 44/100
Average critic score: 44/100
Audience score: 7.3/10
Amazon description: "This is a comedy that takes place in the 1960's during turbulent times in the United States and a middle class suburban family is visited by a guest who turns their household completely upside down."
What critics said: "None of this craftsmanship adds up to much when the material is as quarter-baked as it is here." - Vulture
39. "Hunters" — 55/100
Average critic score: 55/100
Audience score: 4.9/10
Amazon description: "Inspired by true events, HUNTERS follows a diverse band of Nazi Hunters in 1977 New York City who discover that hundreds of escaped Nazis are living in America. And so, they do what any bad-ass vigilante squad would do: they set out on a bloody quest for revenge and justice. But they soon discover a far-reaching conspiracy and must race against time to thwart the Nazis' new genocidal plans."
What critics said: "The shifting tones and conflicting storytelling severely limit any chance for this series to thrill you, let alone keep your attention." - New York Post
38. "Too Old to Die Young" — 55/100
Average critic score: 55/100
Audience score: 7.5/10
Amazon description: "In one tragic night, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Martin Jones's life is blown apart, and he is forced into a deadly underground of Cartel soldiers, Yakuza assassins, and mysterious vigilantes. Soon he finds himself lost on a surreal odyssey of murder, mysticism and vengeance, as his past sins close in on him."
What critics said: "Stylishly crafted but stultifyingly dull." - Hollywood Reporter
37. "The Romanoffs" — 56/100
Average critic score: 56/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "From the creator of Mad Men, The Romanoffs is a contemporary anthology series set around the globe featuring eight separate stories about people who believe themselves to be descendants of the Russian royal family."
What critics said: "The Romanoffs asks a lot of viewers, with far-flung narratives that lack tonal consistency from episode to episode." - Los Angeles Times
36. "The Last Tycoon" — 57/100
Average critic score: 57/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's final unfinished novel, studio exec Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer) clashes with studio head Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer) as Brady's daughter Celia (Lily Collins) seeks a way into the industry and Monroe's heart in 1930s Hollywood."
What critics said: "With its artificial look and shallow characters, the series is too transparent in the construction of its own illusion to be fully immersive." - Slant
35. "Hanna" — 57/100
Average critic score: 57/100
Audience score: 6.2/10
Amazon description: "In equal parts high-concept thriller and coming-of-age drama, HANNA follows the journey of an extraordinary young girl raised in the forest, as she evades the relentless pursuit of an off-book CIA agent and tries to unearth the truth behind who she is."
What critics said: "For all of its various attempts to balance Eastern European espionage, half-hearted explorations of parenting and femininity, a youth drama, a father-daughter story, a pulse-pounding conspiracy thriller, a character study (though kudos to Mireille Enos for what she does with her Marissa) and the kind of pulp pleasure where a young girl can gun down an army without blinking, it never really finds a groove to settle into." - Rolling Stone
34. "Carnival Row" — 58/100
Average critic score: 58/100
Audience score: 8.0/10
Amazon description: "Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne star in Carnival Row, a Victorian fantasy world filled with mythological immigrant creatures. Feared by humans, they are forbidden to live, love, or fly with freedom. But even in darkness, hope lives, as a human detective and a faerie rekindle a dangerous affair. The city's uneasy peace collapses when a string of murders reveals a monster no one could imagine."
What critics said: "World building is hard enough, but as circus acts go, Carnival Row is like a juggler on a unicycle. It's kind of interesting to watch, but nobody really needs it." - CNN
33. "The Collection" — 59/100
Average critic score: 59/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "A gripping family drama and entrepreneurial fable, set in a post-war Paris fashion house. It exposes the grit behind the glamour of a rising business, spearheaded by two clashing brothers. The atelier staff survived one war, but others loom; rivalries and romances pitting family against family, protégés against mentors, the past against the future."
What critics said: "The Collection can be pretty to look at, but first impressions will not lead to second glances." - Boston Herald
32. "Lore" — 60/100
Average critic score: 60/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "From an Executive Producer of The Walking Dead and an Executive Producer of The X-Files, this anthology series brings to life Aaron Mahnke's 'Lore' podcast and uncovers the real-life events that spawned our darkest nightmares. Blending dramatic scenes, animation, archive and narration, Lore reveals how our horror legends - such as vampires, werewolves and body snatchers - are rooted in truth."
What critics said: "The show sometimes relies too much on the power of its actors to bring home the reality of its horror, and this doesn't always work - but when it does, it works very well." - Vox
31. "Z: The Beginning of Everything" — 61/100
Average critic score: 61/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "'Z: The Beginning of Everything' tells the story of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, the brilliant, beautiful Southern Belle who became the original flapper and icon of the wild, flamboyant Jazz Age."
What critics said: "For Fitzgerald fans, wannabe Fitzgerald fans, or even people who can appreciate a well-done period drama, Z has a lot to offer, even as it gives us lots to think about." - AV Club
30. "The Dangerous Book for Boys" — 63/100
Average critic score: 63/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "The McKenna family must cope with the passing of its much-loved patriarch, Patrick. Hope appears in the form of a book called The Dangerous Book for Boys that Patrick created for his three sons. It becomes a how-to guide that inspires fantasies in his youngest son, Wyatt, enabling him to reconnect with his father and learn lessons that help him navigate real life."
What critics said: "There is darkness in the series, but it all bends toward fuzzy good feelings in the end." - Los Angeles Times
29. (Tie) "Doctor Thorne" — 64/100
Average critic score: 64/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "From the creator of Downton Abbey. Dr. Thorne lives a quiet life with niece Mary in Greshambury, home of the wealthy Gresham family. Unbeknownst to others, the Greshams have lost their fortune and matriarch Lady Arabella has a scheme to regain it via an arranged marriage with her son and an American heiress. However, her son plans to elope with Mary, which complicates Lady Arabella's plans."
What critics said: "A perfectly serviceable, occasionally adorable, utterly predictable period drama." - Slate
29. (Tie) "Mad Dogs" — 64/100
Average critic score: 64/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "When a group of underachieving 40-something friends gather in Belize to celebrate the early retirement of an old friend, a series of wild events unfold, exposing dark secrets, deception and even murder. Starring Ben Chaplin (The Thin Red Line), Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos), Billy Zane (Twin Peaks), Steve Zahn (Dallas Buyers Club) and Romany Malco (Weeds). Executive produced by Cris Cole and Shawn Ryan (The Shield)."
What critics said: "It's frustrating to watch these four men fumble every opportunity to straighten out the mess they descend ever deeper into." - The Wrap
27. "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan" — 64/100
Average critic score: 64/100
Audience score: 6.5/10
Amazon description: "When CIA analyst Jack Ryan stumbles upon a suspicious series of bank transfers his search for answers pulls him from the safety of his desk job and catapults him into a deadly game of cat and mouse throughout Europe and the Middle East, with a rising terrorist figurehead preparing for a massive attack against the US and her allies."
What critics said: "Jack Ryan would do well to remember a certain proverb to prevent the show from being all work and no play for its otherwise strong lead." - AV Club
26. "Good Girls Revolt" — 65/100
Average critic score: 65/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "In 1969, while a cultural revolution swept through the free world, there was still one place that refused to change with the times: newsrooms. Good Girls Revolt follows a group of young female researchers at 'News of the Week,' who ask to be treated fairly. Their revolutionary request sparks convulsive changes and upends marriages, careers, sex lives, love lives, and friendships."
What critics said: "Bring your 80-cents-on-the-dollar outrage here, for an entertainingly upright tale of the fight for equality." - Washington Post
25. "Goliath" — 65/100
Average critic score: 65/100
Audience score: 5.8/10
Amazon description: "Once a powerful lawyer, Billy McBride is now burned out and washed up, spending more time in a bar than a courtroom. When he reluctantly agrees to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the biggest client of the massive law firm he helped create, Billy and his ragtag team uncover a vast and deadly conspiracy, pitting them all in a life or death trial against the ultimate Goliath."
What critics said: "Unlike many streaming dramas, each episode of Goliath has a satisfying internal structure, and the series exudes a notable sense of forward movement. " - Variety
24. "Tales from the Loop" — 66/100
Average critic score: 66/100
Audience score: 6.8/10
Amazon description: "Inspired by the wondrous paintings of Simon Stålenhag, Tales from the Loop explores the mind-bending adventures of the people who live above the Loop, a machine built to unlock and explore the mysteries of the universe - making things previously relegated to science fiction, possible."
What critics said: "It's a moving, determinedly solemn adaptation of Swedish author/artist Simon Stålenhag's lavishly illustrated book." - Chicago Tribune
23. "Modern Love" — 66/100
Average critic score: 66/100
Audience score: 7.2/10
Amazon description: "An unlikely friendship. A lost love resurfaced. A marriage at its turning point. A date that might not have been a date. An unconventional new family. These are unique stories about the joys and tribulations of love, each inspired by a real-life personal essay from the beloved New York Times column 'Modern Love.'"
What critics said: "The world can seem awfully dark and frightening nowadays. Modern Love is here to tell us that now and then it's fine to sink into a scented bath of unabashed optimism." - The Independent
22. "Comrade Detective" — 67/100
Average critic score: 67/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "In the 1980s, millions of Romanians tuned in to Comrade Detective, a gritty, sexy, communist buddy cop show that has now been digitally remastered and dubbed into English for the first time by a cast featuring Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Jenny Slate, Nick Offerman and many more."
What critics said: "The result is a kind of Mad magazine parody of tough-guy 1980s cop shows crossed with a Marxist-Leninist version of Woody Allen's hilariously counterfeit Japanese spy thriller What's Up, Tiger Lily?" - Reason
21. "Upload" — 67/100
Average critic score: 67/100
Audience score: 8.5/10
Amazon description: "From Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) comes Upload, a new sci-fi comedy. In the near future, people who are near death can be 'uploaded' into virtual reality environments. Cash-strapped Nora works customer service for the luxurious 'Lakeview' digital afterlife. When party-boy/coder Nathan's car crashes, his girlfriend uploads him into Nora's VR world."
What critics said: "Upload, thankfully, is a series that doesn't require a spine - much like how I remember countless individual jokes in Idiocracy, but if you ask me what the movie's plot is, I couldn't tell you anything." - Hollywood Reporter
20. "Alpha House" — 68/100
Average critic score: 68/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "They work in the Senate. They live in the house - Alpha House."
What critics said: "Alpha House is satire at its most blistering and biting, delivered by a master of the trade: Doonesbury's Garry Trudeau, whose contempt for political cynicism, venality and hypocrisy doesn't keep the jaded protagonists of this bawdy, brazen comedy from being great company." - TV Guide
19. "Betas" — 69/100
Average critic score: 69/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "Trey and his guys have an app, and a plan - now they need an investor. It's party-crashing time."
What critics said: "If Betas keeps up with millennial cleverness, it's also sometimes a little too on-the-nose." - Entertainment Weekly
18. "Red Oaks" — 70/100
Average critic score: 70/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "A coming-of-age comedy set in the 'go-go' 80s about a college student enjoying a last hurrah before summer comes to an end - and the future begins."
What critics said: "Aside from the sheer enjoyment that comes from watching the delightful and whip-smart comedy, there's a case to be made for Red Oaks as the most significant nostalgia-infused TV series currently streaming." - Indiewire
17. "The Expanse" — 70/100
Average critic score: 70/100
Audience score: 9.1/10
Amazon description: "Season 4 of The Expanse, its first as a global Amazon Original, begins a new chapter for the series with the crew of the Rocinante on a mission from the U.N. to explore new worlds beyond the Ring Gate."
What critics said: "The Expanse has enough well-wrought plot to keep things moving swiftly without confusing those of us who aren't hardcore sci-fi fans." - Yahoo! TV
16. "Patriot" — 71/100
Average critic score: 71/100
Audience score: 9.4/10
Amazon description: "To prevent Iran from going nuclear, intelligence officer John Tavner must forgo all safety nets and assume a perilous 'non-official cover' - that of a mid-level employee at a Midwestern industrial piping firm."
What critics said: "Each hour has a drag to it, one that feels hypnotically weird and is interrupted by spasmodic bursts of violence and disarming farce. All of that lends an aura of honesty to this story of life inside the world of intelligence might." - Salon
15. "The Tick" — 72/100
Average critic score: 72/100
Audience score: 8.5/10
Amazon description: "In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an accountant with mental health issues and zero powers comes to suspect his city is owned by a global super villain long-thought dead. As he struggles to uncover the conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero. They launch into an adventure brimming with crazed archvillains, blood-soaked vigilantes, and superhuman freakery."
What critics said: "Edlund's latest run at the big blue lunkhead and his nebbish sidekick Arthur isn't quite a 'dark and gritty' reboot, thank jumping Jehoshaphat, but it's tonally and structurally unlike any other." - Vulture
14. "I Love Dick" — 73/100
Average critic score: 73/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "Adapted from the lauded feminist novel, I LOVE DICK is set in a colorful academic community in Marfa, Texas. It tells the story of a struggling married couple, Chris and Sylvere, and their obsession with a charismatic professor named Dick. Told in Rashomon-style shifts of POV, I LOVE DICK charts the unraveling of a marriage, the awakening of an artist and the deification of a reluctant messiah."
What critics said: "I Love Dick will not speak to everyone. But for those inclined or willing to listen, there's a fascinating story here about the power of art to open our eyes, and the power of an artist to transform herself and the world around her." - USA Today
13. "The Man in the High Castle" — 73/100
Average critic score: 73/100
Audience score: 7.6/10
Amazon description: "Based on Philip K. Dick's award-winning novel, and executive produced by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), and Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files), The Man in the High Castle explores what it would be like if the Allied Powers had lost WWII, and Japan and Germany ruled the United States."
What critics said: "The expert editing keeps the pace up as the story dashes from place to place, but there are moments where this work really shines, particularly when acting as a way to juxtapose life in the Reich vs life in the Resistance." - Collider
12. "Bosch" — 73/100
Average critic score: 73/100
Audience score: 8.7/10
Amazon description: "Based on Michael Connelly's best-selling novels, Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), an LAPD homicide detective, stands trial for the fatal shooting of a serial murder suspect - just as a cold case involving the remains of a missing boy forces Bosch to confront his past. As daring recruit, Julia Brasher (Annie Wersching), catches his eye, and departmental politics heat up, Bosch will pursue justice at all costs."
What critics said: "It's hard to think of a more sharply drawn or better-written cop drama on TV than this one. That's probably because there isn't one." - Newsday
11. "The Boys" — 74/100
Average critic score: 74/100
Audience score: 8.1/10
Amazon description: "Supes have been committing atrocities, which keep getting swept under the rug because they are revered by the adoring public. Billy Butcher recruits The Boys who have all been wronged by The Seven, the world's most notorious superheroes, to bring them down and stop the corruption. Based on the best-selling comics by Garth Ennis, The Boys is a revenge story where the nobodies take on the somebodies."
What critics said: "The premise of the Amazon black comedy is never not fun, and the more we learn about this bizarro world, as the supes go on the late-night talk shows and stage team-up photo ops on various crimes, the better." - Boston Globe
10. "Mozart in the Jungle" — 76/100
Average critic score: 76/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "What happens behind the curtains at the symphony is just as captivating as what happens on stage. Brash new maestro Rodrigo (Gael Garcia Bernal) is stirring things up, and young oboist Hailey (Lola Kirke) hopes for her big chance."
What critics said: "Four seasons in is when you'd expect a series to jump the shark - or, in this case, the 'sharp' - but the writers have been jumping sharks, real and imagined, all along." - San Francisco Chronicle
9. "Sneaky Pete" — 76/100
Average critic score: 76/100
Audience score: 7.8/10
Amazon description: "A con man (Giovanni Ribisi) on the run from a vicious gangster (Bryan Cranston) takes cover from his past by assuming the identity of his prison cellmate, Pete, 'reuniting' with Pete's estranged family, a colorful, dysfunctional group that threatens to drag him into a world just as dangerous as the one he's trying to escape - and, just maybe, give him a taste of the loving family he's never had."
What critics said: "Sneaky Pete is fun, even if it isn't wildly unpredictable." - Philadelphia Enquirer
8. "One Mississippi" — 78/100
Average critic score: 77/100
Audience score: N/A
Amazon description: "'One Mississippi' is a dark comedy inspired by comedian Tig Notaro's life. Tig returns to her hometown in Mississippi, where she contends with the death of her mother and her own mortality as she embarks on a painful yet hilarious journey that unearths uncomfortable truths about her family and her self."
What critics said: "We have lots of depictions of what love is, and plenty more of what hate and indifference are, but One Mississippi captures the easy comfort of just liking people, be it romantically or socially or just as an amiable policy." - New York Times
7. "Forever" — 77/100
Average critic score: 77/100
Audience score: 7.0/10
Amazon description: "Married couple June (Maya Rudolph) and Oscar (Fred Armisen) live a comfortable but predictable life in suburban Riverside, California. For 12 years they've had the same conversations, eaten the same meals and taken pleasant vacations at the same rented lake house. But after June talks Oscar into shaking things up with a ski trip, the pair suddenly find themselves in completely unfamiliar territory. Forever is an utterly original, insightful and poignant comedy about love, commitment, and marriage, created by Emmy Award-winning writers Alan Yang (Master of None, Parks and Recreation) and Matt Hubbard (30 Rock, Parks and Recreation)."
What critics said: "The writing is elegant and spare, the direction (with episodes helmed by Yang, Janicza Bravo, and Miguel Arteta) deft and subtle. Whether you pace out the episodes or binge in one sitting, there's much to appreciate." - Indiewire
6. "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" — 80/100
Average critic score: 80/100
Audience score: 7.9/10
Amazon description: "In 1958 New York, Midge Maisel's life is on track- husband, kids, and elegant Yom Kippur dinners in their Upper West Side apartment. But when her life takes a surprise turn, she has to quickly decide what else she's good at - and going from housewife to stand-up comic is a wild choice to everyone but her."
What critics said: "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel tells its story with verve and wit and warmth." - Uproxx
5. "Homecoming" — 83/100
Average critic score: 83/100
Audience score: 6.9/10
Amazon description: "Heidi Bergman (Julia Roberts) is a caseworker at Homecoming, a Geist Group facility helping soldiers transition to civilian life. Years later she has started a new life, living with her mother and working as a waitress, when a Department of Defense auditor questions why she left the Homecoming facility. Heidi quickly realizes that there's a whole other story behind the story she's been telling herself."
What critics said: "Each episode of Homecoming is about a half-hour, leaving no room for placeholder sequences or needlessly distracting subplots. Every scene, every character, every development is a key component of a jigsaw puzzle that admittedly takes quite some time to develop into something we can truly see for what it is." - Chicago Sun-Times
4. "Transparent" — 85/100
Average critic score: 85/100
Audience score: 5.5/10
Amazon description: "When the Pfefferman family patriarch makes a dramatic admission, the entire family's secrets start to spill out, and each of them spin in a different direction as they begin to figure out who they are going to become."
What critics said: "I like these characters so much that I really just want to sit around and listen to them talk naturally to each other, examining the dynamics between one of the most fascinating families on TV." - RogerEbert.com
3. "Undone" — 86/100
Average critic score: 86/100
Audience score: 8.3/10
Amazon description: "UNDONE is a half-hour, genre-bending, animated series that explores the elastic nature of reality through its central character Alma, a twenty-eight-year-old living in San Antonio, Texas. After getting into a car accident and nearly dying, Alma finds she has a new relationship to time. She develops this new ability in order to find out the truth about her father's death."
What critics said: "Transfixing and lushly beautiful ... 'Undone' has humor and story enough to make it more than an art object." - New York Times
2. "Catastrophe" — 87/100
Average critic score: 87/100
Audience score: 7.4/10
Amazon description: "Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan write and star in this R-rated comedy about a one-week stand between a Boston ad exec and a London schoolteacher that leads to an accidental pregnancy. When Rob moves to the UK to help figure things out, cultures clash and hormones flare as these two realize they don't know the first thing about each other."
What critics said: "There's nothing revolutionary here, but man, what is here is some of the funniest, most soulful TV of the summer." - Vox
1. "Fleabag" — 92/100
Average critic score: 92/100
Audience score: 8.1/10
Amazon description: "Fleabag is a hilarious and poignant window into the mind of a dry-witted, sexual, angry, grief-riddled woman, as she hurls herself at modern living in London. Award-winning playwright Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes and stars as Fleabag, an unfiltered woman trying to heal, while rejecting anyone who tries to help her and keeping up her bravado all along."
What critics said: "Fleabag Season 2, which I cannot recommend highly enough, is thrillingly deep, funny, and buoyant." - Slate