Posted: 2024-08-03 14:00:05

Reached the end of a binge and ready for something new? Prime Video may offer your next small-screen fixation. 

The streamer is the place to visit for can't-miss originals like The Boys and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. With new shows premiering frequently, such as the postapocalyptic drama Fallout, you can choose a fresh release or start a series you've had on the back burner.

Prime Video is now ad-supported and charges an extra fee to remove commercials. Read on for this month's new releases and a collection of the best shows on the streamer.

Read moreComic-Con 2024: Rings of Power Season 2 Trailer Has Sauron vs. Adar, Orc Destruction

What's new on Prime Video in August

Note: These descriptions are taken from Prime Video press releases and lightly edited for style.

Aug. 1

  • Batman: Caped Crusader, season 1 premiere (2024- ): Animated superhero series. It's a reimagining of the Batman mythology through the lens of executive producers J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves and Bruce Timm.

Aug. 26

  • No Gain No Love, season 1 premiere (2024- ): Korean romantic comedy series. It's a modern romance about not wanting to lose out on love, money and a career.

Aug. 29

  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, season 2 premiere (2022- ): Fantasy series. Season 2 plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in the world.

Best Amazon Prime Video original TV shows

This list focuses on shows that have premiered a new season since 2020 and have a score of at least 70 on Metacritic.

Fantasy

Jonathan Prime/Prime Video

Lady Jane Grey, the Queen of England for just nine days in 1553, is the subject of this Prime Video series. The show doesn't stick closely to the events of her life, weaving in fantasy elements like humans who can turn into animals and imagining a world where she met a fate other than execution. Based on a book of the same name and blending comedy, action, romance and more, My Lady Jane is a wild, enjoyable ride you won't find in a history book.

Prime Video

Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You) created this surreal series about Cootie (Jharrel Jerome), a 13-foot-tall Black man who leaves home for the first time at 19. The gentle giant from Oakland, California, experiences friendship, love and more milestones in this coming-of-age story, which brings humor, social commentary and undeniable originality to the small screen. 

Ben Rothstein/Prime Video

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022- )

Haven't watched Prime Video's buzzy, wildly expensive fantasy series yet? The Rings of Power brings incredible visuals, a sprawling cast and a sense of adventure to the streaming service. It's set thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings, and in part follows a young version of the character Galadriel, who's played by Morfydd Clark. 

Amazon Studios

The Legend of Vox Machina (2022- )

Buckle up for a new animated series that centers on a group of boisterous, belching misfits called Vox Machina. Based on Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role (you don't have to be familiar with that to enjoy this show), The Legend of Vox Machina sees its protagonists go from being broke bar-hoppers to accepting a mission to stop evil brewing in Exandria. We're further introduced to the characters in a musical number that occurs about halfway through the first episode. 

That's right, I said musical number. You'll be down for every element this show throws at you. Why would anyone choose these misfits to fight for the kingdom? "Well... they do have a bear," one royal decision-maker concedes.

Thriller

Prime Video

The Devil's Hour (2022- )

The Devil's Hour sets up an intriguing mystery: Why is a woman, Lucy, waking up at 3:33 a.m. each night, and why does her 8-year-old son, Isaac, seem oddly emotionless? Starring Jessica Raine (Call the Midwife) as Lucy, Nikesh Patel (Starstruck) as a kind detective and Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) as a suspicious character, the Devil's Hour is a twisty series that eventually delivers satisfying answers. A bonus? Two more seasons are on the way.

Niko Tavernise/Prime Video

Oscar winner Rachel Weisz plays not one, but two main characters in Dead Ringers, Prime Video's version of David Cronenberg's 1988 psychological thriller. The darkly comedic series follows identical twin doctors pursuing their goal of opening a birthing and research center. Spend some time with these unconventional sisters, you'll want to see the whole thing through.

York Tillyer/Amazon Studios

Led by a stellar Erin Doherty, this British thriller will swallow your attention. It centers on Becky, a temp with an unusual pastime: assuming different identities to sneak into fancy art galleries and yoga classes. When a woman she follows obsessively on Instagram suddenly dies, she attempts to uncover more details, once again posing as someone else. Tear away from your timeline and check out this six-episode limited series.

Amazon Studios

Season 2 of Homecoming didn't quite find its feet, but season 1 hit the ground running. Julia Roberts stars in this psychological thriller about an army rehabilitation facility run by questionable owners. Using an effective, mystery-building narrative that covers two timelines, Homecoming is high on tension and paranoia as it reveals what the facility's true purpose is. Fun fact: The series uses the actual scores of movies from Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and more.

Comedy

Prime Video

Seven strangers are assigned to the same community payback sentence in this appealing comedy thriller set in Bristol, England. The six-episode show is fun, dark and touching, offering an engaging look at its rule-breakers backgrounds and the relationships that form between them. The plot thickens when some members of the group come across a bag of cash. If you need another draw, the show is co-created by Stephen Merchant, who co-created the UK version of The Office.

Amazon Studios

This unique series uses the Rotoscoping animation technique to tell the story of a young woman who, after suffering a near-fatal car accident, discovers she can manipulate time. Intriguing, right? It gets better: Bob Odenkirk plays Alma's dead father, who enlists her help in investigating his murder. Bending both time and space, Undone is surreal and beautifully existential for those looking for deep material.

Jackie Brown/Amazon Studios

The Kids in the Hall (2022)

Prime Video has resurrected The Kids in the Hall, the Emmy-nominated Canadian sketch comedy show that originally ran from 1988 to 1995. (By "resurrects," I mean the show literally exhumes members of the comedy troupe from a grave they were buried in at the end of the original show. That's just the beginning of the fun.)  Follow the comedians as they freak out over mislabeled desserts, fight over imaginary love interests and write Earth's last fax. Be warned: Some of these sketches are highly NSFW.

Nicola Goode/Amazon Studios

A League of Their Own (2022)

Prime Video's TV series A League of Their Own is inspired by the 1992 film of the same name and introduces new characters portrayed by Abbi Jacobson, D'Arcy Carden and others. In the comedy-drama's first episode, women try out for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the '40s. The show explores themes of race and sexuality and offers a satisfying period setting and compelling characters.

Amazon Studios

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-2023)

A '50s housewife who becomes a standup comic? This brilliant series from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is filled with sparkling performances from Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein, with dialogue to match. Set in a vibrant and changing New York, our delightful heroine moonlights as a comedian, while doing her duties as an upper-class Jewish American housewife. With impressive visuals, warmth and zingers, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the full package.

Sci-fi

Prime Video

Prime Video's video game adaptation is an entertaining postapocalyptic adventure you shouldn't leave sitting in a vault. The series follows three different characters occupying the same wasteland. One is Lucy (Ella Purnell), who wanders in search of her kidnapped father and feels the need to invoke the Golden Rule to a cruel post-human Ghoul (Walton Goggins). Meanwhile, an eager Maximus (Aaron Moten) gets his big break as a squire in the Brotherhood of Steel. It's an unpredictable series with humor and gore. Don't let long episode runtimes deter you from exploring Fallout.

Prime Video

The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy (2024- )

A wacky, stellar adult animated comedy about exceptional alien surgeons, the Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy follows best friends Dr. Sleech and Dr. Klak (voiced by Stephanie Hsu and Keke Palmer) as they perform daily duties like treating a patient using an anxiety-eating parasite (that's just episode 1). The series' out-of-this-world voice cast also features Maya Rudolph, Natasha Lyonne and all five Culkin brothers.

Anjali Pinto/Prime Video

The first episode of Paper Girls, a sci-fi TV series based on popular comics by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, brings together four kids riding bikes on their paper delivery routes in 1988. That may sound like a sci-fi-er you've binged already, (yep, Netflix's hit Stranger Things), Prime Video's show stands on its own. Follow along as the girls travel through time, navigate powerful adversaries and learn more about themselves. Another reason to watch? Comedian Ali Wong is also part of the cast.

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