Prime Video is not a broad service when it comes to series. It is a narrow one that happens to be very good at the few things it does.
Six or seven franchises carry almost the whole weight of it. If you like those, nothing else in Britain is a substitute. If you do not, the app can feel strangely empty for something with so much in it, and that is worth understanding before you go looking.
First, the thing that catches everyone out
A good deal of what Prime Video recommends to you is not included with your membership.
Slow Horses is the clearest example. It sits inside the Prime Video app, it appears in search, and it needs an Apple TV subscription on top. The same is true of Mobland, which runs through Paramount+, and Outlander: Blood of My Blood, which runs through MGM+. None of them is a Prime Video series in the sense most people mean.
| In the app, included | In the app, costs extra |
|---|---|
| Reacher, The Boys, Fallout, Invincible, Clarkson’s Farm, The Grand Tour | Slow Horses (Apple TV), Mobland (Paramount+), Outlander: Blood of My Blood (MGM+) |
The habit that fixes this is to look for the words included with Prime before you start anything. Our full guide to Prime Video UK explains how the channel system works and why it is built this way.
The franchises that actually carry the service
Reacher, and now Neagley
Reacher is the one series Prime Video has turned into a proper franchise, and it is the closest thing the service has to a brand. Four series in, it has stopped pretending to be anything other than a very well-choreographed action show about a large man resolving problems directly, and it is much better for the honesty.
Neagley, the spin-off built around Frances Neagley, arrived in September and takes the same world somewhere quieter and more procedural. If you came for the fights, it is a different thing. If you came for the world, it works.
The Boys, finishing
Series five brought the whole thing to a close, and it stuck the landing in a way these shows usually do not. The violence is still the point and the satire has never been subtle, but the ending gives its villain-protagonist the conclusion the series had been building towards for years.
The wider universe continues around it, which is Amazon’s pattern now: a hit becomes a shelf rather than a show.
Fallout
The best live-action adaptation of a video game anyone has managed, and the production design is the reason. Series two has the same unhurried confidence as the first, and it does not require you to have played anything.
Invincible and The Legend of Vox Machina
Prime Video’s animation is genuinely better than its reputation, and both of these are aimed squarely at adults.
Invincible is four series into a story about power and what it costs the people holding it, and it is far bleaker than the superhero shelf it sits on. Vox Machina began life as a Kickstarter for an animated version of a Dungeons & Dragons livestream, which should not have produced one of the better fantasy series of the decade, and did.
Spider-Noir joined them this year and is the handsomest thing on the service, streaming in both colour and black-and-white. The black-and-white version is the one to pick.
British factual, which is the real differentiator
Clarkson’s Farm has no equivalent anywhere, on any service, and it is included rather than an add-on. Series five ran over June in batches, four episodes then two then two, which is Amazon’s habit with its bigger titles now.
The Grand Tour continues with new presenters, and Last One Laughing has quietly become one of the better British comedy formats on any service, with a Halloween special arriving on 23 October.
If British comedy is what you are after more generally, our guide to where to watch British sitcoms covers the whole field.
The newer ones worth your time
Young Sherlock takes Holmes back to Oxford as a student and pairs him with Moriarty rather than Watson, which is a better idea than it sounds. Guy Ritchie’s fingerprints are all over the look of it.
Carrie arrived on 7 October, all eight episodes at once, with Mike Flanagan adapting Stephen King’s first novel and moving it firmly into the present. Summer H. Howell plays Carrie, Samantha Sloyan plays Margaret, and Matthew Lillard turns up as the headmaster. The viral-bullying framing is the obvious update and Flanagan is the right person to handle it without it curdling.
Kill Jackie opened the month on 2 October with Catherine Zeta-Jones as a retired drug smuggler working through a queue of hitmen, which is exactly as silly and as watchable as that suggests.
Bait gives Riz Ahmed a struggling actor whose career catches fire after a Bond audition, and it is the most interesting thing on this list. Deadloch, Australian and very funny, is a murder mystery that keeps both halves working. The Terminal List returned for a second series on 21 October.
True crime
Prime Video has pushed hard into British true crime, and October brought two of the heavier examples: Madeleine McCann: The Case That Broke Britain on 6 October and Minecraft to Murder: The Killing of a Boy Named Breck on 20 October.
Both are documentaries rather than series, and both are worth approaching with some care. Our guide to true crime documentaries in the UK covers the field across every service.
Three release patterns, running at once
Nobody explains this and it affects how you plan a week.
- All at once. Carrie dropped its full eight episodes on one day.
- Weekly batches. Clarkson’s Farm went four, then two, then two.
- Weekly singles. Most of the big drama, including the Reacher run.
So “is it all out yet” has three possible answers depending on the title, and the app does not make this obvious. Check the episode list before you commit an evening.
The live sport nobody mentions
Every list of the best series on Prime Video ignores this, and it is included with the membership.
Prime Video carries the top UEFA Champions League match on Tuesday nights at 8pm, and there are NBA games from late October. For anyone weighing up whether the membership earns its place, that is a real part of the answer.
What it no longer carries is Premier League football, which catches out anyone following an older guide. Our guide to watching the Premier League in the UK covers who holds those rights now.
Where the series catalogue falls short
- Outside the franchises it thins out fast. Prime Video has fewer mid-tier series than Netflix UK, so once you have worked through the big ones there is less to fall back on.
- The add-ons blur the edges. A good share of what gets recommended to you costs extra, and the labelling does not help.
- Licensed series turn over. Anything Amazon did not make can leave, for the reasons set out in our guide to why titles move between UK services.
- Advertising runs on originals and included licensed content, with an ad-free option at extra cost.
How to use it well
- Filter to the included library before browsing. It is the single change that makes the app tolerable.
- Check the channel subscriptions in your Amazon account once a year. People routinely find one running that they stopped watching months ago, and our guide to cancelling UK streaming subscriptions covers doing it cleanly.
- Treat it as a service you dip into. Prime Video’s releases arrive in clusters, so there is little reason to feel you are missing something between them.
- Download before travelling, using the same approach as our guide to offline viewing.
Common questions
What is the best series on Prime Video UK?
Reacher for action, Fallout for drama, Invincible for animation, Clarkson’s Farm for factual. Those four cover most tastes and all are included with a membership.
Is Slow Horses included with Prime?
No. It appears inside the Prime Video app but needs an Apple TV subscription on top. The same applies to several other heavily promoted titles.
Does Prime Video release all episodes at once?
It depends on the title. Carrie arrived complete, Clarkson’s Farm came in batches, and most big drama runs weekly. Check the episode list first.
Does Prime Video show football in the UK?
Yes, selected Champions League matches, with the top Tuesday game at 8pm. It no longer carries Premier League football.
Is Prime Video better than Netflix for series?
Netflix UK has far more volume. Prime Video has a handful of series that are better than almost anything on Netflix. Our comparison of UK streaming services works through which suits which household.
The short version
A narrow catalogue that is excellent at the top. Reacher, The Boys, Fallout, Invincible and the British factual block are the reasons to be here, Champions League football is a real bonus nobody counts, and the add-on channels are the thing to watch out for.
For the films rather than the series, see our guide to the best films on Prime Video UK, and for how the whole service works, our complete guide to Prime Video UK.
