The 15 Prime Video Shows That Justify A Subscription

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We've made you hip to the 15 best TV shows on Amazon Prime Video. But you want more. Most people might say, "You're being greedy! This company gives you free two-day shipping and 15 excellent TV shows? What the heck else do you want?"

But I'm not most people. I'm a benevolent culture curator. And I've scoured the thorough library of Prime Video to deliver you more. Whether you're into comedy, animation, detective shows (especially detective shows), or series that put any conception of genre into a blender, I've got you covered.

These are 15 Prime Video shows that justify a subscription, and none of these were mentioned in the previously linked article. These are all underseen, off-the-beaten-path selections; unique shows that will give you something different. Moreover, and most of all, they're a great proof of the deep bench of content provided by Prime Video, giving any potential subscriber ample reason to take the plunge.

Two of our great contemporary satirists, Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady (the cultural Rorschach test that is "South Park"), joined forces to make "#1 Happy Family USA," a 2000s-set period piece with echoes of "American Dad!" in its DNA.

Youssef stars as Rumi Hussein and Hussein Hussein, the son and patriarch of an Egyptian-American and Muslim family who live in an average American town next to average Americans. And if you'll recall from the 2000s, a little thing called 9/11 happened that turned mainstream American culture into a bastion of Islamaphobia, bolstered by the aggressive counterterrorist and imperialist foreign policies favored by the George W. Bush administration. Thus, the show plays with some loaded topics with a welcome sense of irreverence and absurdism, finding some heart and optimism along the way.

I always enjoy watching period works of the near past because I recall that era very well, but appreciate the level of hindsight that waiting a bit gives one. Combine that with the fast pace and visual invention of an adult animated series, and I'm all in.

A spinoff of Prime's "Bosch" and "Bosch: Legacy" (more on him later), "Ballard" stars action icon Maggie Q (who accidentally crashed a car the first day on set on "Mission: Impossible III") as Detective Renée Ballard, a somewhat estranged figure from the LAPD after accusing a beloved cop of sexual assault. She's relegated to an oft-ignored and under-funded basement of misfit volunteers working on cold cases. But as she works these dormant, long-ignored cases, she and her team discover a citywide conspiracy that plunges right into the heart of darkness.

"Ballard" is an easy and comfortable watch for all fans of crime procedurals. The cases are invigorating, often with a sincere and emotional core. And its cast is aces, from Q as the steely yet vulnerable title role to John Carroll Lynch as a kindhearted retiree who rejoins law enforcement to help Ballard. The series also cuts itself above the rest of its ilk with its willingness to interrogate many of the givens of the genre, putting systemic issues like corruption and sexism directly in its sights.

For all superfans of "Batman: The Animated Series," like myself, a new spiritual successor has lit up the sky. "Batman: Caped Crusader," the scariest, best, and most mature Batman in years, comes from "B:TAS" producer Bruce Timm, and maintains that show's emphasis on a darker, grounded tone and writing quality, while allowing the content at times to move past the truly "family-friendly." Hamish Linklater is an excellent Batman and Bruce Wayne, and I'm always happy to see him get more work after his astonishing "Midnight Mass" performance.

My favorite "Batman" stories tend to have a timeless, noir-tinged quality in both their detective work and character examinations. "Caped Crusader" makes this welcomely textual, setting its stories literally in a 1940s Gotham City straight out of the Warner Bros. gangster noirs that "Batman" so often borrows from. As such, fan-favorite characters, especially the villains, get interesting origin stories; in particular, I love how Clayface (Dan Donohue) is positioned as a classic Hollywood actor with nods to many screen icons and beloved movies about the dangers of showbiz.

Hey, here he is! "Bosch" follows the Michael Connelly-created LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch (a consistently excellent Titus Welliver) over seven seasons of working on cases (10 if you include the "Legacy" spinoff), getting into interpersonal conflicts, and reckoning with his own traumas and losses.

Welliver, with his wonderfully deep and raspy voice, is surrounded by a lovely cast of ringers whom you'll endear to deeply throughout the series' run, including secret weapon Lance Reddick as the chief of police and Jamie Hector as Bosch's more reason-driven partner. Everyone's chemistry is natural and charming, and while most of Bosch's colleagues and allies have his back through thick and then, the ever-prickly detective rankles enough feathers to prompt a comedic, expletive-laden refrain that you'll welcome every time.

I'm quite fond of Prime Video's growing identity as the streaming home of Dad Content, and I think "Bosch" might be the crown jewel of this particular flavor. It's thrilling but patient, quiet but edgy, familiar but spiky.

"Comrade Detective" is the definition of an acquired taste. It's like nothing on this list, and likely like nothing you've seen on television before. It has something in common with the comedically metatextual shenanigans of cult hit "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace" (one of the best TV shows on Peacock), but takes the mind-bending blurring of reality and absurdity even one step further.

Channing Tatum and political writer Jon Ronson ("The Men Who Stare at Goats") present the show-within-a-show as an artifact from communist Romania, a detective series made explicitly to sway viewers away from the corrupt, capitalist Western way of thinking. The episodes of "Comrade Detective" have been "painstakingly restored" and dubbed by an all-star English-speaking cast, giving viewers both a pop culture and history lesson.

What results is surreal, silly, and audacious in its commitment to the bit. The detective plot concocted for the show is refreshingly competent and compellingly anti-capitalist, and its jokes are beyond loopy, especially when delivered by the most wide-varying cast you'll ever hear (Daniel Craig! Bo Burnham! Kim Basinger! Why not!). If you want something different, say "Bună ziua" to "Comrade Detective".

To further my thesis of "Prime Video is the best place for streaming Dad Detective Content," look no further than "Cross," a show so successful at what it does, it could be the next "Reacher."

James Patterson's iconic literary detective Alex Cross has been adapted to the screen a few different times before, played by Morgan Freeman in two films and Tyler Perry in another. For the small screen, he's played by the sturdy and emotional Aldis Hodge, an actor I was deeply impressed with in "The Invisible Man" and even "Black Adam."

Set in Washington DC, "Cross" puts the detective in the middle of a firestorm: the murder of a prominent Black Lives Matter activist. He must solve the case while dealing with his own feelings about being a Black policeman, the pressures of his white chief of police (Jennifer Wigmore) using him for his race to save face, and his own personal traumas, including the murder of his wife.

"Cross" is inarguably the most socially conscious detective series on the streaming service, but the combination of these hot-button issues with the familiar comforts of the police procedural makes both sides of the equation more dramatically powerful.

"Deadloch" is an Australian show with a peculiar blend of dark comedy, crime, and shocking bursts of violence. Fans of "Fargo," "Search Party," or even "Reno 911!" should absolutely take the trip down under.

Detectives Dulcie and Eddie (Kate Box and Madeleine Sami) are a pair of mismatched officers who must solve the surprising murder of Trent Latham. Dulcie is your classic "by-the-book" type A fuddy-duddy, while Eddie is your classic "renegade" brash and loud boor, and the two must try not to kill each other while solving the case. Add in the small town's annual Winter Feastival, and everything starts to boil over in a series of spilled secrets and betrayal among the idyllic beaches of Deadloch.

"Deadloch" also reminds me of a television adaptation of "Hot Fuzz" at times, with its odd couple cop pairing, satirization of familiar crime tropes, and streak of mean-spirited violence at the center of what's superficially a lovely community. Just swap out a Cornetto with some Tim Tams and you're good to go.

If you need a good feel-bad show, one with a grim tone, unending darkness, and genre elements that tip all the way into horror, set your clock to "The Devil's Hour."

Jessica Raine stars as Lucy Chambers, a social worker whose own home life is in shambles. Her son self-isolates. Her mom hallucinates. And she wakes up every 3:33 AM (wait a minute, that's half of 6:66!) with disquieting visions of demons and ghosties. Are all of these extensions of mental health issues? Or is something supernatural afoot, something that might connect her to a serial killer terrorizing the London area? One man might be able to help – or harm, as he's a criminal who seems to be able to see the future (Peter Capaldi, ready to time travel up out of serial killer jail).

I love the horror and thriller genres, and it's hard for me to find that tone successfully sustained over a television series. But "The Devil's Hour" does it, adding itself to a list of other contemporary, creepy classics like "Hannibal" and "Servant."

If you already know about "Hazbin Hotel," chances are you are in love with "Hazbin Hotel" and what it can accomplish for adult animation. Like "Comrade Detective," it's a unique and bold genre-blender, an animated musical comedy with elements of horror (it does take place in Hell, after all) and a willingness to plunge into dark topics with brash, irreverent glee. It's the kind of show a certain kind of viewer didn't know they needed until they got it, which explains its passionate fanbase.

Erika Henningsen stars as Charlie Morningstar, the princess of Hell, who has the novel idea that some demons can be rehabilitated and maybe even make it into Heaven. So she decides to open a kind of halfway hotel called Hazbin where potential damned souls can redeem themselves and make it out. Alongside the hotel's manager, and her girlfriend (Stephanie Beatriz), Charlie does her best to silence the cynical naysayers and be the helpful friend those in Hell need — with catchy tunes all along the way!

Behold, the joys of the half-hour drama. And I'm not talking about "The Bear," "Transparent," or any other so-called "comedies" that have more anguish than laughs. "Homecoming," a two-season, star-studded thriller, is a sleek and spellbinding drama that packs incredibly visceral punches in every episode, using a truncated runtime to get to the good stuff and stay there. It's a wonderful mission statement for the still-unique form, and we should have more dramas with this emphasis on brevity!

The first season stars Julia Roberts as a counselor at a government-run center to help soldiers transition back to civilian life. But her sessions with client Stephan James hurdle everyone down the uncovering of an amnesia-riddled conspiracy. In the second season, Janelle Monae is our lead, also suffering from amnesia, also trying to get to the bottom of the Homecoming Center.

Taken together, with the dramatic shift in both lead character and director (Sam Esmail in the first, Kyle Patrick Alvarez in the second; both outstanding auteurs), "Homecoming" makes for interesting television storytelling, expanding a shared world and story in unexpected ways.

If you enjoyed the Michelle Williams-starring dramedy miniseries "Dying for Sex," you will find an excellent sister series in the under-watched and equally bluntly titled "I Love Dick."

Also based on a frank, autobiographical book (though this one is admittedly fictionalized), "I Love Dick" stars Kathryn Hahn as Chris Kaus, a writer and artist who joins her vanilla husband (Griffin Dunne) on a Texas-based artist's fellowship. There, she meets Dick (Kevin Bacon), a salt-of-the-earth dude who's the polar opposite of all the intellectuals Chris knows in New York City. And wouldn't you know it, she falls hard for Dick, fighting back years of intellectual elitism and sexual atrophy in the process.

The show, cancelled after one season, is adapted by co-creators Sarah Gubbins and Joey Salloway. Like Salloway's more successful Prime series "Transparent," "I Love Dick" has some cringe-inducing attitudes about class that can lean mean-spirited or solipsistic. But "I Love Dick" counters this with a welcome sense of self-awareness and open-heartedness.

Based on the comic book co-created by "Walking Dead" maestro Robert Kirkman, and developed for television by him directly, "Invincible" is one of the great animated series you can watch on any network or streaming service. It's action-packed, violent, funny, heartbreaking, satirical, and never loses its capacity to surprise.

Steven Yeun (also from "Walking Dead") stars as Mark, a teenage boy who discovers he has superpowers and dons the title name Invincible. There to guide him is his father, Nolan (J.K. Simmons), who is also a superhero named Omni-Man. The show thus plays as a curious hybrid of coming-of-age family drama and hard-hitting superhero action, interrogating everything at the center of these cultural mythologies and story beats along the way.

If you decide to try "Invincible" based on this list, a word to the wise: Wait until the very end of the pilot until you decide whether to keep going. You may watch the majority of episode one and think it feels generic, treading overly farmed ground. But its last moments will pulverize you, and you will have to know what happens next.

Co-created by Janine Nabers and the always-eclectic Donald Glover, "Swarm" is a queasy miniseries with a roiling sense of tension, experimentation, and violence among its darkly comedic aims.

In a starting and acclaimed performance, Dominique Fishback plays Dre, a member of pop star Ni'Jah's "swarm," her fan base (think Beyonce with her "hive," and you start to see what Nabers and Glover are saying). But Dre's love of Ni'Jah turns swiftly into obsession, which turns swiftly into a willingness to do anything to maintain her single-minded love — including murder.

I love the way "Swarm," like Glover's other show, "Atlanta," plays with the form of being episodic in a way few other contemporary TV shows do. Each installment jumps through time and location – and one of its wildest episodes was written by Malia Obama! It gives every piece a sense of satisfaction and resolution while moving the macro beats of the story forward – and isn't that the whole point of episodic storytelling?

Don't take my word for watching "The Underground Railroad." The Barry Jenkins-directed miniseries was inducted into the hallowed closets of the Criterion Collection, an honor bestowed on very few television shows, let alone Prime Video shows.

Adapted from Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, "The Underground Railroad" supposes that the real historical Underground Railroad, a series of secret routes for enslaved people in America to escape to the north, was an actual, literal railroad. Traveling along these rails is escaped slave Cora (Thuso Mbedu), trying desperately to survive, trust any allies she meets, and avoid the single-minded focus of notorious slave catcher Arnold Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton).

Sound grim? Oftentimes, it is. But Jenkins is a filmmaker focused on emotion, pathos, and even beauty, all among the darkest and most primal experiences of humanity and repression. His use of image, sound, and outstandingly sensitive performances – what Jenkins refers to as "the Black gaze" – makes this a worthy follow-up to his Best Picture-winning "Moonlight."

Co-created by "Bojack Horseman" collaborators Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg, "Undone" was Prime Video's first adult animated series, though it has little in common with "Bojack" or any of the other adult animated series on this list.

For one, "Undone" was produced with a mind-bending rotoscope animation process, the art of drawing directly over filmed, live-action footage (you may know this from Richard Linklater movies like "Waking Life" or "A Scanner Darkly"). And for two, it's a tonally adventurous journey through space and time, life and death, reality and dream.

It's a metaphysical sci-fi mystery about Alma Winograd-Diaz (Rosa Salazar), a woman who gets in a car crash that, by all reasonable accounts, should be fatal. Instead, she gains the ability to travel through the fabric of the space-time continuum and begins to discover the truth about the long-ago death of her father (Bob Odenkirk).

I know I've said this a lot in this list, but man, there just isn't any show like "Undone." It's oftentimes tragic, oftentimes hilarious, and always has something insightful to say about the mystery we call "being alive." Combine that with incredible animations and exquisite performances, and that more than justifies a Prime Video subscription.