Everyone knows the classics and the trending new shows but take a look at some deep cut TV shows you could enjoy on Amazon Prime
Editor's Note: This post is updated monthly. Bookmark this page and come back to see what other little-seen classics get added to Amazon Prime.
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime have changed how we watch television forever. And beyond just that, they've provided a stunning array of brand new content and recent traditional TV classics to consume.
That's fantastic news for the TV fan but it also jeopardizes that some perfectly fine-to-great TV shows might get lost in the shuffle among all the new quality.
So we've compiled this list of excellent shows that you may not be aware are available for streaming on Amazon Prime. Some of them date back to the '60s, while others are brand new. Some premiered on premium cable services such as FX and HBO, while others are from little-known channels or even other online streaming services.
What every show on this list shares, however is that they shouldn't be forgotten. These are the shows that might not show up on the Amazon Prime Video TV front page but we've sought them all out for you with the relevant links. Now there's no excuse for not watching some of this overlooked classics.
Sabrina: The Teenage Witch
ABC's TGIF tween programming block on Friday nights was awesome. From 1989 through 2000, Fridays nights on ABC were home to classic fare such as Boy Meets World, Teen Angel (ok, this one wasn't a hit but I loved it) and Family Matters. Sabrina: The Teenage Witch belongs in the conversation for best TGIF show as much as anything else. Based on the Archie comic of the same name, Sabrina: The Teenage Witchstars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman (heh) as she goes through all the various crises of youth... and is also a witch. Look, the premise isn't bulletproof but the show is really fun.
Watch Sabrina: The Teenage Witch on Amazon Prime
Awkward
Yes! Another teen comedy! Awkwardis the rare show for teens and milennials that doesn't speak down to them. Despite MTV's sketchy reputation for aunthentic and good teen content, Awkward is as authentic as it is good. Jenna Hamilton (Ashley Rickards) is a student at a California high school struggling with her identiy when an accident is misinterpreted as a suicide attempt. Over five seasons, Jenna grows into a fascinating, capable person, while Awkward remains just as darkly funny and weirdly empathetic.
Watch Awkward on Amazon Prime
Captain Planet with Don Cheadle
Is the recurring Captain Planet with Don Cheadlea TV show? Amazon Prime says it is so so will we. This is a short yet hilarious watch from Funny or Die about a version of Captain Planet who is understandedly quite frustrated with humanity. After all, who would be a greater enemy to Captain Planet but humanity itself? Don Cheadle is an incredible actor with many excellent roles but I hope his Captain Planet muttering "they're all trees" after transforming unwilling people in trees ends up on his career highlight film.
Watch Captain Planet with Don Cheadle on Amazon Prime
Penn & Teller: BS!
Technically, the title is Penn & Teller: Bullshit! but apparently Amazon Prime has an aversion to profanity. Penn & Teller: BS!was a documentary series that ran on Showtime for seven seasons in which magician/entertainers Penn & Teller examine, well, bullshit. These bullshitty topics include PETA, cryptozoology and sex and all of the incorrect traditional thinking that surrounds each. Penn & Teller's libertarian perspective may annoy people with differing political or philosophical viewpoints but the research is solid and the duo is plenty entertaining.
Watch Penn & Teller: BS! on Amazon Prime
Lucky Louie
HBO series Lucky Louie is widely viewed as the creative misfire that preceded Louis C.K.'s more well-known and respective FX show Louie. That's not entirely fair as Lucky Louie is pretty great in its own right. Louis C.K. intended to deconstruct the traditional sitcom with this show that features a laughtrack ad traditional sitcom-y sets, despite tackling big social and existential issues. It's jarring to be sure, but it's also full of the creator's trademark wit, humor, and intelligence.
Watch Lucky Louie on Amazon Prime
The United States of Tara
The United States of Tara is Juno writer Diablo Cody's first foray into television and it's a winner. Toni Collette stars as Tara and her many "states" i.e. multiple personalities from 1950s housewife Alice all the way to loud Vietnam vet Buck. The show ran for three largely underappreciated seasons on Showtime, which may have ultimately be a good thing. Dissocative identity disorder may not have a long shelf life for TV drama but The United States of Tara gets the absolute most out of the premise.
Watch The United States of Tara on Amazon Prime
Andy Griffith Show
Television fullfills many roles within our society. Good television can challenge us and intrigue us. But sometimes television is just supposed to be a happy place. There may be no better example of happy place TV than the Mayberry, North Carolina setting of Andy Griffith Show. The show ran for eight years and close to 250 episodes (woah), with Andy Griffith playing the sheriff main character of a small fictional town and Don Knotts and Ron Howard launching themselves into television history.
Watch Andy Griffith Show on Amazon Prime
Mr. Show with Bob and David
Mr. Show is one of the best comedy sketch shows of the '90's, if not ever. It's the show that introduced us to the onscreen and offscreen talents of Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) and David Cross (Arrested Development), not to mention the talents of writers Sarah Silverman, Scott Aukerman, Jack Black, Tom Kenny, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Paul F. Tompkins and Brian Posehn. It's not just some stale artifact of comedy writing history, however, it's also very funny and unexpectedly so at times.
Watch Mr. Show with Bob and David on Amazon Prime
The Inbetweeners
Ah, to be young and be thoroughly outcasted and considered a loser again. The Inbetweeners is a truly superb high school comedy from Great Britain because it's characters and situations are hilariously, and sometimes heartbreakingly, real. Nerd with a hot mom Will moves to a new town and must make new friends. Thankfully lovesick Simon, thoroughly disgusting Jay and weird Neil are all just as big of losers as him. The Inbetweeners goes through three uncomfortably real and raucous seasons before finishing with two movies, also on Amazon Prime.
Watch The Inbetweeners on Amazon Prime
Grimm
There may be more "cop drama...with a twist" shows than there are actually cop drama shows. Thankfully, Grimm is one of the better cop drama... with a twist shows out there. The twist in this instance is that the characters and crimes are based off of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Homicide investigator Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) is charged with keeping the balance between humanity and Wessen, the mythological creatures of the world. It rarely goes well. Watch Grimm if for no other reason than to understand what 40 percent of the .gifs on Tumblr mean.
Watch Grimm on Amazon Prime
Justified
Justified is one of the very few TV shows that can be categorized as a Western. The only other that comes to mind is Deadwoo....oh my God it's Timothy Olyphant again! Basically, one of TV's surest formula's is Timothy Olyphant + cowboy hat. I have no idea why they keep ignoring this. Justifiedis based on a short story and character by Elmore Leonard and it fits into Leonard's voice and world perfectly. Olyphant as Raylan Givens, a U.S. Marshall displaced from Miami back to his hometown in Kentucky, is superb but Walton Goggins as his nemesis Boyd Crowder might be even better. Justified is funny, exciting and a wonderfully accurate and creepy slice of Appalachia. It rules.
Watch Justified on Amazon Prime
Humans
You can't throw a stone without hitting a movie or TV show about robots achieving sentience or a thinkpiece that argues "DAE artificial intelligence bad?" these days. AMC's collaboration with the British Channel 4, Humans, somewhat tragically never stood out amongst a sea of Ex Machinasand Black Mirrors. This is a shame because Humans is quite good and even spectacular in a handful of episodes. Humans is set in a near future in which average middle class families are turning more and more to human-like robots called "synths" to help with household tasks. And you're not going to believe this, but it doesn't quite go well.
Watch Humans on Amazon Prime
Hannibal
Perhaps one of the most visually-striking series in recent memory, Hannibal is an assault on the senses. The show comes from TV wunderkind Bryan Fuller (you may know him by his show Pushing Daisiesor as the guy who is helping bring Star Trek back to TV) and it's absolutely decadent. Mads Mikkelsen portrays classic film and literature cannibal Hannibal Lector while Hugh Dancy plays Will Graham, a forensic psychiatrist destined to become Hannibal's main foe. Hannibal is both unspeakably violent and pretty. It's amazing that this show got on network television at all, let alone for three seasons. Watch all three and be happy it did.
Watch Hannibal on Amazon Prime
Tell Me You Love Me
When people derisively refer to HBO as the "T&A" network, Tell Me You Love Meis probably what they have in mind. Tell Me You Love Me is a one-season wonder about three different couples seeking out a therapist for intimacy problems within their relationships. It is perhaps better known, however, for its incredibly realistic depiction of sex. Tell Me You Love Meis one of those shows in which actors continuously have to clarify that they weren't actually having sex onscreen. It's a shame that the show's reputation doesn't extend much further out than that because it's very, very good. Tell Me You Love Me is a forgotten HBO classic.
Watch Tell Me You Love Me on Amazon Prime
Mission: Impossible
Before Tom Cruise spun it off into six bad-to-good-to-great action movies, Mission: Impossible was best known as a TV show from the late '60s and early '70s. It follows the secret mission of a government agency known as the "Impossible Missions Force (IMF)." That enough should sound familiar to fans of the film franchise but the show is decidedly hokier but still a fun watch.
Watch Mission: Impossible on Amazon Prime
Carnivale
It feels like there is a really good, really creepy TV show out there floating in the ether about old-timey carnivals. Shows like Heroes and American Horror Story tried to capture that vision with one-off seasons following carnies but it's HBO's Carnivale that comes closest to capturing that idea. Carnivaleis set during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl and is really the story of good vs. evil set among a backdrop of a traveling carnival. It's equally ambitious and atmospheric but audiences began turning on it two seasons in. Still it's more than worth a watch.
Watch Carinvale on Amazon Prime
Brotherhood
Showtime is fairly well-represented on this list. The otherwise excellent network has a tendency to let its most popular shows drag on a bit too long. Brotherhood is not one of those shows. Brotherhoodis the story of two brothers from Providence, Rhode Island - one's a gangster (Jason Isaacs) and one's a politician (Jason Clarke). The show never really found an audience and is all the better for it. It exists over only three relatively short but undeniably excellent seasons.
Watch Brotherhood on Amazon Prime
Medium
Crime procedurals can be a real drag. Medium is not thanks to excellent performances from Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber, some good writing and directing and a seriously bizarre concept. Arquette plays the real-life pyschic Allison DuBois (inasmuch as there is such a thing as a real-life psychic) as she works with her local Arizona police department to solve murders. That may sound corny...and it is, but the show happens to be quite good. Allison and her husband's home life is lovingly and realistically depicted and the gonzo premise allows the writers to be as creative or weird as they want to be in a genre that could use a lot of weirdness and creativity.
Watch Medium on Amazon Prime
In Treatment
In Treatment is an HBO series adapted from a similar Israeli series that ran for three seasons and featured a total of...106 episodes?!?!? How is that possible?? In Treatment came along with a revolutionary concept that was ahead of its time/before its time/completely outside of time itself. It was a show about a psychologist (played by Gabriel Byrne) and it aired episodes five nights a week. Each night would be devoted to a different patient with Byrne's character meeting with his own psychologist at the end of the week. In addition to featuring a fascinating structure, it's also just a flat-out good show in its own right.
Watch In Treatment on Amazon Prime
Lip Service
Lip Service is like the L-Word if everybody were breathtakingly Scottish. Lip Service's creation was somewhat calculated and network driven in a way that typically means bad news. BBC contacted writer/director Harriet Braun because they wanted a UK-based show about lesbians. What Braun turned in over two seasons was a lot more soulful and interesting than that simple boilerplate request. The show stars Laura Fraser a.k.a. Lydia from Breaking Bad.
Watch Lip Service on Amazon Prime
John from Cincinnati
John from Cincinnati is one of TV's strangest case studies on a famous showrunner's sophomore efforts. The show comes from David Milch, beloved and mercurial creator of Deadwood. John from Cincinnati was his followup to Deadwood and it could not have been more different. It's set in present day surfing community in California and tries to capture a tone of "surf noir" with some supernatural mixed in. Approximately no one watched it. But it's quite good, in a Twin Peaks/Carnivale kind of way.
Watch John from Cincinnati on Amazon Prime
Unsolved Mysteries
If our recent cultural obsessions with Serialand Making a Murdererprove anything, it's that we love us some unsolved mysteries. So why not watch the show actualy called Unsolved Mysteries? Amazon Prime offers both the original hosted by Robert Stack from 1987-2002 (the first seaosn) and then the new ones hosted by Dennis Farina. Stack in particular is an impeccable host for such macabre topics. Watch Unsolved Mysteriesand you'll see the DNA of every single true crime property that's come after.
Watch Unsolved Mysteries on Amazon Prime
Forensic Files
Again, we all love true crime stories and Forensic Fileshas all but mastered taking real life violent crimes and translating them into entertaining half-hour chunks that celebrate the science behind the justice system. The show premiered directly after the O.J. Simpson trial and is one of the reasons that forensic science is so popularly accepted today.
Watch Forensic Files on Amazon Prime
The Legend of Korra
The Legend of Korra is a sequel to Nickelodeon's wonderful Avatar: The Last Airbender set many years in the future. Korra, of the Water Tribe, is the next in line to become an Avatar - a hero who can master the "bending" of all four elements: fire, water, earth and air. Set over four seasons, called "Books", Korra and her friends must train to save the world. After a slightly slow start, The Legend of Korra reaches similarly magnificent heights as the original achieved.
Watch The Legend of Korra on Amazon Prime
Reading Rainbow
"Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high./ Take a look, it's in a book, a Reading Rainbow!/I can go anywhere/Friends to know,/And ways to grow./It's Reading Rainbow!"