AmazonAmazon is spending a boatload making TV shows and films for its Prime service, and was one of the big winners at the 2018 Golden Globes, with two wins for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
Amazon is aiming for another big hit with critics and audiences with “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” starring John Krasinski, in a role very different from his iconic one as Jim Halpert on NBC’s “The Office.” And in October, Amazon premieres “The Romanoffs,” the first new series from “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner.
The tech giant is also exploring ambitious genre projects. In November 2017, Amazon paid a reported $250 million to acquire rights to “The Lord of the Rings” series, which it will to turn into a prequel TV show, with plans for spin-offs in the future.
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 reviews aggregator Metacritic, which pulls in critic (and audience) reviews from all over the world. We excluded shows made for kids, and looked at how the dramas and comedies compared to each other.
Here are Amazon’s original shows, ranked based on their critical reception:
No. 28: “Crisis in Six Scenes” — 44/100
Miley Cyrus and Woody Allen on Amazon’s “Crisis in Six Scenes.”Amazon; YouTube
Average critic score: 44/100
Audience score: 6.5/10
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.”
No. 27: “Hand of God” — 44/100
Average critic score: 44/100
Audience score: 7.1/10
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.”
No. 26: “The Collection” — 56/100
From left, Tom Riley, Richard Coyle, and Jenna Thiam on “The Collection.”Amazon
Average critic score: 56/100
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.”
No. 25: “The Last Tycoon” — 57/100
Tristar Television/Amazon
Average critic score: 57/100
Audience score: 6.1/10
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.”
No. 24: “Lore” — 60/100
Average critic score: 60/100
Audience score: 4.2/10
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.“
No. 23: “Z: The Beginning of Everything” — 61/100
Christina Ricci and David Hoflin star in “Z: The Beginning of Everything.”Amazon Studios
Average critic score: 61/100
Audience score: 6.1/10
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.”
No. 22: “The Dangerous Book for Boys” — 63/100
Average critic score: 63/100
Audience score: 6.3/10
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.”
No. 21: “Doctor Thorne” — 64/100
Average critic score: 64/100
Audience score: 7.1/10
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.”
No. 20: “Mad Dogs” — 64/100
Average critic score: 64/100
Audience score: 7.2/10
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).”
No. 19: “Good Girls Revolt” — 65/100
Average critic score: 65/100
Audience score: 6.7/10
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.”
No. 18: “Goliath” — 65/100
Average critic score: 65/100
Audience score: 5.75/10
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.”
No. 17: “Comrade Detective” — 67/100
Average critic score: 67/100
Audience score: 7.7/10
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.“
No. 16: “Alpha House” — 68/100
Average critic score: 68/100
Audience score: 6.8/10
Amazon description: “They work in the Senate. They live in the house – Alpha House.”
No. 15: “Patriot” — 68/100
Average critic score: 68/100
Audience score: 7.9/10
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.”
No. 14: “Betas” — 69/100
Average critic score: 69/100
Audience score: 7.3/10
Amazon description: “Trey and his guys have an app, and a plan — now they need an investor. It’s party-crashing time.”
No. 13: “The Man in the High Castle” — 70/100
Average critic score: 70/100
Audience score: 7.3/10
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.”
No. 12: “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” — 70/100
Average critic score: 70/100
Audience score: N/A
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.”
No. 11: “The Tick” — 72/100
Average critic score: 72/100
Audience score: 7.2/10
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.”
No. 10: “I Love Dick” — 73/100
Average critic score: 73/100
Audience score: 6.4/10
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.”
No. 9: “Bosch” — 73.5/100
Average critic score: 73.5/100
Audience score: 8.1/10
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.”
No. 8: “Sneaky Pete” — 74.5/100
Average critic score: 74.5/100
Audience score: 7.5/10
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.”
No. 7: “One Mississippi” — 77/100
John Rothman, left, plays Tig Notaro’s step-father on Amazon’s “One Mississippi.”Amazon Studios
Average critic score: 77/100
Audience score: 7.1/10
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.”
No. 6: “Mozart in the Jungle” — 78/100
Average critic score: 78/100
Audience score: 7.8/10
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.”
No. 5: “Red Oaks” — 79/100
Average critic score: 79/100
Audience score: 7.6/10
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.”
No. 4: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” — 80/100
Average critic score: 80/100
Audience score: 8.1/10
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.”
No. 3: “Fleabag” — 88/100
Phoebe Waller-Bridge wrote and stars on Amazon’s “Fleabag.”Amazon
Average critic score: 88/100
Audience score: 8.0/10
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.”
No. 2: “Catastrophe” — 89/100
Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney on “Catastrophe.”Amazon
Average critic score: 89/100
Audience score: 7.7/10
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.”
No. 1: “Transparent” — 92/100
Average critic score: 92/100
Audience score: 7.2/10
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.”
BONUS: “The Grand Tour”
“The Grand Tour,” Amazon’s blockbuster car show from the “Top Gear” team, doesn’t have traditional ratings from critics. But last year, Amazon Studios’ (former) chief Roy Price revealed that it was one of the top two shows in most Amazon Prime territories (along with “The Man in the High Castle”).
Amazon description: “Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are back with The Grand Tour. A show about adventure, excitement and friendship… as long as you accept that the people you call friends are also the ones you find extremely annoying. Sometimes it’s even a show about cars.”
