Amazon Prime TV

dowie

dowie

dowie

Caporegime
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29 Jan 2008
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Amazon Prime TV is starting to get much better in terms of what is available, with that in mind I thought it might be worth a thread where people can suggest some good shows they've found and enjoyed on there.

For starters there seem to be some popular shows from the past few years available:

Peep Show
The Office (US & UK)
Father Ted
The IT Crowd
Extras
Parks and Recreation

However those may be rather obvious to anyone taking a quick browse and have been repeated dozens of time on terrestrial TV already. What could be useful is recommendations for shows that perhaps were broadcast long ago which people might not be aware of or shows that haven't been broadcast on TV but are exclusive to streaming services or even amazon only.
 
So to start off with the first recommendation:

Black Sails - A Pirate drama set in the Bahamas and the Americas during colonial times in the early 1700s. I can't recommend this one enough, well written, fantastic acting, as with shows like Game Of Thrones pretty much all characters have a dark side. Probably has one of the best first scenes of any TV show, it is unfortunate that as it seems to be an online only show it probably hasn't got the recognition it deserves:

 
Best TV series I've seen on Amazon Prime has been Bosch, a fictional police procedural set in modern-day Los Angeles. It's been renewed for a second series. AFAIK it's Amazon only.


Yes that is Marlo and Lt. Daniels from The Wire.
 
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You have to be aware though that they tend to either do the following:

1. Make only the first few series inclusive in your membership and you have to pay per episode or season for the others.

2. Take series off of being inclusive in the membership after unspecified periods of time. I found this after watching a bit of Community, wanting to watch more, but clearly being 'late to the game' and missing out on being able to watch further episodes without paying further as their license or whatever had expired.

Don't get me wrong, I like Amazon Prime, I even have two boxes, but I just dislike the lack of information about how the availability side of it works. At least do what SKY demand does and put a little label on the series to say when the 'free' period ends.
 
However both points are exactly like any other streaming service. You're looking at it the wrong way, it's not they charging you for stuff. It's just that Netflix don't have upto date series part of your service or not.
Newer stuff the rights holder wants more money.
And they also lose and renew contracts all the time, you loose some stuff, gain others.

And Bosch is great, which is surprising as the books are also brilliant.
 
yeah there are commercial constraints, though I think things are certainly improving in terms of content available - looking at the amount they paid for Clarkson and friends they do seem to be very serious about expanding their prime service

Anyway back to another recommendation:

The original UK version of House of Cards:


OK it is obviously dated but, like the current US version, it is well written, well acted. Ian Richardson + the blonde one from the 90s Pride and Prejudice series.

Freaks and Geeks


Not sure what happened to this show, it only lasted one season but it was actually really really good. Anyway was good to see it on Amazon Prime. Some of he actors seemed to fair better than the show at least Seth Rogen, Jason Segel etc..
 
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A few of these are obvious recommendations but it's more pointing out that they're on Amazon prime than anything:

30 Rock
24
Parks and Rec
Rome
Spooks
Hell on Wheels
Suits
Ray Donovan
Rogue (series one only, it takes a serious nosedive after that. One of those shows that had one story to tell and nowhere to go afterwards)
Hustle
Boss
The Americans

And if you're up doing nothing but watch TV for the next 6 days The Shield is on there until the 21st.
 
scorza said:
Best TV series I've seen on Amazon Prime has been Bosch, a fictional police procedural set in modern-day Los Angeles. It's been renewed for a second series. AFAIK it's Amazon only.

Yes that is Marlo and Lt. Daniels from The Wire.
Click to expand...

This! About the best thing I've seen on Amazon Prime TV as well :)

Great series and so happy it's got a season 2.
 
should probably mention this one in here, decided to give it a watch after pepp77 started a thread about it - it is actually a very enjoyable show; a comedy set in the 80s at a suburban country club in New Jersey. The main character is a kid who gets a summer job at the club as an assistant Tennis instructor, its like if a John Hughes move was turned into a TV series:

 
Amazon Prime is really overlooked by most, I watched more on here than Netflix/Now TV combined. Can only echo what others have said about Bosch, it's brilliant.

Started this the other day, pretty damn good...

 
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Wife is enjoying Outlander as she enjoyed the books its taken from. Not explored much else yet as we only just started the free prime trial. Some good tips above. I missed the IT crowd when it came out and should catch up from what I hear.
 
Bosch was excellent, thanks for the recommendation - definitely a bit of influence from The Wire there though they've obviously used a couple of actors and some other people: a writer and director IIRC.
 
Not so much a fan of Mr Robot yet - though only seen two episodes... I guess Autism/Ass burgers etc.. is popular these days but this series is a more than a bit cringeworthy
 
The Thick of It is on Prime all 5 series are free apart from series 4 for some reason. I've only just watched the first three series. Never paid much attention to Peter Capaldi and haven't watched Doctor Who since he took over but he is beyond brilliant in The Thick of It.
 
Started Vikings. Quite like like it after 2.5 episodes, though the setting's not really my thing.

Watched through Hand of God. Enjoyed it a lot, but I wouldn't give it a resounding recommendation - it's no classic, and the series resolution was particularly unsatisfactory (can only imagine large holes were left for a 2nd series to resolve). Great cast though.

I've not got much experience with big budget US dramas (Sopranos, Oz, Lost, Band of Brothers, is about all I've ever watched previously), so hard for me to say how these two ^ stack up generally.
 
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