Nicole Kidman, James May and Saoirse Ronan all star in our selection of Amazon Prime shows available to watch now.
Salt burn
Emerald Fennell's darkly hilarious, class-conscious thriller
Year: 2023
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Prime Video
Emerald Fennell rose to prominence when she took over the role of head writer on Killing Eve from Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Fennell is also an actress (she was nominated for an Emmy as Camilla in “The Crown”) and has since paved her way into Hollywood, winning an Oscar for her screenplay for 2020's “Promising Young Woman.” The boldly twisty, darkly comedic thriller Saltburn is her sensational follow-up.
It is the class-conscious story of Oliver, a dedicated, aspiring Oxford student who is invited to his laid-back, genteel friend's estate for the summer. Called Saltburn, the property is the kind of place where you dress up for dinner, and the residents – including compelling characters played by Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant – are fascinated by it. We won't give away more about what comes next, because this is the kind of movie you want to know as little about as possible, but be prepared for the odd terrifying moment – and no one on screen like. (131 minutes)
Foreigners
Nicole Kidman stars in a finely woven Hong Kong drama
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Living in another country can be a strange and even alienating experience, especially when you aren't really allowed to lead your own life. That's the human core of this series, based on the novel by Janice YK Lee, and starring Nicole Kidman as the mother and wife of a corporate high-flyer trying to maintain her identity in Hong Kong.
This has another dimension. Margaret (Kidman) has lost a child and her grief over it, and the stories of the people around her (locals, friends, her husband) fill the rest of a perspective-shifting series that also jumps a bit in time. to create a comprehensive picture of everyone's lives, lies and motivations. Kidman's performance is fascinating and understated, and the show itself has the feel of an Oscar-worthy film, but has been expanded and deepened into a six-part series – adapted by Lulu Wang, the writer and director of The Farewell. (Six episodes)
role playing game
Kaley Cuoco and David Oyelowo star in a hitman action comedy
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
When suburban parents Emma and Dave (Kaley Cuoco and David Oyelowo) spend a night in the big city with their children, they decide to engage in a little role-playing game. The problem is that Emma is already living a secret life – as a globe-trotting international assassin – and tonight her undercover identity will come home to settle down.
Cuoco clearly has fun disguising herself as she moves from one action sequence to the next, while Oyelowo delivers a great bemused comeback as he realizes there's much more to his mild-mannered wife than meets the eye. Add Bill Nighy as one of Emma's fellow murderers and you have a first-class piece of action comedy. (100 minutes)
Ronnie O'Sullivan: The Edge of Everything
Feature-length documentary chronicling the snooker player's turbulent life and career
Year: 2023
Watch now on Prime Video
Few athletes have as difficult a relationship with their chosen sport as Ronnie “The Rocket” O'Sullivan. A headstrong showman in a game that rewards obsession and precision, he has struggled with depression and addiction and yet has become one of the most successful characters in the game's history.
This up-close and personal documentary not only looks back on his time in the sport since he strutted onto the scene as a cocky teenager, but also follows the now 47-year-old star as he reflects on the ever-approaching end of his time on the table and his Striving to win a record seventh world title in 2022. It's truly compelling stuff, especially as the realization dawns that the only person who can defeat O'Sullivan might be O'Sullivan himself. (113 minutes)
Australian family drama about an orphaned girl starring Sigourney Weaver
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
After her parents die in a fire, a young girl named Alice is sent to live with her grandmother June (Sigourney Weaver) at a remote flower farm. As Alice grows into a young woman, the ladies who run the farm attempt to protect her all from the harsh realities of life, but their attempts fail when she falls in love with a charismatic and dangerous man.
Highly atmospheric and passionate, this seven-part drama comes to life as questions about Alice's past and the fire that killed her parents bubble to the surface. (Seven episodes)
The great
Outrageous historical comedy starring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult
Year: 2020
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Prime Video
Paying minimal attention to historical fact, this darkly funny and often outrageous comedy charts the rise of Catherine the Great (Elle Fanning) from reluctant bride to the barking and dangerous Peter III. (Nicholas Hoult) became sole ruler of Russia.
Full of plot, intrigue and raunchy comedy, it's a fantastic Blackadder-esque mix of beautiful period costumes, slapstick and very dark humor. The first two series saw Fanning and Hoult nominated at the Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress/Actress in a Comedy Series, and this third series shows no drop in quality as the perky Catherine continues to plot to remove Peter from power and Russia to corner people kicking and screaming in the 18th century. The Great is based on a play by Tony McNamara, who was also behind the similar 2018 film The Favorite and the very different Australian medical rom-com series The Heart Guy. (Three series, Lionsgate+ via Amazon Prime Video)
James May: Our man in India
The former Top Gear presenter's hilarious 3,000-mile odyssey through South Asia
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Prime Video
He traveled to Japan and Italy in the first two series of his intrepid travelogue for Amazon, but India is a much larger undertaking than those two nations. This time, May will travel from west to east on a 3,000-mile odyssey across India, from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. He's been to the country before, but still needs a little help getting around, initially in the form of stand-up comedian Aditi Mittal, who serves as his “cultural bodyguard” – which in this case means, She goes to a comedy club in Mumbai with him and gets all her fellow comics to make fun of him.
This sets the upbeat tone for an enjoyably chaotic show that both informs and entertains. However, some moments are just plain funny, especially the ones where James is thrown in over his head and has to politely make his way through the aftermath. If the former Top Gear man ever decided to turn to sketch comedy, he would make a great straight man. (Three episodes)
Bottoms
Rough high school comedy about a women's fight club
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Tired of being at the bottom of their school's pecking order, lonely lesbians PJ and Josie (Shiva Baby's Rachel Sennott and The Bear's Ayo Edebiri) accidentally come up with the idea of starting a women's self-defense class to help both her Both to improve their reputation and to give them the chance to spend time with some of the school's hot cheerleaders. However, they soon find themselves at the center of a powerful female revolution that threatens to upend the established youth order once and for all.
Sassy, silly and hilariously funny, this is a thoroughly entertaining adult comedy about teenage life that both lampoons and pays homage to classic films like Revenge of the Nerds and The Breakfast Club. (91 minutes)
Graham Norton hosts ten Irish comedians as they battle to raise a fortune for charity
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
The Last One Laughing format, invented in Japan, is genius: a group of comedians are assembled, Big Brother-style, in a living room set packed with cameras. Then they are asked to make each other laugh. The comedian who manages to suppress his laughter the longest will take home €50,000 for the charity of their choice. With typical sarcastic brilliance, Graham Norton hosts this six-episode Irish version, in which star names such as Aisling Bea, Catherine Bohart, Deirdre O'Kane and Jason Byrne are among the stand-ups trying to crack the ice-cold resolve of their opponents whatever is always necessary. (Six episodes)
The Wheel of Time
Epic fantasy series starring Rosamund Pike
Year: 2021
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Amazon built its own studio in Prague to accommodate the enormous production demands of this ambitious fantasy series. Based on a series of best-selling novels by Robert Jordan, set in a world where magic is only used by women, the powerful Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) must undertake a dangerous journey with five teenagers, one of whom may be a powerful one Wizard called the reincarnated dragon. Critics weren't entirely convinced, but fans of the books agreed and the first episode became Amazon's most-watched original series of 2021.
The series' tantalizing sense of grandeur continues in this even more epic second season, as the mysterious Moiraine continues her mission to defeat the looming threat of the Dark One. Despite its vast scope, the first series was in many ways just an exercise in scene-setting. Now that the show is through most of its exposition, it can captivate Game Of Thrones and The Lord Of The Rings fans even more by properly exploring the world it created. The fun really begins in the second round with eight episodes, especially since the budget is even larger than the first series. A third is in production. (Two series)
Good omens
Terry Pratchett's apocalypse comedy starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen
Year: 2019
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Prime Video
It was Terry Pratchett's dying wish that his vivid apocalypse comedy be adapted for the screen, and Neil Gaiman has done just that brilliantly – sparing no expense in the process. However, aside from the budget required to bring this comical account of the rise of the Antichrist to the screen, there is a great casting decision that really makes it work at the center.
Michael Sheen and David Tennant deliver a great double act as Aziraphale and Crowley, the prankster angel and demon trying to stop this apocalypse. The ethereal duo have become very attached to their simple life on Earth over the centuries, thank you very much, and don't want it to end yet.
The first season of Good Omens was made before Staged sent Sheen and Tennant's double act into the stratosphere, and they're just two of many familiar faces in the cast – look out for Mad Men's Jon Hamm as the angel Gabriel and Motherland's Anna Maxwell Martin as Beelzebub and Miranda Richardson as a medium, to name just three. In reality, however, it's all about Sheen and Tennant, and the second season delves even deeper into their characters' unlikely friendship. (Two series)
I am a virgin
Comedy series about the adventures of a 13-foot tall man in modern America
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Part fairy tale, part superhero series, part absurdist comedy, I'm A Virgo follows the escapades of Cootie (Jharrel Jerome from Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse), a 13-foot-tall black teenager. After being hidden by his aunt and uncle in their Oakland home, he sets out to experience the outside world in all its chaotic glory.
The resulting series follows Cootie on his journey to discover what place a giant can take in the world while being embraced by some parts of society and shunned by others. Writer-director Boots Riley (Sorry To Bother You) doesn't shy away from highlighting society's shortcomings here, but he does so while crafting a beautiful, warm and cozy modern fairy tale. (Seven episodes)
Palm Springs
Time loop comedy set at a wedding starring Andy Samberg
Year: 2020
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Imagine Groundhog Day set at a wedding with two people keeping up with each other instead of one, and you've got the gist of this perfectly crafted American comedy. Palm Springs is a ray of sunshine in the California desert town, starring Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti (Fargo) as a jokey couple reliving a day they can't escape while falling deeper in love with each other.
However, don't mistake this for a simple romantic comedy. It has strong, well-deserved philosophical and bittersweet touches that ground both the love story and the comedy and make them hit deeper, while the increasingly surreal nature of the desert setting fits the time loop premise very well. How crazy does it have to be to relive the same day over and over again? All in all, it's a film that seems a bit silly at the beginning, but ends up hitting harder than you expect. (90 minutes)
Go Farad
Hot Spanish crime drama set in 1980s Marbella
Year: 2023
Watch now on Prime Video
When young aerobics instructor Oskar (Money Heist's Miguel Herrán) enters into a business – and intimate personal – relationship with the glamorous Sara (Susana Abaitua), his eyes light up at the chance to open his own gym. But when he arrives in glamorous Marbella, he finds that the offer comes with serious strings attached when he meets Sara's rich and powerful arms dealer family, the Farad clan.
Set in the 1980s and steeped in the music and fashion of the era, this is a lush, sexy and exciting eight-part Spanish crime drama with a captivating performance from the wide-eyed Herrán that will have you captivated from the start. And just wait until you meet Sara's wolfish father… (Eight Episodes)
Shining Valley
Courteney Cox stars in a sharp horror comedy written by Sharon Horgan
Year: 2022
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Prime Video
Seeking distance from a middle-aged bout of infidelity, Pat and Terry Phelps (Courteney Cox and Greg Kinnear) take their children to a postcard house in a Connecticut town. It's supposed to be a fresh start for all of them, but things quickly go sour when author and recovering addict Pat starts seeing ghosts (including Mira Sorvino as an annoying 1950s housewife).
Sharp, strange and darkly funny, the eight episodes of the second season begin with Pat – fresh out of a psychiatric treatment center and with a new book to promote – ready to put all the bizarre events of the first season behind him. It turns out that this is much, much easier said than done. (Two series, via Lionsgate+)
Desperately Looking for a Soulmate: Escape from the Twin Flames Universe
Documentary series about a disturbing new type of online cult
Year: 2023
Watch now on Prime Video
At first glance, Twin Flames Universe sounds like any other matchmaking app, offering the ability to connect members with their soulmates. But is there more than just that? The makers of this sensational three-part documentary series are convinced of this.
Their investigation into Twin Flames (founded and led by Michigan-based YouTube influencers Jeff and Shaleia Divine) uncovers stories of members being pressured into pursuing former lovers and changing their sexual orientation and gender identity for romance to find. It paints a picture of a disturbingly cult-like online organization that aggressively seeks to control its vulnerable users. (Three episodes)
The Continental: From the world of John Wick
Three-part prequel to the John Wick film series set in the 1970s
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Keanu Reeves may be the star of the four John Wick films, but Ian McShane's suave hotel boss Winston was a bright spot. But how did his character end up running New York's favorite hangout for coded assassins, the Continental Hotel, in the first place?
That's what we find out in this three-part series that travels back to the 1970s when young, tie-wearing Winston (Colin Woodell of The Flight Attendant) arrives in the Big Apple to bail his brother out of trouble. With the flavor of the era's blaxploitation imagery and all the pistol-packing martial arts action you could want (not to mention Mel Gibson as the hotel's former boss), this is a must-see for John Wick fans. (Three episodes)
wilderness
Jenna Coleman stars in an exciting revenge thriller
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
How many dramas have you seen that start with a couple who seems to have everything but doesn't? We'd bet there are quite a few, but don't let the familiarity of the setup put you off from this thrilling tale of revenge between husband and wife Will (Oliver Jackson-Cohen of The Haunting of Hill House) and Liv (Jenna Coleman). , a woman who sacrificed her independence to join his high-flying life in New York.
Needless to say, he's having an affair – and the way Coleman conveys Liv's anger, hurt and determination through the twists and turns of what follows is quite special and worthy of award recognition. There's more here that goes beyond expectations and keeps you guessing, but we won't go into that for obvious reasons. What we can say is that this drama also looks like a total business, from the chic indoor locations to some stunning outdoor filming (the Grand Canyon is a stop on the couple's road trip) and, perhaps the most expensive step, the opening credits boast a re-recorded version of Taylor Swift's Look What You Made Me Do.
So what exactly did he make her do? To find out, you'll have to watch. (Six episodes)
Enemy
Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal play a couple living in a ruined future
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
In this haunting film, our planet heads into Mad Max territory. It takes place at a time when the harsh climate is forcing people to flee the inhospitable surface into space. However, the story it tells is very human and understated and revolves entirely around a couple living in a farmhouse in the American Midwest in the year 2065. Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal play the couple, and just before we meet them we learn that this is a world where artificial humans have begun to live and work in these harsh environments.
Therefore, you spend the rest of the movie wondering if one of them is a robot. We won't give away what happens, but the film feels more like a play at times as we move steadily towards the Twilight Zone-style finale, and despite the sci-fi ideas, this is ultimately a deep analysis of a relationship . The story may be a bit long, but it's also one of those movies that you'll want to watch twice if you know how it ends. (110 minutes)
007: Road To A Million
Brian Cox hosts a James Bond-themed globetrotting game show competition
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Have you ever imagined yourself as a super spy? You know, someone capable of overcoming the most death-defying challenges imaginable while remaining determined to remain neither shaken nor moved? The nine pairs of contestants on this new game show all believe they're capable of handling anything mission leader Brian Cox (the one from Succession, not the scientist) throws at them. The hopefuls travel from one exotic location to another to take on a series of tests that will push them to their physical and mental limits, with £1 million in prize money up for grabs.
It's a really nice addition to the Bond series, presented with cinematic panache by the brilliant Cox, who brings delightful, drawn-out sarcasm to his part. If the movies ever need a new M, they know where to look… (A Series)