Amazon Prime Videohas a library of classic and original fantasy TV shows that are all worth watching for one reason or another.Prime Video has a growing catalog of original TV shows, but surprisingly, it’s not quite as large as you may expect from the tech giant’s flagship streaming service.
What Prime Video does have is a vast library of beloved and classic series to pick and choose from.Fantasy is a somewhat underrepresented genre in the Prime brand, but the fantasy series that they do have are excellent, and these 10 are the ones you have to check out.
The Wheel of Timeis based on Robert Jordan’s lauded book series of the same nameand stars Roseamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred, an Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah, searching for the mysterious and powerful Dragon Reborn. There are a lot of words like those in the three-season Prime Video Adaptation.
It’s a series that throws a lot at you, but if you stick with it, you’ll be welcomed into a fantastical, colorful, and fascinating world. WhileThe Wheel of Timedid have some issues, it worked on those problems over the seasons, ensuring that each is better than the one to come before it.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Poweris one of the most expensive TV showsever produced, and for a while, that’s all anyone really cared to comment about it. Then, when the series began, fans were split on whether the budget and production justified all the changes made to the source material.
Issues with J.R.R. Tolkien canon and Amazon’s budgetary decisions aside,there’s never been a fantasy TV series likeThe Rings of Power. It takes one of the biggest works of fiction ever, and puts it on the big screen with all the scale and design a juggernaut corporation can provide. Even if it’s just spectacle, it’s still quite a spectacle.
The NBC original series,Grimm, ran for six seasonsand is a mashup of fantasy storytelling and police procedurals. The title is a reference toGrimms' Fairy Talesand is filled with creatures from those stories as well as folktales and legends the world over, almost likeBuffy the Vampire Slayer, but with more fairies.
The series follows Portland homicide detective Nicholas Burkhardt (David Giuntoli), who learns he is a “Grimm”, one in a line of guardians sworn to protect humanity from evil fairytale creatures.It’s a moody and atmospheric seriesthat is well-suited to the police procedural aspects of the story.
The British fantasy adventure-dramaMerlinis (loosely) based on the Arthurian legend of King Arthur, creating a story around the adventures of the wizard Merlin (Colin Morgan) and Arthur Pendragon (Bradley James). Though magic is banned in Camelot, Merlin secretly uses his powers to protect the future king.
It’s a rollicking good time, and watching Merlin do his best to support his friend from the shadows is as much fun as watching Arthur learn what it truly means to be a good leader.Merlinis not an accurate retelling of the Legend of King Arthur, but it presents the important themes of that story in a unique way.
Based on Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1990 novel, Good Omensis a fantasy series starring David Tennant as the demon Crowley and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale. The longtime work enemies have actually struck up a friendship in their downtime over the millennia while doing their masters' biddings on Earth.
When the pair learns that Armageddon and a war between Heaven and Hell is imminent, they try to find a way to stop it and ensure their cozy lives on Earth remain unchanged. It’s as irreverent as you would imagine, but also filled withdeeply philosophical ideas about the world along with dazzling visuals.
The horror drama fantasy seriesPenny Dreadfultakes its name from the 19th-century British fiction publications, which often featured lurid, horrific, and fantastical stories. Something akin to the pulp magazines of the era. It’s a title that immediately tells you the tone and themes of the series.
The show stars Eva Green as Vanessa Ives, a mysterious but heroic woman who battles monsters, demons, and creatures taken from the pages of literature to help save the world and herself.It’s a wonderfully creative story with fascinating takes on classic charactersthat you likely haven’t seen before.
A reimaging of the Michael J. Fox-led 1985 film of the same name, MTV’sTeen Wolfis one of thebest werewolf TV shows ever. The series stars Tyler Posey as Scott McCall, a high school student who gets turned into a werewolf in the pilot. Scott and his friends uncover a supernatural world under their own.
Joined by Crystal Reed and Dylan O’Brien as Allison Argent and Stiles Stilinski, respectively,Scott learns to use his werewolf powers for good to help protect against growing forces of darkness.Teen Wolfsucceeds on its sharp sense of humor that’s both winking at times and completely earnest.
Undoneis one of the great,underrated TV shows that Amazon Prime Videohas ever made. It’s an adult-animated series that follows Alma Winograd-Diaz (Rosa Salazar), a young woman who escapes a nearly fatal car crash with a new power: the ability to manipulate and travel through time.
She uses this newfound power to unravel a mystery surrounding her father’s deathand learns some incredible things about the universe along the way. It’s a beautifully animated series with some standout voice work. It’s a shockingly relatable story despite the kaleidoscopic visuals and ethereal tone.
The Legend of Vox Machinais a fantasy TV series based on the first campaign of theDungeons & Dragonsweb seriesCritical Role. It’s an animated adaptation of the game that real people actually played, following seven members of a fantasy medieval party as they fight enemies and explore mysteries.
Few shows or movies have so well captured the chaos that comes with playing a game ofDungeons & Dragons, which is a tabletop RPG that allows for all manner of creative solutions to problems. It’s smart, slickly animated, and features a fantastically engrossing story that will constantly have you asking what comes next.
There are few morememorable intros to TV shows than the swirling, otherworldly introduction toThe Twilight Zonewith Rod Sterling’s ominous overtones. The series, created and written by Sterling, is an anthology show that presents all manner of strange and unbelievable situations with tight scripts and shocking reveals.
Even over 60 years later, you’re able to still get startled by a man taking off his hat to reveal a third eye, or be moved by an elderly woman shaking hands with death. It’s poignant, unflinching, and often dark, but it’s always fantastical. It’s onPrime Videoit should be required viewing for anyone who enjoys flights of fancy.
