Amazon Prime: The best of the box sets

(Image credit: Amazon Prime)

last updated 21 April 2016

With the weekend on the way, we've compiled a list of some of the best shows available on the streaming service, from previously unheralded gems, comedies, spy thrillers and documentaries.

One Mississippi

This semi-autobiographical comedy series created by comedian Tig Notaro and Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody missed out on the attention it deserved when it first aired at the end of last year. Notaro stars as herself, returning to her hometown in Mississippi, where she has to deal with the death of her mother and her own mortality, embarking on a painful but hilarious journey of discovery about her family and herself. Rolling Stone says Notaro turns "tragedy" into "traumedy" and the result is "brilliant".

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Christina Ricci stars as Zelda Fitzgerald in this Amazon Prime original period drama, which premiered at the beginning of the year without much fanfare but is definitely worth a look. The story begins with Zelda, the pampered but rebellious Southern belle, who meets F. Scott Fitzgerald (David Hoflin) and begins a tumultuous love affair. The couple marry, but Scott’s quest for literary fame takes its toll on their relationship. The LA Times praises Ricci’s "subtle evocation of a famously electrifying character" adding that she is "the reason to watch".

This oddball comic spy thriller follows the story of handsome intelligence officer John Tavner (Michael Dorman), who tries to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions by going undercover without a safety net while disguised as a mid-level employee at an industrial piping firm. The New York Times writes that The Patriot "combines dark humour and rueful whimsicality" to take the spy thriller to "a new place".

This ten-episode documentary series chronicles the life and career of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Producers had access to Hefner’s personal archive and uncovered rare archival footage that delves deep into the publisher's life, as well as the history of the magazine. Critic Roger Ebert writes: "The documentary series thrives when it examines the history of sex in America and how Playboy challenged that status quo."

Fans of good old-fashioned crime noir will be eager for the return of Michael Connolly’s Bosch, one of Amazon Prime’s most popular original series. Titus Welliver is back as the outwardly slick but haunted crime-solving LAPD detective Harry Bosch. This time witnesses report a cop throwing a man off a balcony and Bosch is a suspect. Even his partner, Jerry Edgar (The Wire’s Jamie Hector), is suspicious of him.

Transparent’s Jill Soloway has adapted Chris Kraus’s cult novel about a struggling married couple (played by Kathryn Hahn and Griffin Dunne) who move to Marfa, Texas, to study with an enigmatic academic, Dick (Kevin Bacon). As the couple become increasingly drawn into the world of the charismatic cowboy professor, their lives are turned upside down in unintended but exciting ways. After viewing the pilot, The Guardian called it "a series begging to be binged".

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