I must admit that Amazon Prime Video isn’t always my first destination when I fire up my TV looking for something new to watch. But I also must say that every time I do, I land on something unique and entertaining that I end up just devouring.
That can be said about all three of the shows on this week’s list of Prime Video shows that you can breeze your way through this weekend.
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Gen V
If you’re a fan of Prime Video’s smash hit The Boys, but have yet to delve into its also-excellent parallel series Gen V, then you’ve got your weekend binge work cut out for you. It’ll also get you revved up in time for the show’s anticipated second season, coming September 17.
For the uninitiated, Gen V takes place in the twisted world of The Boys, where America’s greatest (and not-so-great) superheroes, The Seven, are an egotistical, power-hungry team controlled by an evil corporation called Vought. Getting into The Seven means fame and fortune for any supe, which is where Gen V‘s Godolkin University (God U) comes in—it’s Vought’s school for young supes who have all gotten their powers through the company’s experimentation with the controversial Compound V. Think of it as Hogwarts, but a lot bloodier, freakier, and NSFW.
Season one of Gen V centers around a few students, including Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), who can use her blood as a weapon (weird, right?), Emma “Little Cricket” Meyer (Lizze Broadway), who can shrink to tiny sizes (which gets weird and sexual), and Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips), a powerful mind-controller.
The group starts to unravel Vought’s sinister motives behind the school, but as they get closer to answers, their lives are further jeopardized, ending in one of the bloodiest, goriest, and excellently violent superhero showdown season endings I’ve ever seen. In true Boys fashion.
Gen V
- Release Date
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September 28, 2023
- Network
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Prime Video
- Directors
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Nelson Cragg, Clare Kilner, Philip Sgriccia, Sanaa Hamri, Shana Stein, Steve Boyum
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The Legend of Vox Machina
Chalk this up to one of those surprises I’ve stumbled upon while scrolling through Prime Video. As a big fan of adult animation shows like Arcane and any of the Castlevania seasons on Netflix, The Legend of Vox Machina is a gorgeous fantasy-adventure series that I easily binged my way through. I discovered later that the award-winning series is based on something called Critical Role, a popular Dungeons & Dragons web series that ran from 2015 to 2017 on Geek & Sundry. Enjoying Vox Machina, thankfully, does not require that you know this.
What it does require is that you’re into the vulgar, kick-ass adventures of Vox Machina, the show’s team of seven misfit heroes with various powers and abilities—Vex (Laura Bailey), Percy (Taliesin Jaffe), Pike (Ashley Johnson), Grog (Travis Willingham), Vax (Liam O’Brien), Keyleth (Marisha Ray), and Scanlan (Sam Riegel)—as they defend the realm of Tal’Dorei from a group of nefarious dragons called the Chroma Conclave.
I’ve loved all three seasons so far, with each 25-minute episode packed full of intense and well-designed fight scenes, tons of snarky jokes (usually delivered by the foul-mouthed bard gnome, Scanlan), and some real pathos as each of the characters’ stories develops. Three seasons may seem like a lot, but you’ll rip through them and then want more.
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The Rig
Another great series I stumbled on while scrolling through Prime Video, The Rig initially drew me in because of its star, Iain Glen, who was one of my favorite characters in Game of Thrones‘—Ser Jorah Mormont. Its harrowing premise, about an oil rig platform off the coast of Scotland in the brutal North Sea that gets cut off from the world, was already giving me chills. But what really hooked me was the arrival of a supernatural fog that engulfs the rig, upping the weird and eerie factor as the crew tries to figure out what the heck’s going on.
Glen is stalwart as the rig’s seasoned manager, Magnus MacMillan, whose team, including science officer Rose Mason (Schitt’s Creek‘s Emily Hampshire), communications officer Fulmer Hamilton (Martin Compston), and medic Cat Braithwaite (Rochenda Sandall), all start to come undone as the strange fog starts to give the crew hallucinations, paranoia, and even some odd abilities.
As Prime Video’s first series that was filmed entirely in Scotland, The Rig doesn’t feel confined to its remote location. With its supernatural element, often explosive and violent action scenes, and more Scottish accents than you shake a haggis at, The Rig keeps things interesting throughout its two seasons.
The Rig
- Release Date
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January 6, 2023
- Writers
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David Macpherson, Matthew Jacobs Morgan, Meg Salter
If you’re a subscriber to Amazon Prime, you’d be foolish not to take advantage of the shows and movies available to you as part of your subscription. If you like what you see, there are a few easy things you can do to get the most of Prime Video, too.
- Subscription with ads
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Yes, via Prime membership or $9/month
- Simultaneous streams
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Prime Video has a large volume of content to watch. The other Amazon perks are a bonus as well.
