Prime Video has such a huge library of TV shows and movies to watch that trying to decide what's actually good can be an exhausting task. That's why we're here! The most recent additions we've given our seal of approval to include Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos, which stars Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, the holiday rom-com series With Love, the sixth and final season of the sci-fi series The Expanse, the Riz Ahmed-starring alien movie Encounter, and more. If none of those speak to you, our list of recommendations is pretty wide-ranging, so we're pretty confident that you'll find something else you like.

An important note about how this list was made: In order to keep it as relevant as possible, we're stressing the best recent releases, Amazon Prime Video originals, and critics' favorites. But we're also putting our own personal spin on the list, with underrated gems we've been recommending to our friends, ageless classics, and important selections that highlight diverse voices.

Looking for more recommendations of what to watch next? We have a ton of them! We also have hand-picked selections based on shows you already love.

Ever want to see Aaron Sorkin stuff the mouths of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz with his wordy monologues? Sorkin wrote and directed Being the Ricardos, a biopic following I Love Lucy's Ball and Arnaz during a critical moment in their careers when Ball was accused of being a communist and the gossip rags wondered if their relationship was on the fritz. Early reviews are middling, but the draw here is watching Nicole Kidman as Ball and Javier Bardem as Arnaz, accompanied by J.K. Simmons, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development reunion!), and Nina Arianda. -Tim Surette

One Day at a Time co-creator Gloria Calderón Kellett knows her way around a family comedy. With Love is her latest, a holiday-themed Latinx rom-com that stars Shadowhunters' Emeraude Toubia and Ugly Betty's Mark Indelicato as siblings Lily and Jorge Diaz, who are each unlucky in love but still out there looking for it. The gimmick here is that each of its five episodes takes place on a different holiday: one is set on Nochebuena, where Jorge brings his new boyfriend home to meet the parents; another on Independence Day, where Lily and her new boyfriend move in together. Like the best rom-coms, With Love is a sweet watch that knows how to break your heart and put it back together again by the end.

You may have heard people calling The Expanse "the best sci-fi series on TV right now," and gosh darnit, they're right. The series that Jeff Bezos reportedly personally saved from cancellation after Syfy axed it is a wonderfully complicated political thriller that just so happens to take place in space as Earth and Mars are on the brink of war and an alien somethingorother threatens all of humankind. Telling an intragalactic story from multiple planets and multiple points of view, The Expanse is Game of Thrones-level rich. Well, when Game of Thrones was good. Plus, Thomas Jane plays a detective with a dope hat. -Tim Surette

Joe Wright's 2011 film Hanna purposefully kept its focus tight on a story of a teenage girl trained to be an assassin by a secret organization, limiting most of the action to a few locations and binding the story to a small group of characters. But there was clearly more story to tell, and the film's screenwriter, David Farr, branched things out with Hanna the series. Esmé Creed-Miles is fantastically blunt as Hanna, who knows how to crush a windpipe with a swift strike but doesn't know the first thing about being a normal teenage girl, and Mireille Enos gives one of her best performances as Marissa, Hanna's enemy-turned-ally. While the first episode follows the structure and plot of the film for most of its run, the additions — including one huge and meaningful difference to the character of Marissa — and changes feel natural and worthwhile in the TV show as it expands its universe and digs deeper into its characters. Season 2 is an especially great example of this, and Season 3, the show's final season, which was released in late 2021, wraps things up mostly satisfactorily. Like many of Amazon's shows, budget wasn't spared, and Hanna doubles as a vacation travelogue for Europe as much as it is a high-stakes spy thriller. -Tim Surette

In the great tradition of Sex and the City and Living Single, Harlem is a show about a group of four ladies navigating life in New York City. It was created by Tracy Oliver, who previously gave us Girls Trip and therefore really knows her way around Black female friendship, and it's a fun, cozy series that's very much all about the vibes, hinging on the easy chemistry and funny rapport of the main cast, which includes Meagan Good, Grace Byers, Shoniqua Shandai, and Jerrie Johnson. It deals with issues like gentrification, sexuality, and wealth, making them important elements of the main plot. Call it a hangout show with substance. -Allison Picurro

Riz Ahmed follows up his Oscar-nominated turn in last year's The Sound of Metal with this paranoid sci-fi thriller that looks like a mix of Take Shelter and War of the Worlds. Ahmed plays Malik Khan, a decorated Marine who takes his two sons and goes AWOL to protect them from an alien threat and military operatives who are trying to make sure that secret doesn't get out. It comes from writer-director Michael Pearce, who made the excellent 2017 psychological thriller Beast, so you can bet there will be some gut-punching twists and some meaty material for Ahmed to work with. The supporting cast includes Octavia Spencer, Janina Gavankar, and Rory Cochrane. -Liam Mathews

It's no billion-dollar Lord of the Rings TV series (that's coming soon courtesy of Prime Video), but Amazon's Wheel of Time is based on another popular high fantasy book series and has its own goals of becoming the next Game of Thrones. It's got the usual fantasy boxes to check off: a prophecy about a powerful young person who will save the world, vast world-building that requires its own atlas to keep track of, British accents (why is everyone always British?), and a roster of characters that will take you a few seasons to familiarize yourself with. But after you get past the initial premise — a magician (Rosamund Pike) takes five young people on an adventure to figure out which one of them is "the dragon reborn" — and the deeper you go beyond the initial episodes, the more this looks like it could actually be the next big thing, thanks to an engaging universe and characters you might actually care about. -Tim Surette

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the eccentric late 19th and early 20th century artist Louis Wain, known for his cat portraits, who falls for his sisters' governess (Claire Foy), in this fanciful biographical drama. Reviews for the film have been polite but rarely glowing — which is to be expected from a film created and directed by the dark and whimsical Will Sharpe (Flowers) — but it's got Benedict Cumberbatch and cats, so there are a lot of very online people who will certainly love it. Plus, Olivia Colman narrates.

Everything's getting the reboot/remake/reimagining treatment these days, and the 1997 Jennifer Love Hewitt-Sarah Michelle Gellar slasher movie, also titled I Know What You Did Last Summer, is the latest on the conveyor belt. The show, much like the source material it pulls from, centers on a group of teenagers who kill a person with their car, hide the body, and vow to keep what they did a secret, only to be stalked one year later by a mysterious killer who knows the truth. While the show does provide an intriguing new twist on the material, it's not exactly treading new ground, and we mostly recommend it for the simple joy of getting a cheap scare. But sometimes that really is all you want, so go forth!

Between Bosch and Jack Ryan, Amazon sure does love a dad show -- case in point, Goliath! This legal drama centers around Billy McBride (played by Billy Bob Thornton, total dad bait) a washed-up, hard-drinking lawyer who, at the beginning of the series, agrees to take on a wrongful death case, and exposes a vast criminal conspiracy in the process. This show follows the tried and true procedural format of addressing issues that relate directly to what's going on in the real world via the fictional cases that McBride takes on. Now in its fourth and final season, Goliath is addressing one of society's greatest villains of all time.