Amazon Prime's Best Original Shows Of 2022

A co-production with the BBC, "The English" stars Emily Blunt as a woman named Lady Cornelia Locke who travels from England to Kansas in 1890 seeking revenge for the murder of her son. She meets a Pawnee native named Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer) who is about to set out to fight for a piece of Nebraska land he was promised for serving in the US Army but has now been told he will no longer receive. The two strangers join forces to help each other out but soon discover that their respective pasts might actually be intertwined.

Despite only having just debuted in November, "The English" has already established itself as one of Amazon's best original series of 2022. The most common areas of praise from critics are the performances of the two leads and the beautiful cinematography on display. Panjiba calls it "one of the most beautifully shot TV shows I've seen in a long time," high praise indeed considering the bar that streaming services have set in that regard over the last half-decade or so. All six parts of "The English" were made available immediately, so it's currently available to stream in full. 

Amazon shows aren't all cinematic dramas. In fact, the service has released a number of successful comedies over the years, and 2022's "As We See It" is worthy of mention among the best comedies of the year on any platform. The show follows three housemates – Jack, Violet, and Harrison – who all fall on the autism spectrum and have to deal with all of the social and professional struggles that come with that. Admirably, all three characters are played by actors — Rick Glassman, Violet Wu, and Harrison Dietrich, respectively — who themselves are on the autism spectrum (per Distractify). 

Despite incredibly strong critical praise, including CNN, who called the show "heartbreaking and touching in its central characters' vulnerability" and proclaimed that "this Amazon series deserves to be seen and celebrated," Amazon confirmed in October that the show would not receive a second season (per Deadline) without providing any details as to why. Still, Season 1's eight episodes are well worth watching and here's hoping another platform picks it up so it can live on like it deserves to.

Given the success that Amazon had with "The Boys," it stands to reason that the studio would try out other lesser-known comic book properties to adapt. In 2022 that came by way of "Paper Girls," based on the award-winning Image Comics series of the same name that ran for 30 issues between 2015 and 2019. The premise of both is essentially the same — four girls with an early-morning paper route find themselves in the midst of warring time travels as they are delivering papers the morning after Halloween in 1988.

The show was a big hit with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but apparently Amazon was going to accept nothing less than to have it be an instant smash like "The Boys" and gave it only about five weeks to get there, announcing its cancellation on September 9 after having only been launched July 29. However, production company Legendary Entertainment isn't willing to give up on it and is looking for another platform to pick it up (per Deadline). 

By all accounts, "Game of Thrones" prequel "House of the Dragon" has been a hit with critics and fans alike. There isn't much that had the name recognition or fanbase to directly challenge it, but if anything can, it's Tolkien. With both "House of the Dragon" and Amazon's prequel series "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" being in development for years and facing multiple delays, it's unlikely that either one was planned to be released alongside the other as direct competition. Still, that's how it worked out, and with so much medieval fantasy goodness on our screens this year, we all win.

It's debatable which one is better, which is another way of saying that "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is fantastic. Ambitiously set several millennia before the events of "The Hobbit" and based on the appendices of the "The Lord of the Rings" novels, the series takes place in that universe's Second Age which saw evil beginning to rise again in Middle-Earth after a period of peace. The show will have both new characters as well as younger versions of fan favorites, and Season 2 has long since been greenlit (per Deadline). 

This is obviously open for debate — and only Amazon itself can officially confirm it one way or another — but "The Boys" seems to be the marquee show on the service right now. With that in mind, it was only a matter of time before it got a spin-off of some kind, coming in 2022 by way of "The Boys Presents: Diabolical." The animated anthology series sees each episode as its own entirely self-contained story that takes place in the universe of the main show, with each one having its own unique writers, directors, tone, and even animation style.

Among the big names that have shown up to write their own episodes so far are Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Ilana Glazer, Garth Ennis, Justin Roiland, Aisha Tyler, and Andy Samberg, with animation styles that range from anime to Roiland's unique "Rick and Morty"aesthetic to Ennis' episode which replicates the look of the original "The Boys" comics. It's been almost as well-received as the original show, already nominated for two Primetime Emmys and winning one for outstanding individual achievement in animation.

Another of Amazon's 2022 co-productions with the BBC, "Chloe" poached Erin Doherty from Netflix's "The Crown" and has her starring as Becky Green, a woman who struggles to get over her childhood friend Chloe's death. Rather than deal with it in a healthy manner, Becky creates an alter ego for herself named Sasha that she uses to infiltrate Chloe's social circle, initially almost as a lark — but she soon ends up enjoying being Sasha a little too much and takes things way too far in the process.

Only intended to run for a single season, "Chloe" was lavished with praise by critics. The Detroit News said, "'Chloe' is an intriguing tangle of lies and obsession, a well-made striptease of a show that slowly reveals all over six episodes of cringey psychological suspense." Likewise, The Guardian gushes, "There is not one false note in this fierce, fresh murder mystery" in their five-star review and, like many other outlets, gave extremely high praise for Doherty's performance as well. 

It took a little while before streaming services figured out that they could easily pad out their programming lineups with reality shows. The downside is that some services – Netflix, we're looking in your direction – go a little overboard with its reality shows, producing just as much empty junk food as legitimately fulfilling fare. Amazon has definitely had some duds in this arena but has also been careful not to flood its market with them — not to mention having one of the best streaming-exclusive reality shows of the last few years.

Singer Lizzo is one of the biggest musicians around, and attaching her name to a reality show is automatically going to give it some cache. As with anything Lizzo does, "Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls" is a unique spin on reality-based competition shows that also brings her signature charm and flare to the proceedings. The premise is that 13 women are competing for a spot to be one of Lizzo's dancers, but rather than have it be a cutthroat competition, everyone is supportive of one another and they're just as happy to see their friends advance as if they would've advanced themselves. 

In addition to universal acclaim, "Lizzo's Watch out for the Big Grrrls" also won this year's Primetime Emmy for outstanding reality competition, beating out tough competition from big names such as "The Amazing Race," "The Voice," and "Top Chef."

It's not a coincidence that "The Boys" is the only show on this list that wasn't in its first season in 2022. Amazon shows have a tendency to have great first seasons and then fizzle out — or just never have the luxury of additional seasons at all. However, "The Boys" was both popular enough with audiences and acclaimed enough by critics to not only earn three seasons and counting, but also managed to maintain consistent quality and have its 3rd Season be just as strong as its 1st Season. In fact, it has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of the show's three seasons so far.

In a year where Disney+'s Marvel shows and HBO Max's DC shows have been fairly hit or miss, "The Boys" is arguably the best comic book show on television this year and is a nice feather in Amazon's cap in that regard — especially when paired with "The Boys Presents: Diabolical." A year after the events of Season 2, Season 3 sees the Boys and the Seven's truce coming under fire when certain truths are brought to light. It's an amazing season that has fans chomping at the bit for the confirmed fourth season (per Variety).