With so many shows available today, it can be a struggle to find something worth watching. A must-see show, if you will. For a series to be considered a must-see, it doesn’t just need to be good or popular. It also needs to be compelling, memorable, and difficult to ignore — the kind that sparks extended water cooler conversation.
As you head into this last weekend in June, relax at home with these three must-see shows on Amazon Prime Video. The top pick is so enjoyable that it earned a perfect critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, which should tell you everything you need to know about whether it’s worth watching.
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Hustle
A con-artist drama with an Ocean’s Eleven vibe
Credit: BBC
A two-time Emmy-nominated series, the clever heist caper Hustle is an eight-season series following a London-based crew of professional grifters. Their specialty is the art of the long con, and their targets are the rich, greedy, and morally corrupt.
The group’s leader, Michael “Mickey Bricks” Stone (The Day After Tomorrow’s Adrian Lester), is a master of long cons who the police acknowledge as being in a class of his own. When he heads to Australia to set up a major job, he is replaced by his protégé, Danny Blue (Band of Brothers’ Marc Warren), an impetuous former pickpocket who continually fails at coming up with a backup plan in case a con goes wrong.
Hailing from Tony Jordan, the co-creator of Life on Mars, Hustle is widely considered a must-see for fans of caper and heist fiction. It’s full of inventive writing, humor, and intrigue as it follows the fortunes of a gang of five expert cons. Thanks to its slick, clever, intricate plots and twists, stylish camera work, and snappy dialogue, the series has cemented its reputation as the British answer to Ocean’s Eleven. Fans of the genre will also want to keep an eye out for those subtle fourth-wall breaks.
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Camelot
A gritty, adult twist on the King Arthur legend
The legendary story of King Arthur is one that has been told for centuries in different ways. As a fan, I have many favorite adaptations, and one of those is the 2011 Starz series Camelot, which gives the well-known story an adult reimagining that emphasizes romance beneath all the grit.
In the wake of King Uther’s sudden death, chaos threatens to engulf Britain. To prevent this, Merlin (Shakespeare in Love’s Joseph Fiennes) installs a young, impetuous Arthur (Stranger Things’ Jamie Campbell Bower) — Uther’s unknown son and heir who has been raised as a commoner — to the throne. However, Arthur’s ambitious half-sister, Morgan (Penny Dreadful’s Eva Green), is determined to fight him to the bitter end, summoning unnatural forces to claim the crown. As a result, Arthur faces profound moral decisions and the challenge of uniting a kingdom ripped apart by war.
Epic medieval battles, magical politics, and a dark, grounded, intimately charged reimagining of the Arthurian legend capture audience attention, along with its outstanding performances. Green’s Morgan is a gorgeously ruthless antagonist, while Fiennes’ Merlin is calculating and relentless as a political operator rather than a wise old wizard. All of these elements give the show a razor-sharp edge that makes it a must-see for fans of historical dramas.
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Deadloch
A critically acclaimed feminist-noir comedy
Boasting a 100% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, the Australian crime comedy Deadloch centers on two vastly different female detectives as they’re thrown together to solve a local murder.
Set in Tasmania, the town of Deadloch is preparing for its annual Winter Festival when a local man is found murdered on the beach. Reluctantly teaming up to solve the case are Senior Sergeant Dulcie Collins (Wentworth’s Kate Box), a fastidious, somewhat stifled local cop, and Detective Eddie Redcliffe (The Breaker Upperers’ Madeleine Sami), a brash, aggressive, and highly abrasive transplant from Darwin. As more bodies begin to accumulate, the duo must work alongside their mismatched junior team to figure out if the deaths are the work of a serial killer.
The hit series inverts classic murder-mystery tropes by portraying toxic men as victims and by pairing a meticulous local detective with a chaotic, out-of-town hotshot to solve a string of bizarre crimes. Moreover, because it pokes fun at police procedurals, small-town politics, food/arts culture, and woke progressive culture, it is heavily praised for being sharp, rapid-fire, and extremely vulgar, making this unique series a must-see.
Brace for impact
Whether you’re in the mood for clever schemes, a sweeping legend, or offbeat detective work, these Prime Video series demand a spot on your watchlist. They’re difficult to ignore because of their narrative impact, proving there’s no shortage of bold storytelling across genres. Before July arrives, be sure you’ve checked out what interests you on the platform’s June lineup.
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