Amazon started out as a bookseller in the 1990's before becoming a commercial powerhouse. The Prime video service features original series and movies along with existing shows and films that it has made available in order to encourage membership. It is hard to argue against the idea that some of the Prime productions are very good.
If you have a Prime membership and are looking for something to watch during the holidays, here are some suggestions.
Amazon's Prime service offers a variety of features, including fast and free delivery of many of its products, Amazon Music and gaming, unlimited photo storage, and even its Amazon Prime video streaming. Students and those on government assistance can take advantage of the 30-day trial.
$15 at Amazon (monthly)$139 at Amazon (annually)Night Sky is a popular science fiction series. Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons play a retired couple who hid a doorway in their backyard when they were younger. As it brings in more characters with agendas of their own, the story slowly ramps up to a climax that is nail-biting and inspiring. Despite the fact that the series was not renewed, it is still worth watching.
The series is both beautiful and horrible. The story takes place in antebellum America, where an escaped slave named Cora experiences the range of human good and evil as she travels along the Underground Railroad, which is a railroad that takes Black escapees through the states. It isn't easy to watch, but there are moments of human compassion and love as well.
You should if you are a cat person and you don't know about the illustrations. Some of his cat portraits were more realistic than others, but he was very popular for his pictures of cats dressed and acting like humans. This fictionalized story of his life, which was first shown in 2021, is fascinating and tragic, and how and why his art transitioned from realism to charming fantasy is still debated in art circles today. The cast is led by Benedict Cumberbatch.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films has a lot in common with the original stories of J.R.R. Some of the characters are familiar to those who have experienced the world of J.R.R. They include Galadriel, who at this point in her life is a warrior elf, and Nori Brandyfoot, a young Harfoot who adopts a mysterious stranger. The world-building is wonderful, and as the story progresses, it becomes addictive to watch.
The 1992 film about the plight of a team of female baseball players during the World War II era was based on a true story. The new series shows how the players must negotiate their way not only past assumptions about the role of women but also through the restrictions on sexuality and discrimination that existed at the time. The series shows how the characters make their way through obstacles to find strength on the baseball field and in their own lives.
The Jack Reacher books were written by Lee Child and are the basis of this detective show. The character and the series come off as a bit retrograde, as some of the reviews of the show mention. As portrayed by Alan Ritchson, Reacher depends on his brain as well as his brawn and picks up an interesting group of friends and colleagues who can give as well as they get. This isn't usually a genre I follow, but I enjoyed it more than I anticipated.
One of the more popular detective shows on Prime is Bosch, a show based on a series of novels by Michael Connelly. The original TV series, in which Harry Bosch solved crimes as a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department, lasted for seven seasons; the new series continues to follow the same character as he leaves the police department to start his own private detective business. Bosch is a 21st century version of the film noir private eye, smart, taciturn, and honest, all of which get him into trouble with the less than trustworthy authorities.
Bosch: Legacy is on the Freevee network, which is available to anyone who wants to watch it.
Some of the best sci-fi on the menu are quiet, weird, and challenging, such as Night Sky and Tales from the loop, which premiere in the US. Tales is a series of stories about how the loop and its artifacts affect the locals in strange and unexpected ways. Each story has its own beginning and end and is subtly linked to make for a satisfying whole.