This Emmy-nominated sci-fi series is one of 3 Prime Video shows this weekend (May 2-3)
These three Prime Video shows have one thing in common. They are all brilliant, criminally overlooked, and none of them have found the audience they deserve. A broken spy who processes trauma through folk songs. A woman who survived a car accident and can’t decide if she’s gifted or retarded. And a small town in Ohio that sits atop a machine that quietly spins everything around it.
Prime Video is quietly building something amazing with all three, and apparently forgot to tell anyone, but they’re still worth a look.
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Patriot (2015–2018)
John Tavner is an intelligence officer assigned to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. His cover is a job at a Midwestern industrial plumbing company. That setup sounds like a straight-up spy thriller, but Patriot is one of the weirdest, funniest, and most underrated Prime Video TV shows you’ve ever seen.
John deals with his changing state of mind by writing and singing folk songs, which the show uses as a kind of Greek chorus for the chaos around him. The comedy is dry, the plot is pointless, and the emotional core really hurts. It ran for two seasons and despite an IMDB rating of 8.2, the series was canceled, but the people who got it never stopped raving about it.
You can watch the Patriot on Prime Video.
Postponed (2019–2022)
Undone is the kind of Prime Video series that makes you question why more animations can be done this way. The show uses rotoscoping, a technique where animators follow live action frame by frame, to create something that feels like a waking dream.
Rosa Salazar plays the role of Alma, a young Mexican American woman who survives a car accident and begins to face time out of line. His dead father first appears to him, asking for his help. The show doesn’t fully commit to whether Alma is gifted or mentally retarded, and that ambiguity is where she lives. It earned an 8.2 rating on IMDB and never broke into mainstream discussion.
You can view Done on Prime Video.
Tales from the Loop (2020)
Based on the paintings of Swedish artist Simon Stalenhag, this underrated TV series on Prime Video is unlike anything else. Set in a small Ohio town built above a mysterious science complex called the Loop, each episode follows a different resident whose life is quietly intertwined with the inexplicable.
There are no villains, no chase sequences, and very little explanation. What the show offers instead is atmosphere, longing, and a quietly accumulated sadness that only comes to you after the credits roll. It received two Emmy nominations and a 7.4 on IMDB and somehow still falls through the cracks perfectly.
You can watch Tales from Loop on Prime Video.
