We’re only halfway through 2026, and Prime Video has already built an outstanding lineup of shows. Historically, the streamer takes pride in offering a variety to meet different viewing demands. While certain viewers prefer easy one-night binges like Daisy Jones & The Six and My Lady Jane, others love a good sprawling series like The Expanse or Boschthat demands your full attention.
This year’s releases have largely been worth watching. From romantic drama book adaptations to fresh original series, the streamer continues to push out shows in different genres. Some shows stumble with uneven scripts or underwhelming chemistry, but others excel across the board. As Prime Video continues to expand its 2026 slate, here are the best original Prime Video series of the year so far.
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9
‘Elle’ (2026–Present)
Lexi Minetree reading a magazine outside in ‘Elle’Image via Prime Video
In 2001,Reese Witherspoon gifted the world with Legally Blonde, changing the way audiences saw law school. This time around, Elleserves as a prequel, following a teenage Elle Woods (Lexi Minetree) in 1995. Her world comes crashing down after a career scandal forces her family to move to rainy Seattle, where she’s introduced to grunge, Nirvana, and plenty of plaid shirts.
Elle retains the bubbly, endearing spirit that made Legally Blonde so iconic, but that’s also where the prequel struggles. Instead of becoming a unique story, it relies on callbacks to the original film, even recreating some of its biggest moments. Rather than exploring who Elle was before Legally Blonde, it simply drops the same character into a different setting.
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8
‘Steal’ (2026)
Sophie Turner resting her head on her folded hands in Steal.Image via Prime Video
Somebody’s workday is about to go horribly wrong in Steal. Trade processor Zara Dunne (Sophie Turner) arrives for another ordinary day at Lochmill Capital, only for armed thieves to storm the office and take employees, including Zara and Luke (Archie Madekwe), hostage. All they want is access to £4 billion in pension funds as part of an audacious heist.
Steal has all the ingredients of an entertaining thriller, featuring a robbery with government conspiracies. Zara isn’t a typical action hero. She’s a burned-out employee who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, relying on her intelligence to survive. The downside is that the series is so focused on maintaining its adrenaline-fueled pace that several promising emotional storylines are pushed to the sidelines.
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7
’56 Days’ (2026)
Avan Jogia as Oliver Kennedy and Dove Cameron as Ciara Wyse in ’56 Days.’Image via Prime Video
Keep your friends close, and your suspect closer. In 56 Days, Oliver (Avan Jogia) and Ciara (Dove Cameron) meet by chance at a grocery store. The two hit it off from the get-go, and they get sucked into a whirlwind romance. But just as they’re in their honeymoon phase, 56 days since their meet-cute, a shocking murder leaves both of them as prime suspects.
Although the series doesn’t spend much time building Oliver and Ciara’s initial emotional connection, their physical chemistry is undeniable. Their verbal chemistry, however, feels less convincing in the early episodes, and several key plot points may confuse viewers unfamiliar with the original novel. Still, the dual unreliable narration keeps the mystery engaging, as it’s never clear who’s lying and who’s telling the truth.
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6
‘Every Year After’ (2026–Present)
Sadie Soverall and Matt Cornett in Every Year After.Image via Prime Video
Fans ofThe Summer I Turned Prettyhave a new small-town romance to obsess over. Every Year After follows Persephone “Percy” Fraser (Sadie Soverall), who spends her teenage summers in the lakeside town of Barry’s Bay, Ontario. There, she befriends the Florek brothers and slowly falls for the quiet but witty Sam Florek (Matt Cornett).
While it starts like a predictable coming-of-age romance, Every Year After isn’t afraid to get heavier. The story jumps between Percy and Sam’s teenage years and adulthood, where Percy returns carrying the regrets that drove her away from Barry’s Bay. As old mistakes resurface, it becomes clear she’s not the only one haunted by the past. The show makes a strong case that moving on isn’t possible until you’re willing to face what you’ve been running from.
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Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
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Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
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🎭Ethan Hunt
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01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
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02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
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03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
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04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
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05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
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06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
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07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
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08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
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09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
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10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
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Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
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Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
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Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
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John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
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Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
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5
‘Ride or Die’ (2026)
Debbie (Octavia Spencer) and Judith (Hannah Waddingham) in ‘Ride or Die’Image via Prime Video
The stakes are high when your best friend is about to be killed. In Ride or Die, assassin Judith (Hannah Waddingham) is offered one last chance to keep her job, but her mission unexpectedly revolves around MP David (Jamie Parker), who’s caught in a major scandal. David also happens to be married to Debbie (Octavia Spencer), Judith’s best friend, who has no idea she’s a professional assassin.
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The female buddy-cop formula isn’t new, but Ride or Die gives it a fresh spin. Unlike the typical “hardened fighter and inexperienced sidekick” dynamic, Ride or Die makes both Judith and Debbie highly capable in their own right. As the danger escalates, their friendship becomes the show’s biggest strength. Their bond feels genuine, and because they’re true friends, they’ll risk everything to protect each other.
4
‘Young Sherlock’ (2026–Present)
Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Sherlock Holmes and Dónal Finn as James Moriarty in Young SherlockImage via Prime Video
Adapting Sherlock Holmes while straying from Arthur Conan Doyle‘s work is a gamble, but Guy Ritchie makes it pay off. Young Sherlock serves as a non-canonical prequel, following a young Sherlock (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) who arrives at Oxford not as a student, but as a scout and cleaner. Even more surprising, James Moriarty (Dónal Finn) isn’t his greatest enemy, but his partner in crime.
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True to Ritchie’s style, Young Sherlock is fast-paced, energetic, and full of gumption. Sherlock and Moriarty are already brilliant, often playing “mind games” together as they solve a mystery. However, their youth also makes them impulsive and inexperienced. The arrival of the mysterious Princess Shou’an (Zine Tseng) exposes their blind spots, adding a fresh nuance that humanizes the future detective and his eventual nemesis.
3
‘Scarpetta’ (2026–Present)
Kay Scarpetta looking down in a lab coatImage via Prime Video
It takes a woman to do a man’s job properly. Scarpettafollows Virginia Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman), one of the country’s leading forensic pathologists. Told across two timelines — 1998 and the present — the thriller sees her revisit a decades-old serial murder case after a new victim is found bearing the same disturbing signature.
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The murders aren’t the only horrors Scarpetta faces. The series also illustrates a bleak picture of workplace sexism, where even someone as accomplished as Scarpetta is treated as a liability, with male colleagues actively undermining her. Despite her brilliance, her personal life is equally complicated. While her stubborn refusal to confront her flaws can be frustrating, it ultimately leads to a shocking breaking point and a twist few viewers will see coming.
2
‘Off Campus’ (2026–Present)
In Off Campus, straight-A student Hannah Wells (Ella Bright) is blindsided when funding for her scholarship is suspended. Meanwhile, star hockey player Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) is struggling academically, putting his place on the team at risk. They strike a deal: Hannah tutors Garrett, while he pretends to date her to help her catch the attention of a fellow student musician.
While fake dating is a familiar TV trope, Off Campus surprises viewers by tackling heavier themes, including sexual assault and its impact on relationships and intimacy. It’s also a refreshing portrayal of healthy masculinity, with Garrett and his teammates openly discussing consent, vulnerability, and respect without relying on outdated patriarchal stereotypes. Although their future at Briar University is uncertain, the chemistry between the two — be it physical or emotional — is obviously there.
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1
‘Bait’ (2026)
Riz Ahmed as Shah Latif in ‘Bait’Image via Prime Video
There’s a struggling actor, and then there’s Shah Latif (Riz Ahmed) in Bait. It’s not every day that a nobody lands an audition to become the next James Bond — a nod to the real-life rumors that once surrounded Ahmed. But Bait is really about a man consumed by impostor syndrome, and how that anxiety slowly turns him into someone he no longer recognizes.
Shah’s fears are understandable. As a British Pakistani man cast in a role traditionally played by white actors, he faces both subtle and overt racism. While the series tilts into psychological thriller territory, it’s balanced by Shah’s lovable, meddling family and authentic cultural touches, from Eid celebrations to Urdu, making Bait an easy binge that leaves viewers reflecting on the price of chasing external validation.
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