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60 Geeky Movies, TV Shows on Amazon You Should Stream Now

Eric Griffith
 & Eric Griffith Senior Editor, Features

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    Buying Guide: 60 Geeky Movies, TV Shows on Amazon You Should Stream Now

    Contents

    Amazon Instant Video just doesn't get the same recognition that Netflix does. There's a couple reasons for that. One is that Netflix has amazing original programming like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black (though Amazon is catching up with well-received offerings like Transparent). But there's also the fact that Amazon's unlimited streaming offering, for $99 a year Amazon Prime members, has a more limited catalog of films and shows.

    But limited is all in how you look at it. While the gigantic holes in Netflix's streaming lineup can be filled by also subscribing to Netflix's DVD/Blu-ray rentals, Amazon's holes don't require DVDs (not that Amazon won't gladly sell them to you). In fact, you can avoid ever buying physical media again because just about every single new release, or even videos that are no longer streaming to Prime members, are typically available to buy or rent for your streaming pleasure. (Typical price for an HD rental such as The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is $4.99 (HD) or $3.99 (SD) to rent, or $17.99 (HD) or $12.99 (SD) to buy. New TV shows also crop up on Amazon Prime to buy for $1.99 to $2.99 per episode, sometimes the day after airing.

    That bit of sticker shock keeps the streaming mainly to the Prime members, who also enjoy free two-day shipping on items and book borrowing (rather than buying) on Kindles, not to mention Prime Music and Prime Photos.

    Amazon tends to group TV shows on a season-by-season basis—for example, you can't just add Justified once and watch the four streaming seasons; you must add each season to your Prime WatchList individually. It also differs in the interface on all devices—Netflix and Amazon Prime Streaming never look much alike, not even on a device like an Xbox 360.

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    But what matters most is the selection, and Amazon still has some pretty great options. Amazon's own original show slate (currently represented in part by the very excellent Alpha House with John Goodman) will be growing soon, including a new horror series by X-Files creator Chris Carter, The After, the pilot of which is currently available to stream.

    For the geeks like us—fans of sci-fi, fantasy, and tech—we present to you our 60 Amazonian favorites, a list of 30 movies and 30 TV shows, and all of them streaming for Prime members at no extra cost.

    Curious about the geekiest stuff to stream on Netflix? Take a look at our collection of top 50 movies and 50 TV shows streaming now.

    About Our Expert

    Eric Griffith

    Eric Griffith

    Senior Editor, Features

    My Experience

    I've been writing about computers, the internet, and technology professionally since 1992, more than half of that time with PCMag. I arrived at the end of the print era of PC Magazine as a senior writer. I served for a time as managing editor of business coverage before settling back into the features team for the last decade and a half. I write features on all tech topics, plus I handle several special projects, including the Readers' Choice and Business Choice surveys and yearly coverage of the Best ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs, Best Products of the Year, and Best Brands (plus the Best Brands for Tech Support, Longevity, and Reliability).

    I started in tech publishing right out of college, writing and editing stories about hardware and development tools. I migrated to software and hardware coverage for families, and I spent several years exclusively writing about the then-burgeoning technology called Wi-Fi. I was on the founding staff of several magazines, including Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine. All of which are now defunct, and it's not my fault. I have freelanced for publications as diverse as Sony Style, Playboy.com, and Flux. I got my degree at Ithaca College in, of all things, television/radio. But I minored in writing so I'd have a future.

    In my long-lost free time, I wrote some novels, a couple of which are not just on my hard drive: BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale," according to Publishers' Weekly) and a YA book called KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. Go get them on Kindle.

    I work from my home in Ithaca, NY, and did it long before pandemics made it cool.

    The Technology I Use

    My first computer was a Laser 128, an Apple II-compatible clone with an integrated keyboard, matched with an eye-straining monochrome green monitor. I used it to type papers in college for other people for money...until I discovered the Mac SE in the college computer room. That changed my life. My first cellphone was a Samsung Uproar—the silver one with the built-in MP3 player from the Napster days (the pre-iPod era).

    I use an iPhone 15 Pro hourly and an iPad Air infrequently (but I'm always in the market for a cheap Android tablet). I have a PlayStation 5 just to play Spider-Man, and several Windows machines, including a work-issued Lenovo ThinkPad. I talk to Alexa and Siri all day long. I do the majority of my computing on a 15-inch LG Gram laptop attached to a Thunderbolt hub to run a multi-monitor setup—I overdid it on the power needed to simply work from home.

    I'm most at home in Microsoft Word after decades of writing there. More and more, I turn to services like Google Docs, using tools like Grammarly. I use Google's Chrome browser due to an addiction to several extensions I think I can't live without, but probably could. I use Excel extensively on data-intensive stories, but for chart creation, we've switched over entirely to using Infogram for interactive features that are hard to find elsewhere. I do a lot of graphics work for my stories, but limit myself to the free and amazing Paint.NET software to edit images.

    I'm a firm evangelist for using the cloud for backup and syncing of files; I'm primarily using Dropbox, which has never failed me, but I also have redundant setups on Microsoft OneDrive, plus extra picture backups on Amazon Photos and iCloud. Why take chances? For entertainment, mine is a streaming-only household—my kid has never seen network TV and barely been exposed to commercials, thanks to Roku and Amazon Music. The house is peppered with smart speakers from Amazon for instant gratification and control of smart home devices like multiple Wyze cameras and Nest Protect smoke detectors. I've got accounts on all the major social networks, to my horror. I have a robot vacuum for each floor of the house. I want a 3D printer, but not sure what I'd use it for.

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