Prime Video offered a score of great TV shows in 2025, but these are the ones that let us down!
Prime Video had a good 2025 with great entries such as The Boys, Gen V, Ballard and some “guilty pleasure” hits like The Girlfriend. There were also shows that sadly were too short-lived, such as Motorheads and The Bondsman, and that’s not counting the shows brought over from abroad.
However, Prime Video did have some letdowns in 2025. Not all the shows were bad per se, but felt like they never reached the potential they should have. They boasted great actors, top creators and often good concepts, and should have been hits but didn’t reach those heights. A few have already been canceled, while others can continue and hopefully improve. These are seven Prime Video shows that disappointed in 2025 to show that not everything the streamer created was great this year.
1. Countdown
Countdown should have been a huge success. It had a top star in Jensen Ackles, a plot line of a task force trying to stop a terrorist attack in Los Angeles and a nice twist of a time jump in mid-season for a new plot. Sadly, the show never quite connected as it should have, coming off rather clichéd and not a 24-style thrill ride.
Ackles was good but came off as too much of a jerk at times and his would-be romance with a fellow agent had no chemistry. The show got more boring as it went on, rather than amping up the stakes and the second half threat didn’t feel as important. It’s little wonder Amazon canceled it after one season on a cliffhanger, as Countdown lived up to its name, heading for a fast finish.
2. Butterfly
Amazon’s other big spy series this year fared worse than Countdown. Daniel Dae Kim was well cast as a spy reaching out to his long estranged daughter, and the family dynamics gave the story more push. It had decent action as well, while the story didn’t reach the importance the show thought it did. The writing wasn’t strong either, which undermined the performances.
Then there was the out-of-nowhere cliffhanger ending that came off less shocking than trite. Like Countdown, this show was canceled quickly as 2025 was a bad year for Prime Video spy series.
3. The Runarounds
Coming from the creators of Netflix’s hit Outer Banks, The Runarounds had a lot of hype. It told a classic tale of a group of friends forming a band over the summer, and casting real musicians gave it some musical cred. The result was lacking, however, as the musicians didn’t possess the acting chops required to make the story work.
It wasn’t helped by the overlong episode lengths, making the banal writing, cliched storylines, poor melodrama and thinly written characters come off worse. While not a terrible show, it was nowhere near as fun as Banks to hit a sour note for various viewers.
4. The Rig
The first season of this sci-fi drama was quite good, pitting the crew of an oil rig against a strange alien threat. That first season could have worked as a limited series, while expanding it was a risk. That risk was proven by what a letdown the sophomore season was, starting with the contrived explanation of putting the same crew on another rig with another mysterious threat.
The characters lacked the charm of the first season, making stupid decisions and an unwanted redemption for a top villain. The CGI was the only thing improved when the overall arc was a step back. This could have been a wonderful new genre show, but yet another case of a series fun in its initial season collapsing in the second.
5. Malice
There is no shortage of streaming series revolving around the dark world of the wealthy and Malice did nothing to stand out. It was an obvious mix of The White Lotus and Saltburn as a “manny” (Jack Whitehall) works for a wealthy family while harboring a secret desire to either destroy them or take over their lives. Despite a great turn by David Duchovny, the series never matched the “guilty pleasure” vibes it was hoping to achieve.
The first episode dragged too much rather than set the mood and while the finale did have a big twist, it felt much longer than the six episodes it was. The awkward dialogue and agonizingly slow pace showed this would have been a respectable TV movie instead of being dragged out over six hours. It wasn’t bad, just forgettable at the end, even if the ending seems set for another season.
6. Etoile
It’s easy to slam Amazon for giving this Amy Sherman-Palladino comedy a second-season renewal before it aired, then canceling it less than a week after its premiere. However, when one watches the whole season, Amazon’s decision is a bit more understandable. The show had Sherman-Palladino’s trademark wit and dialogue and the celebration of the world of ballet was nicely done.
What let it down were too many strange bits (Simon Callow’s corrupt billionaire felt like he was in a completely different series) and how the second half of the season was a comedown in terms of storytelling and the characters coming off worse. It wasn’t terrible and deserved that second season, yet given the creator and concept, this should have danced into more viewers’ hearts.
7. Lazarus
Maybe Harlan Coben just works better on Netflix. Somehow, Prime Video’s attempts to adapt the best-selling author don’t work as well and Lazarus proved it. Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy were very good in their roles as the son investigating his father’s death. It was more supernatural-themed with the possibility of real ghosts and filmed well, but let down by the clunky dialogue and often ridiculous plot twists.
That built to the finale, a cliffhanger never intending to have any resolution as a limited series. Rather than the top-notch psychological adventure viewers expected, this Lazarus never rose from the grave of poor storytelling.