Amazon has just raised its prices in the Prime mode. With this service, the user, for 36 euros a year (before 20) has at their disposal free shipping and, sometimes, up to 24 hours, preferential access to special offers, as well as a catalog of movies and series under the name from Amazon Prime Video. It happens that a good number of users do not know that they have this 'extra' that also includes a selection of digital books and songs that they can download to listen to offline.
It is, perhaps, the problem of focusing a service on its star function, that is, that of free shipping and in 24 hours , that the rest of the services are somewhat overshadowed. "How, that I have access to movies and series just by paying Amazon Prime?", "That I could use it and I didn't know I had it?" I have heard these phrases when I spoke of the service to friends who had Amazon Prime.
Since it began its journey in Spain, the Amazon Prime Video catalog has seen its number increase enormously, and it is no longer the wasteland it was when we opened its catalog for the first time. However, it is no longer such a satisfactory catalog, especially in number, if we compare it with Netflix or in quality if we compare it with HBO (with important series in the future of television history such as The Sopranos or The Wire or the popular Game of Thrones).
This is the Amazon Prime Video catalog
The Amazon Prime Video catalog is somewhat quaint. You have to spend precious time putting together a good watchlist as the content is as disparate as having, for example, a sports documentary, an Asian gore movie, or a comedy car show. A disaster drawer where premiere titles are scarce but those that exist are powerful; where, from time to time, you are surprised with the purchase of a series that you had forgotten and that you loved (Married with children) and in which, if you are a fan of Bollywood cinema (the one that is made in India), you will be the sea at ease.
What series can we see on Amazon Prime Video that are worth it?
The series that we can find on Amazon Prime Video are divided into two large groups . On the one hand we have our own production series and, on the other, purchases made in other chains to be able to distribute them on their platform.
Within the first group we have:
- Jack Ryan , the latest addition to the Amazon Prime Video catalog and one of its strengths, especially for fans of action and espionage.
- The wonderful Mrs. Maisel . With an exquisite setting, we follow the trail of Mrs. Maisel, a wealthy woman from her home who, at the end of the 1950s, realizes the suffocating feminist yoke that submits her and decides to take the reins of her own destiny… trying his luck as a stand-up comedy writer.
- Goliath. If you are a fan of Billy Bob Thornton you should not miss this series. If you like the stories of lawyers and corruption of the system you cannot miss it.
- American Gods . This series is dedicated to lovers of fantasy and horror films. Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, it tells the vicissitudes of a series of gods that live among us in the landscape of deep America.
In the second group we have:
- The Office. Already a classic of contemporary television comedy, in turn remake of a series created by Ricky Gervais. We have all the seasons available but with one drawback: it does not have subtitles in Spanish. The series has no less than 15 different languages to choose from and does not include Spanish.
- Parks and Recreation. What began as a spin off of The Office ended up being an entity with its own personality thanks to a maddening plot and, above all, a wonderful cast of actors. This series does include subtitles in Spanish.
- Marriage with children. One of the funniest and most caustic series about the family, an icon in the 90s.
- Seinfeld. Possibly the most influential comedy series in history, you have it complete on Amazon Prime Video.
There are many more series of undoubted interest, such as' The man in the castle '' This is us', 'I love Dick', 'The Purge' (adaptation to the small screen of the horror saga 'The purge'), ' Mozart in the Jungle '… Apparently there is little to scratch, but if you become a little interested, products of interest begin to appear .
And as for the cinema?
The premieres falter, but as on any other platform. We could even go so far as to say that on Amazon Prime Video they take more care of premieres than on other platforms such as HBO. Movies as recent as 'The Florida Project'(released in theaters in February this year), 'The sacrifice of a sacred deer', from December 2017 or 'Arrives at night', a horror film released in July 2017, made an appearance some time ago, but without any advertising. The problem with Amazon, if it could be called such, is that its film production policy involves theatrical release, as happened with the Oscar-winning 'Manchester under the sea'. Netflix has more of its own production, and also destined for the premiere on its own platform, as has been the case of the winner in Venice 'Roma' by Alfonso Cuarón.
What else can we see on Amazon Prime Video?
We repeat the same thing we said before. To get the best out of Amazon Prime Video, you have to stand in front of the application, whether on your mobile, computer or Smart TV, and spend an afternoon researching the content. There is a great multitude of unpublished films in Spain at our fingertips, from unknown cinematographies, such as the Japanese 'Vampire Clay' (an art school where demons are made of clay) or the Thai 'Samui Song' (Thai noir film) , sports programs that analyze the most important teams in the Spanish League (Six Dreams) and countless self-help documentaries.
Amazon Prime Video is undoubtedly a disaster drawer, not helped by a somewhat chaotic application design, but in which there is much, much to scratch. And for 36 euros a year ( 3 euros a month ) we can only opt for this service. Everything will depend on the effort that the user has in discovering everything good about this platform, that it has it, but, perhaps, not as visible as Netflix.