Just as we get closer to Halloween, Prime Video’s big October release of the year, Carrie, has been ousted from the top of the streamer’s TV rankings. The new number one show on the service this week is The Terminal List, which returned with a second season last Wednesday. Created by David DiGilio and starring Chris Pratt, the action thriller series is adapted from the novel by Jack Carr, with the latest season adapting Carr’s 2019 follow-up novel, True Believer. Despite a general lack of enthusiasm from critics, the show has proven to be a consistent audience favorite, but it’s hardly the only thing worth checking out on the platform. Here’s a look at three great shows that we think you should binge this week on Prime Video.
Created by Vivienne “VivziePop” Medrano, Helluva Boss is an adult animated black comedy musical series that’s set in the same universe as her other hit animated series, Hazbin Hotel. The show revolves around an assassination company in Hell, following the employees, called Immediate Murder Professionals (IMPs), as they embark on various misadventures while trying to do their job. The series’ voice cast stars Brandon Rogers, Richard Horvitz, Vivian Nixon, Erica Lindbeck, Bryce Pinkham, Alex Brightman, and more.
Like Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss started on Medrano’s YouTube channel, where it built a cult fan following over two seasons and was eventually picked up by Prime Video. Praised by critics and fans alike for its animation, music, edgy humor, and LGBTQ+ representation, the show takes a unique approach to the familiar workplace comedy premise, with a cast of well-crafted characters and some hilarious writing. The show just released the final episode of its third season last week, so this is a great time to binge it all.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring
Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.
😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)
🧸Chucky(Child’s Play)
📞Scream(Ghostface)
🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)
01
Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.
02
You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.
03
Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.
04
Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.
05
How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.
06
Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.
07
Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.
08
Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.
The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath
your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what
it would leave behind.
A Nightmare on Elm Street · Since 1984
Elm Street
Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you
to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever
won that particular argument.
Freddy is horror’s cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot
guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your
own head is where this does its damage.
These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose
because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.
Child’s Play · Chucky · Since 1988
Chucky
Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the
person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.
Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you
describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You
know that feeling from real life too.
The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you
have met those adults.
By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.
Scream · Ghostface · Since 1996
Scream
Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost
certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be
somebody who was at the party.
You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the
same way you watch films.
The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are
the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.
The Conjuring · The Warren Files · Since 2013
The Conjuring
Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people
asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.
The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary
room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than
personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are
the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one
standing in the hallway.
2
‘Scream Queens’ (2015–2016)
Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan, Scream Queens is a satirical dark comedy slasher show that pokes fun at the tropes and clichés of the genre. The show’s first season is set in a fictional university and follows the members of the sorority Kappa Kappa Tau, who are mysteriously targeted by a serial killer wearing a Red Devil costume. The second season retains some of the same characters, but moves the action to a hospital. The star-studded ensemble cast includes Emma Roberts, Ariana Grande, Lea Michele, Glen Powell, Abigail Breslin, Keke Palmer, Oliver Hudson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Niecy Nash, Nick Jonas, Taylor Lautner, and many more.
It’s hard to believe a decade has passed since Scream Queens was canceled and nobody’s revived it yet, though Ryan Murphy has indicated in the past that he’s open to a new season. The perfect watch for slasher fans, especially around Halloween, the series takes inspiration from all your favorite slasher classics, adds a cast full of recognizable faces (especially the OG scream queen, Jamie Lee Curtis), and pushes the violence and comedy to their absolute limits. It may only have aired for two seasons on Fox, but Scream Queens is one hell of a ride and easily one of the best horror-comedy shows of the 2010s.
3
‘Friday Night Lights’ (2006–2011)
Developed by Peter Berg and a spiritual successor to his 2004 film of the same name, Friday Night Lights is an iconic sports drama series inspired by H. G. Bissinger’s 1990 book. Set in the rural West Texas town of Dillon, the show revolves around the high school football team and explores the many issues that plague life in everyday small towns. Kyle Chandler stars as coach Eric Taylor and Connie Britton as his wife, Tami, leading a cast that includes Gaius Charles, Zach Gilford, Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki, Taylor Kitsch, Jesse Plemons, Aimee Teegarden, Michael B. Jordan, and Jurnee Smollett, among others.
An engaging and underrated character drama that deals with important topics like school funding, racism, substance use, abortion, and more, Friday Night Lights is widely remembered as one of the best TV shows of the 2000s. Though it wasn’t necessarily a big ratings hit, the show earned very positive reviews and launched the careers of several major stars. Friday Night Lights also received several accolades during its original five-season run, including three Emmys, a Peabody Award, and an NAACP Image Award.
