Unlike its lackluster original dramas, multiple Amazon comedies have won Emmys and Golden Globes.
Amazon's 15 original comedy TV shows, ranked from worst to best (AMZN)
To understand how Amazon comedies stack up, we turned to reviews aggregator Metacritic, which pulls in critic (and audience) reviews from all over the world.
Its comedy "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" about a 50s housewife turned stand-up comic, which debuted its first season in November 2017, was one of big winners at the 2018 Golden Globes with two major wins.
But "Maisel" wasn't Amazon's first hit comedy. Amazon developed its prowess in comedies that blur the line with heavy drama with the Emmy and Golden Globe winner "Transparent," Golden Globe winner "Mozart in the Jungle," and the very dark British comedy "Fleabag."
But not all of Amazon's comedies have performed well. Though promising, the superhero comedy "The Tick" got mixed reviews, and Woody Allen's "Crisis In Six Scenes" was Amazon's worst original ever, according to critics.
Here are Amazon's original shows, ranked based on their critical reception:
No. 15: "Crisis in Six Scenes" — 44/100
No. 14: "Comrade Detective" — 67/100
Average critic score: 67/100
Audience score: 7.7/10
Amazon description: "In the 1980s, millions of Romanians tuned in to Comrade Detective, a gritty, sexy, communist buddy cop show that has now been digitally remastered and dubbed into English for the first time by a cast featuring Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Jenny Slate, Nick Offerman and many more."
No. 13: "Alpha House" — 68/100
No. 12: "Patriot" — 68/100
Average critic score: 68/100
Audience score: 7.9/10
Amazon description: "To prevent Iran from going nuclear, intelligence officer John Tavner must forgo all safety nets and assume a perilous 'non-official cover' -- that of a mid-level employee at a Midwestern industrial piping firm."
No. 11: "Betas" — 69/100
No. 10: "The Tick" — 72/100
Average critic score: 72/100
Audience score: 7.2/10
Amazon description: "In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an accountant with mental health issues and zero powers comes to suspect his city is owned by a global super villain long-thought dead. As he struggles to uncover the conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero. They launch into an adventure brimming with crazed archvillains, blood-soaked vigilantes, and superhuman freakery."
No. 9: "I Love Dick" — 73/100
Average critic score: 73/100
Audience score: 6.4/10
Amazon description: "Adapted from the lauded feminist novel, I LOVE DICK is set in a colorful academic community in Marfa, Texas. It tells the story of a struggling married couple, Chris and Sylvere, and their obsession with a charismatic professor named Dick. Told in Rashomon-style shifts of POV, I LOVE DICK charts the unraveling of a marriage, the awakening of an artist and the deification of a reluctant messiah."
No. 8: "Mozart in the Jungle" — 76/100
No. 7: "One Mississippi" — 77/100
Average critic score: 77/100
Audience score: 7.1/10
Amazon description: "'One Mississippi' is a dark comedy inspired by comedian Tig Notaro's life. Tig returns to her hometown in Mississippi, where she contends with the death of her mother and her own mortality as she embarks on a painful yet hilarious journey that unearths uncomfortable truths about her family and her self."
No. 6: "Sneaky Pete" — 77/100
Average critic score: 77/100
Audience score: 7.7/10
Amazon description: "A con man (Giovanni Ribisi) on the run from a vicious gangster (Bryan Cranston) takes cover from his past by assuming the identity of his prison cellmate, Pete, "reuniting" with Pete's estranged family, a colorful, dysfunctional group that threatens to drag him into a world just as dangerous as the one he's trying to escape - and, just maybe, give him a taste of the loving family he's never had."
No. 5: "Red Oaks" — 79/100
No. 4: "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" — 80/100
In 1958 New York, Midge Maisel's life is on track- husband, kids, and elegant Yom Kippur dinners in their Upper West Side apartment. But when her life takes a surprise turn, she has to quickly decide what else she's good at - and going from housewife to stand-up comic is a wild choice to everyone but her."
No. 3: "Fleabag" — 88/100
No. 2: "Catastrophe" — 89/100
No. 1: "Transparent" — 92/100