They came close to perfection: here are the new Amazon series that caused a sensation this year.
The best of 2023. Throughout the month of December, AlloCiné offers you thematic tops based on viewer ratings, to highlight the best films and series of the year and suggest some catch-up sequences.
This year, Prime Video’s new series have been poignant, gripping, exciting and even rivaled the cinema. From stunning melodrama to a high-energy fake biopic, a taboo comedy, a French war series worthy of an American blockbuster and a certain “zombie” phenomenon of the year: it’s all there. Discover the Top 5 2023 best new Prime Video series according to AlloCiné viewers!
5th – Wild Flowers 4.1/5
Amazon Prime Video
Fans of melodrama, dysfunctional family stories and lovers of the great outdoors, this Australian mini-series is made for you.
Adapted from the book of the same name by Holly Ringland, Wildflowers follows Alice Hart, a child from a violent home who, orphaned after a tragic and mysterious fire, goes to live with her grandmother June (Sigourney Weaver) whom she never encountered before. She then moved to Thornfield, the latter’s flower farm which is also a home for women who have been violently abused by their spouses. There, she will learn that her family is hiding many secrets…
It’s difficult not to get carried away by this story driven by a top-notch cast: little Alyla Browne (Alice) shines with naturalness, vulnerability, enthusiasm and naivety, while Alycia Debnam-Carey (The 100, Fear The Walking Dead) perfectly embodies its adult version which has retained a wild character. And then there is Sigourney Weaver – also executive producer of the series – as majestic as ever. Photography also plays a big role in this gem of a series, paying homage to Australia and serving the story with accuracy and emotion.
4th – Daisy Jones and The Six 4.1/5
Lacey Terrell/Prime Video
Loosely inspired by the story of the group Fleetwood Mac and adapted from the best-seller of the same name, Daisy Jones and The Six is one of the event series of 2023 – approved by Stevie Nicks to boot.
Much like the novel before it, the show chronicles the rise and fall of a major fictional rock band in the seventies through fake interviews with the various members, fake archival footage and the recording of a real album – which also occupied first place in the iTunes ranking – to better blur reality and fiction. Produced, among others, by Reese Witherspoon, this false biopic that is definitely rock’n’roll may be fabricated from scratch despite its quasi-documentary form but is no less exciting, inspiring and highly charged.
3rd – Alphonse 4.2/5
Amazon Prime Video
Alphonse is the first series by Nicolas Bedos, a six-episode comedy based on an idea he had alongside Jean Dujardin, who plays the main role brilliantly.
The story follows this Alphonse, a forty-year-old in the midst of his professional and marital failure who discovers a surprising vocation – while reconnecting with a father he barely knows at the same time. His trajectory will then cross that of a galaxy of women, each more exciting and eccentric than the last, plunging him into the heart of a story that is at once perilous, transgressive and full of tenderness.
With Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nicole Garcia and Pierre Arditi also in the cast, Alphonse is an addictive series that explodes taboos, and is cynical, saucy and provocative like Nicolas Bedos himself. But the show is also funny, deep, sensitive and touching. It’s worth the detour, absolutely.
2nd – The Last of Us 4.3/5
HBO
Whether you’re a fan of the video game or not, you couldn’t have missed The Last of Us in 2023. A real event series of the year, this HBO adaptation enjoyed immense public and critical success as as evidenced by its 24 nominations for the 2023 Emmy Awards: a record for a video game adaptation!
The Last of Us tells what happens twenty years after the destruction of modern civilization and follows Joel, a seasoned survivor, hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a quarantine zone. What begins as a small mission quickly turns into a brutal and harrowing journey across the United States that will test their humanity and their will to survive.
This is a series that has everyone in agreement. Powerful, poignant, terrifying and carried by an endearing duo – played by two Game of Thrones veterans, the masterful Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey with perfect alchemy – we quickly let ourselves be seduced by this “zombie story” which is good more than this. In addition to benefiting from a quality storyline and superb production, the anticipation series also stands out for the attention paid to the development of its characters, even secondary ones. Here, we focus more on the psychological aspect of the apocalypse than on its horrific side (which is nevertheless there and almost even more terrifying): it is terribly sublime, with a striking visual and emotional beauty. Quite simply a monument of the small screen.
1st – Black Hearts 4.4/5
Amazon Prime Video
Cœurs Noirs created a surprise this year. The new original creation from Prime Video, led by Nicolas Duvauchelle, Tewfik Jallab and Marie Dompnier, even dethroned The Last of Us by placing itself at the top of the most watched programs on the platform.
A spectacular and breathtaking immersion into the daily life of a French Special Forces commando in Iraq – a first of its kind – the series takes place on the eve of the Battle of Mosul, in October 2016. The members of this commando have the mission to find and exfiltrate the daughter and grandson of an important French Emir of Daesh whom they captured and who will only cooperate with them on this condition.
On the program, tension and explosions worthy of a blockbuster: the series is breathtaking, realistic and documented, but also pure entertainment which questions the notion of heroism. Between moments of ordinary life and spectacular action scenes, it is both intimate and strong, and its subject is enhanced by the performance of its actors who, for the most part, underwent training with the Special Forces before filming. , and who truthfully embody soldiers plunged into horror. Spread the word, Black Hearts has nothing to envy of American productions and must be viewed.
Ranking made up of series released on Amazon Prime Video in 2023 and counting 250 minimum ratings. Don’t hesitate to post your notes and reviews on the sheets for these series (and others), and to post your own top in the comments below!