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Amazon's 26 notable original TV shows, ranked from worst to best (AMZN)

To understand how Amazon shows stack up, we turned to reviews aggregator Metacritic, which pulls in critic (and audience) reviews from all over the world.

Amazon is spending a boatload making TV shows and movies for its Prime service, and was one of the big winners at the 2018 Golden Globes, with two wins for "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

The show's star, Rachel Brosnahan, who goes from 50s housewife to stand-up comic, won the Globe for best actress in a comedy series or musical. The show also won the Globe for best comedy series or musical.

But "Maisel" wasn't Amazon's first hit. The tech giant has carved out a niche for itself in comedies, with "Transparent" and "Mozart in the Jungle" both scoring with critics.

And Amazon is looking to expand beyond that. In November, Amazon paid a reported $250 million to acquire rights to "The Lord of the Rings" series, which it will to turn into a prequel TV show, with plans for spin-offs in the future.

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With Amazon's catalog continuing to grow, which shows are worth your time?

Here are Amazon's original shows, ranked based on their critical reception:

No. 26: "Crisis in Six Scenes" — 44/100

No. 25: "Hand of God" — 44/100

No. 24: "The Collection" — 56/100

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No. 23: "The Last Tycoon" — 57/100

Average critic score: 57/100

Audience score: 6.1/10

Amazon description: "Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's final unfinished novel, studio exec Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer) clashes with studio head Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer) as Brady's daughter Celia (Lily Collins) seeks a way into the industry and Monroe's heart in 1930s Hollywood."

No. 22: "Lore" — 60/100

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Average critic score: 60/100

Audience score: 4.2/10

Amazon description: "From an Executive Producer of The Walking Dead and an Executive Producer of The X-Files, this anthology series brings to life Aaron Mahnke's "Lore" podcast and uncovers the real-life events that spawned our darkest nightmares. Blending dramatic scenes, animation, archive and narration, Lore reveals how our horror legends - such as vampires, werewolves and body snatchers - are rooted in truth."

No. 21: "Z: The Beginning of Everything" — 61/100

Average critic score: 61/100

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Audience score: 6.1/10

Amazon description: "'Z: The Beginning of Everything' tells the story of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, the brilliant, beautiful Southern Belle who became the original flapper and icon of the wild, flamboyant Jazz Age."

No. 20: "Doctor Thorne" — 64/100

No. 19: "Mad Dogs" — 64/100

No. 18: "Good Girls Revolt" — 65/100

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Average critic score: 65/100

Audience score: 6.7/10

Amazon description: "In 1969, while a cultural revolution swept through the free world, there was still one place that refused to change with the times: newsrooms. Good Girls Revolt follows a group of young female researchers at "News of the Week," who ask to be treated fairly. Their revolutionary request sparks convulsive changes and upends marriages, careers, sex lives, love lives, and friendships."

No. 17: "Goliath" — 65/100

No. 16: "Comrade Detective" — 67/100

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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. 15: "Alpha House" — 68/100

No. 14: "Patriot" — 68/100

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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. 13: "Betas" — 69/100

No. 12: "The Man in the High Castle" — 70/100

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No. 11: "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. 10: "I Love Dick" — 73/100

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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. 9: "Mozart in the Jungle" — 76/100

No. 8: "Bosch" — 76/100

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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

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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

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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

BONUS: "The Grand Tour"

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"The Grand Tour," Amazon's blockbuster car show from the "Top Gear" team, doesn't have traditional ratings from critics, but it's one of Amazon's most popular shows.

Amazon description: "Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are back with The Grand Tour. A show about adventure, excitement and friendship... as long as you accept that the people you call friends are also the ones you find extremely annoying. Sometimes it's even a show about cars."

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