7 AMC TV Gems That You Can Now Enjoy on Netflix

AMC carved out a place in television history with three of the most acclaimed shows of their era: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead. But it’s also relatively quietly been showcasing other creative voices on both its cable channel and their AMC+ streaming service. In August 2024, in the United States only, Netflix did something unusual: It launched the AMC Collection, a portal of not just the hits about meth dealers and zombies but also shows that were previously available only on AMC+. Like HBO last year, AMC licensing many of its cable shows to the platform (in addition to putting them on AMC+) is just the latest strategic move in a period of rapid streaming and entertainment consolidation.

“This agreement puts our high-quality shows in front of the vast audience of Netflix subscribers with the AMC brand clearly represented,” says Kristin Dolan, CEO of AMC Networks. “These curated titles are also being strategically windowed to drive interest in current and upcoming seasons on our direct-to-consumer and partner platforms.” It’s easy to see at least one of these shows doing what Suits did last year and becoming a hit for the streamer, while bringing a new audience to an old show. (Three of them landed in Netflix’s top ten in under 24 hours.) AMC is thinking the same way. “We believe this significant expansion of our Netflix relationship will drive viewership and engagement on Netflix, while also raising awareness and interest in our award-winning content,” says Dolan.

But where do you start? While seasons of Fear the Walking Dead, Into the Badlands, A Discovery of Witches, Mayfair Witches, That Dirty Black Bag, and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon were also added, these are the seven highlights of the new crop, an array of original programming that reflects the quality of the AMC Collection, and possibly hints at the future.

Note: The information below describes what’s on Netflix. In some cases, like Interview With the Vampire, for example, later seasons are not yet available on the streamer.

Monsieur Spade

Year: 2024
Length: One season, six episodes
Creators: Scott Frank, Tom Fontana

Dashiell Hammett’s classic character comes to life again in this sharply made, brilliantly acted drama co-created by the man who wrote Out of Sight and the guy who created Oz. That’s a hell of a pedigree, and it shows in one of the best programs of 2024, a miniseries that plays more like a feature film. Clive Owen does his best work in years as a retired iteration of Sam Spade, living a simple life in the South of France in the ’60s when six nuns are brutally murdered at a nearby convent. At the same time, a name from Spade’s past surfaces, leading the detective to question what really matters to him most. Frank and Fontana’s gifts for dialogue match the wit one expects from a character like Spade, and Owen totally nails the role without feeling like he’s doing an imitation of the legends who played Sam before.

Dark Winds

Year: 2022-23
Length: Two seasons, 12 episodes
Creator: Graham Roland

Tony Hillerman is one of the most beloved fiction writers of the modern American West, crafting thrillers that typically take place on Native American land in the region known as Four Corners. His most famous series of books detail a veteran and newbie pair of Navajo Tribal Police officers named Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, played in this series by Zahn McClarnon and Kiowa Gordon, respectively. Set in the 1970s in the Southwest, each season of Dark Winds tells a standalone mystery, while also pushing forward the remarkable depth of character on this show, especially in McClarnon’s performance, one that deserved an Emmy nomination both seasons that it didn’t get.

Interview With the Vampire

Year: 2022
Length: One season, seven episodes
Creator: Rolin Jones

Anne Rice’s hit 1976 novel was famously adapted into a feature film in 1994 with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt that notoriously discarded much of the queer subtext of the source. Three decades later, AMC’s version of Lestat and Louis has the cultural space to correct the record and carve out its own identity, becoming one of the most buzzed shows on cable television in the 2020s, especially for the recently ended second season. The first is on Netflix, introducing viewers to Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid’s versions of these bloodsuckers through the same structure: an interview with a journalist played by the great Eric Bogosian. Stylish, sexy, and gorgeously rendered, this is one of the best genre shows on any network. And the buzz is only growing. (A third season, to be based on The Vampire Lestat, was recently announced.)

Gangs of London

Year: 2020-22
Length: Two seasons, 18 episodes
Creators: Gareth Evans, Matt Flannery

Believe it or not, this is technically a video-game adaptation, as it was loosely inspired by a Sony Entertainment title of the same name from 2006. Of course, it was also inspired by generations of stories of warring families who have made their fortunes on violence. In this case, it’s rival gangs in modern London, led by patriarch Finn Wallace (Colm Meaney), whose son, Sean (Joe Cole), is ready to take over the family business. It’s kind of like Succession meets The Departed, anchored by sharp plotting and a truly phenomenal performance from Sope Dirisu as Elliot/Finch, an undercover cop working his way into the Wallace family. One more thing: This was co-created by the man who gave the world The Raid and its banger of a sequel.

The Terror

Year: 2018
Length: One season, ten episodes
Creators: Max Borenstein, Alexander Woo

Dan Simmons’s 2007 novel The Terror imagined what might have happened on a famously lost expedition to the Arctic that Captain Sir John Franklin undertook in the middle of the 19th century. Oscar nominee Ciaran Hinds plays Franklin, alongside the great Jared Harris as Captain Crozier and Tobias Menzies as Commander Fitzjames. The cast clearly rules but this is more of a study in atmosphere and, well, terror than a character study. Imagine being stuck in the middle of nowhere, knowing that you are hundreds of miles from home and safety, as the inexplicable starts to happen all around. The Terror is one of the best survival horror shows of all time, following by The Terror: Infamy (which is not currently on Netflix) and the in-production The Terror: Devil in Silver, premiering in 2025.

Kevin Can F**k Himself

Year: 2021-22
Length: Two seasons, 16 episodes
Creator: Valerie Armstrong

Schitt’s Creek Emmy winner Annie Murphy stars in this clever show as Allison McRoberts, the put-upon wife of what is essentially a sitcom archetype. Think Leah Remini in King of Queens. In half of this show, Allison appears in a sitcom version of her life, complete with a laugh track implicitly encouraging every boorish behavior of her husband, Kevin (Eric Petersen). The other half takes place off the imaginary soundstage as Allison starts to dream about killing her husband and might be ready to make her dreams come true. Unlike anything else on TV, this struggled to find an audience, canceled after only two seasons, but it’s well worth your time for Murphy and Petersen’s excellent work, balancing sitcom tropes with the dark truths that sometimes shape them.

Preacher

Year: 2016-19
Length: Four seasons, 43 episodes
Creators: Sam Catlin, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg

Unlike a lot of recent additions to the AMC Collection, here’s a multi-season offering that you can binge in its entirety. And you should, especially if you’re even loosely familiar with the source material, a great comic-book series from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Dominic Cooper plays Jesse Custer, a preacher who’s not your normal man of God. Cooper is charismatic and fun, but the show is full-on stolen by the amazing Ruth Negga (recently seen in Presumed Innocent), who plays Jesse’s tough-talking girlfriend. Developed for HBO, AMC swooped in and rescued this show when the cable network dumped it, giving its unique blend of religion, violence, and humor a deserving platform.