The other commenter gave the correct answer I think - critical/audience reception kinda tapered off.

And water-cooler show, I meant more like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, White Lotus, Last of Us, Ted Lasso, Stranger Things, Yellowstone kinda. Shows that have a strong social and cultural impact - Amazon has been trying hard to get something like that (most notably Rings of Power) for some reason despite their resources can’t seem to make it happen.

Prime really wants to break into “prestige” television on the level of HBO, but they’ve never quite been able to make a water-cooler show no matter how much money they throw at it.

The closest they’ve come is The Boys, but even that isn’t on the level of HBO/classic AMC offerings. I wonder what the missing ingredient is.

C H O C O L A T E!

I was using those shows as rough examples to make my point, not a point by point run down of every culturally relevant show both services have put out lol.

Plus I’m talking about shows that entered the cultural zeitgeist, not necessarily just critically acclaimed shows.

ROP was supposed to the show that put Amazon Studios on the map, their bid for cultural relevance that HBO/Netflix got with Game of Thrones, Euphoria, Stranger Things, the Dahmer show I guess, etc.

The numbers, amongst every other indicator, imply that it did….adequately. Ok. Decent. Solid even. But it’s not the Next Big Show that Everyone Is Talking About.

Set aside 11 1/2 hours and watch the extended editions homie, and it’ll become a yearly tradition for you same as the rest of us.