Watch these 3 incredible AMC shows added to Max for a limited time

Watch these 3 incredible AMC shows added to Max for a limited time

Time Stamp: September 6, 2023 2:00 PM

In one of the more unusual updates to a streaming catalog, Max parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has struck a deal with AMC Networks to host seasons from seven AMC series in a pop-up catalog billed as “AMC Plus Picks.” From Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, Max subscribers on both ad-free and ad-supported tiers can stream episodes of Fear the Walking Dead, A Discovery of Witches, Gangs of London, Killing Eve, Ride with Norman Reedus, Dark Winds, and Interview with the Vampire.

That’s a solid roster of hits that are currently only streaming on AMC Plus, and a great way to check out some fantastic television shows that are hard to catch if your streaming options are limited. Granted, it’s also a lot of television, so if you’re short on time, here’s a little secret: The very best shows in this lineup are also the three shortest ones. Check it out:

Interview with the Vampire

A man floats towards a bookcase mounted on the ceiling in a modern spare apartment as two men look on in front of a cherry blossom tree in AMC’s Interview with the Vampire. Photo: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC

This is easily the best thing AMC has put out in a while, and the one show I wish was more widely available. A luscious, bloody take on Anne Rice’s Southern Gothic opus, Interview with the Vampire is the follow-up fans of NBC’s Hannibal have been dying for: a horror story equally romantic and chilling. It’s a story told in flashback, as Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) tells a modern-day journalist his history as a wealthy Black man in 1910s New Orleans, and his encounter with the charming Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), the man who will turn him into a vampire.

Like Hannibal before it, Interview with the Vampire succeeds because it foregrounds the homoerotic subtext of its central pair. In this retelling, Lestat’s siring of Louis is not a metaphor for a sexual affair; it’s very much part of a passionate romance with the worst person of all time. The entire seven-episode first season is available on Max, and season 2 is expected to arrive in 2024.

Gangs of London

Sope Dirisu’s Elliot Finch is seen mid strike as he brawls in a coat in AMC’s Gangs of London Photo: AMC/Sky

At first blush, Gangs of London appears to be a run-of-the-mill crime drama, the type of show with grimy thrills you can find on countless other series, like Peaky Blinders or Snowfall. Gangs of London has a secret weapon, though: The Raid and The Raid 2 director Gareth Evans at the helm for the series’ incredible action sequences.

It’s unbelievable to see Evans’ signature brutal approach to violence applied to a television show, and Gangs of London routinely feels like it’s pulling off something that ought to be illegal — most evidently in the first season’s showstopping fifth episode, a harrowing 24-minute shootout that’s among the best in cinema. Evans ultimately departs the series for its second season, which is also on Max and available to watch. Check that one out if you’re so inclined, but the first is unmissable.

Dark Winds

Zahn McClarnon as officer Joe Leaphorn raises a flashlight and a gun on a desert night with neon lights behind him in AMC’s Dark Winds. Photo: Michael Moriatis/Stalwart Productions/AMC

Based on Tony Hillerman’s crime novels following Navajo cops Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, Dark Winds takes the slick restraint of pulpy Elmore Leonard adaptations like Justified and applies it to Arizona’s Navajo County for a gritty ’70s-set mystery. Leaphorn, played by Zahn McClarnon, is a tribal police officer drawn into a grim mystery while investigating grisly murders in a motel room. The murders take Leaphorn, his new deputy Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), and the audience for a tour along the fault lines of the United States’ relationship with just one of its Native nations in a meticulous thriller that, at just six episodes, will blow right by. Just in time for you to jump into season 2, which is currently airing — just not on Max.

Time Stamp:

More from Polygon