The 42 Best HBO Shows
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) launched in November 1972, becoming the first modern premium cable network—meaning it charged viewers a monthly fee to access televised programming. James Andrew Miller, who wrote a door-stopping 900-plus page book about the history of the network called Tinder Box: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers, described this new frontier in an interview: “The idea that we could sit in our living room and watch a movie without commercials and without network censors blurting out language, nudity and whatever else came along, I think was startling and revolutionary at the time.”
To justify the charge, HBO needed (what we would now simply call) content. Good content. Premium content. With no commercials and no censors, HBO started with boxing. Then came stand-up comedy. Then late-night salaciousness. And then, in the late 1990s, originals. Beginning with Oz, HBO went on a content killing spree, producing the kinds of TV programs that would make the Silent Generation fall out of their chairs and spit out their iced tea. The programs were violent and crass and sexy—and real. And they were narrative. They relied on constant viewership, telling stories that weren’t contained in half-hour live-audience programming, but multiple several-hour-long seasons. In short, HBO created the modern TV drama.
And so with a head start over just about every other network, HBO now keeps one of the most robust libraries of #content around. And that library isn’t just old. We’ll say it: it’s the best collection of programing out there. So we’ve decided to rank them.
Already in its fourth decade of dramas, these are the best HBO shows of all time.
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One of the most recent entries on this list, Euphoria is also maybe one of the more divisive picks. Brilliantly impressionistic at times, the series can also veer into bombast and pretension quicker than its lead character can score some drugs at a high school party. It’s on here for its moments of take-your-breath-away theatrics.
Famed Italian director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) returns to Rome in this very weird, very sad, very slow, very Paolo Sorrentino limited series. It’s not everyone’s cup of espresso, but we think it’s just the right amount of thoughtful, artistic, and novel.
40
True Blood (2008-2014)
One of HBO’s tentpole series, True Blood somehow rose out of the coffin of late 2000s vampire tween mania and turned into something actually sexy and violent and (we’re not kidding) pretty smart and thoughtful. Is it a metaphor for gay rights? We’re not sure on that one. But it’s a great ride.
The comedy-drama has become a popular HBO format. Though viewers will probably most remember Girls as HBO’s 20-somethings relationship/life/sex classic, Looking did it slightly after and, we think, slightly better.
38
Sex and the City (1998-2004)
37
Mare of Easttown (2021)
HBO has tried its hand at what we can essentially call the “small town murder mystery” many times. But Mare of Easttown, the Kate Winslet-starring, “Outside Philly”-set limited series, may just do it better than any other. Come for the mystery, stay for the dark humor and impressive performances.
On the heels of shows farther down this list—and so following the trend of casting A-list Hollywood actors in dark, brooding limited series—Sharp Objects adapts Gillian Flynn’s novel in a way that makes the series still feel literary, while employing all the visual tricks of the best cinema. It’s not HBO’s best limited series. But when compared to other networks … yeah, the bar at HBO is kind of high.
35
I Know This Much Is True (2020)
Written off by early critics for being sad and depressing and relentlessly bleak, I Know This Much Is True is sad and depressing and relentlessly bleak. Airing during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the series provided lessons in care and companionship at a moment when we needed it most. Sometimes art has to sock you in the stomach. Deal with it.
34
The White Lotus (2021-2022)
It’s not easy to write satire, but Mike White (School of Rock, HBO’s Englightened) is one of the very best at it. This limited series-turned-anthology (Season 2 is on the way!) looks at an ensemble of awful, wealthy characters vacationing on a luxurious island resort, along with the hotel staff who have to put up with them. It sounds pretty simple, but The White Lotus is an addicting and darkly hilarious look at how these sorts of dynamics work—and who winds up getting left behind and overlooked.
Comedian Issa Rae helms this HBO modern classic. Insecure is a comedy-drama centered on Issa, along with her close group of friends and the various friendship and relationship troubles the women face throughout the show. The Emmy-winning show kept high ratings throughout its five seasons, and catapulted the careers of many in the main cast, including actors Jay Ellis and Natasha Rothwell (who also stars in The White Lotus).
32
In Treatment (2008-2021)
When our #3 pick below aired on HBO, it shattered the expected format for TV dramas. But HBO didn’t move away from the half-hour episodic style. It dug in and made that format better, too. Written like the best of minimalist theater, In Treatment is a masterclass in dialogue and worth more than one binge.
If there’s one format, however, that HBO has perfected over the years, it is the limited series. These 7-10 hour shows manage to find that happy medium between televisions and film—and tend to capture a magic neither can reach on their own. John Adams, like a door-stopping biography, is one of the best of the form.
30
Big Little Lies (2017-2019)
Based on the book by Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies felt like a concept more suited for cable than HBO. And then director Jean-Marc Vallée did his thing—and Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon and just about every actor involved did their things—and we couldn’t imagine it on any other network.
If Westworld called it quits after season 1, we might have put this show in the top 10. What began as one of the most complex and thoughtful series to launch a thousand Reddit theories, Westworld seemed to wander too far from the designs of its original programming. It’s still ambitious as hell, though. And for that, it deserves praise—even if you probably stopped watching at some point during season 3.
Though it’s remembered as the less impressive second child behind Band of Brothers, in many ways The Pacific is better. It busts much of the historic myths of Allied sanctimony, showing all the brutality, war crimes, and atrocities committed by our heroic protagonists. It’s a gutting watch, and while it doesn’t have the same narrative brilliance of its European campaign counterpart, it remains one of the best WWII dramatizations to date.
27
We Are Who We Are (2020)
It’s non-binary characters and general age demographic instantly drew comparison to Euphoria—and, because of its director, Call Me By Your Name—but Luca Guadagnino’s We Are Who We Are is anything but derivative. While it plots a universal coming-of-age storyline, the series remains rooted in this moment, and is subtle and plodding in a way that feels both mature and utterly refreshing for contemporary streaming TV.
In the years since Breaking Bad, there have been a plethora of attempts to recreate the sort of TV dynamic that gets audiences somehow on the side of a guy who’s…not so great. But what makes Barry unique in this sea is that—in theory—it’s a comedy. And while you will laugh out loud multiple times in each 30-minute episode, you may also find yourself terrified at what Bill Hader’s titular character (or some others in his orbit) might just do next.
25
Boardwalk Empire (2010-2014)
When it aired, it seemed as if Boardwalk Empire would just try and capitalize on the legend that is the #2 series on this list—you probably already know what that is. But organized Jersey crime family connections aside, the series came into its own, becoming one of the best crime dramas of all time. HBO can probably retire the Jersey Italian mob genre now.
24
True Detective (2014-2019)
As with Westworld, True Detective suffers only for its early brilliance. Casting two Hollywood actors in televised roles might seem like No Big Thing now, but it wasn’t common procedure at the time. At the time, True Detective was a kind of magic we hadn’t seen before, thanks to both McConaughey and Harrelson as well as directory Cary Joji Fukunaga. Season 1 is truly a television masterpiece.
We’re about to begin what we will call the “David Simon Train.” These are the series from writer/creator David Simon (though, many are also the product of other writers like George Pelecanos, Ed Burns, and William F. Zorzi). And while they could be more evenly dispersed across this list, we’re going to put them here in the heart—mostly because we’re giving Simon lots of love down at the bottom. First, The Deuce, a portrait of a seedy New York City and the evolution of video pornography. It may have also changed the TV/film industry forever.
22
We Own This City (2022)
Speaking of city governance: Yonkers mayor Nick Wasicsko. Show Me a Hero follows Wasicsko and the efforts to desegregate housing in Yonkers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Featuring an expected stand-out performance by Oscar Isaac as Wasicsko, the series fits neatly into the Simon canon of bureaucratic fuckery and systematic dysfunction—while also reminding us just who bears the burdens of such fuckery and dysfunction.
20
Generation Kill (2008)
Based on the book by Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone journalist who embedded with the U.S. Marine’s 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Generation Kill goes there. And by “there” we mean the most unexpected and idiosyncratic depiction of modern warfare. As quick and seemingly easy as the overthrow of Saddam may have appeared, the series illuminates just the sort of mess the invasion created—and foreshadowed.
The last of this first batch of David Simon: Treme. Set in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the series is slower and (in some ways) more vibrant and emotional than Simon’s other works. A beautiful portrait of a city both ruined and resilient, Treme is one of HBO’s most underrated works.
18
The Leftovers (2014-2017)
A series first advertised as a high concept mystery thriller, The Leftovers ended up doing something else entirely: It became a show about grief. Plotting through three tight seasons without overstaying its welcome, and featuring one of the most emotional cores in TV history (shoutout to Max Richter), the series is one of the best sci-fi concepts brought to the small screen. Sorry, The Handmaid’s Tale.
Taking a beloved graphic novel that, arguably, already had a solid adaptation seemed ambitious enough. Changing that source material to the chagrin of fans—exchanging a Cold War bomb anxiety narrative with a fun house mirror display of race in America—well, that takes some Dr. Manhattan-sized balls. While the result isn’t always perfect, we think Watchmen will only continue to age well in the history of TV. It’s the show we’ll return to again and again over the next decade.
16
The Righteous Gemstones (2019 – )
You know what makes a great show? A show that knows exactly what it is and what it wants to be. And that, without question, describes The Righteous Gemstones, the latest (and still ongoing) series from the Danny McBride/Jody Hill/David Gordon Green creative team. Capturing the brilliance of the team’s previous efforts, Eastbound and Down and Vice Principals, Gemstones just puts it all to a higher scale, with a story that’s captivating and a cast—including McBride, John Goodman, Edi Patterson, Adam Devine, and an outrageously good Walton Goggins—that’s electrifying. In a just world. Gemstones would win 100 Emmys a year.
Deadwood is the kind of show HBO was created to produce. Before our #11 pick packed in all the sex, blood, and debauchery we expect from the brand, Deadwood was running wild. In a televised history of hokey and sanitized westerns, Deadwood rode into town and gave TV the sort of western it deserved. It was uncomfortable, brutal, unflinching. Almost 20 years later and it’s still one of the best of its genre.
14
Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000- )
There’s only one show on this list that we’d guess will run, basically, as long as HBO allows it too: Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David’s post-Seinfeld series comes to you 30 minutes at a time, and almost always hits a perfect mark of “sure, this guy is an asshole, but he kind of has a point?” As long as there are social faux paus, there can be Curb Your Enthusiasm. The show has run for 22 years and 11 seasons, and is already confirmed to be coming back for a 12th. Long live Larry David. Long live Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Completed after only two seasons, Rome seems now like something of the foreshock to Game of Thrones—a historically-inspired epic about power, conquest, and loyalty. It came in swords flashing and left before it became too rusted (a lesson that other series probably should have inherited). One of the best dramatizations about the ancient world ever put to screen.
12
Six Feet Under (2001-2005)
Airing contemporaneously as the top 3 on our list, Six Feet Under deserves its place in the golden age of television. Following a family-run funeral home, no other show on this list better achieves the very difficult and very moving seriocomic tone than this series, a series all about death, but, really, mostly about life. Six Feet Under (2001-2005). RIP.
11
Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
Hold it right there. We know. Better than Deadwood? Better than freaking Curb Your Enthusiasm? Well, in its totality, not really. But what Game of Thrones represents to modern television is the throne of #content—a fully-realized world both fantastic and real, something so outrageously popular and massive that every streaming network (including HBO) is on a quest to replicate. It will probably never happen. Symbolically, this belongs in the top 5. We just couldn’t do it. We’ll pay the iron price later.
Into the top 10 we go. Succession‘s place in the history of HBO is yet to be decided, but we can only see the show getting better—and its ratings higher. Which is crazy a thing to say for a show that’s already approaching its fourth season. Somehow Succession, like a miraculously recovered Logan Roy, just keeps getting smarter and louder. Part comedy, part satire, part Very Serious Method Acting, Succession is one of the most joyous shows to watch on any network right now.
9
My Brilliant Friend (2018- )
In the same boat as Succession: Saverio Costanzo’s My Brilliant Friend, which is sure to finish lower down on this list, but for now, is simply brilliant. Adapted from the Italian novel series Neapolitan Novels, My Brilliant Friend is epic in the way of the best literature. It follows two girls from childhood into old age and with a cinematic literacy HBO made possible decades earlier. It’s one of the crowning achievements of the network and the form.
8
I May Destroy You (2020)
As new as the series still is, we feel comfortable giving it a slot in the top 10. There’s almost no tone I May Destroy You doesn’t employ to achieve its titular effect on the audience. Michaela Coel’s project is like the best of one-person theater. It’s messy, awkward, at times maybe a little too self-aware. But when it shines, it explodes. It explodes and makes the viewer complicit in both its crimes and its redemptions. It is art, whether or not it’s the art for you.
There’s a genre that hasn’t yet entered this list, and it’s horror. While The Night Of is technically (technically!) crime (or legal drama), it plays out like a nightmare. What makes the series a standout is how well its able to inject novelty into a genre so familiar. Murder. Prison. Court. We’ve seen these hundreds of times and yet the series makes us see them all again afresh. And in the most horrifying way possible.
You’ve probably never heard of Carnivàle. The semi-supernatural series about a group of traveling performers and carnies is maybe HBO’s best kept archive secret. There’s lots to praise about the series (including its music and art direction). But beyond everything else, the series is completely, ecstatically original. Even in its darkest moments. And, boy, does this show get dark.
5
Band of Brothers (2001)
The content of the series is undeniably compelling—a company of soldiers who experiences some of the most history-altering moments of the Second World War, including the D-Day invasion and the liberation of Kaufering. But it’s the structure of the series that makes it one of the best of all time. A 10-part “miniseries,” the show manages to tell 10 individual stories, treating each episode as its own chapter, its own movie. In what today’s “true life” televised retellings would strip to bare scene-by-scene chronology, Band of Brothers shuffles into 10 equally ambitious and totally unique installments.
Maybe it’s premature to rank Chernobyl in HBO’s top 5; the series is only three years old. Still, like Watchmen, the series feels prescient in a way that’s hard to explain—seeming to both warn of ecological disregard and repeat back to us the consequence of our complacent narratives, our half-truths, our willingness to accept misinformation as reality. It’s not just about the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. It’s about an even more sinister disaster we perpetrate every day.
Oz was the first of its kind, the first of a kind. When HBO needed original programing, a drama series (a narrative) that would be gritty and cinematic, Oz appeared. While it wouldn’t be enshrined in the history of TV quite like the series below (which took that format to even greater heights), Oz walked so modern television could fly. And it holds up.
2
The Sopranos (1999-2007)
Oz may have been cable’s first real serialized program, but The Sopranos was television’s first real drama. Featuring some of the best performances of any TV series ever, the show introduced, killed off, and extended characters in a way never before put to the small screen. And, sure, while it would more than occasionally veer into soap, the series never gave us anything less than stellar acting and ambitious storytelling. No organized crime drama will ever come close.
What can we say about The Wire that hasn’t already been said, written, taught in lecture halls, shouted over erroneous second opinions, etc.? Not much. But we can give the series its proper place on the list. It’s not just the best HBO show of all time. It’s one of the smartest, most ambitious, most gutting works of fiction ever put to any artistic medium. If you haven’t seen it yet then, seriously, what are doing reading a list like this? You already know what your TV homework is.
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