Long before Max came along and diluted the quality of what it meant to be an HBO original series, this premium cable network set the gold standard for television shows. “It’s not TV, it’s HBO” was both a tagline and a mark of quality. It’s not an exaggeration to say that HBO has had some of the greatest TV shows ever made, many of which helped transform the medium as we know it.
To celebrate over four decades of HBO originals, we’re taking an extended look at the 25 best HBO shows ever while counting down to No. 1 on the list. But longtime HBO subscribers should have a pretty good idea about which series got the top spot.
25. Rome (2005-2007)
Rome was a historical drama that felt like a precursor for HBO’s Game of Thrones. The series was set late in the life of Julius Caesar (Ciarán Hinds), and the show primarily followed two of the soldiers under his command: Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson).
Vorenus and Pullo don’t always like each other, but they’re bound by the bonds of brotherhood through their shared experiences. The series unfolds from their perspective as they witness the beginning and ending of Caesar’s reign, and the civil war that follows. Despite its relatively short two-season run, Rome still has a satisfying ending.
Watch Rome on Max.
24. Carnivàle (2003-2005)
HBO didn’t venture into much fantasy or horror during the early part of the 21st century, but Carnivàle was an exception. The series was set in 1934 during the Great Depression, as a young man with healing powers named Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl) joined a traveling carnival of freaks and oddities. Meanwhile, a Methodist preacher, Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown), was haunted by dark visions.
While the individuals in the carnival were interesting characters, the show was ultimately about the struggle between Ben and Brother Justin, both of whom were avatars for greater powers of light and darkness, respectively. Brother Justin was incredibly compelling as a man who desperately didn’t want to become the story’s villain. And yet a showdown between Ben and Justin was inevitable, even though it took the show a full two seasons to get there.
Carnivàle ended prematurely just as the overall story was beginning to take shape. Yet for the two seasons it ran, it was among the best shows on TV.
Watch Carnivàle on Max.
23. Big Little Lies (2017-Present)
Like several other HBO originals, Big Little Lies is loaded with a cast that could put most movies to shame. That powerhouse lineup includes Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz, Laura Dern, Adam Scott, and Alexander Skarsgård.
There is a murder at the heart of this series, but Big Little Lies makes the audience wait before revealing both the victim and the killer. But nobody has a bigger motive than Celeste Wright (Kidman), a woman who is viciously abused by her husband, Perry (Skarsgård). That’s something that Celeste tries to hide from her friends, and it’s not the only secret lurking beneath the surface of this town.
Watch Big Little Lies on Max.
22. Mare of Easttown (2021)
Kate Winslet gives a commanding and Emmy-winning performance in Mare of Easttown as Detective Sergeant Marianne “Mare” Sheehan. And when the miniseries starts, Mare’s life is in shambles. Her marriage is over, her son has committed suicide, and even Mare is questioning her skills as a detective after being unable to solve a missing persons case for over a year.
The murder of a teenage mother, Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny), gives Mare a renewed urgency to solve the crime. It also gives her a new partner, Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters). Regardless of her past mistakes, Mare still has a chance to finish this case.
Watch Mare of Easttown on Max.
21. Silicon Valley (2014-2019)
Office Space‘s Mike Judge took on tech startup companies in his HBO comedy series, Silicon Valley, and it’s become a modern classic comedy. Thomas Middleditch stars as Richard Hendricks, a programmer who launches his own company, Pied Piper, with Bertram Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Dinesh Chugtai (Kumail Nanjiani), and others in a bid to get independence.
The lesson that Richard learns the hard way is that even his small company needs a continuous flow of money. That’s why Richard has to go to Erlich Bachman (T.J. Miller) for funding, a decision that the former comes to regret. There’s more than one way to the top in Silicon Valley, but Richard and his friends are almost always on the verge of losing everything they’ve worked for.
Watch Silicon Valley on Max.
20. Tales from the Crypt (1989-1996)
In the early 1990s, the Cryptkeeper ruled on HBO, and Tales from the Crypt was the network’s most prominent original series. The show was based on an EC Comics horror title from the ’50s, and each episode of this anthology series was introduced by the Cryptkeeper, as voiced by John Kassir.
Tales from the Crypt was like The Twilight Zone without the morality tales, and it frequently attracted big-name guest stars including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brad Pitt, Dan Aykroyd, John Lithgow, Michael J. Fox, Tom Hanks, and more. This show hasn’t been on HBO for a long time, but its legacy deserves to be remembered.
Tales from the Crypt is not available to stream.
19. True Detective (2014-Present)
The first season of True Detective was so masterfully executed that it could have landed on this list by itself. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson gave powerhouse performances as Detectives Rustin “Rust” Cohle and Martin “Marty” Hart, respectively. Nic Pizzolatto’s thrilling story skirted on the edge of an occult mystery, while director Cary Joji Fukunaga gave the show cinematic visuals.
Then Pizzolatto had to start again from scratch in season 2 without his stars or Fukunaga, and it just wasn’t the same show. True Detective has rebounded a bit with seasons 3 and 4, both of which featured all-new casts and storylines. It’s still worthy of a place on this list; it’s just not going to get much higher.
Watch True Detective on Max.
18. Oz (1997-2003)
If you were expecting Dorothy and the Yellow Brick Road, you’ve come to the wrong Oz. This version of Oz is no fantasy, and it was HBO’s breakout drama before The Sopranos. This series probably didn’t cross over to become a larger mainstream hit because of its ruthlessness within the prison.
The only connection between the fantasy land of Oz and Oswald State Correctional Facility is the Emerald City wing, which is an ongoing experiment run by Warden Leo Glynn (Ernie Hudson) that’s meant to rehabilitate its prisoners. It’s not a spoiler to say that the Warden will be disappointed. But with a supporting cast that includes Harold Perrineau, J. K. Simmons, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Oz has secured its place on this list. It’s just not for the faint of heart.
Watch Oz on Max.
17. Westworld (2016-2022)
Fallout‘s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy completely reinvented Michael Crichton’s Westworld for HBO, and the results were so promising in season 1 that it seemed like this series would be the next Game of Thrones. In the near future, Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) created android hosts who were so convincingly human that it’s almost impossible to tell that they’re machines.
Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve Millay (Thandiwe Newton) don’t initially realize that they’re hosts, but their rival rebellions against the humans send Westworld and its affiliated parks into chaos. Meanwhile, the Man in Black (Ed Harris) searches Westworld for clues to solve a larger puzzle. Viewership started to fall off after the answers were revealed in season 1, and the series ended short of an actual conclusion in season 4.
It has to be said that Westworld‘s removal from Max for tax purposes is shameful. And now, Westworld isn’t even available to stream on any FAST services. For a show that ranks among HBO’s best, that’s an unforgivable corporate sin by Warner Bros. Discovery.
Rent or buy Westworld on Prime Video.
16. The Leftovers (2014-2017)
Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta were upfront about their intent to never definitively answer why 2% of the world’s population simply vanished in The Leftovers. They kept their word, and the show wasn’t really about those who had left. Instead, it was about the broken people they left behind, none more so than Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux) and Nora Durst (Carrie Coon).
Everyone’s sanity was affected by the Sudden Departure, but Kevin saw visions of the dead, and he apparently survived dying on more than one occasion while going on a metaphysical journey through the afterlife to understand what he really wanted. Nora lost her family to the departure, and her self-destructive tendencies almost cost her the bond she made with Kevin as well. One of the most satisfying things about this show is the way that these two broken people complete each other. Who needs answers when you have that human connection?
Watch The Leftovers on Max.
15. Chernobyl (2019)
Chernobyl is a dramatization of the 1986 nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine, which doubles as a horror story. The miniseries depicts the stories of the people who were the first responders on the scene as they tried to mitigate the effects of the accident, as well as those who had the thankless task of trying to clean up after the accident.
There’s heroism and heartbreak in these tales. And some of the physical effects that the radiation leaves behind are truly difficult to look at. There’s no happy ending to be found in this series, but it’s one of the most haunting stories that HBO has ever produced.
Watch Chernobyl on Max.
14. Sex and the City (1998-2004)
At the turn of the century, Sex and the City was one of the most prominent HBO original series. Sarah Jessica Parker stars as sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw, a woman in her ’30s who is still close friends with Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon).
The women confide just about everything with each other, and the series was so popular that a heavily edited version actually began airing in syndication. But there’s only one true version of Sex and the City. And even the follow-up series, And Just Like That…, hasn’t been able to recapture the cultural moment that was embodied in this show.
Watch Sex and the City on Max.
13. Six Feet Under (2001-2005)
How we react to death is just as important as how we react to life. And for the Fisher family in Six Feet Under, death is a way of life. Alan Ball’s first HBO series follows the family-run funeral parlor after Nate (Peter Krause) and David Krause (Michael C. Hall) take over for their late father. Their younger sister, Claire (Lauren Ambrose), and their mother, Ruth Fisher (Frances Conroy), also remain deeply involved in their lives.
Death comes for everyone, and each episode opens with the demise of someone who will pass through the funeral parlor and affect the Fishers in some way. It’s not as morbid as it sounds, as the family sometimes manages to work through their issues with each other and their business. But it’s their constant struggle that makes this show so interesting.
Watch Six Feet Under on Max.
12. Veep (2012-2019)
There was no Seinfeld curse for Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who won six Emmy Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy for Veep, to go along with the two Emmys she previously won for Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine. The series cast Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, the Vice President and later, the President of the United States. She’s also largely inept at her job.
Veep had a fantastic supporting cast, including Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Matt Walsh, Sufe Bradshaw, Kevin Dunn, and Gary Cole. As great as Louis-Dreyfus was in the role, her fellow cast members helped solidify Veep as one of HBO’s best comedies.
Watch Veep on Max.
11. The Last of Us (2023-Present)
Hollywood’s video game adaptations haven’t always been very good. But The Last of Us is on another level, thanks in large part to its fidelity to the game’s story and characters, as well as a strong creative team led by Chernobyl‘s Craig Mazin and Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann.
The Mandalorian‘s Pedro Pascal plays Joel Miller, the man hired to smuggle a 14-year-old girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) out of a quarantine zone and bring her across the country because she may be the only person alive who is immune to the Cordyceps infection that has ravaged the world. This post-apocalypse makes The Walking Dead look like a cakewalk, and the character development on this show is second to none. This is HBO’s next great genre franchise, assuming the second season can live up to the first.
Watch The Last of Us on Max.
10. Watchmen (2019)
Watchmen‘s greatest contribution to our culture might be the fact that it brought the 1921 Black Wall Street massacre in Tulsa to the public forefront after it had been largely overlooked or buried for decades. Damon Lindelof and his team treated that event as if it were the destruction of Krypton for Will Reeves (Jovan Adepo), a man who ushers in the era of costumed heroes.
The original Watchmen comic by Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons is considered one of the greatest superhero stories ever told. This series not only lived up to the original, but it surpassed the hype with an engaging story set in an alternate present. Regina King led the cast as Angela Abar, a woman who discovers that her link to Will has greater implications for the past, present, and future than she’s ready for. Angela is also hiding a pretty big secret about one of the main characters from the comic…
Watch Watchmen on Max.
9. Succession (2018-2023)
We’re not privy to the inner workings of the Murdoch family that controls Fox, but we wouldn’t be too shocked if they were like the Roy family from Succession. Series creator definitely seems to have had Rupert Murdoch in mind when he created Logan Roy (Brian Cox), an aging billionaire who needs to decide which of his children will take over his entertainment empire, Waystar RoyCo.
Connor (Alan Ruck), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) would do almost anything to each other to ensure that they inherit their father’s throne. Their actions are darkly funny at times, but the stakes are high enough that the show never loses sight of the drama as well.
Watch Succession on Max.
8. The Larry Sanders Show (1992-1998)
The late Garry Shandling was once a regular guest and guest host on The Tonight Show. But rather than making a permanent move to late night, Shandling came to HBO to star in his own sitcom about a late-night talk show host. That’s the origin story of The Larry Sanders Show, which just missed HBO’s golden age of original programming by a year.
Shandling co-created the series and starred as Larry Sanders. The show had a ridiculously talented supporting cast including Rip Torn, Jeffrey Tambor, Janeane Garofalo, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Bob Odenkirk, and more as Larry’s staff. Many celebrities also appeared as themselves, both as guests on his show and in Larry’s life behind the scenes.
Watch The Larry Sanders Show on Max.
7. Boardwalk Empire (2010-2014)
The Sopranos veteran Terence Winter found a second act with his Prohibition-era drama, Boardwalk Empire. Winter even convinced director Martin Scorsese to helm the pilot episode and executive produce the series with him. Steve Buscemi took the lead as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, the treasurer of Atlantic County whose criminal connections made him a very rich man.
Boardwalk Empire featured an assortment of actual people from that time period, including Al Capone (Stephen Graham). But some of the most compelling characters on the series were the original characters, including Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon), a Prohibition agent whose fall from grace was so swift that he found himself working for Capone.
Watch Boardwalk Empire on Max.
6. Band of Brothers (2001)
Following their collaboration on Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg co-created Band of Brothers, based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s novel of the same name. The story of the miniseries is taken from the real-life accounts of Easy Company, a regiment who were chosen for the book and the miniseries because they saw action at some of the biggest moments in the war, including the invasions of Normandy and Germany, as well as the liberation of concentration camps.
The series also took the time to flesh out the personalities of the soldiers going to war, which only added to the impact when many of them perished in battle. It’s an unforgettable World War II story that still ranks among the greatest HBO projects ever made.
Watch Band of Brothers on Max.
5. Deadwood (2004-2006)
The Old West has rarely felt more alive than it was on Deadwood, a series that blurred the lines between history and fiction. John Wick‘s Ian McShane swore up a storm as Al Swearengen, a man whose profanity-laden spiels were almost Shakespearean in scope. Al owned The Gem Saloon and acted as one of the real powers holding Deadwood together. Naturally, he butted heads with Sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) over a variety of issues.
Perhaps the most amazing part of Deadwood is how much of an impact it had with only a three-season run. The show ended very prematurely, which left fans without proper closure. Fortunately, HBO and series creator David Milch eventually rectified that mistake with Deadwood: The Movie by giving the show a definitive ending.
Watch Deadwood on Max.
4. Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-2024)
If you’ve ever heard of “a Larry David moment,” it came from Curb Your Enthusiasm. David’s follow-up to Seinfeld put him in the lead, playing a slightly fictional version of Larry David, who absolutely excelled at placing himself in awkward situations. Larry also had a knack for alienating some of his closest friends, including Ted Danson and Richard Lewis, both of whom played themselves.
For the first few seasons, Larry was married to Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), but even her tolerance for Larry’s self-centered nature had its limits. The only ones who could stand to be around Larry for any length of time were his friends, Jeff Green (Jeff Garlin), and Leon (J. B. Smoove), a roommate who just never left. Through 12 seasons, Larry found new and inventive ways of angering the people around him. And we’re really going to miss him now that the show is over.
Watch Curb Your Enthusiasm on Max.
3. The Wire (2002-2008)
Television is littered with crime dramas, but The Wire still stands out as one of the best shows ever made. David Simon’s seminal series examined both sides of the law and ensured that the series didn’t fall into cop show clichés. The police weren’t always the heroes, and sometimes the criminals were able to escape justice and outmaneuver the law.
One of the show’s most memorable characters was Stringer Bell, a role that helped make Idris Elba a breakout star. Bell was a drug kingpin whose ambitions went far beyond simple crimes. Bell wanted to transition towards more legitimate business enterprises, but he couldn’t escape the pull of the drug trade or partners who didn’t share his vision. He was just as amoral as the other criminals, but it was hard not to root for Bell to succeed. It’s a rare show that can pull off that feat.
Watch The Wire on Max.
2. Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
There are still Game of Thrones fans who are furious about the way that the show wrapped up its storylines in its abbreviated final seasons. And it certainly didn’t deliver the happy ending that many viewers wanted to see. Regardless of anyone’s feelings about the show’s conclusion, there’s no denying that this series was incredibly impactful for both HBO and the greater TV landscape. No other fantasy series has even come close to matching the gravitas of this adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s novels. Even the majority of fantasy movies fall short of Game of Thrones when the series was at its best.
The show followed the Stark family, including Sansa (Sophie Turner), Arya (Maisie Williams), Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) during a tumultuous period in the seven kingdoms of Westeros, which were ruled by House Lannister, including King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) and his successors. Half a world away, the daughter of a previous king, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), slowly rose to power as one of the few who could make a legitimate claim on the Iron Throne. And Daenerys had dragons.
Game of Thrones‘ characters were just as interesting and compelling as those of any great drama. This show set the bar so high that even its follow-up prequel series, House of the Dragon, hasn’t yet been able to come close to its mark.
Watch Game of Thrones on Max.
1. The Sopranos (1999-2007)
When it comes to the No. 1 HBO show of all time, there’s really only one choice: The Sopranos. There were HBO original dramas before The Sopranos premiered in 1999, but this series rewrote the entire television landscape, elevated HBO to another level, and paved the way for the age of the antihero. Shows like The Shield, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul wouldn’t have existed without The Sopranos.
David Chase created an all-time great character in Tony Soprano, who was unforgettably portrayed by the late James Gandolfini. Tony was a mobster spread so thin by his responsibilities to his crime family and his actual family that it led to panic attacks in the first episode, forcing him to go into therapy with Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). That pilot episode set the tone for the rest of the series, which became a rich blend of drama, comedy, and tragedy.
Tony wasn’t the only fleshed-out character on the series, which also focused on his wife, Carmela (Edie Falco), and their children Anthony Jr. (Robert Iler) and Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), as well as Tony’s other family, including Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt), Paulie Gualtieri (Tony Sirico), and more. Through six seasons, Tony tried his best to serve both of his families. He also left a lot of death and destroyed lives in his wake. The ambiguous ending of the show is still polarizing among fans of the series, but only The Sopranos could pull off that move and remain on top of everything that came before and after it.
Watch The Sopranos on Max.
