The Best Shows on HBO Max Right Now

No streaming service has a back catalogue like HBO's. Netflix has volume, Apple TV+ has a strong recent run, but HBO has thirty years of shows that changed what television was allowed to be — and almost all of them are sitting in one app.

The problem is that a library that deep is genuinely hard to browse. Here's how to approach it.

The Canon

If you haven't seen The Sopranos or The Wire, everything else on this list can wait. They're the two shows most modern prestige television is still arguing with. The Sopranos is funnier than its reputation suggests; The Wire asks for four episodes of patience and then repays it for five seasons.

Six Feet Under and Deadwood belong in the same conversation and get named far less often. Deadwood in particular has dialogue unlike anything else on television.

The Modern Heavyweights

Succession is the rare recent show that fully deserved the noise around it — a comedy about people too rich to be redeemed, played completely straight. Chernobyl is five hours long, essentially perfect, and something you'll only watch once.

The Last of Us cleared the bar for video game adaptations by treating its source as a character drama. Barry starts as a comedy about a hitman in an acting class and ends up somewhere much darker without ever losing its timing.

Comedies Worth the Detour

Veep has the highest joke-per-minute rate of any show HBO has made. Hacks is the best current comedy on the service, and it keeps getting better rather than worse. Somebody Somewhere is small, quiet, and one of the kindest shows in years — it never found the audience it deserved.

Our Flag Means Death is a pirate comedy that turns into a romance and is much more affecting than that description suggests.

The Overlooked Ones

The Leftovers had a rough first season and then became one of the great shows about grief. Station Eleven is a pandemic story that is genuinely hopeful, which is not a thing anyone expected. Both were badly served by their timing.

Where to Start

If you want one recommendation: Chernobyl, because it's short and complete. If you want a project: The Wire. If you want to laugh: Hacks.

Keep Track of Where You Are

The real problem with a catalogue this deep is losing your place across five half-finished shows. Nuets tracks which episode you're on and what's still waiting. Browse everything currently streaming on our HBO Max page, or dig into drama series more broadly.