Over the past few decades, HBO has produced an embarassingly large number of classic TV series. Shows like The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and Sex and the City all became cultural phenomena, and the network is still pulling it off with more recent series like Succession and The White Lotus. There’s something about HBO’s willingness to take chances combined with its consisently high level of polish that consistly produces fantastic work.
That said, not every gem HBO turns out ends up getting found. The network has produced plenty of shows over the years that can stand up to the greats in terms of quality, but that didn’t get the attention they deserved.
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These HBO Max movies are better than what Netflix recommends
These five movies on HBO Max are so good, you’ll forget you have a Netflix account.
Half-Man
Our most recent inductee
Half-Man wrapped up its first and only season in May 2026, so HBO is still putting out these underappreciated bangers to this day. The show was created by Richard Gadd, who blew up in 2024 after his show Baby Reindeer hit Netflix. Like that series, Half-Man is a strange, sad show about broken people, and a very compelling watch.
Gadd stars as the adult version of Ruben Pallister, an ex-convict with an anger problem. The show traces Ruben’s relationship with his brother Niall Kennedy (Jamie Bell), who is much more bookish and mild-mannered. We follow them from young adulthood through middle age, watching them make mistakes and form a combustible, codependent relationship.
The show doesn’t have a happy ending, but getting there is gripping.
Release Date
2026 – 2026-00-00
Network
BBC One
Directors
Alexandra Brodski, Eshref Reybrouck
Cast
Mitchell Robertson
Young Niall
Stuart Campbell
Young Ruben
The Outsider
From the mind of Stephen King
Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, The Outsider follows the path of a creature who may or may not be able to change its shape, and the investigators who try and hunt it down even as they figure out just what it is they’re following. It’s creepy, unsettling, and eerie in the tradition of King’s best work, and features a fantastic turn from Wicked star Cynthia Erivo as private detective Holly Gibney.
Release Date
2020 – 2020-00-00
Ben Mendelsohn
Ralph Anderson
Cynthia Erivo
Holly Gibney
The Comeback
Move over, Friends
It’s not all horror and sadness over on HBO. The Comeback is one of the funniest shows to ever fly under the radar. It stars Friends veteran Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish, an aging actress who’s determined to break back into the business, no matter how many times she’s dismissed, belittled, or otherwise embarassed.
Valerie emerges as the ultimate people pleaser, which could be annoying if Lisa Kudrow wasn’t so incredibly charming in the role. In between letting us get to know her, The Comeback skewers the entertaiment industry. Each of the three seasons was released 10 years apart, so each one comes back with a whole new set of targets to hit. It nails them every time.
Release Date
2005 – 2026-00-00
Network
HBO Max
Showrunner
Comedy, Satire
Lisa Kudrow
Valerie Cherish
The Plot Against America
What if history unfolded differently and it sucked?
Based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Philip Roth, The Plot Against America follows a working class Jewish family in New Jersey in the 1940s. In this alternate version of history, the family watches as famed aviator Charles Lindbergh follows his political ambitions, eventually becoming president and pushing the United States of America towards fascism.
Today, Charles Lindbergh is mostly known as the aviator who made the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and later as a grieving father whose baby was kidnapped. He was also an ardent isolationist and xenophobe, which this show leans into. A series like For All Mankind imainges how the world might be better and more advanced if history had been different. The Plot Against America goes in the opposite direction. It’s not as cheery but far more gripping.
Release Date
2020 – 2019
Network
HBO
Directors
Minkie Spiro
John Turturro
Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf
Winona Ryder
Evelyn Finkel
David L. Townsend
Agent #3
Geoffrey J.D. Payne
Beer Hall Patron (uncredited)
Mildred Pierce
Kate Winslet strikes again, for the first time
Based on the 1941 novel by James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce is about a self-sacrificing, overprotective mother (Kate Winslet) who attempts to establish a restaurant business during the depression. She also has to deal with the stigma of being a divorcee and yearns for the respect of her spoiled eldest daughter, Veda (Evan Rachel Wood).
Mildrid PIerce is a five-episode period melodrama of the highest order. Even if it feels too long at times, the brilliant performances carry it through. Winslet would eventually return to HBO to make Mare of Easttown, another great show that’s a little too popular to appear on this list.
Release Date
2011 – 2011-00-00
Network
HBO
Writers
Jonathan Raymond
Kate Winslet
Mildred Pierce
Evan Rachel Wood
Veda Pierce
Brían F. O’Byrne
Bert Pierce
Enlightened
The quietest, most insufferable anti-hero of them all
Englighted stars Oscar winner Laura Dern as Amy Jellicoe, an executive who gets demoted at her company, has a nervous breakdown, goes away on a wellness retreat, and comes back with a new age outlook on life, content to work in a drastically diminished position if it means she can do some good.
Or maybe she’s the same entitled, self-absorbed person she always was, but now she speaks in platitudes. Enlightened doesn’t give us easy answers, but Dern is quietly hysterical in the role, and the show is written with the kind of precision fans would also see in creator Mike White’s next project, The White Lotus.
Release Date
2011 – 2013-00-00
Network
HBO
Directors
Miguel Arteta, Jonathan Demme, Nicole Holofcener, James Bobin, Phil Morrison, Todd Haynes
timm sharp
Dougie Daniels
Generation Kill
The creators of The Wire present: War
Generation Kill is another show from super-producers David Simon and Ed Burns, who this time turn their attention to the American invasion of Iraq in early 2003. Based on the book of the same name by Evan Wright, a reporter who was embedded in the war zone at the time, Generation Kill goes for realism. It presents the experiences of soldiers in a straightforward, unadorned way. It’s not out to sell one message or another, just to show the reality of 21st century war in all its gory detail.
Generation Kill is only seven episodes long, but that’s more than enough to make a lasting impression.
Release Date
2008 – 2008
Network
HBO
Directors
Simon Cellan Jones
Alexander Skarsgard
Brad Colbert
James Ransone
Josh Ray Person
Jon Huertas
Antonio Espera
DTF St. Louis
The saddest sex comedy in history
DTF St. Louis is a difficult show to describe. David Harbour plays an ASL interpreter named Floyd Smernitch, Linda Cardellini is his wife Carol, and Jason Bateman is a St. Louis weatherman who gets to know them both, maybe a little too well.
DTF St. Louis is hard to predict while you’re watching it. You’re constantly questioning the motives behind the characters, who keep revealing hidden depths that surprise you. It’s a weird, funny, sad, oddly sweet show that you have to see to believe.
Release Date
2026 – 2026-00-00
Network
HBO
Showrunner
Steve Conrad
Cast
Jason Bateman
Clark Forrest
David Harbour
Floyd Smernitch
Linda Cardellini
Carol Smernitch
Richard Jenkins
Donoghue Homer
My Brilliant Friend
Based on the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend is an ambitious series that chronicles the complicated friendship between two women, Elena Greco and Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo, over the course of 60 years. The show begins in post-World War II Italty, when Elena and Lila struggle with poverty and live under constant threat from the mafia. The girls take very different paths in life, although they also remain each others biggest inspirations and biggest rivals.
In some ways, My Brilliant Friend is small in scale, since it keeps its focus almost entirely on Elena and Lila. But it’s also epic in the way it sprawls across time and memory. It’s an unsung HBO classic.
Release Date
2018 – 2024-00-00
Directors
Saverio Costanzo, Alice Rohrwacher, Daniele Luchetti
Writers
Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci, Saverio Costanzo
We’re just getting started
It would take you a while to get through these shows, and there will still be plenty of hidden HBO gems left to uncover, including series like Treme, Station Eleven, Getting On, I May Destroy You, Carnivàle, and Rome. Generally, it pays to have an HBO subscription (or know someone who does) at all times, because they reliably put out stuff worth watching, even if you don’t know it until you start to stream.
