The 45 Best Shows to Stream Right Now on HBO Max
HBO Max launched just over two years ago, but the streaming service has quickly established itself as a destination for buzzy, must-watch TV shoes. Though HBO Max is set to combine with Discovery+ in 2023, as the result of their parent companies merging, it still remains a platform filled with incredible TV shows.
Not only does HBO Max have both Max and HBO originals, like Succession, Insecure, Our Flag Means Death, Barry, and so many more, the platform has many beloved old TV shows, like Friends, Sex and the City, the O.G. Gossip Girl, and The West Wing. It can absolutely be overwhelming to decide what to watch, so we rounded up the 45 best TV shows currently on HBO Max.
One of the newest additions to the HBO Max library is the buzzy prequel to Game of Thrones. The show is set 200 years before GOT, and focuses on the civil war within the Targaryen family over the Iron Throne.
This black comedy focuses on the dysfunctional Roy family, and which of the four adult children will inherit their father's media empire.
Season one of Mike White's The White Lotus follows the guests and employees of the fictional White Lotus hotel in Hawaii; season two is set to take viewers to a different White Lotus hotel in Sicily. The Emmy award winning social satire is not one to miss.
Issa Rae's Insecure largely follows the friendship of Issa (Rae) and Molly (Yvonne Orji) as they navigate the modern Black female experience.
From the creator of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, comes a juicy drama set at the turn of the century New York City, featuring the struggle between new money and old money. Watch for incredible cast alone, which includes Christine Baranski, Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Denée Benton, and more.
A telepathic waitress, Sookie (Anna Paquin) falls in love with 174-year-old vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer) and all sorts of paranormal drama ensues. True Blood is honestly one of the O.G. vampire shows, and the perfect supernatural binge-watch.
Zendaya stars in this show set at a high school, where students "navigate love and friendships in a world of drugs, sex, trauma and social media." It's the second-most watched show in HBO history (behind Game of Thrones) and Zendaya's award-winning performance is definitely one for the history books.
Los Espookys follows a group of horror-obsessed friends in a fictional Latin American company, who "make real horror for people who need it." It's spooky, weird, and like nothing you've ever seen on TV.
Industry follows a group of five young bankers in London as they compete for permanent positions at the fictional Pierpoint & Co. A fast-paced, incisive look at corporate banking culture.
Based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies follows three mothers (Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Shailene Woodley) in Monterey as their lives unravel. Plus, season two starred Meryl Streep. What's not to love?
Hacks, starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, is a gem of a TV show. "I wanted to be a stand-up comic when I was a kid. When I was in middle school, I went to a costume party as Phyllis Diller," Smart told T&C. "When my agent sent me the script, I said, 'You've ticked off that box on my bucket list.'" Watching this comedic show should be on your bucket list.
Perry Mason, starring Matthew Rhys as a struggling private investigator in 1930s Los Angeles, is making its much anticipated-return next year. Now is your time to catch up on season one before season two drops.
If you're looking to laugh, look no further. Robin Thede created and stars in this variety series, which also features the likes of Quinta Brunson, Ashley Nicole Black, Gabrielle Dennis, and Skye Townsend.
Aristocrat-turned-pirate captain Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) finds unexpected friendship and romance with the famed pirate Blackbeard (Taika Waititi). It's hilarious and heart-wrenching, and absolutely worth your time.
Sex and the City needs no introduction, but we'll write one anyway: It follows sex columnist, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her friends Samantha (Kim Catrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) as they navigate sex and dating in their 30s in New York City.
Plus, you can also watch And Just Like That..., the modern-day reboot of the show (sans Samantha). (It's been renewed for a season two.)
This true crime limited series follows Michael Peterson (Colin Firth) after the suspicious death of his wife Kathleen (Toni Collette). True crime fans have been following the story for nearly two decades now, and the story doesn't show any signs of getting less enthralling.
Another HBO show about a dysfunctional family? Yes, please. This one follows a celebrity televangelist family that control a megachurch, and stars Danny McBride, John Goodman, Edi Patterson, Adam DeVine, and more.
After a six year hiatus, Larry David's Curb returned in 2017. Starring David as a fictionalized version of himself, the show's dialogue is largely improvised. As David would say, it's pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Michaela Coel's raw and radical story follows Arabella (Coel), who is raped in a nightclub. The dark comedy is widely critically acclaimed, and cements Coel as a generational talent.
HBO Max is the one with... all the Friends episodes. Following six friends (Jennifer Anniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer) as they navigate their 20s in Manhattan, this show is the ultimate comfort binge-watch.
Kate Winslet's Emmy-award winning performance as police officer Mare Sheehan is reason enough to watch Mare of Easttown. The limited series follows Mare as she investigates a brutal murder in a small Pennsylvania town.
Plus, this kicked off Winslet's relationship with HBO. The actress has two other shows currently in development with them: The Palace, about a year inside an authoritarian regime, and Trust, an adaptation of Hernan Diaz's novel of the same name.
Search Party is one of the smartest shows on TV, which initially tells the story of aimless twenty-something Brooklynites, led by Alia Shawkat's Dory, who set out to find a former college classmate who has gone missing. But the show becomes much more than its initial plot—no spoilers, we promise.
Loosely inspired by Jake Adelstein's 2009 memoir Tokyo Vice, about the first American crime reporter for a large Japanese newspaper, the show stars Ansel Elgort as Adelstein, and Ken Watanabe as detective Hiroto Katagiri and addresses its subject matter with nuance and authenticity.
This Aaron Sorkin classic follows the staff of the West Wing of the White House. If you can't look away from the news cycle, this is a welcome escape.
HBO's trippy Westworld is a dystopian, neo-Western show starring Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, James Marsden, Jeffrey Wright, and more. If you haven't watched yet, you're in for a wild ride.
This 30-min comedy news show takes a deep dive into one topic behind the news each week, along with smaller segments on recent headlines. John Oliver has said he is "attracted to...stories that are off the grid" and his show often leads to real-life impact (called the "John Oliver Effect.")
The plot of High Maintenance, which aired for four seasons, follows a nameless weed dealer named the Guy (Ben Sinclair) who gets peeks at the lives of New Yorkers as he delivers his wares via bicycle. You don't need to watch one episode to watch another—it's the perfect to show to drop in and out of.
Barry stars Bill Hader as the titular Barry Berkman, a hitman who finds a new sense of purpose in an acting class. It's not exactly a comedy or a drama—falling somewhere in between—but Barry definitely balances its moments of darkness with humor.
Based on Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, My Brilliant Friend follows Lila and Elena in post-World War II Italy. Each season follows a different book, and the elusive Ferrante was involved in the show.
While Misha Green's horror series was canceled after just one season, the first—starring Jurnee Smollett and Jonathan Majors—is still worth a watch. The story follows Korean War vet Atticus (Majors) as he goes searching for his father (Michael K. Williams) in Jim Crow-era America. Atticus joins up with Letitia (Smollett) and his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) to find his father, as they are haunted by racism and horrific creatures found in H.P. Lovecraft's fiction.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus starred as Vice President Selina Meyer, and this political satire followed her and her staff as they are mired in the daily ridiculousness of American politics.
One of the newer shows on this list, Sex Lives of College Girls follows–you guessed it!—four girls (Pauline Chalamet, Amrit Kaur, Reneé Rapp, and Alyah Chanelle Scott) as they navigate college. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, it's a refreshing and funny look at American college.
This follow-up to the Young Pope picks up with Jude Law's Pope Pius XIII in a coma while the Vatican searches for a replacement. John Malkovich stars as the titular new pope, Pope John Paul III.
When Chuck (Zachary Levi) accidentally downloads a database of the CIA and NSA into his brain (go with it), two agents (Yvonne Strahovski and Adam Baldwin) are sent to watch over him. It's a lighthearted spy drama, and way better than your average procedural.
No list of HBO Max streaming shows would be complete without the epic Game of Thrones. The show, which ran for eight seasons, completely dominated pop culture—and its legacy is still ever-present. If you haven't watched yet, what are you waiting for?
This HBO Max original series is based on Julia Child's life, starring Sarah Lancashire as Julia. David Hyde Pierce, who plays her husband, Paul, told T&C, "The thing that the show’s writers did so beautifully was to create a true, deep, mature relationship in which there is also conflict. We don't really know a lot of what happened intimately between Julia and Paul. The writers figured out how to create, within the bounds of what we do know, scenarios where we could see these people struggling with each other, struggling to be there for each other, even if they sometimes disagreed."
Perhaps the strangest show on this list, The Rehearsal stars comedian Nathan Fielder as the director of "rehearsals," wherein he elaborately re-creates parts of ordinary people's lives to help them prepare for the real moment. The show is for fans of offbeat humor designed to make you uncomfortable.
The Flight Attendant follows alcoholic flight attendant Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) who becomes wrapped up in a murder after she has a one-night stand with a passenger and wakes up to find him dead.
Gossip Girl tracked the privileged, dysfunctional lives of teens on the Upper East Side. It premiered in 2007, and launched the likes of Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, and Penn Badgley to stardom. It also inspired an entire generation of fashion lovers.
Set a decade after the original Gossip Girl, the reboot (of the same name) follows a new generation of private school teens. The new version was inspired by Succession, and a second season is currently in the works.
What happens when your 13-year-old brother gains overnight fame? That's the premise of The Other Two, which follows two millennial siblings (Heléne York and Drew Tarver) as they navigate their younger brother's (Case Walker) fame. Molly Shannon is hilarious as Pat, the siblings' mother.
This gripping post-apocalyptic pandemic show is based on Emily St. John Mandel's novel of the same name. Though it may be challenging, in our new COVID reality, to watch a show about a devastating flu pandemic—we argue that's even more reason to watch a show like this. Because, as Station Eleven emphasizes, life goes on.
Entourage is loosely based on Mark Wahlberg's experiences as a young actor, and follows Wahlberg stand-in Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his friends Eric (Kevin Connolly), Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), and Drama (Kevin Dillon) as they try and pursue their dreams in Hollywood. Jeremy Piven also stars as Ari Gold, Vince's agent, based on real-life power agent Ari Emanuel.
Steve Buscemi stars in this drama bout the rise of organized crime in Prohibition-era Atlantic City. The period crime drama ran for five seasons, and it is extremely binge-watchable.
The 45 Best Shows to Stream Right Now on HBO Max
HBO Max launched just over two years ago, but the streaming service has quickly established itself as a destination for buzzy, must-watch TV shoes. Though HBO Max is set to combine with Discovery+ in 2023, as the result of their parent companies merging, it still remains a platform filled with incredible TV shows.
Not only does HBO Max have both Max and HBO originals, like Succession, Insecure, Our Flag Means Death, Barry, and so many more, the platform has many beloved old TV shows, like Friends, Sex and the City, the O.G. Gossip Girl, and The West Wing. It can absolutely be overwhelming to decide what to watch, so we rounded up the 45 best TV shows currently on HBO Max.
HBO Max has quietly become one of the best streaming platforms in recent years. Here, the best shows to stream on HBO Max—from The Gilded Age to House of the Dragon.
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