HBO Max has even more to offer than the already excellent selection of shows in HBO’s premium library. A few gems of original content and co-productions with other networks bring new stories – from the glorious I Hate Suzie to the brilliant quirk of Search Party. Here is the best of the bunch.
When HBO Max launched, it came with an advantage that Disney+ and Apple TV+ didn’t have: Beyond flagship original series like Love Life and The Flight Attendant, there is also the full weight of Warner Bros. legacy — specifically, the decades of producing amazing film and television. On the TV side, this is especially exciting, because thanks to the prestige network which makes up 50 percent of this service’s name, that means a ton of exciting series.
1. Infinity train
You are not a fan of cartoons? The Infinity Train change your mind – the critically acclaimed series’ four seasons explore complex themes through character-driven storylines. Season 1 follows Tulip Olsen, a girl struggling with her parents’ recent divorce. Along with her pals – a confused robot and a talking corgi – she explores a seemingly endless train, the passengers of which all have emotional issues or unresolved trauma. How do they get off the train? By solving their problems, of course. Dark, uplifting, and beautiful, it’s a lively viewing like you’ve rarely seen. Certainly not just for children.
2. Raised by wolves
Raised by wolves will satisfy those who want a piece of time (about 10 hours) in a world brought to the screen with the help of Ridley Scott. Two androids, Mother and Father, attempt to establish an atheistic human colony on a new planet, after a war with a religious order destroys Earth. But they soon discover that controlling the beliefs of humans is a delicate task. Directing the first two episodes, while pulling the strings as executive producer, Scott launches a provocative exploration of AI and religious beliefs. There is blood, great performances and a powerful lead in Amanda Collin’s “Mother”.
3. The Flight Attendant
This compulsive thriller starring Kaley Cuoco is one of the best new shows to come out of HBO Max. Cuoco plays Cassie, a reckless flight attendant who sleeps with a passenger on a wild night out. She wakes up in Bangkok with barely any memory – and a corpse in bed with her. The ghost of the deceased helping her piece things together, she sobers up and takes on the mystery of what happened. Beware of a fantastic title streak, as well as a surprisingly dark psychological layer. But above all enjoy the fun combination of an inept sleuth walking around the world of cold killers.
4. Silicon Valley
One of the best HBO comedies of the last decade, Silicon Valley is a brilliant, hilarious six-season satire of the gig economy and the boon of Big Tech. The show begins at a Google-like company where a lowly employee (played by Thomas Middleditch) stumbles upon a game-changing idea and decides to start his own start-up. Over the course of six seasons, the small staff of this start-up navigate the challenging, hypocritical world of tech in Silicon Valley, all while the writers take sharp aim at companies like Google and Apple.
5. Love Life
Anna Kendrick, over the years, has played a lot of characters who have trouble finding love, but the HBO Max flagship scripted series Love Life is singularly obsessed with her romantic woes. Each episode of the series executive produced by Paul Feig zeroes in on one of Darby’s (Kendrick) relationships as a young single woman living in New York. Describing the show as “a millennial Sex and the City” is a bit reductive, and also undercuts the charms of Kendrick’s performance and the premise, which promises an anthology-style structure, with each season focusing on a new protagonist. This means that Love Live will escape the hardest part of doing a romantic comedy TV show — every season can have a happy ending.
6. Euphoria
Few shows have resonated so immediately and so vibrantly with their target audience as HBO’s original teen drama Euphoria. Superstar Zendaya leads a knockout cast of up-and-comers, with the filmmaker behind Assassination Nation carrying over his sharp style and knack for shocking reveals to liven up the familiar tales of coming-of-age drama. But despite the title, Euphoria strips away the feel-good veneer that accompanies so many of the most beloved teen stories and opts for an unfiltered look at what it’s like to be a kid in the age of online bullying, dating apps, and the pornification of culture.
Naturally, it was a hugely provocative (“Too many dicks,” said the same audiences who made the female nudity-laden Game of Thrones one of the most popular shows of all time.) But Euphoria struck a resonant chord with the audience it was made for, not only becoming a breakout hit but one of those rare pop culture moments that sparks a bonafide cultural trend thanks to the inspired creations from makeup artist Doniella Davy. It’s also just a heck of a compulsive watch, and perhaps the biggest compliment I can give it is that I was on a girls’ trip to New Orleans with two of my dearest friends, and we decided to binge-watch the show one night instead of going out. In New Orleans. Now that’s good TV.
7. Game of Thrones
Okay so yes, Game of Thrones ended kind of poorly. But failing to stick the landing doesn’t discount what made this show good in the first place, and going back and watching those first few seasons is still an absolute blast. The fantasy series chronicles the in-fighting between kingdoms in the fictional world of Westeros, in which everyone wants to take the Iron Throne and rule over all kingdoms.
There’s also an impending invasion by ice zombies, but some take that threat more seriously than others. This is a monumental piece of television filmmaking — we’ve never seen such cinematic scale applied to a TV show before or since, and especially in those first few seasons the characters are complexly drawn and wildly compelling. Just maybe don’t get your hopes up that the show will come to a satisfying conclusion, and instead choose to enjoy the ride.
8. Pretty Little Liars
High school drama can often feel very life-or-death, something the thriller Pretty Little Liars took quite literally. Things begin after four former best friends start getting threatening messages about their darkest secrets, which they think are from a girl who recently disappeared. When the girl turns up dead, however, they realize there’s someone else out there, aiming to ruin their lives. This adaptation of Sara Shepard’s novels ran for seven seasons on ABC Family (later Freeform), hooking a fervent fanbase with its seething mysteries and high energy depiction of adolescent life. And now, you have the chance to discover those mysteries yourself.
9. Westworld
Based on the film by Michael Crichton, Westworld is, not unlike Game of Thrones, a heady genre series that is obsessed with philosophical notions about fate and destiny but also pure popcorn entertainment, full of nudity and bloodshed and rampaging robots. Set largely in a theme park designed to look like the Wild West, where monied guests can interact with “hosts” (lifelike robots that put anything in the Magic Kingdom to shame) and act out their most base fantasies.
It’s here that the hosts, led by Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) start to develop a consciousness and their relationship both with the guests and their makers (led by Jeffrey Wright) starts to profoundly change. To say any more would ruin the fun, but know that even if the storytelling is occasionally wonky (as it was in this latest season), the ambition, scope, and scale remains unparalleled. Every episode you’ll wonder, how is this a TV show?
10. Big Little Lies
Big Little Lies is a series that has received both critical and public acclaim. Currently broadcast on TF1, the series pleases as much for its cast – Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Shailene Woodley and Zoë Kravitz, just that! – that for its realization in HBO sauce and its scenario inspired by the work of Liane Moriarty. Adapted from the eponymous bestseller by American author Celeste Ng, tells the story of a single mother haunted by a dark secret. After years of continuous relocation, Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl decide to settle in Ohio, where they meet Helena Richardson, a part-time journalist stay-at-home mom whose intrusiveness will spark with Mia.
11. Fargo
Ah, man. Emmy-winning anthology crime comedy series is a surprisingly perfect extension to the tone of the universe that was created in the Coen Brothers. 1996 film of the same name. Offensive and dangerous, the series creates fascinating characters who are dropped under intense circumstances and who results (as well as a body count) are a contemplation of morality touched by an absurd. It’s no wonder that A-list stars from Billy Bob Thornton and Kirsten Dunst to Ted Danson and Ewan McGregor want to sink their teeth into such colorful dialogue and characters. It is a testament to the excellence of the show that critics still find fruitful to discuss whether the show’s first or second season is superior, with compelling arguments to support both.
12. Killing Eve
That’s not a way of saying that psychopaths are interesting – what is a trait is to make entertainment representations of old standard bad psychopaths look new, fresh, and different. Killing Eve it does it perfectly, thanks to the cat chase game and, well, cat chase depicted between the famous assassin Villanelle (gloriously played by Jodie Comer) and the spoiler! – her borderline psycho Javert, Eve Polastri (Sanda Oh, who rolls to win with her fists as her character gets wilder as the show goes on). While showrunner Emerald Fennell’s second season isn’t narratively tight like Phoebe Waller-Bridge ‘In the first series of episodes, the psychosexual interaction between the two women remains propulsive, compulsive, and innovative.
13. Pure
Based on a memoir, Pure is no ordinary coming-of-age comedy about a young woman who recently moved to London. Marnie struggles with a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder called Pure O, which causes her to have intrusive sexual thoughts often at the worst times. (Your mom plays a role in one of these thoughts – no wonder Marnie is leaving the house.) What Pure does best is dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder stereotypes in a compassionate way: Marnie overcomes the same burdens. twenty others – a new job, their sexuality and friendship. An insightful, recognizable and essential comedy.
14. Amelie
It’s hard to overstate how this romantic comedy by Jean-Pierre Jeunet took over pop culture in 2001, becoming such an international success that it grossed over $ 170 million worldwide and was nominated for best film. The charming Audrey Tautou stars, a waitress who works to improve the lives of those around her but struggles to find her own happiness.
15. An American in Paris
One of Gene Kelly’s most delightful musicals, this 1951 film was actually based on a 1928 composition by George Gershwin, whose music is the basis of the entire film, including the songs “I Got Rhythm”, “Love Is Here to Stay” and “It’s Wonderful. The most famous sequence is a 17-minute dance number between Kelly and Leslie Caron, making her film debut.
16. Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola stepped into the jungle, almost lost his mind, and returned with a war movie masterpiece, one of the most-cited and quoted combat films ever made. The journey to find Colonel Kurtz unfolds like a feverish dream, a journey into the violent soul of man. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness mixes with recent injuries from the Vietnam War, Coppola barely survived production to deliver a film worth mentioning along with the best Vietnamese movies of all time.
17. Die Hard
It doesn’t have to be Christmas to watch one of the best action movies ever. It’s hard to believe that John McTiernan and Bruce Willis really understood the impact they would have on their genre. The reason it is still playing as a current movie over three decades later? Because much of what followed tried to be.
18. The Harry Potter Series
Marathon Time! Given that HBO Max is the new catalog service for Warner Bros., it makes sense that its most popular franchise will now be wholly owned. What more can we say about the boy who lived? All eight films based on JK Rowling’s books are on HBO Max, streaming in HD.
19. Jaws
The film that ushered in the blockbuster era is often viewed more for how it changed the industry than whether it is, well, perfect. Seriously, you don’t need to change a single frame, single row read, or edit in Jaws, a movie that turns the heat up on its very first scene. There’s a reason people still write Jaws books. And they will be for a very long time.
20. King Kong
The monster movies will never be the same after the debut of this 1933 classic. Do it over and over again, there is always something so powerful about the original. Sure, it lost some of the horrific power it was meant to have when it was first released, but it’s still a wonderfully creative film, one that completely laid the groundwork for an entire genre still in progress to this day. And these aren’t just monster movies. Every movie that builds on the show owes something to this giant gorilla climbing the building.
21. True Blood
Alan Ball, creator of “Six Feet Under”, returns to HBO three years later with a fantasy series that surfs vampire fashion in pop culture, around the same time as “Twilight” and “Vampire Diaries”. Far from being perfect, “True Blood” is addicting, sometimes trashy, humorous entertainment with a message about accepting difference.
22. Tenet
If there’s ever been a movie that gets better with multiple covers, it’s Tenet. Thanks to its release on HBO Max, you can now understand the intrigue that accompanies its spectacular visuals. John David Washington stars as the protagonist, whose name is a subtle hint of his James Bond mission to prevent a destructive attack on the world – from the future. The protagonist learns to manipulate the flow of time with the help of Robert Pattinson’s debonair Neil. Perhaps the most Christopher Nolan of Christopher Nolan’s films, Tenet is as entertaining as he is cerebral.
23. Wonder Woman 1984
Fan of the 80s? Including what style of achievement? The sequel to Wonder Woman leans heavily on her inspirations, which will either take you back to pleasantly straightforward versions of adventure and heroism, or genuinely bore you with absurd plot and slow pacing. Gal Gadot‘s Princess Diana hasn’t budged from the death of Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), working at the Smithsonian where an ancient artifact sets off a world of trouble and forces him to make some tough decisions. Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal are new additions to the cast. Colorful and light escape.
24. The Leftovers
What would happen if 2% of the population disappeared from the face of the Earth? “The Leftovers” attempts to answer this question by recounting the fate of a family in the small town of Mapletown. Rather than seeking to explain why these millions of people have disappeared, the series explores metaphysical topics through a tale of grief, religion and family ties.
25. Chernobyl
The British miniseries chronicles the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in detail in five thrilling episodes. Screenwriter Craig Mazin manages to create a detailed historical re-enactment while developing an intricate character gallery to make the story more human. We discover how a power ended up losing control by trying at all costs to hide the truth about events.
26. Watchmen
This series inspired by the cult comic is not the most accessible for neophytes, since it is a sequel to the latter, 30 years later. However, it is possible to watch it without knowing the history of the Watchmen, since most of the characters are new. Screenwriter Damon Lindelof (“Lost”, “The Leftovers”) reinvents the myth of the superhero to deal with hot topics that are troubling modern American society: racism, the rise of white supremacists or even police violence.
27. Locked Down
Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor star in this surprising romantic movie by Doug Liman (Locked Down). The film was written and shot during the lockdown, and the pandemic actually features in the backdrop of the film. Hathaway and Ejiofor play a couple who are planning to rob a jewelry store in London when most stores are closed. Their relationship struggled during the lockdown, and they are reassessing a thing or two in the midst of their insanity. It’s not the most polished movie, but you’re there mostly for Hathaway and Ejiofor’s charisma. The inclusion of the pandemic will intrigue or distract you.
28. Mare of Easttown
In Easttown, a small town in Pennsylvania, a teenage girl and mother of a little boy is brutally murdered. In charge of the case, the investigator Mare Sheehan, herself bereaved by the loss of a son, tries everything to find the culprit and discover the truth behind this homicide.
29. Run
Ruby’s ordinary life is turned upside down when she receives a message from her first love, asking her to run away to find him. Without thinking, and with the sole idea in mind to respect their pact made 17 years earlier, the young woman jumps on the first plane to New York, abandoning her husband and children. If this romantic getaway gives her the balm in the heart the first moments, it ends up taking an unexpected turn.
30. The Nevers
During the Victorian era, women with extraordinary abilities tried to establish themselves in their patriarchal society. Marginalized, these “Touched”, as they are nicknamed, are welcomed in an institution managed by Amalia True and her sidekick Penance Adair, a genius scientific inventor. Together, they develop a strategy to thwart the worst plots.
31. The Night Of
Waking up without the slightest memory and alongside an inert body is unthinkable you would say. Yet this is what happened to Naz, who after a too drunken evening, comes face to face with a bloody woman lying next to him. While he remembers absolutely nothing, he finds himself indicted for murder. Claiming his innocence against all odds, a cunning but stubborn lawyer offers his help to restore the truth.
32. Legion
This is the story of David Haller, a young man suffering from schizophrenia since his childhood. While interned in a psychiatric hospital, his meeting with an old man makes him realize that he is endowed with powers. This discovery calls into question his real identity and the mental illness that he believes he has always had.
33. Succession
Logan Roy, the wealthy CEO of a large media group, is about to retire. While he wishes to pass the torch to one of his four children, certain threats make the succession more complicated than expected. Indeed, in the Roy family, each heir vying to become the successor of the family empire, fights to prove that he has the makings of a leader.
34. Avenue 5
In 40 years, tourism will be space. The luxury cruise ship “Avenue 5” begins a journey around the solar system, everything goes superbly well until the breakdown. There was panic on board, among the passengers but also the team, and the situation very quickly got out of control for Captain Clark. In this comedy, Hugh Laurie (Dr House) stars as the captain.
35. I Know This Much Is True
To help his twin brother interned in a psychiatric hospital, Dominick Birdsey turns to the past and tries to lift the veil on terrible family secrets. This drama series is an adaptation of Wally Lamb’s noir novel I Know This Much Is True.