HBO Max hosts and produces some of the best shows and series currently running anywhere. The streaming service, like its peers, airs both premade content and shows original to the HBO label. Built on a recent history of landmark television programs, such as Chernobyl and Game of Thrones, HBO Max’s original content continues to innovate and grow throughout all genres.
Comedies and dramas, live-action and completely animated; HBO Max’s content covers any and all interest an audience may have. HBO does not shy away from funny and truly weird ideas, like those in Doom Patrol, nor is the company scared to delve deep and take an artistic look at very personal issues, as seen in Euphoria. HBO has a knack for casting incredibly talented actors, and uncannily creates fantastic chemistry within each ensemble.
Setting itself apart from its streaming peers, HBO Max airs its original programming on a weekly schedule, effectively building tension and excitement for each successive episode. HBO Max treats its shows as events to be celebrated, and for very good reason. Here are fourteen of the best shows on HBO Max right now.
Search Party
Acerbic Alia Shawkat headlines Search Party, a dark dramedy that satirizes classic mystery stories, procedurals, and crime dramas. The series follows a group of amateur sleuths as their investigation into a friend’s disappearance snowballs into murder, abductions, and Big-Pharma-backed cults. Search Party isn’t afraid to take weird twists and turns, featuring its thoroughly well-utilized cast with hilariously biting Shawkat at the forefront. As Search Party reaches its fifth and final season, the show promises a climax unlike any other.
Hacks
Created by some of the best writers on Broad City, Hacks is a showbiz comedy snatching up awards left and right. In the show, Jean Smart stars an aging stand-up star who pairs with an ostracized up-and-comer to fix both of their material and public images. Smart fits her fading legendary comedian perfectly, and Hacks balances sharp criticism of the comedy business with quieter, honest moments that give the show its power. Appropriately, a second season of Hacks has been confirmed, promising more high-stakes humor.
The White Lotus
Mike White’s The White Lotus takes its casually comedic premise and artfully bends it darker and darker over each episode. Over the course of a week at the titular resort, vacationers discover the complex flaws of themselves and the resort itself while they try to relax. The White Lotus is most effective as a confrontational drama, and its cast, surprisingly with mostly comedy backgrounds, carries the show with ease. So well received was the show that The White Lotus was transformed from a limited series to an anthology, with The White Lotus season 2 on the way.
The Flight Attendant
Starring Kaley Cuoco in the titular role, The Flight Attendant manages to be enjoyably funny regardless of the intensity of its thriller plot. When Cuoco’s alcoholic flight attendant wakes up next to a recently murdered passenger, she struggles to evade arrest and recall anything of the night or real murderer. The always stylish show keeps audiences constantly on edge, with Cuoco’s excellent performance heightening the mystery with every mess she makes. The Flight Attendant is set to continue its chaotic caper in a second season.
Ghosts
Originally produced by BBC, Ghosts is a supernatural comedy playing to the strengths of its cast and staff formerly of the British Horrible Histories performance troupe. In the show, a woman finds she can communicate with the ghosts inhabiting the decrepit mansion she and her husband are unsuccessfully renovating. With a thoroughly likeable cast of characters and hilarious schemes each episode, Ghosts is filled with more jokes and jabs than the typical British comedy. Ghosts, going into its fourth season, was great enough to be adapted into an Americanized CBS series as well.
Doom Patrol
DC’s Doom Patrol is a stranger, funnier take on the superhero genre that keeps getting more interesting with each installment. Doom Patrol follows a ragtag group of tragically-empowered heroes working together to fight evil and supporting each other in the world that shuns them. The show celebrates its weirdness, but remains grounded throughout its victories and tragedies due to the heart of its cast. Happily, Doom Patrol’s wild adventures are continuing into its fourth season.
Infinity Train
Another series turned from a limited series into an anthology, the animated series Infinity Train has transformed into something much more than a show just for children. Each season follows different characters captured by the seemingly endless train, forced to confront and work through fantastical environments and unresolved trauma. The complexity of Infinity Train’s plot and characters defies all expectations, mixing clever humor, strong emotionality, and grey morality. Despite originally planned to continue, Infinity Train has run its course, perhaps sooner than it deserves.
Raised By Wolves
The science fiction series Raised by Wolves features sci-fi legend Ridley Scott both as a director and producer. In the series, two androids are tasked to raise a child in a colony of humans on a distant world, struggling to prevent religious division in the colony. The conflict of artificial intelligence and faith is explored imaginatively and effectively in Raised by Wolves, bolstered by eccentric performances. One season was certainly not enough to satisfy Raised by Wolves’ story, which will continue in its second installment.
Close Enough
From Regular Show’s J. G. Quintel, Close Enough is an animated sitcom leaning into its most adult aspects. In the show, a couple comes to terms with their adulthood, though the domestic duties of raising their daughter often turn surreal and strange. Proving to be more than just an HBO Max cartoon, Close Enough manages to be completely relatable to its audience, using its strangeness to entertainingly capture the real emotions and experiences of parenthood. Close Enough was confirmed for a third season, promising more understandable wackiness.
The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo
The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo is a joyous spin-off of classic children’s show Sesame Street, giving children and adults alike a talk show led by the loveable red, furry monster himself. Each delightful episode deals with children’s bedtime routines, featuring a new celebrity star to interact with Elmo. The fun and silliness that The Not-Too-Late Show celebrates is infectious, making the show an immediate hit to any young child, with even enough appeal for adult to enjoy themselves, too. A third season to the show has not been announced, but it’s very possible that Elmo will return with The Not-Too-Late Show for years to come.
The Sex Lives Of College Girls
Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, sex, life, and college hardship is examined in the comedy The Sex Lives of College Girls. Fairly simply, a group of freshman roommates discover truths about themselves and their sexuality while dealing with personal issues and their education. Heartwarmingly relatable, The Sex Lives of College Girls finds its biggest laughs in truths, finding itself one of the best iterations of college-based TV. Appropriately, The Sex Lives of College Girls was renewed for its second season.
And Just Like That…
Reviving the iconic series Sex and the City, the dramedy And Just Like That… brings back Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis among other former stars. In the series, the original friends are back, continuing to navigate the complications of their friendships. And Just Like That… finds a unique, subtler voice to that of the original series, and finds time to adjust Sex and the City’s morals for the modern age. Unfortunately for avid audiences, And Just Like That… is a limited series with no further installments announced.
Euphoria
Starring Spider-Man: No Way Home's Zendaya, teen drama Euphoria pushes the boundaries of television, succeeding in nearly every aspect. In Euphoria, a group of high school students grow and change as they encounter drugs, sex, love, and conflicts of identity and trauma. Defying all critics’ accusations of being excessively explicit with its unashamedly brutal honesty, Euphoria reaches peak quality with its gorgeous cinematography and stellar acting. Euphoria continues its challenging yet beautiful narrative into its current second season.
Succession
Succession is one of the best-written and acted series currently running on any platform. In Succession, the four children of a top media mogul compete to position themselves as inheritors of their father’s conglomerate in light of his impending death. Darkly funny and ruthlessly biting, Succession puts its family’s dysfunction on full, thrilling display, empowered by its spot-on cast. The acclaimed series will continue through its fourth season, undeniably one of the best shows on HBO Max right now.