A defining bastion of modern television and perhaps the single most pivotal brand in the medium’s rise to become a prestige form of dramatic entertainment in recent decades, HBO is a network and production house that has become synonymous with searing quality and creative dare. It is perhaps no great surprise in that case that the pay television service is home to so many of the greatest TV shows of all time.
While HBO has famously presented some of the greatest miniseries of all time and even five-season sensations like The Wire and Boardwalk Empire, this list will focus solely on the network’s catalogue of shows to have gone beyond Season 5. Ranging from crime dramas to satirical comedies, and even to fantasy phenomena, these 10 titles are a testament to HBO’s insatiable appetite for greatness and grandiosity.
10
‘Sex in the City’ (1998–2004)
Created by Darren Star
An icon of its time, Sex and the City has become as famous for the dialogue surrounding it and its central messaging as it has for its acidic wit, its flawed yet resonant characters, and its ability to mix social milieu with satirical mania. It follows the friendship between four driven and intelligent women living in New York City as they combat everything from strange sexual encounters to modern-day feminism, relationship woes, and the trials and triumphs of their respective career trajectories.
While Sex and the City is easy to criticize retrospectively, it remains a groundbreaking triumph of television that normalized conversations surrounding sexuality from a feminine perspective, depicted the complexity of women’s friendships, and de-stigmatized the notion of subverting gender roles in modern society. With its candid and crass style, which can sometimes be more mocking than observational, the series hasn’t aged as elegantly as other titles from its era, but Sex and the City does still stand as a defining icon of ‘90s/early-2000s television.
9
‘True Blood’ (2008–2014)
Created by Alan Ball
The romanticization and even the eroticism of all manner of things that go bump in the night was a piercing trend of the late 2000s-early 2010s era. While titles like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries leaned into this taboo terror with varying degrees of dare, HBO went all out with True Blood. Adapted from Charlaine Harris’ hit novel series, the show transpires in an alternate world where mythical beasts like vampires, shifters, and witches don’t just exist, but live openly alongside humanity, albeit in a strained interspecies harmony. Louisiana bartender Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) finds her life changing when she meets the vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).
While the series does dip in quality in its later seasons, True Blood delivers thrills and spills aplenty with its bloodthirsty and lustful story of civil rights, faith, and the marriage of monsters and humanity. At its best, True Blood is nothing short of addictive, a captivating amalgamation of Southern Gothic allure, blood-drenched horror mania, and socially loaded themes that is as heart-racing as it is hilarious.
true blood
- Release Date
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2008 – 2014-00-00
- Network
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HBO Max
8
‘Girls’ (2012–2017)
Created by Lena Dunham
It’s not another Sex and the City, but it does follow a group of four women in New York who rely on their friendship as they navigate career obstacles, romantic angst, and personal discoveries, all while struggling to get by in the rigmarole that is early adulthood. To put it simply, the premise of Girls doesn’t exactly deliver anything new, but its genius resides in how it is able to use this familiar framework to bring fresh insights and a cutting commentary on modern society.
Described by some critics as being an exploration of a post-feminist society, the series isn’t afraid to shirk notions of happiness and fulfilling relationships in its endeavor to showcase a more authentic, grounded, and, at times, unflattering illustration of modern life. Mixing this sense of millennial angst and melancholy with unflinching and explicit observations on sex, Girls makes up for its occasional lack of polish with sheer might. Granted, it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but Girls’ six seasons never waver in quality or dare, making for a series that grasps HBO’s famed appetite for boundary-pushing extravagance with absolute conviction.
Girls
- Release Date
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2012 – 2016
- Network
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HBO Max
7
‘Entourage’ (2004–2011)
Created by Doug Ellin
There’s a certain juvenile boyishness to Entourage that makes it somewhat polarizing. To some viewers, it’s a hysterical fantasy of wealth, fame, and friendship that never fails to deliver, while others may regard it as a repetitive and immature whirlwind of shallow comedy. Regardless of where one sits on their evaluation of the series, it rockets along its eight-season stretch following young Hollywood star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his cohort of friends that he has kept with him since his childhood.
Supposedly based on elements of executive producer Mark Wahlberg’s own friends and their misadventures in the City of Angels, Entourage ultimately thrives due to the authentic appeal of its characters and the innate sense of intrigue of the movie star lifestyle. While it did grow oppressively cyclical by its eighth and final season, the series still delivers to be a memorable comedy delight from HBO.
6
‘Oz’ (1997–2003)
Created by Tom Fontana
Premiering in 1997—and thus predating many of HBO’s most pioneering titles of the very late ‘90s and early 2000s—Oz is arguably the true origin point of the golden age of television drama. The grueling prison series follows inmates of an experimental new ward in Oswald Maximum Security Correctional Facility, with hardened criminals from rival gangs being thrust together, the meek getting caught in the crossfire, and the ward manager’s efforts to emphasize rehabilitation over punishment garnering mixed results.
A graphic nightmare of life behind bars, Oz may exaggerate certain aspects of prison life for dramatic effect, but it makes its point with scorching clarity and impact. Disturbing, bleak, confronting, and often deeply upsetting, it is an ultra-violent and unforgiving cautionary tale. And yet, there is plenty of stylistic might and even a few shreds of profound humanity within it. The end result is a compelling and commanding viewing experience that, beyond the bizarre aging pills subplot in Season 4, largely strikes viewers as one of the most sickeningly intense and brutal television series HBO has ever aired.
Oz
- Release Date
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1997 – 2003-00-00
- Network
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HBO Max
5
‘Silicon Valley’ (2014–2019)
Created by Mike Judge, John Altschuler, and Dave Krinsky
Co-created by the ever-magnificent and often prescient Mike Judge, Silicon Valley thrives as a piercing and profound parody of the technology industry and fierce entrepreneurial culture of the titular Silicon Valley. It focuses on the career aspirations of Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) and his friends and colleagues, with Richard trying to secure investors for his groundbreaking app while the other programmers navigate the networking minefield of Silicon Valley with little help from their antisocial predispositions.
Armed with Judge’s real-life experience in the industry, Silicon Valley excels as a perfect marriage of relatable characters, succinct, skewering comedy, and deftly explored, high-concept ideas that are presented in a manner that is digestible to all audiences. Each of Silicon Valley‘s six seasons was met with critical acclaim, making the series one of HBO’s most successful and timely forays into comedy.
4
‘Veep’ (2012–2019)
Created by Armando Iannucci
While it did have to overcome a bit of an uncertain start that was restricted to coasting by on Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ brilliance—which, in itself, is a treat to watch—Veep soon finds its feet as a shocking satire of political callousness and conniving. Louis-Dreyfus stars as Selina Meyer, a former U.S. Senator representing the office of Vice President of the United States where she tries to juggle elements from her professional and personal lives all while quelling political catastrophes before they can ruin her current position, and her grander aspirations.
The series’ wit isn’t just acidic, it’s venomous, a vile and toxic tirade of barbed insults and unadulterated ambitions that, combined with the outstanding, award-winning work of the ensemble cast, makes for a viewing experience that is as vicious as it is addictive. Coming to a note-perfect conclusion with its appropriately absurd and brash seventh and final season, Veep is another of HBO’s most defining and divine comedies in recent years.
Veep
- Release Date
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2012 – 2018
- Network
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HBO Max
3
‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ (2000–2024)
Created by Larry David
It is curious that so many of HBO’s longest-running series have been comedies. Perhaps the network’s greatest foray into the genre is the instant classic series, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Starring Larry David as an exaggerated and fictionalized version of himself, a successful and semi-retired television producer and writer famous for his work on Seinfeld. Cantankerous and tired of social conventions, Larry often finds himself being swept away on outrageous misadventures with his friends and celebrity figures around Hollywood.
While the series isn’t immune to the occasional lull in quality, it is defined by its greatest moments, its uproarious sequences of unrestrained comic genius that often stem from the actors’ improvisational talents. Following an initial run of eight seasons from 2000 to 2011, Curb Your Enthusiasm returned in 2017 for a one-off ninth season before Seasons 10-12 premiered from 2020 to 2024.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
- Release Date
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2000 – 2024-00-00
- Network
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HBO Max
- Showrunner
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Jeff Schaffer
- Directors
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Robert B. Weide, Larry Charles, David Steinberg, Bryan Gordon, Alec Berg, Andy Ackerman, David Mandel, Barry Gordon, Cheryl Hines, Dean Parisot
2
‘Game of Thrones’ (2011–2019)
Created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss
While many would be quick to dismiss Game of Thrones on account of its calamitous final season, such haste would only serve to overlook the seven seasons of not only exceptional but groundbreaking television that came before it. A fantasy epic based on George R. R. Martin’s novel series, Game of Thrones unfolds as the ruling families of Westeros engage in a ferocious power struggle for the Iron Throne, with the political conniving and cold-blooded ruthlessness imbuing the series with many unbearably intense twists along the way.
Transcending television entertainment, Game of Thrones at its peak was a cultural phenomenon. A mixture of outstanding writing, perfect performances, unrivaled production value and narrative scope, and faultless grasp of fantasy storytelling, the series didn’t just enthrall viewers, it absorbed them completely, with each episode’s first airing being an unmissable spectacle that was often rewatched to be digested anew. The fact that the eight-season show came to such a limp conclusion is unfortunate, but it doesn’t change the fact that Game of Thrones saw HBO ascend to a new height of television popularity and prestige, and did so for an extended period.
1
‘The Sopranos’ (1999–2007)
Created by David Chase
The flagship of HBO’s catalogue, The Sopranos isn’t just in the conversation of being the greatest crime series of all time, it is firmly entrenched among the most brilliant and pioneering shows the medium has ever seen. Following New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) as ongoing stress problems due to his complicated work-life balance lead him to begin seeing a psychiatrist, the series excels as the first true great examination of an antihero in television, one that balances dramatic intrigue and visceral violence with a flair for high-end entertainment and even glimpses of comedy.
The series never wavers throughout its acclaimed six-season run, with the exploration of Tony’s complex psyche always supported by a litany of exceptional side characters who propel the story with their own ambitions. The series’ famous final moments are still a hot topic of conversation almost 20 years on since the episode aired, illustrating not only the unrivaled excellence of The Sopranos, but its enduring presence in pop culture as well.
