FromThe SopranostoThe Wire,HBOhas delivered some of the greatest TV shows ever made over the years, and the network’s best original programming should be required viewing for everyone. HBO was the progenitor ofthe Golden Age of Television. Before AMC airedBreaking BadandMad Men, Showtime airedDexterandNurse Jackie, and Netflix airedHouse of CardsandMindhunter, HBO was the bona fide home of “Peak TV.” It was the first network to introduce morally gray antiheroes, serialized storytelling, and cinematic visuals to the small screen.
Eversince it airedOz, the uncompromisingly violent prison drama that challenged all the established conventions of television, HBO has been the home of prestige TV. Over the years, the network has humanized the mafia, explored the beauty of life in a funeral home, satirized the absurdity of social norms through the eyes of Larry David, and deconstructed the institutional issues keeping the city of Baltimore mired in crime and corruption. There are manygreat HBO showsout there, but some are so groundbreaking and masterfully crafted that everyone should watch them at least once.
Deadwood
Cast
Deadwood is a western drama series created for HBO by David Milch. The series takes place in Deadwood, South Dakota, where corruption runs rampant in the gold-mining era as the settlement existed outside the U.S. territory expansion following the Civil War. As the town was the site of a major gold find, it continues to attract people from all walks of life - especially opportunistic criminals.
David Milch brought the grit of an HBO drama to the classic western genre in his criminally underrated, sadly short-lived seriesDeadwood.Set in the 1870s,Deadwoodchronicles the titular settlement’s expansion from a camp into a townthrough the lives of its sprawling ensemble cast. The show expertly weaves historical figures like Wyatt Earp and Calamity Jane into its fictional storylines.Deadwoodis always one of the first titles onlists of shows that were canceled too soon. It deserved to become an HBO classic, but it struggled to find its audience.
Chernobyl
Chernobyl is a miniseries dramatizing the 1986 nuclear accident, highlighting the efforts of the individuals who worked tirelessly to mitigate its impact. Released in 2019, this historical depiction captures both the technical and human aspects of one of the most significant industrial disasters in history.
Before he adaptedThe Last of Usgames for television, Craig Mazin dramatized a real-life apocalyptic event on HBO’s airwaves.Chernobyldepicts the horrors of the eponymous nuclear disasterand the urgent fight to contain it. The miniseries takes some artistic license to streamline the story or enrich the drama, but for the most part, it’s a historically accurate account of a tragedy. Everyone has heard of the Chernobyl disaster, but very few people know the details of how it happened. HBO’s dramatization is deeply cinematic, hauntingly atmospheric, and phenomenally acted by its cast.
Succession
Succession is a Black Comedy and Satire television show created by Jesse Armstrong. It stars Hiam Abbass, Nicholas Braun, Brian Cox, and Kieran Culkin and follows the story of an aging conglomerate owner as he deals with his declining health and the sudden realization that one of his children will soon inherit his position and run his company.
Jesse Armstrong took a satirical look at the lives of the one percent in his incisive seriesSuccession. The show revolves aroundmedia magnate Logan Royandthe fight over who will inherit his empire when he’s gone.
Successionis both a biting comedy mocking the elite, and an engrossing family saga about the dysfunctional relationships between a bunch of tragic, three-dimensional, flawed yet lovable characters. The Roys are obscenely wealthy and disgustingly elitist, but they’re all broken in their own ways, and that makes them worth following.Successionmasterfully balances poking fun at these characters and sympathizing with them.
Game Of Thrones
Based on George R. R. Martin’s ongoing A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, Game of Thrones is a fantasy drama set in the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos. It follows noble families like the Starks, Lannisters, and Targaryen vying for control of the Iron Throne while a rising threat from the undead looms in the North. The series received significant critical success and amassed a loyal fan base due to its high production values, sprawling sets, iconic characters, and shocking twists.
Adapted from George R.R. Martin’sA Song of Ice and Firebook series,Game of Thronesis a medieval fantasy epic following various antiheroes vying to seize the Iron Throne and rule overthe Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.Game of Thronesinstantly attracted fans of the fantasy genre, but it found an audience outside that fandom, too. It’s not just a fantasy show; it tells human stories of power, betrayal, and political corruption within a fantasy setting. It might look likeThe Lord of the Rings, but it plays likeThe Godfather.
The Larry Sanders Show
Created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein, The Larry Sanders Show was a satirical sitcom series that aired on HBO in 1992. Several celebrities, including Shandling, build a fictional late-night television talk show as parodied versions of themselves. The show’s core premise also takes shots at the development process of a late-night series. During its run, the series garnered several major awards, including Primetime Emmys and American Comedy Awards
Instead of hosting a late-night talk show, Garry Shandling created a meta sitcom about a version of himself who did.The Larry Sanders Showtakes a behind-the-scenes look at the wild world of late-night television. Rip Torn plays Larry’s hot-headed producer Artie and Jeffrey Tambor plays his emotionally unstable on-air sidekick Hank.
The Larry Sanders Showdoesn’t get the recognition it deserves — it revolutionized the genre.
It originated a lot of tropes of TV comedies that have since become common conventions: single-camera shooting, celebrity guest stars playing themselves, self-aware commentary on television itself.The Larry Sanders Showdoesn’t get the recognition it deserves — it revolutionized the genre.
Six Feet Under
Created by Alan Ball, Six Feet Under is a Black Comedy and Drama series that stars Peter Krause, Frances Conroy, Rachel Griffiths, and Michael C. Hall. Running for five seasons between 2001 and 2005, the plot revolves around a dysfunctional family that owns and operates a funeral home.
Alan Ball’s tragicomic psychological dramaSix Feet Underfollows the dysfunctional Fisher family as they struggle to keep their funeral business afloat after the patriarch dies. The genius ofSix Feet Underis that, while it’s mired in death — tellingits story in the wake of a death and taking place in a funeral home, surrounded by dead bodies — it’s really a celebration of all the things that make life worth living. It’s all about love and human connection and living in the present, and it culminates in one of the greatest series finales ever produced.
Band of Brothers
Band of Brothers is a 2001 HBO miniseries chronicling Easy Company’s experiences from paratrooper training to World War II’s end. It portrays their participation in pivotal battles such as D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s book and first-hand accounts from surviving members.
After working onSaving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks went back to the Second World War to produceBand of Brothers, an HBO miniseries set during the conflict.Band of Brotherswas one of the first TV shows that really felt like a movie. It’s just as cinematic asSaving Private Ryan— it’s gritty, it’s visceral, and it has an epic scope — but it has a much longer runtime to dig a lot deeper into the human beings on the battlefield. It’s an action-packed war series, but it’s also a moving character study.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is a Comedy television show created by Larry David, the same creative mind behind the wildly popular sitcom, Seinfeld. Starring Larry David himself, along with Cheryl Hines, and Jeff Garlin, the show acts as a semi-fictionalized look at Larry’s every day life and the people he would come in contact with.
After spending seven seasons as the unsung hero ofSeinfeld, Larry David took center stage in his next series.Curb Your Enthusiasmstars Davidas a fictionalized version of himself: the outspoken curmudgeon who comes crashing into dignified social situations and protests all the unwritten rules of society. LikeSeinfeld,Curbis a razor-sharp satire of the annoying minutiae of everyday life, but it has a much darker sense of humor, and all the dialogue is improvised by the show’s incredible cast, so it captures the awkward spontaneity of real life.
The Wire
The Wire, debuting in 2002, is a series that explores the complex world of Baltimore’s narcotics scene, presenting perspectives from both law enforcement and their targets. It delves into how the war on drugs has evolved into a self-perpetuating institution, blurring moral boundaries between right and wrong.
David Simon turned his years of experience as a crime reporter in Baltimore into one of the greatest TV shows ever made.The Wireis a keenly observed journalisticstudy of the institutional issues keeping cities like Baltimore mired in crime and corruption. It looks at law enforcement, underfunded public services, and useless local government to give a well-rounded portrait of the American city.
The Wirewas the perfect antidote to the stale, formulaic police procedurals that relied on tropes and clichés. It’s so realistic that it almost plays like a fly-on-the-wall documentary. But for all the heavy real-world themes it deals with,The Wirehas plenty of lovable charactersto balance it out and keep it emotionally engaging and entertaining.
The Sopranos
The Sopranos follows New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano as he navigates the challenges of managing his family and criminal enterprise. He seeks guidance from psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi while dealing with complex dynamics involving his wife Carmela, cousin Christopher Moltisanti, and other Mafia associates. Released in 1999, this series delves into organized crime and personal struggles.
The Godfatherupended the archetypes of the gangster genre to present mafiosos as three-dimensional human beings, thenGoodfellaswent a step further and presented itself as essentially a mob home movie. David Chase took that humanization of the mob to the next level with his groundbreaking seriesThe Sopranos.The Sopranosfocuses on the day-to-day activities of an Italian-American crime family. In between the murders and shakedowns, there’s a lot of mundane stuff that gangster movies usually leave out.
Tony Soprano revolutionized the way characters workon television. Until Tony came along, TV protagonists were supposed to be likable. But Tony is a killer, a career criminal, and a habitual adulterer — and thanks to James Gandolfini, he’s still compelling and oddly lovable.The Sopranoshas all the familiar tropes of a crime flick, but it’s a universally relatable family drama at heart.
