The 50 greatest HBO shows ever – ranked
‘It’s not TV. It’s HBO.” This was once the US premium cable network’s slogan. Home Box Office launched on 8 November 1972 as a pay channel for movies and live sport. It pivoted to original programming in the 90s and transformed the small-screen landscape.
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, we’ve painstakingly picked and ranked its Top 50 shows. Unshackled from the limitations of broadcast television, HBO was able to attract top-tier talent, push boundaries and redefine what the medium could do. It ushered in the era of “peak TV” with an astonishingly consistent output of prestige shows.
Indeed, its record is so strong that many cult favourites – apologies to fans of Westworld, The Righteous Gemstones, John Adams and Generation Kill – didn’t make our cut. We also omitted series from its sister streamer HBO Max, such as Hacks, Search Party and Station Eleven.
What remains is a half-century of gamechanging dramas, coruscating comedies and landmark documentaries. Their settings span from Los Angeles funeral parlours to London pubs, Manhattan boutiques to Baltimore stash houses. Their protagonists range from sexy vampires to sweary media moguls, dragon riders to depressed mobsters. Fire up that static ident and commence the countdown …
50. Industry (2020-present)
The young pup on our list, fittingly, is the BBC co-production following the fresh intake at City investment bank Pierpoint & Co – a shark-eyed world of which creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay have direct experience. The sex, drugs and back-stabbing don’t hurt either.
49. The Comeback (2005-2014)
Lisa Kudrow riffed on her post-Friends career with this ahead-of its-time mockumentary about a washed-up sitcom star trying to relaunch her career. Hilarious, heartbreaking and scathing about Hollywood, it even made a comeback itself, landing a second series nine years after the first. How meta.
48. Sharp Objects (2018)
Amy Adams
