HBO Max had an edge against its fellow competitors when it launched: On top of that, there is the whole weight of Warner Bros. heritage–especially decades of brilliant cinema and television. On the TV side, the prestige network that comprises half of this service’s name implies a ton of fascinating programming.
To keep it current, we’ve included new releases, series, and the best shows on HBO Max, and HBO Max originals, but we’ve also included titles we can’t stop promoting to our friends.
Our professionals have compiled the list of the best shows on HBO Max. To ensure that you guys have a wonderful experience while watching the program, we have mentioned only the best shows on HBO Max. There is a possibility that our list of best shows on HBO Max influences your best pick. Additionally to HBO Max, HBO Max Canada is a good option if HBO Max is not available in your country
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1. Friends: The Reunion
Year: 2021
Director: Ben Winston
Stars: Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 115 minutes
This is only the second time the six Friends actors have been together since the show’s final episode was filmed. It’s a reunion of the entire original cast on a set that’s been meticulously recreated down to the smallest of details.
When they’re not filming, they spend their time on set playing games, reading the original scripts, meeting their favorite guest actors, and reliving their most memorable moments from the comedy. Friends: The Reunion, hosted by James Corden, is a celebration of the show’s impact on its stars and the rest of the globe.
2. Head of the Class
Year: 2021
Director: Phill Lewis
Stars: Isabella Gomez
Rating: TV-PG
Runtime: 27 minutes each episode
When she gets her new job teaching an advanced debate class, Alicia Gomez is looking forward to working only until 3 PM. However, she soon discovers that keeping up with her six outstanding students is much more than a full-time job. As Christa Miller portrays the school’s hardened principal, each student seems to have their own personal issues to deal with outside of debate class.
A live streaming party invitation evolves into a live broadcast nightmare for them, as well as the pressures of schoolwork. Howard Hesseman and Robin Givens reprise their roles as the students’ mothers in this reboot of the 1980s sitcom.
3. Generation
Year: 2021
Director: Daniel Barnz
Stars: Chloe East, Lukita Maxwell, Haley Sanchez
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 39 minutes each episode
GENERATION, written by then-17-year-old Zelda Barnz including showrunner (and Zelda’s father) Daniel Barnz, and produced by Girls’ Lena Dunham, is set at a So-Cal high school and stars a mostly new ensemble.
Nathan (Uly Schlesinger) and Naomi (Chloe East) are twins with a suffocatingly close relationship and a few lingering secrets; Chester (Justice Smith) toes the line between popularity and rebellion, and Riley (Chase Sui Wonders) floats between many social groups in a confident but mostly empty manner.
A flash-forward drama unfolds in a mall toilet as these characters and many more strive to get through their days unscathed. How did we go from point A to point B? Generations show this.
4. Through Our Eyes
Year: 2021
Director: Geeta Gandbhir and Rudy Valdez
Stars: Talleah Bridges McMahon · Geeta Gandbhir · Kristi Jacobson · Smriti Mundhra · Rudy Valdez · Maya Gnyp · Susan MacLaury
Rating: TV-PG
Runtime: 30 minutes each episode
THROUGH OUR EYES, a documentary series featuring children from around the United States explores the difficulties that their families face. They tell about what it’s like to have a parent behind bars in locations like New York, Virginia, and Georgia; others have parents who’ve been wounded in wars.
Many children in Iowa and Texas have been forced to relocate, and some have even lost friends as a result. Young people’s memory may be permanently seared by stories about surviving military explosions and severe storms. While sharing universal themes of love, strength, and cooperation, the children’s knowledge shines forth.
5. Aquaman: King of Atlantis
Year: 2021
Director: James Wan
Stars: Gillian Jacobs, Thomas Lennon, Cooper Andrews
Rating: TV-PG
Runtime: 45 minutes each episode
This is what Cooper Andrews did with Aquaman in the movie. Aquaman was raised on land, but he now has to take over for his half-brother Ocean Master. To do his job as king, Aquaman has to do things like go to a ribbon-cutting ceremony, choose out fabric and stamp tax forms.
Vulko is Aquaman’s new minion. Fortunately, Princess Mera explains what the kingdom needs to do. They need to figure out what was going on with Outpost 4, where the ocean has already been mysteriously moved. It’s not clear if Aquaman’s skills will be as useful in this world as they were on land.
6. That Damn Michael Che
Year: 2021
Director: Oz Rodriguez
Stars: Michael Che
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 30 minutes each episode
Six short episodes of humorous skits, phony advertising, and personal comments from Michael Che. The sketches feature Cecily Strong, Colin Jost, Omari Hardwick, Godfrey, Billy Porter, and Method Man. Each episode has a central theme and sub-themes. Che, alone on screen, talks about the episode’s theme before and between sketches.
His childhood misogyny made it difficult for him to connect meaningfully with women covered in some semi-autobiographical sketches. Inequity in healthcare and police shootings of unarmed Black individuals are among the topics discussed. The show tackles weighty themes while also having a lighter thread where the viewer watches Che deal with his semi-fame.
7. Veneno
Year: 2020
Director: Javier Ambrossi; Javier Calvo; Mikel Rueda; Álex Rodrigo
Stars: Jedet, Daniela Santiago, Isabel Torres
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 352 minutes season 1
VENENO is a Spanish limited series based on the book by Spanish writer and activist Valeria Vegas about the history of 1990s transgender pop culture figure Cristina “La Veneno” Ortiz Rodriguez. The biopic stars Lola Rodriguez, who chooses to write a book on the vedette performer’s life after befriending a middle-aged Cristina Ortiz (played by Jedet, Daniela Santiago, and Isabel Torres at various points in her life).
The young writer unearths a terrible and wonderful life story about Ortiz’s transformation from a tormented and rejected youth in a homophobic Andalusian fishing hamlet to a high-priced sex worker. It chronicles Ortiz’s discovery by tabloid writer Faela Sainz (Lola Dueas), which resulted in her television debut on a popular adult late-night chat show and subsequent meteoric ascent to popularity. Throughout everything, Valeria is grappling with her identity and acceptance in the world.
8. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion
Year: 2020
Director: Marcus Raboy
Stars: Will Smith, Alfonso Ribeiro, Tatyana Ali
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 22 minutes each episode
After six seasons and 148 episodes, THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR REUNION sees the cast of the enormously successful 1990s sitcom reuniting for the first time in 30 years after the show’s cancellation. In a reunion at the show’s original set, Will Smith and the other actors who played members of the Banks family share memories — and shed a few tears — about their experiences on the show.
9. Close Enough
Year: 2020
Director: J. G. Quintel
Stars: J.G. Quintel, Gabrielle Walsh, Jason Mantzoukas
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 24 minutes each episode
Close Enough follows game developer Josh and musician Emily as they move in along with their split best buddies, social celebrity Bridgette and college professor Alex, inside a Los Angeles duplex in hopes of just getting their young daughter, Candice (played by Emily), into a decent school. Both the living environment and the parental responsibilities place demands on Josh and Emily in areas where they might have not reached maturity in their own lives.
10. The Lady and the Dale
Year: 2021
Director: Nick Cammilleri; Zackary Drucker
Stars: Elizabeth Carmichael, Candi Michael, Charles Barrett
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 58 minutes per episode
THE LADY AND THE DALE is a great documentary series co-produced by Jay and Mark Duplass, about con artist Elizabeth Carmichael. Liz Carmichael launched the Twentieth Century Motor Car Company in 1974, promoting “The Dale,” a low-cost, three-wheeled futuristic car designed to save petrol and disrupt the auto manufacturing business.
But the scheme was a sham, and Carmichael and her accomplices fleeced millions of investors and customers. The fact that Carmichael is trans and used to be wanted fugitive Jerry Dean Michael made the story spectacular. As a result, the media conflated Carmichael’s illegal behavior with her personal tale of transition and gender identification, resulting in a misleading and transphobic narrative that influenced her legal fate.
The life choices that characterize Liz Carmichael as a fraudster, a devoted parent, and a trans woman are addressed separately and as part of a broader and seemingly incredible narrative.
11. Starstruck
Year: 2021
Director: Karen Maine
Stars: Rose Matafeo, Nikesh Patel, Minnie Driver
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 21 minutes
At a nightclub, Jessie (Rose Matafeo) meets Tom (Nikesh Patel) in the men’s room and their relationship begins. During their first encounter, the two fall in love with each other and spend a night alongside the next morning.
Jessie learns that Tom is a huge star (whose agent is played by Minnie Driver). Then Jessie has to sort out how to balance her newfound connection with Tom with the rest of her hectic dating life, which has become more difficult.
12. Hacks
Year: 2021
Director: Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky
Stars: Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, Paul W. Downs
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 35 minutes each episode
It’s the plotline of a combat vet comedian and an up-and-coming humor writer’s complicated relationship in HACKS, a comedy series. The Palmetto Casino in Las Vegas is home to legendary comic Deborah Vance. After CEO Marty Ghilain wants to cut back on Vance’s performance dates to make room for younger, hipper acts, her manager Jimmy sends Ava Daniels, a young and unfiltered LA comedy writer, to assist her in writing new material.
As part of Vance’s team, she works with Marcus, the comedian’s COO, and personal assistant, and sometimes manages to find herself dealing with his troubled adult daughter, D.J. Deborah and Ava aren’t exactly thrilled about working together, but as they clash, they also unveil what they share.
13. Made for Love
Year: 2021
Director: Alethea Jones, Stephanie Laing
Stars: Cristin Milioti, Ray Romano, Billy Magnussen
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 29 minutes each episode
Made for Love features Hazel Green (Palm Springs’ Kristin Milioti) as she attempts to flee her husband, Byron (Billy Magnussen). Byron is the CEO of Gogol, a massive technological corporation, and Hazel has not yet left the Gogol property from the day she met Byron.
Byron, on the other hand, has been employing experimental technologies to track her emotions, even implanting a microchip in her head without her permission. Despite Byron’s abilities to monitor and observe her, Hazel seeks the assistance of her estranged father (Ray Romano) to start a new life.
14. The Gilded Age
Year: 2022
Director: Michael Engler & Salli Richardson-Whitfield
Stars: Christine Baranski, Taissa Farmiga, Cynthia Nixon
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 46 to 80 minutes
As THE GILDED AGE begins in late nineteenth-century NY City, George Russell (Spector Morgan) and Bertha (Coon Carrie) utilize their newly acquired fortune to construct an enormous palace on Fifth Avenue directly just next to the van Rhijns’ home, Agnes (Christine Baranski) and Ada (Cynthia Nixon), who take pride in their interconnection to “old” New York and are committed to badmouth the Russells and their children, recent college graduate Larry (Taissa Farmiga).
However, whenever the van Rhijns’ long-lost niece Marian (Louisa Jacobson) shows up in the neighborhood with her fellow Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), a college-educated Black woman and aspiring writer, it’s indeed clear that change is imminent, both in the van Rhijn household and in the New York society circles long presided over by the van Rhijns and their ilk.
15. Somebody Somewhere
Year: 2022
Director: Jay Duplass and Robert Cohen
Stars: Bridget Everett, Jeff Hiller, Mary Catherine Garrison
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 24 to 30 minutes per episode
“Somebody Somewhere” Sam Miller (Bridget Everett) is at a loss in her homeland of Manhattan, Kansas. After graduating from high school, Sam decided to return to her hometown to help her dying sister, Holly. Sam’s employment as a standardized test grader has left her feeling depressed and uncertain about her future, but an unexpected connection with Joel (Jeff Hiller) at work helps her take a different path.
16. Rick and Morty
Year: 2013
Director: Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland
Stars: Chris Parnell, Justin Roiland, Sarah Chalke
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 22 minutes each episode
RICK AND MORTY feature a socially awkward youngster and his drunken grandpa as they wander through time and space, enacting strange plans. High school is a social minefield for Morty (played by Justin Roiland), from disguising his infatuation with the school hottie to fighting off bullies. Yet Morty prefers being there to riding shotgun with his grandfather, Rick, a brilliant genius who’s desperate to have Morty along for the ride… and to do his dirty job for him.
17. Station Eleven
Year: 2021
Director: Hiro Murai
Stars: Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, Lori Petty
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 44 to 59 minutes per episode
STATION ELEVEN is based on Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 classic novel. In the book, an actor dies onstage, causing a global epidemic like most of the world falls prey to the Georgian flu. Jeevan locks himself inside his brother Frank’s flat with Kirsten, a little girl he saved from a frenzied throng.
Decades later, we meet Kirsten, a member of a Shakespeare ensemble that tours the country. En route to a dangerous religious group, the troupe and Kirsten cross paths with a dangerous prophet who leads an extremist religious group.
18. The Sex Lives of College Girls
Year: 2021
Director: Mindy Kaling
Stars: Reneé Rapp, Pauline Chalamet, Alyah Chanelle Scott, Amrit Kaur
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 24 to 50 minutes each episode
THE SEX LIVES OF COLLEGE GIRLS is set in the prestigious private college of Essex and follows the lives of four freshmen roommates: wannabe comic Bela, soccer star, and senator’s daughter Whitney, wealthy legacy student Leighton, and small-town aspirant Kimberly.
When the roommates are suddenly released from the restrictions of high school and their parents, they must learn to deal with their newfound independence and, at times, even triumph. Of course, they’ll always have each other to share their joys and sorrows with, as long as they stay together.
19. Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens
Year: 2020
Director: Lucia Aniello
Stars: Awkwafina, B. D. Wong, Lori Tan Chinn
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 22 minutes each episode
AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS is a television series starring Awkwafina, who is humiliated to just be 27 years old and yet still residing with her dad (BD Wong) and grandmother (Kathryn Huffman) (Lori Tan Chinn).
Even though she was expelled from dental assistant school and is unable to find a legitimate job (the day she spent driving for a ride-sharing service does not count), she retains her sense of humor and the support of her family and friends.
20. The Other Two
Year: 2019
Director: Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider
Stars: Molly Shannon, Drew Tarver, Case Walker, Heléne Yorke
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 30 minutes each episode
While everyone’s attention is focused on their renowned 13-year-old brother Chase, his older siblings Cary and Brooke are left feeling like THE OTHER TWO, ignored by their mother Pat and the rest of society. After all, Brooke was destined to be a world-renowned dancer, while Cary was destined to be a Hollywood star.
Brooke and Cary’s careers seem to stagnate in their 30s, but when the song “Marry U at Recess” becomes a smashing success, Chase is thrust into a new world. When a celebrity threatens to rip this family apart, can they stay together?
21. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Year: 2014
Director: Joe Perota; Christopher Werner; Jim Hoskinson; Paul Pennolino; Bruce Leddy
Stars: John Oliver
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 30 to 45 minutes each episode
LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER is a regular talk show that explores important themes in American news from the previous week. The program is anchored by British political satirist and actor John Oliver, who is best remembered in the United States for his contributions to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
It tackles problems ranging from American current affairs to international events that the American media is largely ignoring. Footage from numerous news outlets, interviews, musical interludes, and other humorous pieces accompanies his distinctive brand of commentary.
22. Miracle Workers
Year: 2019
Director: Simon Rich
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Steve Buscemi, Geraldine Viswanathan
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 22 minutes each episode
As the show goes on, the core cast is put in a different situation. The first season takes place in a version of heaven that’s like a bad business. God is depressed and unhappy about the state of life on the planet, and Eliza Hunter is an angel who has worked for years in the Department of Dirt. There is only one other person working in the department, Craig.
She asks to be moved to a place where she can do good for people and ultimately ends up in the division of wish fulfillment. When God decides to shut down the Earth for good, Eliza makes a bet with him to save it. They have to cope with life inside the Dark Ages as well as on the Oregon Trail during later seasons.
23. The White Lotus
Year: 2021
Director: Mike White
Stars: Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexandra Daddario
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 54 to 65 minutes each episode
There’s something about this specific group of vacationers at The White Lotus resort that makes them stand out from the rest of the crowd. It features a couple of frightened newlyweds, the family of a technology CFO, and a woman who is grieving the death of her mother.
At first, their arrival may seem normal to Armond (Murray Bartlett) as well as his employees, but it quickly sets off a sequence of events that would alter the destiny of both the guests and the staff for the rest of their lives.
24. Curb Your Enthusiasm
Year: 2000
Director: Larry David
Stars: Cheryl Hines, Jeff Garlin, Larry David
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 26 to 58 minutes
In CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, the life of Seinfeld, co-creator and executive producer Larry David, is based on the show. The show is mostly made up. David portrays a version of himself, a wealthy semi-retired comedy writer who enjoys golfing with his devoted buddy and agent, Jeff Greene (Jeff Garlin), and dining out with his tolerant wife, Cheryl (Cheryl Hines).
Curb follows Larry on his everyday adventures, such as chats with friends, evenings out with Cheryl, and errands around town, extending the Seinfeld premise of a “show about nothing.”
25. The Nevers
Year: 2021
Director: Joss Whedon
Stars: Laura Donnelly, Ann Skelly, Denis O’Hare, James Norton, Ben Chaplin
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 54 to 64 minutes per episode
The Nevers is a new action-drama series that combines elements of science fiction, illusion, substitute heritage, and design to make it unique. During the Victorian era, many women and some men have been left with odd power and authority or qualities because of a mystical, or maybe an alien, event.
Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and Penance Adair (Ann Skelly), two of the main characters, are both gifted by this phenomenon. They help run an orphanage that cares for and protects other people who have the same gifts. These people, known as the “Touched,” are seen as outsiders and a possible threat to society. As a result, there are a lot of bad people out there who want to hurt them or get them in trouble.
26. The Knick
Year: 2014
Director: Steven Andrew Soderbergh
Stars: Clive Owen, Andre Holland, Juliet Rylance
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 42 to 57 minutes each episode
THE KNICK is a fictitious medical drama that takes place in the early 19th century. He is the passionate — and egotistical — chief of surgery at a downtown New York City hospital who is committed to lowering patient mortality. Junior surgeons Dr. Everett Gallinger and Dr. Bertram Chickering Jr. join him.
The affluent daughter of a big hospital donor & hospital administrator, Herman Barrow (Juliet Rylance) must be appeased as Thackery treats patients and works on medical advances at the non-profit, cash-strapped hospital (Jeremy Bobb). But he also has inner demons, which he discusses with Nurse Lucy (Eve Hewson).
27. Mare of Easttown
Year: 2021
Director: Craig Zobel
Stars: Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce, Jean Smart
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 58 to 66 minutes each episode
The action of MARE OF EAST TOWN takes place in a quiet Philadelphia suburb, where Mare works as a private investigator. Mare spends her days tracking down small crooks, the majority of whom she knows well, despite the fact that she and the community are haunted by the unexplained disappearance of a youngster. When a young mother is brutally murdered, Mare is tasked with tracking down the perpetrator in her small community.
28. The Flight Attendant
Year: 2020
Director: Susanna Fogel
Stars: Kaley Cuoco, Michiel Huisman, Rosie Perez
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 42 to 48 minutes
The opening five minutes of THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT reveals that Cassie is in love with her job: she serves first-class passengers throughout the world, throws parties whenever she has an overnight, and she hooks up with other people at each and every port of call. Her new roommate Alex is lying on blood-soaked sheets with a cut-throat when she regains consciousness in Bangkok.
Without any recollection of what transpired because of her intoxication the night before, she scrambles to remove any proof of her presence and rushes to the airport to catch the next flight out. Unfortunately, her coworkers remember her making out with Alex. Surely Cassie could not have done this.
29. Perry Mason
Year: 2020
Director: Tim Van Patten, Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Stars: Matthew Rhys, Tatiana Maslany, John Lithgow
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 56 to 64 minutes each episode
PERRY MASON tells the genesis tale of its protagonist, played by Matthew Rhys, in the midst of the Great Depression in Los Angeles. In this particular case, Mason is shown as a dogged, downtrodden private eye suffering from the effects of post-World War I PTSD while examining a child kidnapping that went tragically wrong.
For those who aren’t familiar with the original case-of-the-week model that dominated the original, the film noir mood is supported by the convoluted primary murder investigation, 1930s backdrop, and nasty characters.
30. The Big Bang Theory
Year: 2007
Director:
Stars: Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 18 to 22 minutes each episode
THE BIG BANG THEORY is a comedy about a bunch of Caltech scientists who can solve cosmic riddles but can’t communicate with most human beings on the planet. Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) are companions who like playing board games in Klingon and watching Stephen Hawking lectures. Penny (Kaley Cuoco), a lovely blonde server/aspiring screenwriter, moves in next door and changes everything.
Penny’s attractiveness and readiness to befriend them have the nerdy boys trying their best to woo her with their poor social abilities. As the series proceeds, more female characters (such as Sara Gilbert and Mayim Bialik) who are as smart as Leonard and Sheldon are added.
Conclusion
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