What are the best HBO shows (outside of the obvious choices)?
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Boardwalk Empire is good for a bit. Something happens that feels like it should be something of a series finale, and it isn't. You might want to stop there? I don't know, I never finished it.
Mr Show with Bob & David gave us Odenkirk's catchphrase of "GOD DAMN IT!" so it's the best show that ever aired on HBO.
Comedies:
Veep(seasons 1-4 anyway, haven't watched the later ones. No, Trump doesn't ruin it) This goes on the Mount Rushmore.
Succession
Barry
Silicon Valley. I wouldn't ordinarily recommend it, but it's one of the very few shows on HBO that you can fall asleep to. So much of their stuff is edge of your seat, 100 mph
Curb, if it's to your taste. Sometimes it's hard to get past that so much of it is lightly edited improv.
Drama:
-The Wire. I'm not gonna say anything that hasn't been said before, except you can skip right over the other David Simon shows. And I say that having seen The Wire at least 3 times all the way through and read his book. The Duece, Treme, all that stuff doesn't have the same magic, but how could it?
-Yes, Game of Thrones and Westworld. They're not masterpiece shows, but have you seen some of the other shit out there? This is entertaining television that only seldom makes you cringe.
-Deadwood, if you're into it.
I have yet to check out Chernobyl. There's a bunch of shows that I enjoyed watching while they were on, but are not an outright recommendation. It depends on how much tv you're watching, if you run out of stuff, there's a lot of solid HBO drama content. I haven't mentioned the Sopranos, so there's that.
Veep(seasons 1-4 anyway, haven't watched the later ones. No, Trump doesn't ruin it) This goes on the Mount Rushmore.
Succession
Barry
Silicon Valley. I wouldn't ordinarily recommend it, but it's one of the very few shows on HBO that you can fall asleep to. So much of their stuff is edge of your seat, 100 mph
Curb, if it's to your taste. Sometimes it's hard to get past that so much of it is lightly edited improv.
Drama:
-The Wire. I'm not gonna say anything that hasn't been said before, except you can skip right over the other David Simon shows. And I say that having seen The Wire at least 3 times all the way through and read his book. The Duece, Treme, all that stuff doesn't have the same magic, but how could it?
-Yes, Game of Thrones and Westworld. They're not masterpiece shows, but have you seen some of the other shit out there? This is entertaining television that only seldom makes you cringe.
-Deadwood, if you're into it.
I have yet to check out Chernobyl. There's a bunch of shows that I enjoyed watching while they were on, but are not an outright recommendation. It depends on how much tv you're watching, if you run out of stuff, there's a lot of solid HBO drama content. I haven't mentioned the Sopranos, so there's that.
The Newsroom lulz
Poster knows what's up.
I would add:
Chernobyl
Succession
Barry
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Boardwalk Empire
The Deuce (I've only seen S1 though.)
Would succession really be considered comedy? I just assumed it was drama with some comedy sprinkled throughout
it's one of the greats. problem is terrence winter got super interested in Vinyl (for some reason, show sucked) and couldn't wait to close out Boardwalk. so you got a half baked afterthought of a final season. but all things considered it ended okay
It blurs the line more than most shows, but yea. It's a lot more character driven and less episodic than most comedies and they almost always play it straight(music and cinematography), but it favors comedy more than other genre.
Yes! I was literally coming in here to say this because I was sure no one else had mentioned it.
Watch Insecure, people!
watched the whole thing recently, pretty good. obvously a pre-prestige era show (i.e. pre-Sopranos) and one of the story arcs is infamously stupid
but pretty good if you can stomach it - it's a pretty bleak show even by today's standards
Yeah I remember the show being REALLY ROUGH to watch... You will never see J. Jonah Jameson the same way lol.
I also love that they basically released Augustus Hill's book that he spends the whole show writing...
Enlightened and The Comeback are legit some of the best shows ever. Getting On is also great.
Boardwalk Empire was great for most of its run but they rushed the shit out of the rest of the story to get Vinyl on the air (ugh) so I'd hesitate to put it on any "Best Of" list - that final season was a total mess. (it also doesn't really qualify as being outside the obvious because it was one of HBO's highest profile shows ever)
With the exception of maybe an episode or two, Animals was fucking terrible.
Big Love is one of HBO's best, though season 4 took the show into some bizarre and kinda sucky territory. Season 5 was a solid course correction but also felt rushed.
Boardwalk Empire was great for most of its run but they rushed the shit out of the rest of the story to get Vinyl on the air (ugh) so I'd hesitate to put it on any "Best Of" list - that final season was a total mess. (it also doesn't really qualify as being outside the obvious because it was one of HBO's highest profile shows ever)
With the exception of maybe an episode or two, Animals was fucking terrible.
Big Love is one of HBO's best, though season 4 took the show into some bizarre and kinda sucky territory. Season 5 was a solid course correction but also felt rushed.
Deuce, Jinx, and of course Rome.
If you aren't watching Succession you're missing out of TVs best show on right now
If you aren't watching Succession you're missing out of TVs best show on right now
Enlightened is the answer here. Was barely watched by anyone but was consistent critical hit, managed two amazing season and still had a respectable ending despite being cancelled.
WATCH ENLIGHTENED
WATCH ENLIGHTENED
I wanted to like this show so much, but it really falls apart in the back half.
- The Sopranos
- The Wire
- Veep
- Vice Principals
- Game of Thrones
- Oz
- Barry
- Ballers
I am still working through their current season so I didn't want to include new shows.
I always felt that the pacific was great, but it always got compared to Band of Brothers.
Also disappointed that the Lewis And Clark miniseries never got off the ground..it was so close to taking off
