The Best TV Shows on HBO

Every HBO Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Check out the most acclaimed shows on HBO, with a catalog of over 20 series updated for July 2025. Notable series such as Sesame Street and The Hitchhiker from HBO first graced the screens in 1969 and 1983. A broadcaster of distinction, HBO has aired more than 20 shows between 1969 and 2023.

  • The Sopranos
    The Sopranos (1999)8.7

    The story of New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads. Those difficulties are often highlighted through his ongoing professional relationship with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. The show features Tony's family members and Mafia associates in prominent roles and story arcs, most notably his wife Carmela and his cousin and protégé Christopher Moltisanti.

  • The Wire
    The Wire (2002)8.6

    Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

  • Game of Thrones
    Game of Thrones (2011)8.5

    Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros. Friction between the houses leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the farthest north. Amidst the war, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night's Watch, is all that stands between the realms of men and icy horrors beyond.

  • The Last of Us
    The Last of Us (2023)8.5

    Twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed, Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the United States and depend on each other for survival.

  • True Detective
    True Detective (2014)8.3

    An American anthology police detective series utilizing multiple timelines in which investigations seem to unearth personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within or outside the law.

  • Euphoria
    Euphoria (2019)8.3

    A group of high school students navigate love and friendships in a world of drugs, sex, trauma, and social media.

  • House of the Dragon
    House of the Dragon (2022)8.3

    The Targaryen dynasty is at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins when King Viserys breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm.

  • Curb Your Enthusiasm
    Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000)8.0

    The off-kilter, unscripted comic vision of Larry David, who plays himself in a parallel universe in which he can't seem to do anything right, and, by his standards, neither can anyone else.

  • Westworld
    Westworld (2016)8.0

    A dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.

  • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
    Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (2014)7.8

    A half-hour satirical look at the week in news, politics and current events.

  • The Gilded Age
    The Gilded Age (2022)7.8

    It’s 1882 and the Gilded Age is in full swing when Marian Brook, a young orphaned daughter of a Southern general, moves in with her rigidly conventional aunts in New York City. With the help of Peggy Scott, an African-American woman masquerading as her maid, Marian gets caught up in the dazzling lives of her rich neighbors as she struggles to decide between adhering to the rules or forging her own path.

  • In Treatment
    In Treatment (2008)7.6

    Set within the highly charged confines of individual psychotherapy sessions and centering around Dr. Paul Weston, a psychotherapist who exhibits an insightful, reserved demeanor while treating his patients—but displays a crippling insecurity while counseled by his own therapist.

  • The White Lotus
    The White Lotus (2021)7.6

    Follow the exploits of various guests and employees at an exclusive tropical resort over the span of a week as with each passing day, a darker complexity emerges in these picture-perfect travelers, the hotel’s cheerful employees and the idyllic locale itself.

  • Sex and the City
    Sex and the City (1998)7.4

    Based on the bestselling book by Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City tells the story of four best friends, all single and in their late thirties, as they pursue their careers and talk about their sex lives, all while trying to survive the New York social scene. 

  • Sesame Street
    Sesame Street (1969)7.1

    On a special inner city street, the inhabitants—human and muppet—teach preschoolers basic educational and social concepts using comedy, cartoons, games, and songs.

  • VICE News Tonight
    VICE News Tonight (2016)6.6

    VICE News' half-hour nightly newscast. We now interrupt your regularly scheduled worldview.

  • Girls
    Girls (2012)6.4

    The assorted humiliations, disasters and rare triumphs of four very different twenty-something girls: Hannah, an aspiring writer; Marnie, an art gallery assistant and cousins Jessa and Shoshanna.

  • The Hitchhiker
    The Hitchhiker (1983)6.2

    A young hitchhiker introduces characters who are about to experience a frightening and sometimes supernatural incident of some kind in this moody anthology series.

  • Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
    Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (1995)6.0

    Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American anthology animated television series.

  • Real Time with Bill Maher
    Real Time with Bill Maher (2003)6.0

    Each week Bill Maher surrounds himself with a panel of guests which include politicians, actors, comedians, musicians and the like to discuss what's going on in the world.