Ask anyone to name the best TV series of all time and HBO/maximum HBO Titles will jump to the top of that list faster than you can say, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.” With prestigious shows spanning The Sopranos to The white lotusThe bar HBO has set remains the one others are looking for, and its formidable library offers options for great television, new and old.
As we approach the last week of April to May 3, the photographs are strangely and perfectly timed. One is a sobering historical drama whose real-world theme just celebrated its 40th anniversary yesterday. one is the fantasy phenomenon that redefined prestige television, and today you just got exciting news about the launch of one of its spinoffs. Last is a beautiful multi-world steampunk saga with three seasons for you to enjoy.
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Chernobyl
A disturbing miniseries about the worst nuclear disaster in history.
April 26, 2026 marked the 40th anniversary of the worst nuclear disaster in world history, so this essential HBO miniseries is a must-watch this week. When Chernobyl premiered on HBO in May 2019, shaking critics and audiences, including me, with its devastating account of the 1986 catastrophe, the cleanup efforts that followed, and, most compelling, the people involved and the politics that got in the way.
Created and written by the last of us Featuring writer Craig Mazin, the five-part series dramatizes the disaster to great effect and focuses on Soviet scientist Valery Legasov (Base‘s Jared Harris), who led the disaster investigation; Deputy Prime Minister Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård)He ordered the incident to be downplayed until he saw the devastation; and nuclear physicist Ulana Khomyuk (Emily Watson), a scientist who works with Legasov to expose the truth of what happened and how. The series is raw and astonishing, as it depicts the meltdown and explosion that released a radioactive plume that spread across much of the northern hemisphere and devastated the nearby city of Pripyat, with many of its inhabitants immediately dying from fatal doses of radiation.
Chernobyl It was an Emmy favorite that year, being nominated for 19 awards and winning 10, including Best Director for Johan Renck. It has a whopping 95% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and serves as a poignant reminder of the event and the lives it affected.
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game of Thrones
George RR Martin’s fantasy epic that changed television forever
The release of the new trailer and the announcement of the launch of the third season of its sister series, Dragon House, Today I got all the nostalgia for the epic series that started it all and changed television forever. I have not only read George RR Martin’s book A song of ice and fire books twice (come on, George, give us winter winds, already), but I’ve binged through all eight seasons of the crushing HBO series several times, and I think I might be ready to try again. And you?
- Operating system
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tvOS
- Resolution
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4K
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For the uninitiated (I know you’re still out there), game of Thrones is creator David Benioff and DB Weiss’s interpretation of Martin’s expansive world of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and the battle for his coveted seat of power, the Iron Throne. It’s amazing how Martin conceived a fictional universe so detailed and full of timeless, iconic characters and warring houses; Chief among them (for starters) are the blonde-haired dragon riders, the Targaryens, the scheming and ruthless Lannisters, and the powerful and honorable wolves of the North, the Starks.
game of Thrones gained a reputation early on for its shocking kill-offs of key characters (no one is safe), its epic production scale that rivaled any large-scale film, and some of the craziest plot twists and jaw-dropping episodes in television history. While the final season sparked all kinds of ire and vitriol from overzealous fans, it remains the winningest scripted series in Emmy history, scoring 59 wins in 164 nominations and, of course, spawning two spinoffs and counting, including House of the dragon and the last success, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. If you’re looking for pure escapism and the best world-building ever put on television, it doesn’t get much better than this.
game of Thrones
- Release date
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2011 – 2019-00-00
- showrunner
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David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
- Directors
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David Nutter, Alan Taylor, D.B. Weiss, David Benioff
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Its dark materials
A beautiful steampunk fantasy trilogy worth delving into
Don’t click pass Its dark materials Thinking it’s a kids show, if you like steampunk fantasy, give it a chance, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Based on the fantastic trilogy by renowned British novelist Philip Pullman (Aurora borealis, the subtle knifeand The amber spyglass), this three-season series that aired on HBO from 2019 to 2022 is a sophisticated journey through parallel worlds that young and old adults alike love.
The series follows Lyra (logan Dafne Keen), a young orphan who lives at Oxford College, but does not our Oxford, this is set in a parallel world where human souls live outside their bodies as animal companions called demons. When Lyra’s best friend Roger goes missing, she sets out on an epic journey to the vast, wild North to find him. Her journey puts her at odds with the mysterious and powerful Magisterium and its agent, Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson), who have been capturing children and separating them from their demons.
A fantastic team helps Lyra along the way, including flying adventurer Lee Scoresby (Lin-Manuel Miranda), a polar bear warrior named Iorek Byrnison, and her uncle, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), a scientist conducting interdimensional research that could change the world forever. Its dark materials is a beautifully created adventure series that has an overall Rotten Tomatoes score of 83% and a satisfying final season that reached 90%.
Its dark materials
- Release date
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2019 – 2022-00-00
- Grid
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BBC one
- Directors
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William McGregor, Amit Gupta, Leanne Welham, Charles Martin, Otto Bathurst, Euros Lyn, Dawn Shadforth, Harry Wootliff, Jamie Childs
HBO Max’s back catalog could keep you busy for years, and these three shows barely scratch the surface. If these selections have you wanting more, we have all kinds of streaming recommendation lists for you at How-To Geek.
- Subscription with ads
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Yes, $10.99/month
- Simultaneous currents
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2 or 4
HBO Max is a subscription streaming service that offers content from HBO, Warner Bros., DC, and more. In 2025, the service rebranded as HBO Max after previously dropping “HBO” from its name.
