HBO Maxis filled with fantastic original TV shows, but some fall through the cracks and get forgotten about, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth watching. Whether you’re watching one ofthe many classic HBO showsthat made the network synonymous with excellence, or perusingthe forgotten HBO titles, you’re going to have a good time.
Whether you’re looking for comedy, fantasy, or drama, HBO probably has something for you. However, there are still plenty of series on the streamer that don’t work very well. This list is not those shows. This is the list of HBO shows that are fantastic, but have never received the respect they deserve.
White House Plumberswas a forgotten series that deserves much more attention. The show follows the Watergate scandal masterminds E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux) as they plan their infamous heist and then the ensuing cover-up, which ended up bringing down the president they were trying to protect.
While the series spends a little more time than it should on the minutiae of adhering to real history, the true story is stranger than fiction in this instance, and so is still wonderfully enthralling. The lead performances by Theroux and Harrelson are also pitched perfectly and are just what you want in a show like this.
For a moment in the late 2010s, Chris Lilley was the name in comedy, withSummer Heights HighandAngry Boyscoming out within a few years of one another.Summer Heights Highis the better show, set in the fictional Summer Heights High School outside Sydney, Australia.
Summer Heights Highis filmed in mockumentary style and revolves around three characters: Director of Performing Arts, Mr. G; private school exchange student, Ja’mie King; and the unruly Tongan-Australian student, Jonah Takalua. All three are played by Lilley, and he crafts wildly different, but equally funny jokes from each persona.
The Plot Against Americais set in an alternate version of America where Charles Lindbergh, a noted xenophobic populist and aviator, actually gains political traction. After he’s elected president, 1940s United States takes a sharp turn towards fascism, even signing a neutrality pact with Hitler’s Germany.
It’s a disturbingly prescient show, revealing how quickly a country, particularly one like the United States, can quickly remove guardrails to protect people when one despotic man is given an inordinate amount of power. The series is told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family, not a whole lot different from the working families of America in 2025.
It seems that everyone’sforgotten about this TV series from the 2000s.Extrasis a hilarious British sitcom from the minds of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, their next project afterThe Office. The series follows Andy Millman (Gervais), an aspiring actor who mostly finds work as an extra on movie and TV sets.
Extrasis an extremely funny show with Gervais' brand of caustic humor directed squarely at one of his favorite targets: Hollywood. However, there’s also a bit of reverence in the series. Gervais does seem to have a love for the background workers who keep putting in the effort to one day get their face on a screen.
Lookingis a 2014, three-season series that centers on the lives of three gay men, Patrick (Jonathan Groff), Agustín (Frankie J. Alvarez), and Dom (Murray Bartlett) in modern-day San Francisco. The series follows the daily lives of these men, exploring their relationships, career aspirations, and everything else.
It’s a slice-of-life series with fantastic performances at the center that feel truly lived in.Lookingprovides a rare thing in today’s TV landscape:a show about LGBTQ lifethat treats the characters as ordinarily asSex and the Citytreats its characters. It’s smart, nuanced, and heartbreaking, and well worth the time.
Themiddle child of the Danny McBride and Jody Hill project. Coming out afterEastbound & Downand beforeRighteous Gemstones,Vice Principalsnever seems to get the attention it deserves. However, I think that this black comedy series nails the balance of humor and drama the best.
It’s an outrageously funny series with Walton Goggins and McBride squaring off as rival vice principals, Lee Russell and Neal Gamby, respectively. Their increasingly personal and ridiculous fight to be the principal of a high school reveals some shocking and unpleasant truths about both their lives.
While plenty of people acknowledgeSilicon Valley’s success, it’s never been lauded among the best TV comedies in the way it should be. The series, created by Mike Judge, is a brilliant skewering of tech bros and the industry as a whole, never getting away from the fact that some of our richest institutions are absurd at their core.
The series follows Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch), a programmer who starts a compression company that threatens to upend the status quo in the valley. It’s colorful, joyful, and there’s basically a joke every couple of seconds. Still, it tells an engrossing tale that you’ll want to stick around for.
Station Elevenpremiered in December 2021, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and there could not be a more apt show for the time period. But get this, the book it was based on by Emily St. John Mandel came out back in 2014. So maybe there is just something universally understood about the world after a flu pandemic.
Station Eleventakes place twenty years after a superflu killed off most humans and collapsed civilization. There is violence and some chaos, but maybe not as much as you’d expect. Think medieval lawlessness rather thanMad Max-style mayhem. It’s a thoughtful and powerful story that will genuinely make you reconsider if maybe you could handle a post-apocalyptic scenario.
One of the most expensive TV shows ever made,Romecould have kept going had the budget not been so high. Now, the series is mostly remembered as an unfinished project, perhaps an early version of whatGame of Throneswould accomplish later, but it is so much better than that.
The series, as the name suggests, is set in Ancient Rome, just around the time when Julius Caesar (Ciarán Hinds) is coming to power. We see the beautifully produced series through the eyes of two soldiers, Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson). It’s an epic and powerful series with few comparisons.
Damon Lindelof’sWatchmenis a uniquething. A follow-up to Alan Moore’s legendary comic book and Zack Snyder’s 2009 movie that ties both together, and still manages to tell a moving, fascinating tale that builds on the legacy of the franchise. It’s only nine episodes, and it’s worth watching right now.
Watchmenhas been approved by critics and audiences alike, but it is not the household name that theHBO TV showshould be.Watchmencould make the top of the list of best superhero shows, science fiction shows, adaptations, and TV shows in general. It’s a masterful example of how to present mysteries and answer them all perfectly.
