Summary
Making quality television is whatHBOdoes. They’ve been at it since the late-90s, when series likeThe SopranosandThe Wirewere the first examples of what many viewers now call “prestige TV.” Since then, HBO has faced stiff competition in the TV sphere, and yet it remains at the top of the industry, continuing to push the envelope of what television is capable of.
While many of HBO’s greatest hits take place over multiple seasons, a number of their finest series get the job done in just a one season. From Thrillers to Sci-Fi to Historical Dramas to Horror,the following TV series are all available on HBO Max and manage to tell exceptional, high-quality stories in the span of a single season.
Based on a novel by Gillian Flynn (who also wrote the similarly-harrowing mystery novelGone Girland its subsequent screenplay adaptation),Sharp Objectsstars Amy Adamsas Camille Preaker, a crime reporter recently released from a psychiatric hospital who returns to her hometown to investigate the murders of a pair of young girls. In doing so, she must also confront her domineering mother, Adora (Patricia Clarkson), who is quick to send Camille spiraling back into the memories of her traumatic childhood.
It’s a dreary, depressing mystery that will rarely make viewers feel particularly good, but it will hold their attention.Sharp Objectsis largely carried by career-defining performances from both Adams and Clarkson, showcasing their exceptional talent through a pair of flawed and troubled characters that can occasionally be hard to root for but are never hard to buy into.
Sexual assault is a tricky subject to tackle for any genre, but to approach itfrom the angle of a black comedy—and to do so effectively—is not only uncommon; it’s extraordinary. Set in London,I May Destroy Youwas created by and stars Michaela Coel as Arabella, a social media influencer turned author who is struggling to complete her second novel. She indulges in a night out with friends to try to unwind and wakes up with little memory of what happened. However, her friends help her recall the night’s events, and Arabella comes to realize that she was sexually assaulted.
Obviously, this is a story that can only be told by a deft hand, but Coel is more than up to the task. Her talent as both a writer and actress is undeniable, as she somehow manages to find and coax out the surprisingly effective dark humor found in the wake of a horrific event. The supporting cast more than pull their weight, but the focus is on Coel, and she handles it with aplomb, creating one of the finest dramatic narratives to emerge from the #MeToo movement.
Releasing at the tail-end of the COVID-19 pandemic,Station Elevenfelt like a series tailor-made for the current global climate. It follows (primarily) Kirsten Raymonde (Mackenzie Davis), a survivor of a worldwide flu pandemic that caused the collapse of society. An actress from a young age, Kirsten joins a group of traveling performers who tour across the ruins of civilization, where they eventually stumble into a dangerous cult.
This is a slow burn of a series and far more understated than something likeThe Last of UsorThe Walking Dead.Instead,Station Elevenstrives for realism in its depiction of the post-apocalypse, crafting a thematically rich and detailed story that has as much to say about the value of art and storytelling as it does about human nature in the face of an unfathomable crisis.
After escaping their damaged ship and crash-landing on the planet Vesta, the surviving crew of theDemeter 227are separated and left to fend for themselves on an alien world. Without much hope of rescue, they make for the wreckage of their ship, traversing an alien world unlike anything else depicted in the genre.Scavengers Reigndoes something with its alien life that is not so muchunheard of in science fictionas it is extremely difficult to achieve: it presents alien life as something almost completely unrecognizable, and as a result, entirely believable.
Unlike the other series on this list,Scavengers Reignwas not intended to run for just a single season but was canceled by Max after it struggled to generate a broad viewership, despite receiving both critical and audience acclaim. The series was briefly picked up by Netflix before they too declined to produce a second season.Scavengers Reignis a series that must be seen to be believed, and while that likely contributed to its poor viewership numbers, it’s also what makes it must-watch television.
Much like howSharp Objectswas a showcase for Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson,Mare of Easttownis the same for the trio of Kate Winslet, Evan Peters, and Julianne Nicholson, all three of whom won acting Emmys for their work in the series. Leading the way, and turning in what may bethe finest performance of her career, is Winsletin the role of the titular Marianne “Mare” Sheehan, a local detective and former high-school basketball star in Easttown, Philadelphia, who is investigating the murder of a teenage mother.
While Mare is renowned locally for her winning shot in a game that won Easttown its first State Basketball Championship 25 years earlier, her work as a detective is far less revered, and many locals doubt her abilities to solve the current case after she failed to find a missing girl one year previous. Add to that the grief of losing her son to suicide and a custody battle with his former girlfriend over her grandson, and Mare’s psyche is starting to come apart at the seams. This blend of bleak personal struggle and a horrific local murder works to create one of the most suspenseful mystery series of the current decade, and its devastating conclusion is one that viewers are unlikely to ever forget.
Before his extensive and career-halting legal troubles stemming from abuse allegations, the star-making turn thatlanded Jonathan Majors the role of Kang the Conqueror in the MCUcame inLovecraft Country.Majors plays Atticus Freeman, a veteran of the Korean War who sets out with his childhood friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) and his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) through the Jim Crown South to track down his missing father (Michael K. Williams).
On his journey, Atticus discovers that he is the descendant of the Braithwhites, an extremely wealthy family of former slave owners who seem to have tapped into the powers of some ancient gods and who are a little bit too eager for Atticus to join their ranks. Lovecraftian and real-world racist terrors collide in this exceptional miniseries that showcases the awesome thematic potential for horror to do so much more than just scare its viewers.
The Night Of’stroubled initial production is well documented. Along with Riz Ahmed, the other lead role was initially given toThe Sopranos’James Gandolfini. After his untimely passing, it was then given to Robert De Niro before scheduling conflicts forced him to back out. Eventually, the role of attorney John Stone went to John Turturro, and now that the series is available, it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone else as the character.
The series follows Pakistani-American student Naz Kahn (Riz Ahmed), who “borrows” his father’s cab to go to a party. On the way, he picks up a mysterious and beautiful woman (Sofia Black-D’Elia) and ends up spending a night full of drugs and alcohol with her instead. When he wakes up the next morning, she has been stabbed to death, and later that day, the murder weapon is found on Naz’s person. The tension manufactured byThe Night Ofis second to none, in part because, much like Naz, the audience has no way to be sure that their protagonist is innocent of the crime he is accused of. Instead, much like John Stone, Naz’s defense lawyer, they must piece the crime together themselves, leading to a riveting conclusion that will leave viewers stunned.
Created by Craig Mazin, the showrunnercurrently at the helm ofThe Last of Us(and who previously worked on, of all things, theScary MovieandHangoverfranchises),Chernobylis a terrifying, raw, and ultimately fascinating depiction of the 1986 Chornobyl disaster and the subsequent cleanup and containment efforts that took place around Pripyat in what is now Ukraine.
Led by the incomparable Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgard,Chernobylis neither expressly anti-nuclear nor anti-Russian. Instead, it strives to give an honest depiction of the cost of human arrogance when tampering with powerful and potentially unstable science without the respect that such tampering demands. The disaster itself is terrifying on its own, but the residual, long-term effects the resulting nuclear fallout had on the surrounding Pripyat community is where the series' most effective scares come from.Chernobylis real-life horror in its purest form, and no ghosts or ghouls can come close to matching the terror this series evokes.
When HBO announced that they had greenlit a sequel series toAlan Moore’s iconicWatchmencomic,many fans were skeptical. First of all, there was the often-criticized Zack Snyder film adaptation of the source material that left many believing the story was simply too complex to adapt to the screen. Then, there was the fact that there was (at the time) no sequel comic to base the series on, which meant thatHBO’sWatchmenwould be an entirely original work. It was a lot to hoist onto the shoulders of showrunner Damon Lindelof.
That made it all the more impressive whenWatchmenwas not only an excellent sequel to the acclaimed comic but also managed to elevate the source material in a way that, before the series, would have been deemed impossible. HBO’sWatchmentakes place 34 years after the events of the comic, turning an otherworldly lens on real-world issues of white supremacy and police weaponization as well as widely forgotten historical events like the Tulsa race massacre. This is coupled with the ongoing mystery behind the disappearances of both Doctor Manhattan and Ozymandias, neither of whom have been seen since the latter’s false-flag attack on New York City in 1985. All this leads to one of the most engaging and relevant superhero series ever made.
In 1998, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks combined to create one of the most authentic on-screen portrayals of World War 2 of all time withSaving Private Ryan. Then, two years later, the duo combined once again to makeBand of Brothers, chronicling the missions undertaken by the 101st Airborne’s 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, better known as “Easy” Company, and their contributions to the Western front.
The series boasts what is, in hindsight, one of the greatest ensemble casts ever assembled, featuring the likes of Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Tom Hardy, Simon Pegg, Jimmy Fallon, David Schwimmer, Andrew Scott, Dominic Cooper, Kirk Acevedo, and Colin Hanks, alongside series leads Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, and Scott Grimes. WhileSaving Private Ryanwas more focused in its scope,Band of Brotherstakes a much broader view of the war, detailing events from Normandy to Bastogne to the occupation of Germany. It’s an almost flawless series, featuring interspersed interviews with the real-life veterans on which the characters are based. Very few series have ever achieved this level of depth and quality, and the fact thatBand of Brothersachieved it in just a single season, and did so back in 2001, is a testament to the brilliant creative forces behind its development.
