Back when Max was known as HBO Max, the Warner Bros. streamer was best known for its association to the first company in its title. HBO is the type of name that conjures images of Tony Soprano popping a cap in a rival mob boss and Tyrion Lannister delivering a monologue for the ages. When one channel has had so many great original shows it overshadows the other great content a streaming service that might also reside there.
Max has many original series made exclusively for them rather than HBO, and they deserve the same recognition. Max’s original programming consists of excellent LGBTQ+ series, fascinating miniseries, top-flight medical dramas, and even this past year’s winner for Outstanding Comedy Series at the Emmy Awards. These are the best Max original series you need to stream right away.
8. Peacemaker (2022)
7. Our Flag Means Death (2022)
6. Tokyo Vice (2022)
5. Love & Death (2023)
Elizabeth Olson is Candy Montgomery, a woman who controversially was acquitted of an ax murder of her husband’s lover in the 1980s. The miniseries is ripe with juicy true crime material and subplots that are only heightened by the terrific acting of Olson and Academy Award nominee Jesse Plemons. The show is one of the best miniseries of the 2020s and gave fans a look at Elizabeth Olson outside the confines of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
4. Station Eleven (2021)
If you want a creepy, dystopian, science fiction thriller with plenty of nods to the pandemic we just experienced in 2020, Station Eleven will check many of those boxes. This ominous drama follows a group of travelers as they cope with the post-apocalyptic fallout of a lethal illness. They come across a mysterious figure with ties to their own pasts and the group must re-evaluate their principles and how they’re going to survive.
3. The Pitt (2025)
There were a lot of questions about whether a medical drama like The Pitt would be able to carve out space on Max in 2025 given the genre’s lack of creativity and overreliance on old hits like Grey’s Anatomy. After only a couple of weeks on the streamer, that skepticism has been erased. Noah Wyle has tapped into his past on ER to once again become one of the best leads in the genre as a stressed-out doctor in a Pittsburgh medical ward. The plot and pacing of The Pitt are unique in that each episode follows one hour in the shifts of the hospital workers. This pacing is reminiscent of the crime thriller 24 from the mid-2000s.
2. The Flight Attendant (2020)
The Flight Attendant was one of the flagship Max original series that propelled the service towards success at the beginning of the decade. Kaley Cuoco plays a woman who must solve a murder mystery aboard the airline that she works for, often to darkly funny results. Cuoco previously was known for her role on one of the biggest comedies of the 2010s, The Big Bang Theory.
1. Hacks (2021)
Hacks is the best show on television right now and it’s not particularly close. Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder are addictively mesmerizing as a comedic duo trying to pull themselves out of the dulldrums of stand-up all while backstabbing and supporting each other depending on which mood strikes. The show will return for season 4 this year.
