The best HBO Max shows you can watch in the UK right now (April 2026)
The home of prestige TV
HBO Max has come to the UK. You can get it as a standalone subscription, as part of a Sky package or within the NOW Entertainment pass, for now.
Flying solo, HBO Max costs £5.99 a month with ads, including downloads. Or it's £9.99 without those annoying ads. Or for £14.99 a month you get an upgrade to 4K resolution and a download cap of 100 bits of content rather than the standard 30.
If you’ve been a NOW subscriber for years, a lot of the TV shows here will seem familiar. But if you’ve mostly stuck to Netflix recently, there’s a whole lot to dig into.
HBO Max offers up a potted history of prestige TV, from the late 1990s through to today. Here are the top HBO Max shows we think no subscriber should miss.
The Pitt
While ER star Noah Wyle stars in The Pitt, this medical drama is an altogether grittier and more realistic watch, really putting the gruelling reality of a busy hospital shift front and centre. It’s a critically lauded show, and while you don’t get the light-touch comedy of Scrubs, it’s an addictive watch — and Wyle is great in the lead role.
The Last Of Us
Best video game TV adaptation ever? It’s definitely up there, with recent Shortlist fave Fallout. This is a story of the end of the world as we know it, via fungus. But that’s really just the backdrop to the exciting — although often pretty grim — journey of Joel and Ellie, played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.
IT Welcome to Derry
The creepy clown is back, and thankfully the brilliant Bill Skarsgard, who was Pennywise in the IT 2017 and 2019 films, returns too. This show tells the story of what happened before the events of the main IT story, set in 1962 as children start to disappear in Derry, Maine. This one’s not for kids, as it is violent and the gore is full-on.
Game of Thrones
OK, so many of you soured on this series a bit thanks to the way it ended. But head back to those early episodes, and you’ll realise quite what an influential force of nature Game of Thrones was at its release in 2011. Dense storytelling, great acting and, of course, that compelling storyline from the master of fantasy George R. R. Martin. The show roughly runs out of content from the author’s novel works around season six, which is where fans tend to agree is where the quality level dips.
Succession
Four seasons of TV gold from Jesse Armstrong, who also made Peep Show. It’s a tale of a business magnate nearing the end of his working life, trying to decide which of his children — if any — should take over his empire. That character, Logan Roy (Brian Cox) has become part of TV history. But it’s the rest of the cast — Sarah Snook, Matthew Macfadyen, Kieran Culkin, Jeremy Strong and co — who really make Succession shine as bright as it does.
Band of Brothers
A 10-episode TV masterpiece born of a shared project between Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks. It’s the tale of Easy Company, an infantry regiment, following the group of soldiers’ travails through their training and into the battlefields of World War II. Among the cast members are Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, Donnie Wahlberg, Michael Fassbender and David Schwimmer. You couldn’t ask for much better.
Peacemaker
People have been talking about superhero fatigue for years now, but Peacemaker is an absolute breath of fresh air, starring John Cena as DC character Peacemaker.
It’s a bold and quirky show about a superhero who is willing to indulge in extreme violence to solve problems. James Gunn writes the show, despite being no doubt super busy managing the fortunes of the wider DC cinematic empire.
Six Feet Under
Before Michael C. Hall was Dexter, he was David Fisher, the undertaker from Six Feet Under, one of the greatest TV shows of the 2000s. It’s a drama about a dysfunctional family in Los Angeles, set across five seasons of TV, a dark comedy with fantastic performances and sharp writing. And unlike the streamer norm these days where shows’ endings are often compressed following an early cancellation, the finale of Six Feet Under is regarded as one of the greatest of all time.
The Penguin
Colin Farrell dons a fat suit, major prosthetics and an accent in The Penguin, starring as one of the iconic villains from the Batman universe. This is a dark and gritty show about the characters’ seizing of power in Gotham City, following the events of the 2022 The Batman film. It was devised as a mini series, the eight-episode run functioning as a complete story.
The Wire
What do you mean, you haven’t seen The Wire? It has been so long since The Wire was first broadcast in 2002 that it’s probably time for a whole new generation of TV-viewers to be bullied into watching this impressive bildungsroman. It’s TV literature, with each of the five seasons examining how a different part of society is affected by crime and its intersections with politics.
The Sopranos
This is one of the shows that helped define what elevated HBO TV was, back in the (very late) 1990s. James Gandolfini is Tony Soprano, a mafia head who lives in New Jersey. But the show is as much about characters and relationships as it is the crime boss stuff. It’s also a show that doesn’t wimp out at its ending. All six seasons of The Sopranos are unmissable TV.
Watchmen
A complete superhero aberration, Watchmen is a nine-part series intended as a full and complete story, not a property to milk as long as it lasts. It functions as a sequel to Alan Moore’s iconic graphic novel, which itself has been made into a film by Zack Snyder. This one was created by Damon Lindelof, creator of Lost.
Barry
Bill Hader is Barry, a hitman. He’s depressed and decides to join an acting class in Los Angeles while still working as a professional killer. It’s initially part of one of his hit jobs, but he ends up loving the practice so much he thinks about leaving the killing game altogether. It's not going to be that easy. An unusual premise and an unusual show that blends the serious and the comedic.
The Chair Company
Comedy genius Tim Robinson co-creates and stars in The Chair Company. He’s Ron Trosper, an executive at a property development company who descends into paranoia after a chair breaks underneath him during an on-stage presentation. He becomes obsessed with the idea that it was part of a grand conspiracy.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Larry David is Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, playing a fictionalised version of himself, a retired comedy writer in LA. It’s one of the classics of awkward and cringe comedy. Prepare for discomfort. All 12 seasons of the series are great, which is just something you can’t say about most series this long-running.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon received mixed reviews, but the smaller scale, funnier and more intimate A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms went down a treat. It’s based on the adventures of Sir Duncan the Tall and Egg, his squire, which were told in a series of novellas by George R. R. Martin.
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