HBO Max is finally in the UK — here are the best shows to stream first
The best hits from TV’s best hit maker
Morgan Truder
HBO has never really struggled when it comes to making TV people actually care about. The problem, if anything, has always been access, knowing where to find it all, and whether it’s worth signing up to yet another service just to watch one show everyone’s talking about.
That’s now changed. With HBO Max officially launching in the UK, all of that “where is this streaming?” confusion disappears, and a huge chunk of genuinely great TV lands in one place at once. Not just the obvious heavy hitters either, but the kind of shows that quietly build an audience and then refuse to let go.
While HBO does big, cultural moment TV better than most, the shows everyone watches at the same time, the ones that dominate group chats for weeks, it’s also built a reputation on consistency. Strong writing, properly cast roles, and series that trust the audience to keep up.
So whether you’re here for the big names or just looking for something new to get stuck into, this is where to start.
11. Veep
This sharp TV show comes from the same mind as The Thick of It, Armando Iannucci. And you can really tell. Veep follows the day-to-day of the US Vice President, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Fun fact: the President never actually appears on-screen in the show’s entire seven seasons.
Dreyfus won six acting Emmys in a row for her performance in the show. Veep ended after its seventh season, which was refreshingly a decision of Dreyfus and writer David Mandel, rather than the TV execs.
10. The Leftovers
Not as famous as others on the list, but The Leftovers matches them all in the quality stakes. This is a story about what happens to the world when, one day, 2% of the population just disappears - and, yes, this was made way before Avengers: Endgame.
The Leftovers, as the name suggests, shows those who are left, trying to live their lives while missing loved ones and a big ‘what the hell actually happened?’ question hanging over them. Damon Lindelof may have given us Lost and The Watchmen TV show, but The Leftovers is his absolute masterpiece.
9. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Set before the events of Game of Thrones, it follows Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg, a smaller, more character-led story that swaps sprawling battles for something a bit more grounded.
That doesn’t mean it’s low stakes, just more focused, leaning into the world-building and relationships rather than constant spectacle. If you’re still in for Westeros but don’t need another all-out war straight away, this feels like a solid place to start.
8. The Pitt
The Pitt lands as part of the HBO Max UK launch, and it’s exactly the kind of quietly gripping show that ends up doing numbers. Set across a single shift in a Pittsburgh ER, it keeps things grounded and tense, focusing on the constant pressure rather than big, over-the-top drama, with Noah Wyle bringing a steady, familiar presence at the centre of it all.
It’s not flashy, but that’s the appeal, the pace pulls you in, the stakes feel real, and before long, you’re a few episodes deep without really planning to be. This is one of the few ongoing shows; who knows, once it's finished, it may be higher up the list.
7. Curb Your Enthusiasm
How do you top writing one of the most successful sitcoms of all time? Well, if you are Larry David, you shrug off the success of Seinfeld and write a semi-improvised show about yourself.
On paper, it sounds terrible, but the ‘Larry David’ of Curb is one of the funniest characters we have seen on the screen, and even after 12 seasons, it’s an utter joy to watch him go feet first into every situation he finds himself in.
6. The Wire
At the time, Idris Elba and Dominic West were relative unknowns when The Wire first aired back in 2002, which means you would be forgiven for thinking that the two British thesps were Baltimore through and through. Such is the realism that creator David Simon pumped into his masterpiece.
Through five significantly different seasons, his tale of police versus criminals, everyday people versus the state, is Dickensian in its breadth. His meticulous eye for detail, which he honed as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, means that everyone on the show lived and breathed their characters. The biggest character throughout, though, is Baltimore itself, a microcosm of America’s quite-broken socioeconomic system.
5. Game of Thrones
Yes, the last season is a dud, but up until then, we were all wrapped up in the politics of who should and who ultimately would sit on the most uncomfortable-looking throne.
If it wasn't for that ending, this show would take the top spot with it becoming a cultural phenomenon unlike any other in the modern age of TV.
4. Band of Brothers
Steven Spielberg is busy creating a third Band Of Brothers-like series for Apple TV Plus - based on the true story of The Flying Fortress in WWII and the people who flew in the plane.
It will have to go some way to beat the original show, though, which is an awe-inspiring look at the soldiers of Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division. Watch it now, and the story still resonates, with the added bonus of the majority of the then-young cast having turned into A-List talent over the years.
3. Chernobyl
Chernobyl is devastating television. Creator Craig Mazin - who has had quite the career jump, from making spoofs like Scary Movie to this - carefully dissects the show’s real-life subject matter, showcasing the events that led to the world’s worst nuclear disaster as close to how they happened as he can.
Throughout its five episodes, we go from the people who risked - and lost - their lives due to gross mismanagement and lies, to the government that tried to cover everything up.
2. The Sopranos
The tale of Tony Soprano, a New Jersey mobster who has to battle rival gangsters, his own personal demons and his sometimes fractious personal life, is one of the greatest ever seen on television. David Chase’s world-building is perfect, as is his casting. While many of the cast had already dabbled in the gangster genre, with Goodfellas on the CV of most, it’s Tony himself who ultimately shines.
The late James Gandolfini filled the character with ferocity and flaws - meaning everyone who watched ultimately sympathised with a cold-blooded killer. As for that ending, never has silence been so deafening.
1. Succession
It’s hard to believe that there is a Brit behind Succession, given the show feels so American, especially someone who was behind the quintessentially British Peep Show. But that’s the beauty of Jesse Armstrong’s vision for Succession, which is loosely based on the Murdoch media era.
Like all great shows, the ensemble of characters here is just sublime - and we all happily hate every single one of the backstabbing, self-absorbed, borderline psychotic crowd. If this is how it is to be rich, then we are more than happy with our lot.
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