The 26 Best Shows Streaming on Max Right Now
Max has always benefited from being home to HBO hits like Game of Thrones and The Last of Us , but the streamer has also produced some quality original programming right off the bat. “Hux” is a high-profile award winner, and series like “The Peacemaker” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls” have brought attention to the former HBO Max channel.
Given the volume of streaming content and the number of shows Max has already lined up, there are some great options that might have gone unnoticed. In this new era where good shows are not just cancelled, but erased from existence (ahem, Raised by Wolves ), it never hurts to take a moment to look at slightly less noisy shows that are equally worthy of your attention. Max has begun to fall victim to the streaming explosion that has affected virtually every streaming service, but almost all of the shows that have already ended here have some sense of closure.
All of the shows featured here are Max originals, meaning they were either originally created for the streamer or are currently distributed exclusively by the streamer, at least in North America. Due to the existence of the hyper-mega-conglomerate that is WarnerMedia, this can be a little more difficult and the shows spread out a bit. So when I call something “Original” I’m relying heavily on Max’s own definition, even if they started life somewhere else.
Khaki (2021, renewed for a fourth season)
After getting canceled over a tweet, 25-year-old writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) struggles to get her career back on track, reluctantly accepting a job with Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a comedy pioneer who remains popular thanks to the old crown of Vegas , but whose career is largely on autopilot. They’re a completely mismatched pairing, but their chemistry is ultimately explosive: Jean Smart does some of the best work of her incredible career as the (often) deeply unpleasant Vance, and Einbinder more than holds his own. It’s funny, bitchy and surprisingly touching when it wants to be.
Doom Patrol (2019–2023, four seasons)
Max’s early DC show was originally ported over from the now-defunct streamer DC Universe (past and future episodes are now exclusive to Max), which has been largely forgotten. Thank God he survived; although it ended after four seasons, it was an uncharacteristically bold and quirky entry in the superhero canon. The almost indescribably weird series features characters like non-binary Danny Street (literal street), paranormal investigators Sex Men, Imaginary Jesus, and orgasm-inducing bodybuilder Flex Mentallo. character work for the entire cast, including Brendan Fraser, Matt Bomer, Michelle Gomez and Timothy Dalton. He’s also very weird and sexy, which sets him apart from the usually chaste and straight-laced world of superhero movies.
Flight Attendant (2020–2022, two seasons)
Kaley Cuoco plays hard-working (i.e., alcoholic) flight attendant Cassie Bowden, who in the first episode wakes up in a Bangkok hotel room with no memory of the previous night. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, considering she shares a bed with a dead passenger on her last flight. Afraid to call the police, she tries to piece together increasingly confusing memories of the previous night on her own. Impressively meandering yet infused with a hallucinogenic sense of fun, this is an impressively unique show that has received several Emmy nominations, including for the great Cuoco. Despite generating a lot of buzz and seemingly good numbers, it was canceled after two seasons, which would become something of a theme for Max.
Sex Lives of College Girls (2021, renewed for a third season)
Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) is an endlessly naive scholarship student; Bela (Amrit Kaur) is an aspiring comedy writer on the hunt for the hottest guys; Whitney (Alya Chanel Scott) is a successful athlete and the daughter of a senator; Layton (Renee Rapp) is a closeted sorority girl. They are randomly assigned to rooms together as freshmen at the fictional Essex College in Vermont, a mismatched quartet exploring early life together. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, the comedy-drama isn’t nearly as raunchy as the title suggests: there’s sex, sure, but like Sex and the City before it, the funny and weird show is more about female friendship. .
Jellystone! (2021 –, three seasons)
Hanna-Barbera’s pantheon of cartoons has been largely dormant in recent decades, but this is a fun return: The titular town is home to dozens of characters from yesteryear, led by Huckleberry Hound’s mayor Yogi Bear (now a doctor). at Jellystone Hospital), Augie Doggy, Jabberjaw, Top Cat and dozens more, with occasional appearances from out-of-towners like The Jetsons and Space Ghost. The show’s goofy, anarchic style definitely doesn’t match the source material one-to-one, but it’s not a bad thing that the show is aimed at modern kids rather than their parents (or grandparents, at this point). This is fun for the older elementary age group.
Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai ( 2023, renewed for a second season)
It was weird, but pretty cool that the original Gremlins movie was aimed at kids, considering the plot includes things like a Mogwai exploding in a microwave oven and a joke about someone’s dead father rotting in a chimney. dressed as Santa Claus. However, this animated prequel is truly kid-friendly, even if it doesn’t shy away from the Looney Tunes style of live-action films. It also takes the awkward orientalism of those films and makes it a virtue: Sam Wing (played by Hollywood legend Keye Luke in Gremlins ) is a 10-year-old boy who meets Gizmo and is then forced to join him on a road trip through the Chinese countryside. sometimes meeting mythical creatures. The voice cast includes Isaac Wang, Ming-Na Wen as Fong Wing, B.D. Wong and the great James Hong.
The remaining two (2019–2023, three seasons)
Helen York and Drew Tarver play a pair of oddball siblings whose lives are turned upside down when their little brother becomes a viral sensation. The show has a lot of fun dissecting modern pop culture, and while it has its sweet side, it’s one of the best comedies you’ll find on Max. As class satire goes, it never reaches the level of obsession of The Inheritance , but it deserves a little more love.
Tokyo Vice (2022–2024, two seasons)
Your tolerance for Ansel Elgort may vary (given the assault allegations), but he stars here alongside ever-welcome Japanese actors Ken Watanabe and Rinko Kikuchi as a young journalist who, circa 1999, becomes part of the veteran detectives at the Tokyo Police Department. The show pays homage to both the brilliant and surprisingly seedy aspects of the titular city, while also being an effective crime drama set in a very different context than more typical American shows.
Rap Sh!t (2022 – 2023, two seasons)
Issa Rae continues Insecure with the story of socially conscious Miami rapper Shauna (Aida Osman), who ends up selling out, at least in her own eyes, when she teams up with her friend Mia (KaMillion), whose popular OnlyFans group brings in a new rap group has a built-in fan base. Meanwhile, Shauna’s boyfriend Cliff (Devon Terrell) must come to terms with the fact that Shauna’s more commercial career could jeopardize his dreams of political success. Like Insecure , it’s very funny, but it also has a story to tell about friendship and ambition between young black women.
Big Brunch (2022, one season)
Finally: a reality show for people who love brunch (some of whom, I’m informed, may even be straight). Schitt’s Creek ‘s Dan Levy hosts a cooking show that features ten chefs competing for money to make all their dreams come true (to the tune of $300,000), but only if they can create the perfect brunch. The show avoids the stressful elements of Gordon Ramsey-type competitions, but is also a bit funnier than GBBO. It’s a solid entry into the world of reality cooking with a unique style, although its one-off season (at least for now) will be a plus or minus depending on how hooked you are.
It’s a Sin (2021, mini-series)
Russell T Davies ( Queer as Folk , Doctor Who ) returns to the 1980s through the story of a group of friends living in London at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The miniseries features an impressive cast, telling a story that traces their early days of strange liberation through the evolving threat of a disease that no one in the wider world wanted to talk about, much less do anything about.
Peacemaker (2022 – renewed for a second season)
A funny and violent bright spot in the wildly twisted on-screen world of DC Comics, Peacemaker emerges from James Gunn’s scathing 2021 The Suicide Squad , with John Cena reprising his role. After surviving the events of this film, he is recruited again by the United States government to join the team trying to stop the mysterious butterfly creatures inhabiting the people. It has the same gory comic tone as the film, but adds enough dimension and emotional arc to the jingoistic superhero’s story that it’s easy to root for, even if his self-awareness remains limited.
South Side (2019–2022, three seasons)
Creators/writers Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle (who also have roles on the series) bring a unique style to their three-season Englewood-set sitcom, with a close-knit cast and production team (Bashir’s brother, Sultan, co-stars). ) give the show a family atmosphere. It follows two mismatched friends (Sultan Salahuddin and Karem Young) as they try to make it big by running a rental shop among a very diverse ensemble and try to find some kind of accommodation with the local police.
Through Our Eyes (2021, mini-series)
A Sesame Workshop original, each episode of the documentary series focuses on a different issue facing children, and each episode is directed by a different talented and acclaimed filmmaker. The four current episodes focus on children with incarcerated parents, families displaced by the climate crisis, children of veterans in need of caregivers, and those without permanent housing. The series offers a rare perspective and takes a fairly direct and honest approach without feeling the need to manipulate our emotions. This is currently a mini-series, although there may be more in the future.
Equals (2020, one season)
Well-made docuseries bring in star power to tell the stories of some of the most significant events in LGBTQ+ history in the 20th century. Combining talking head style discussions with scripted dramatizations is particularly effective.
Julia (2022–2023, two seasons)
I’m increasingly drawn to stories of people who have achieved success later in life, perhaps unrelated to being middle-aged, but haven’t achieved anything noteworthy (yet). Sarah Lancashire plays Julia Child superbly, capturing much of her idiosyncratic style and mannerisms, and the series has a lot of fun with the production challenges of early public television. While the series is light, it’s also an important reminder of the importance of a woman like Julia, a woman in her 50s who has become an unlikely trailblazer not only as an on-camera personality but also as a pioneering producer. Another movie that deserves more than two seasons, but is still amazing.
Expecting Amy (2020, one season)
Not a stand-up special (although that is intertwined with the development of one), but instead another of Max’s impressive and (rather) varied documentaries. What might otherwise be a vanity project (a documentary about comedian Amy Schumer’s difficult pregnancy) is bolstered by a real sense of honesty and a discussion of her husband Chris’s autism diagnosis around the same time. This probably requires some respect for Sumer, but it’s quite a fun ride.
Titans (2018–2023, four seasons)
Many of the films and shows based on DC’s superheroes have an almost unrelenting “edginess” that sometimes feels like they’re apologizing for the source material. The Titans are right there, but with some swearing, fucking, and some pretty intense violence. What some films lack, however, is the immersive quality that imitates the feeling of being immersed in a good, long-form superhero comic book storyline, but more foul-mouthed.
Young Justice (2010–2022, four seasons)
This is a little cartoon that could have: been canceled back in 2013, picked up by defunct streamer DC Universe for a third season, and then given a final season as a Max original (those first three seasons are also on Max). There’s a reason it hangs there, even without the title recognition of some of DC’s other properties: it’s an impressive animated series that draws from any number of comic book sources while carefully developing its characters. Unlike many cartoons (or comics), it also allowed its characters to mature over the years and introduced new generations of heroes along the way.
Heaven’s Gate: Cult of Cults (2020, one season)
It’s not always easy to watch (the final sequence is, unsurprisingly, absolutely heartbreaking), but it’s not a terrible time to revisit the story of the Heaven’s Gate UFO-worshipping cult and its leader Marshall Applewhite. The group has come to strongly believe in ideas that are inherently stupid and have deeply tragic consequences. It’s all sounding a little familiar lately. The document uses never-before-published footage.
Station Eleven (2021, mini-series)
The miniseries, based on the novel by Emily St. John Mandel, was released at either the best or the worst of times: the story of the flu pandemic landed on the former HBO Max channel right in the middle of the first phase of COVID. The series follows Kirsten Raymond, a young stage actress whose performance in a production of King Lear is interrupted by the emergence of a virus with a 99% fatality rate. We meet Kirsten at the very beginning of the pandemic and then visit her 20 years later, still an actress in a world that has changed a lot. It’s a slow process, but ultimately the series makes a compelling case for the power of art, even (or especially) in moments when survival is at stake.
Harley Quinn (2019–, renewed for a fifth season)
Kaley Cuoco voices Harley in this very adult animated series starring the anti-hero who debuted in Bruce Timm and Paul Dini’s Batman: The Animated Series back in the day. Don’t expect traditional superheroics – it’s very much a screwball comedy, but it’s often funny and provides some solid weird performances.
Staircase (2022, mini-series)
Moving beyond standard crime tropes, The Staircase stars Colin Firth as Michael Peterson, a real-life writer convicted of murder after his wife Kathleen is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in question. Uniquely, the miniseries primarily focuses not on the events surrounding the death, but on the aftermath and the filming of a French documentary during Peterson’s legal battle. The result is an intelligent look at the media’s influence on crime and punishment in our true crime-obsessed world.
Love and Death (2023, mini-series)
The story of 1970s housewife Candy Montgomery has been told several times before, most memorably in the 1990 TV movie and Hulu series that came out just last year. Here Elizabeth Olsen brilliantly plays a woman who kills her lover’s wife, perhaps in self-defense? It lives up to many of the expected true crime plots, but Olsen’s performance is top notch, humanizing the protagonist.
Search Party (2016–2022, five seasons)
This very dark comedy became an HBO Max/Max original after TBS canceled it, but it still packs a punch as it opens with a Veronica Mars vibe featuring Alia Shawkat’s Dory and her hunt for her missing college friend. The mostly narcissistic characters hunt for meaning and attention as much as they hunt for a missing friend, while the series gets weirder, funnier, and more interesting with each passing season, becoming a compelling chronicle of the absurdities of modern millennial existence.
Our Flag Means Death (2022–2023), two seasons
I think everyone probably knows this by now—at least those of you who are active on the Internet—but the swashbuckling pirate comedy is not only wonderfully silly and funny, it also unexpectedly features one of the most believable and compelling gay characters ever. novels in history. the last few years, so I just wanted to give it a little more love. Max cut it short after just two seasons and, ugh! But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dive.