HBO Max isn’t the only place to go for great miniseries nowadays, but HBO unquestionably still reigns supreme in the format. We now live in the golden age of the miniseries, with the likes of Netflix, Apple TV+, and Prime Video all producing their own limited-episode works of art. Yet, none of them have managed to top HBO’s overall output.
The shows on Max that virtually everyone agrees are must-watch tend to be HBO original miniseries, because the broadcaster has made a habit of investing in the format since the late 1990s. As a result, they do it better than anyone else.
In recent years, HBO’s repertoire of limited series has expanded to include various genres, from superhero thrillers to murder mysteries, satirical comedies, and historical tragedies. Netflix may have overtaken Max in terms of its total number of original series on its platform, but a huge proportion of the best miniseries of all time are still HBO originals.
HBO has arguably benefited more than any other content provider from this prestige TV format coming to rival feature-length theatrical movie releases over the past decade. Nevertheless, not all of its greatest miniseries belong to the current golden age. Some of the all-time greats are now more than two decades old.
The Penguin
2024
Oz holds a cigar in his mouth while looking shocked in The Penguin
One recent HBO miniseries that has rightly taken both viewers and critics by storm is DC Studios’ eight-episode show The Penguin. Starring an unrecognizable Colin Farrell in the title role, this dark origin story of one of the Batman universe’s most feared villains is tonally similar to Todd Phillips’ Joker, but is arguably even more well-rounded as a story.
It’s impossible not to feel for Farrell’s character, even as we see him climb the ranks of Gotham’s criminal underworld. Yet, Oswald Cobb is already a hardened mobster by the time we meet him here, and is much closer to Farrell’s previous portrayal of the character in The Batman than Joker’s Arthur Fleck is to Heath Ledger’s Dark Knight villain.
Mare Of Easttown
2021
Brad Ingelsby’s Mare of Easttown may have a second season on HBO belatedly appearing in the pipeline sometime soon, but with nothing confirmed, this detective story remains one of the best limited series on Max. It’s fronted by an exceptionally powerful performance from Kate Winslet as protagonist Marianne “Mare” Sheehan, who tries to balance investigative work with spiralling personal problems.
The series combines procedural realism with a great deal of heart, in addition to a thrilling murder mystery which Mare is compelled to solve for personal as well as professional reasons. If Mare of Easttown does return in the near future, its next season will have a lot to live up to.
Rage
2025
Carmen Machi as Marga in The Rage (Furia)
Hot on the heels of Chesperito’s success in HBO’s streaming charts, another Spanish-language dark comedy series is making waves on Max. Rage (or Furia, as it’s known in the original Spanish) is the tale of five mistreated middle-aged women who reach breaking point, with subversively humorous consequences.
This eight-episode show treads the surprisingly fine line between harrowing and hilarious in inimitable style with its vibrant portrayal of deeply personal stories. It’s also beautifully designed, with scene compositions constructed with a consistency of aesthetic that Wes Anderson would be proud of.
The Night Of
2016
Riz Ahmed as Naz in The Night Of looking serious
One of the best thriller miniseries of all time, The Night Of stars Riz Ahmed as a college student accused of murder, and John Turturro as his unorthodox but exacting attorney. Playing as a murder mystery from a perspective we rarely see onscreen, the series keeps us guessing as to the real truth of what happened in its central case.
Ahmed’s character, Naz, finds the woman he’s gone on a date with stabbed to death, but denies that he knows how it happened. This mystery then winds its way to a conclusion the long way round in supremely accomplished fashion, mostly from Naz’s point of view.
Angels In America
2003
The cast sitting on a fountain in Angels in America
No miniseries other than Angels in America can boast Meryl Streep and Al Pacino in its cast. What’s more, the show does this sublime piece of casting justice, in a terrific rendering of Tony Kushner’s landmark magical realist stage drama about the AIDS epidemic in New York.
Pacino plays real-life political fixer Roy Cohn, while Streep portrays someone in an unhappy marriage who somehow begins to share a dream world with an AIDS patient. By blending fantasy elements with the lives of key political players in the Big Apple, the series serves as a profound social commentary on sexuality in the public sphere during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
The Sympathizer
2024
Although The Sympathizer’s standout cast member is ostensibly Robert Downey Jr., it’s actually lead actor Hoa Xuande’s performance that really makes it work as a compelling satirization of Vietnam and the Cold War. Xuande is flawless as the show’s unnamed protagonist known as the Captain, a North Vietnamese spy who finds himself in the United States by accident.
Not only is life in California not quite what the Captain had been led to expect. It isn’t how Hollywood typically portrays it, either. The Sympathizer is a wickedly funny, daring and intensely human drama that pulls off the masterstroke of holding up a mirror to two societies which are supposed to be diametrically opposed, at the same time.
I May Destroy You
2020
The HBO TV show I May Destroy You
Michaela Coel’s seminal comedy-drama is a British TV hidden gem on HBO Max, telling the story of a celebrity influencer and novelist whose life is turned upside down one night when she goes out with friends. What starts off as a lighthearted sendup of fame and social media soon becomes an intense psychological drama concerning sexual assault.
Arabella Essiedu’s ordeal feels agonizingly authentic, not least because of Coel’s powerhouse of a central performance. If this work continues to be the one for which the show’s creator, writer and lead actor is most celebrated, then she’ll have left an indelible mark on the history of television.
Sharp Objects
2018
Prior to this 2018 limited series, Gillian Flynn’s book Sharp Objects received praise from Stephen King, which is surely among the highest honors you can achieve as a thriller writer in the English language. It’s unsurprising, then, that the screen adaptation of Flynn’s Southern Gothic novel is such a stirring psychological drama.
Still, the extraordinary central performance from Amy Adams as Camille Preaker elevates the series beyond even what Flynn achieved with her literary source material. Preaker is a journalist freshly released from a psychiatric hospital, who has a history of struggles with alcohol.
Her own problems become intertwined with an investigation into a double murder committed nearby. Adams moves effortlessly between being a clear-eyed investigative reporter and a troubled addict under her overbearing mother’s thumb, as she inhabits this character to an extent few other actors could manage.
Chernobyl
2019
People watching the explosion from a rooftop in Chernobyl on HBO
Chernobyl is probably the most shocking HBO miniseries, but it’s also one of the very best. This horrifying historical drama depicts the nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine back in 1986, which directly killed 30 people and shortened the lives of countless more. While the show isn’t for the faint hearted, it’s essential viewing for those who can stomach it.
Jared Harris gives a superlative performance in the lead role as tragic central protagonist Valery Legasov, at the head of an all-star cast. But it’s Craig Mazin’s screenwriting that makes Chernobyl as special as it is. The script relates history with clinical precision, leaving space for the terrible truth to speak for itself.
0 Comments