Entertainment
12 Greatest HBO Shows of the Last 10 Years, Ranked
HBO has always been synonymous with prestige television. The network has built its reputation on ambitious storytelling that aims to provide more than just entertainment. There’s no denying that the classics, including The Sopranos and Band of Brothers, are in a league of their own, but the last 10 years have also marked a noticeable shift for HBO.
The network’s modern slate feels more daring, introspective, and willing to tell uncomfortable stories. In an era dominated by oversaturation and algorithm-driven content, HBO has doubled down on content that requires the audience to actively engage with it. Here is a list of the greatest HBO shows of the last 10 years that linger long after the credits roll.
12
‘Sharp Objects’ (2018)
Sharp Objects might be a miniseries, but it leaves the kind of impact that many long-running shows fail to have. The psychological thriller follows the brilliant Amy Adams as Camille Preaker, a reporter who has recently been discharged from a psychiatric hospital. She is then tasked with investigating the strange murders of two young girls in her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri. However, once Camille returns to her childhood home, she is forced to confront the personal trauma she has avoided for years.
The most interesting part of the show is how the protagonist’s own life intertwines with the case she is trying to solve. The narrative unfolds in an almost dream-like manner as it reveals information about Camille’s past in fragments. Her complex relationships with her controlling mother, Adora (Patricia Clarkson), and half-sister Amma (Eliza Scanlen) add another layer of intrigue to the whole story. Sharp Objects is the kind of show where every little thing feels intentional. It rewards the audience’s attention by delivering a climax that ties up every loose thread and delivers answers that are both shocking and inevitable at the same time.
11
‘Big Little Lies’ (2017–2026)
Big Little Lies, based on Liane Moriarty’s novel of the same name, is a psychological thriller, domestic drama, and social commentary all rolled into one relentless narrative. The show is essentially a murder story told in reverse. It’s set in the wealthy seaside community of Monterey, California, and opens with a death at a school fundraiser. The story then rewinds to explore how five women’s lives slowly collide with the central mystery and uncovers the events leading up to it. However, Big Little Lies is much more than a conventional whodunit.
The identities of the killer and the victim are initially withheld, and that slow-burn approach ensures that the show hooks the audience in right off the bat. The ensemble cast includes Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoe Kravitz as the leads, all of whom deliver compelling performances. The plot unfolds through time jumps, interrogations, and unreliable perspectives, and serves as a character study for all these women who are complex and messy in their own ways. Big Little Lies asked uncomfortable questions about motherhood and trauma, and in doing so, it paved the way for more female-led dramas.
10
‘The White Lotus’ (2021–Present)
The White Lotus is a delicious satire on power, privilege, and wealth. Each season of the anthology series, written and directed by Mike White, is set in a different White Lotus luxury resort and features a bunch of interesting characters to explore all kinds of power dynamics. Every installment unfolds over the course of a single week. So far, the stories have all opened with a death before rewinding to show how a brand-new group of guests and staff spiral toward the inevitable outcome. Rather than relying on traditional murder mystery mechanics, The White Lotus uses subtle microaggressions, miscommunications, and emotional cruelty to build its constant sense of tension.
The dynamics between the guests and the lesser-privileged staff of the resorts serve as some of the most memorable moments on the show, especially because of how the setting serves as a bubble where the rich barely face the consequences of their actions. The format of the show also keeps it from ever feeling stale, with every new season exploring similar themes, but from a completely different lens and in a completely different context. Visually, The White Lotus feels like pure escapism with its sunny skies, infinity pools, and grand interiors, but that only reinforces the idea that money can’t erase moral rot. The show strikes the perfect balance between dark humor and social commentary, and thrives on its unpredictability. All of this makes The White Lotus one of the most bingeable shows on HBO right now.
9
‘Mare of Easttown’ (2021)
Mare of Easttown is a bleak, character-driven crime drama that follows a murder mystery, but quickly expands its emotional scope to deliver a story that stays with the audience long after the credits roll. The series, created by Brad Ingelsby, is set in a small Pennsylvania town where everyone knows each other, and no one ever truly escapes their past. The story centers on Marianne “Mare” Sheehan (Kate Winslet), a worn‑down detective who is grieving the suicide of her son, fighting to maintain custody of her grandson, and facing public resentment for failing to solve a year‑old missing persons case involving a local girl. The stakes are already high, but when teenage mother Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny) is found murdered in the woods, Mare is put under intense pressure to deliver justice.
This leads her and her new partner, Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters), down a rabbit hole of secrets that keep getting worse. Every lead implicates someone close to Mare, which reinforces the idea that in a small town, solving a crime means betraying someone. The show complicates this mystery with shocking twists and red herrings to constantly keep the audience and Mare on edge. The protagonist operates in this morally gray area where she manipulates evidence and crosses legal lines to protect herself and whatever is left of her family. In doing all this, Mare of Easttown talks about how communities deal with tragedy and forces its characters to confront the painful truths they have spent years avoiding. The show easily stands out as one of the strongest HBO dramas of all time, one that isn’t exactly easy to watch, but is worth every second.
8
‘Barry’ (2018–2023)
Barry begins as a small-scale crime drama, but expands into a story that uses dark comedy to interrogate violence and guilt. The series, created by and starring Bill Hader, follows Barry Berkman, a former Marine suffering from depression and emotional detachment, who now works as a contract killer. The story picks up when he is sent to Los Angeles for a job, but ends up wandering into an acting class led by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler). The experience awakens something in Barry by offering the validation and purpose he has been looking for.
It allows him to truly believe that he can become someone new, but the catch is that the reality of his life is never too far behind. Barry’s handler, Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root), refuses to let him walk away from his work, which becomes the central conflict of the story. As Barry juggles auditions, personal relationships, and murder, his two lives begin to seep into each other in ways he is not okay with. As the story goes on, the tone of the show darkens and becomes increasingly uncomfortable. The series refuses to paint Barry as black or white, and that makes him feel real despite all the heightened drama unfolding around him.
7
‘House of the Dragon’ (2022–Present)
House of the Dragon is a Game of Thrones spinoff that strips the fantasy spectacle of the original into something that feels way more brutal. The series adapts George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, and narrows the scope of the story to explore inheritance and pride within the House of Targaryen. The show is set roughly 200 years before the events of the original series, at the height of the Targaryen rule.
Things pick up with King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) naming his daughter Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock and Emma D’Arcy) as the successor to the Iron Throne. However, the decision defies centuries of patriarchal precedent and plants a seed of instability that festers slowly but surely. Things only grow more complex when Viserys remarries and produces male children with Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). The plot unfolds over years, which allows relationships to evolve and resentments to really settle. At the same time, the series never frames its conflict in simple terms and shows how everyone is capable of cruelty within systems of power.
6
‘The Night Of’ (2016)
The Night Of is a slow‑burn crime drama that uses a single murder case to expose the brutal workings of the American criminal justice system. The HBO limited series unfolds less like a traditional whodunit and more like a bureaucratic nightmare where truth becomes secondary to process. The story begins with Nasir “Naz” Khan (Riz Ahmed), a shy Pakistani‑American college student who borrows his father’s taxi for a night out in New York City. After meeting a mysterious young woman, Andrea Cornish (Sofia Black‑D’Elia), the two spend the evening together before Naz wakes up in her apartment to find her brutally murdered beside him, and that’s when his fate is pretty much sealed.
Soon enough, Naz is arrested and shoved into a system that isn’t interested in uncovering the truth. He is represented by small-time defense attorney Jack Stone (John Turturro), who becomes his only ally amidst all this chaos, but that, too, is not the most reliable one. The show doesn’t really rush toward a conclusion. Instead, it explores the devastating transformation Naz goes through in prison, where he is isolated, frightened, and eventually hardened. Every episode takes the investigation in a new direction while exploring the consequences Naz has to face for something he might not have even done. The Night Of avoids heated courtroom battles because it focuses on how tedious it really is for justice to be delivered. By the time the truth finally comes out, Naz is no longer the same person, and that’s exactly the statement the show is trying to make.
5
‘The Pitt’ (2025–Present)
The Pitt is quickly earning a reputation for revitalizing the medical drama genre with its exhausting approach to storytelling in the ER. With each season set almost entirely within a single shift in the titular emergency room, the HBO series pulls no punches in how it immerses viewers into the chaos of modern healthcare. Expect overworked doctors and nurses making impossible decisions as they deal with overcrowding, the emotional toll of the job, and more.
The Pitt impressed fans and critics alike with its dedication to realism, both in its depiction of medical cases and the broken system that healthcare workers have to deal with on a daily basis. It’s a stressful TV series that keeps you hooked from start to finish, leaving you just as tired as its well-written characters, who remind fans that healthcare workers carry incredible burdens with them long after their shifts end.
4
‘Succession’ (2018–2023)
Succession is a black comedy that satirizes the corporate world. Beneath that, though, it’s a messy, complex, and wild family drama at heart. The series, created by Jesse Armstrong, centers on the Roy family, owners of the multinational media conglomerate Waystar Royco. The story begins with patriarch Logan Roy’s (Brian Cox) declining health, triggering a succession crisis that he has no intention of actually resolving. His children, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Siobhan “Shiv” (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Connor (Alan Ruck), are all desperate to earn their father’s validation and the throne he sits on. This leads to a race where the siblings constantly swing between sabotaging each other and teaming up to try to sabotage their manipulative father.
The drama involves boardroom coups, hostile takeovers, media scandals, and political backroom deals, but all of this only serves as the backdrop for the show’s larger exploration of how parental neglect manifests in strange ways. Nothing in Succession feels permanent, and that gives the show a cyclical nature that compels the audience to keep watching. Despite all that, though, the series portrays its characters as fully-realized humans, shaped by the world they have grown up in. All of that is punctuated by the show’s devastating yet fitting finale that is still being talked about simply because of how brilliant it truly was.
3
‘Watchmen’ (2019)
Watchmen reimagines Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ iconic graphic novel through the lens of American history, racial trauma, and power. The series, created by Damon Lindelof, is set decades after the original events, and opens with the historical violence of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which immediately grounds the show in real-world atrocities. From there, the story shifts to an alternate-reality present day where masked law enforcement has become necessary following a wave of anti-police violence.
The narrative follows detective Angela Abar (Regina King), who is operating under the vigilante persona Sister Night. Angela’s work gradually pulls her into a larger conspiracy involving policing, memory, inherited trauma, and the unresolved consequences of the original Watchmen’s infamous ending. That’s when the line between her personal history and her work begins to blur. Watchmen takes a slow-burn approach to resolving its mystery, with tons of detours along the way. The show never presents anything as purely good or bad to show that power without accountability always reproduces some kind of harm.
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