Entertainment
The 5 Greatest 3-Season HBO Shows of All Time, Ranked
Three seasons can be a strange amount of television. It is long enough for a show to establish clear stakes and get the audience attached to its characters, but short enough for every single episode to matter. HBO seems to have mastered the art of the three-season format because the network has proven, time and again, that a show does not need endless time on air to remain memorable.
These shows know exactly what kind of story they are telling, even if that story changes dramatically along the way, which is why they never feel restricted or incomplete. The HBO shows on this list may differ in tone and scale, but they all know how to make three seasons feel like just enough.
5
‘His Dark Materials’ (2019–2022)
His Dark Materials had a difficult job from the beginning because adapting Philip Pullman’s work that features parallel worlds, talking armored bears, soul-like animal companions, and some very heavy ideas about religion and free will is no easy feat. The series handles all of that surprisingly well, though. The story follows Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), a young girl living at Jordan College who discovers that children in the town are mysteriously disappearing. Her search eventually leads her to Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson), a powerful and deeply unsettling woman with ties to the Magisterium and knowledge about Dust, a mysterious substance that the authorities are desperate to understand and control. As the story expands, Lyra discovers that her world is only one of many. She eventually meets Will Parry (Amir Wilson), who becomes the bearer of the Subtle Knife, a weapon capable of cutting openings between realities. From there, His Dark Materials grows into a much larger conflict involving angels, witches, armies, and Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), whose war against the Authority begins to reshape the fate of every world.
The great thing about His Dark Materials is that it never lets all this mythology overwhelm Lyra and Will’s personal stories. The show gradually expands its scale, but the emotional core remains intimate till the very end. His Dark Materials goes bigger every season without ever getting lost in its own world, and that is the true mark of great storytelling.
4
‘The Deuce’ (2017–2019)
The Deuce is one of HBO’s most underrated gems. The show, created by David Simon and George Pelecanos, begins in 1971, when sex work, organized crime, bars, and the emerging adult film industry all overlap around 42nd Street, Manhattan. The story centers on bartender Vincent Martino (James Franco), who gets pulled deeper into the neighborhood’s nightlife while also dealing with the messes created by his reckless twin brother Frankie (also Franco). The show also follows sex worker Eileen “Candy” Merrell (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who gradually sees filmmaking as a way to gain more control over her own life.
What makes The Deuce especially interesting is how much the world changes between seasons. Season 2 jumps ahead to 1977, when pornography had taken a much more commercial turn, and shows Candy as she begins directing films herself. Season 3 then moves forward again to 1985, when Times Square is starting to transform, AIDS has changed the community, and the city is becoming increasingly determined to clean up the neighborhood that these characters helped build their lives around. The show is essentially an entire history lesson. However, instead of following one rise-and-fall story, it shows the transformation of an entire ecosystem. The series can be compared to the likes of The Wire in terms of its scope and patient storytelling that gives bartenders, sex workers, cops, pimps, and every other major player enough space to feel like the same complex world.
3
‘Deadwood’ (2004–2006)
Deadwood deserves a lot more recognition because it goes beyond just the gunfights and violence to tell a story that truly matters. The series, created by David Milch, is set in the lawless mining camp of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the 1870s. The story largely revolves around Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), a former marshal who comes to Deadwood to open a hardware store, and Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), the ruthless owner of the Gem Saloon who already has a firm grip on much of the town.
Deadwood begins with the rivalry between the two men but gradually expands beyond that as prospectors, businessmen, criminals, and drifters all arrive hoping to make something of themselves before the town is fully brought under government control. The series doesn’t behave like a conventional Western show because its most important battles are psychological as the camp begins transforming into an actual town with laws, offices, and institutions while the locals are still stuck in their old ways. That narrative about civilization being built in real time is what makes the series feel much bigger than a simple story about the Old West.
2
‘Somebody Somewhere’ (2022–2024)
Somebody Somewhere proves that an HBO show does not need a massive high-concept mystery or political stakes to be completely absorbing. The series, created by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, follows Sam (Bridget Everett), who has returned to her hometown of Manhattan, Kansas, and is still struggling with the death of her sister Holly. Sam feels completely disconnected from both her family and the town she grew up in until she befriends Joel (Jeff Hiller), an upbeat coworker who introduces her to a group of outsiders who have created their own little community in a place where none of them completely fit in.
Somebody Somewhere keeps its story refreshingly small. The audience follows Sam as she tries to reconnect with her love of singing, deals with her complicated relationship with her sister Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison), and slowly becomes more comfortable letting other people into her life. Most episodes of the show are built around dinners, awkward conversations, and people spending time together, and that simplicity is its greatest strength. Across just three seasons, Somebody Somewhere becomes less about Sam finding a grand purpose and more about realizing that a meaningful life can be built from much smaller things. It is definitely one of HBO’s less intense shows, but that also one that feels more relatable than any other.
1
‘The Leftovers’ (2014–2017)
The Leftovers isn’t the breeziest show to watch, but its ambition is what makes it stand out. The series, created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, begins three years after the Sudden Departure, an unexplained event where 2% of the world’s population vanished without any explanation. Now, most shows would focus on that mystery and uncover what really happened, but The Leftovers chooses to focus on those who were left behind and the different ways they try to make sense of this new world they are in. The Leftovers Season 1 follows police chief Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux), who is desperately trying to hold his family together while his wife Laurie (Amy Brenneman) has abandoned them to join the Guilty Remnant, a silent cult dedicated to remembering the old world.
The show also follows Nora Durst (Carrie Coon), whose husband and two children disappeared in the Sudden Departure. Now, Season 2 is when The Leftovers really picks up because it relocates its characters to a town where nobody disappeared. The first installment of the show is deliberately bleak and unsettling, but the show becomes increasingly confident as it progresses. It expands beyond Mapleton while taking bigger creative risks with its structure, tone, and mythology. By The Leftovers Season 3, the show has covered everything from grief to humor, religion, and even the supernatural without overstaying its welcome.
The Leftovers
- Release Date
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2014 – 2017-00-00
- Showrunner
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Damon Lindelof
- Writers
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Damon Lindelof, Tom Perrotta
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