You Won’t Believe These 10 HBO Max Shows That Aren’t Just ‘Succession’ Repeats (Spoiler: One Involves a Giant Animated Penis)
Look, I get it. You’ve been staring at the HBO Max menu for 47 minutes, your thumb hovering over the same four shows you’ve seen memes of on Twitter. You’re either going to rewatch *The Sopranos* for the fifth time, or you’re going to pretend you’re sophisticated and put on *House of the Dragon* only to fall asleep during the third council meeting. We’ve all been there. It’s the streaming equivalent of standing in front of an open fridge, knowing you’re hungry, but not wanting to eat the sad, wilted lettuce.
But here’s the thing: HBO Max is actually stacked. It’s not just the “prestige TV” graveyard for rich people problems and dragons. No, buried under the algorithm’s desperate push for *The Last of Us* is a treasure trove of shows that are either aggressively weird, absurdly horny, or so dark they’d make a mortician clutch his pearls. I’ve done the hard work of doom-scrolling so you don’t have to. Here are the best shows on HBO Max that aren’t the usual suspects. You’re welcome.
**1. *The Rehearsal* (2022)**
Nathan Fielder is a man who looked at the concept of “reality” and said, “Hold my beer, I’m going to gaslight a child into thinking he’s in a fake bar mitzvah.” This show is the peak of cringe comedy meets experimental psychology. It’s like watching a man slowly descend into madness while trying to help strangers rehearse for their real lives. The first episode features a guy who wants to confess a lie to his trivia team. By episode six, Nathan has hired actors to play the guy’s family, built a replica of his apartment, and is literally parenting a fake child. It’s unhinged. It’s genius. It’s the only show that made me feel bad for a guy who was tricked into thinking he was in a fake school. AITA for laughing? Probably.
**2. *The Righteous Gemstones* (2019-present)**
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if a megachurch pastor was just a slightly more charismatic version of a used car salesman, this is for you. Danny McBride is a national treasure, and this show is a masterclass in “rich people being terrible while wearing expensive suits.” The Gemstone family is a rotating circus of greed, infidelity, and surprisingly wholesome moments of biblical violence. Also, Walton Goggins plays a deranged, bleach-blonde prophet named “Uncle Baby Billy.” If that sentence doesn’t sell you, I don’t know what will. It’s *Succession* for people who think HBO’s logo should be a cross made of cocaine.
**3. *Peacemaker* (2022)**
I know, I know. DC shows are usually a dumpster fire. But James Gunn took the most unlikeable douchebag from *The Suicide Squad* and turned him into the most unexpectedly hilarious anti-hero on television. John Cena plays a dude who loves peace so much he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way. It’s stupid. It’s violent. It has a main theme song that is literally a cheesy 80s hair metal ballad about doing bad things to bad people. And it features a giant, floating, telepathic, CGI eagle named Eagly. If you don’t laugh at a scene where Peacemaker argues with his racist dad while wearing a helmet that looks like a toilet bowl, you have no soul.
**4. *The White Lotus* (2021-2022)**
You’ve probably seen the memes. “These gays, they’re trying to murder me.” Yes, that’s from this show. *The White Lotus* is basically a very expensive, very horny episode of *Dateline* where the victims all deserve it. Mike White is a sicko (affectionate) who writes rich tourists being absolute monsters to the staff and each other. Jennifer Coolidge gives a performance that should have won every award ever invented. It’s a satire of privilege that makes you feel good about not being rich enough to stay at a resort where someone definitely dies. Also, the theme song is a banger.
**5. *Station Eleven* (2021)**
Okay, stop scrolling. I know pandemic shows are a hard sell. But this isn’t *The Walking Dead*. It’s a post-apocalyptic story that’s actually about hope, art, and a traveling Shakespeare troupe that performs in a world without iPhones. It’s beautifully shot, the characters are actual humans, and it doesn’t make you want to throw yourself into a wood chipper. It’s the antidote to every other “the world ended” show. It’s also the only show where a man wearing a riot helmet and a hoodie is more terrifying than any zombie.
**6. *The Other Two* (2019-2023)**
This show is a hidden gem that deserves a cult following the size of a small country. It’s about two siblings who are trying to make it in New York, only to be overshadowed by their 13-year-old brother who becomes a Justin Bieber-level pop star. It is the most savage, accurate takedown of the entertainment industry, influencer culture, and gay stereotypes since *30 Rock*. The brother, ChaseDreams, has a song called “I Got a Big D*ck” that is literally a plot point. It’s absurd. It’s hilarious. It will make you hate TikTok even more.
**7. *How To with John Wilson* (2020-2023)**
This is the most ADHD show you will ever love. John Wilson is a neurotic documentarian who takes seemingly simple topics—like “How to Cover Your Furniture” or “How to Split the Check”—and turns
Final Thoughts
After sifting through the noise of endless reboots and franchise fatigue, the true gems on HBO Max remain those that embrace narrative risk—shows like *Station Eleven* and *Somebody Somewhere* prove that intimate, character-driven storytelling can still cut through the algorithmic static. While the platform’s library is bloated with content, its best offerings are the ones that trust the audience to sit with ambiguity and emotional complexity, rather than spoon-feeding spectacle. Ultimately, the greatest value of HBO Max lies not in its volume, but in its willingness to let a few singular voices whisper when everyone else is shouting.