This week, exactly 50 years ago, a solid cable network called Home Box Office, or HBO for short, was launched in the US. With your permission, we will skip the history lesson that teaches HBO's way to the top, and we will start from the assumption that everyone agrees that it is the highest quality television network that has ever run Once on the small screen, a network that established its position as a cultural power sets standards, breaks boundaries and breaks conventions.
We decided to take advantage of HBO's jubilee celebrations to rank the 12 best series that have ever been produced there, series that some of them changed the television map forever.
Why?
Because everyone loves parades, and also because we finally have an excuse to claim that the thousands of hours of viewing and nightly binges (and the delays that resulted from them) that we dedicated over the years to HBO, were for work and research purposes.
A few notes before the countdown begins: the rating is completely subjective, so it's likely that we'll get talkbacks here along the lines of "Who is this reporter and what does he even understand?";
"Series X should totally replace Series Y in the ranking";
And "the end of 'Game of Thrones' was perfect, calm down."
we will face
Also, we chose not to include in the article series that have not yet reached their end, since the end of a series and additional seasons may affect its final rating.
Therefore, worthy works that are relatively early in their journey such as "Euphoria", "The White Lotus", "Heirs", "The Dragon House" and "True Detective" are not included in the ranking, but receive a badge of honor from us.
We also tried not to rate series with only one season, such as the excellent "The Night of the Event", but one still stuck out to us.
Let's start:
12th place: "The Remaining" (2014-2017)
Compensation for the disappointment of "Lost".
"The Remaining", photo: HBO
After two percent of the world's population disappears without explanation, the remaining 98 percent try to get used to the new situation.
They don't really like it.
Why did they disappear?
Does God have a hand in the matter?
Why do you even have to continue living if everything is so depressing and arbitrary?
The plot does focus on what happens in a small American town, but its implications are universal.
Some argue that "The Leftovers" is compensation for the disappointment of "Lost" (both were developed by Damon Lindelof and use the flashback narrative), but we argue that it is simply a successful series, regardless.
11th place: "Deadwood" (2004-2006)
Refined television gold.
"Deadwood", photo: HBO
Someone once defined this series, which takes place in the Wild West of the 19th century and deals with a mining town where corruption and crime are celebrated, as "Shakespeare in the mud".
It is rough, dusty and probably also breaks records in terms of curses and profanity spoken in it every minute.
But beneath all the dust and curses you will find refined television gold - gold that the series' heroes so long to find themselves.
To this day, "Deadwood" is considered an addictive cult series, and if you didn't know - HBO cheated the fans in a sequel that aired in 2019.
10th place: "True Blood" (2008-2014)
Did someone say an analogy to the LGBT community? "True Blood", photo: HBO
An intriguing mix of drama, romance, fantasy, horror, and a lot of social criticism - "True Blood" tries to prove that humans and vampires (and werewolves, and guys with other miraculous abilities) can live side by side in a southern American town, and this after vampires "come out" From the coffin", (someone said an analogy to the LGBT community?), demand equal rights and assimilation into society, and are forced to make do with a synthetic blood substitute instead of the real thick liquid. And guess what? The guys even fall in love with each other, fight and reconcile, just like in a soap opera Biting. Hand on heart, "True Blood" started out great, but its quality deteriorated around the fifth season and since Alan Ball (who we'll get to again later), who created it, abandoned it. Still, kudos to Vampire Bill.
9th place: "The Entourage" (2004-2011)
How come they didn't give Larry Gold his own spinoff.
"The Entourage", photo: HBO
What's wrong with a little Hollywood escapism?
is nothing.
The comedic antics of movie star Winnie Chase and his (usually) loyal entourage kept us laughing hard for eight seasons (but the movie was quite a letdown, admittedly), and we still can't understand how they didn't give Larry Gold his own spinoff.
Who knows, maybe it will happen again.
8th place: "Kissing Brothers" (2001)
Worthy of a weekend binge. "Kissing Brothers", photo: HBO
The only mini-series in our ranking is a spectacular ten-episode television production from the creator of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, which focuses on a company of American soldiers during World War II (spoiler: not all survive).
The quality does not fall short of that of a grandiose war movie (indeed, Spielberg and Hanks also joined forces in "Saving Private Ryan"), and you can definitely still devote a weekend binge to "Kissing Brothers".
7th place: "Calm Down" (2000 onwards)
A comic masterpiece.
"Calm down", photo: HBO
The comic, human and cynical masterpiece of Larry David (creator of "Seinfeld", together with Jerry Seinfeld), is the only series in our rating that still issues new episodes.
In fact, the shooting of its 12th season has just started in the last few days.
On the face of it, similar to "Seinfeld", it is a series about nothing and nothing, but in our case this nothingness is the life of Larry David, who plays an extreme version of himself - an aging and uninhibited Jewish TV personality, who gets into strange and tearing situations in the City of Angels.
Clips with you, Larry, stay.
For another five seasons at least.
6th place: "Oz"
(1997-2003)
I don't bow to anyone.
"Oz", photo: HBO
Intrigues, agendas, racism, salaciousness, sex and sadism - all within the walls of an experimental unit in an American prison, which tries to restore the lives of the tortured prisoners who live there.
But what a restoration and what shoes, because what goes on in this outfit is no less terrible than Sodom and Gomorrah.
"Oz" broke many television taboos with heaping doses of brutal and uncensored violence, provocative nudity and homosexual relations, and just like "The Sopranos" helped HBO establish its position as a television network that does not bow to anyone.
5th place: "Sex and the City" (1998-2004)
"Sex and the City", photo: HBO
The sexy and urban adventures of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda proved that even single women a little older than the norm shown on TV can enjoy life in style and spin the world on their little finger.
It was clear that this groundbreaking series, which treated sex from a female angle without a hint of inferiority but rather the opposite, would be screwed in a very high place in our ranking, and even though it has been almost 20 years since it came off the screens (if you don't count the spinoffs, the movies and the new sequel series), it is still Witty and addictive as ever.
4th place: "Game of Thrones" (2011-2019)
What a tepid last season can do.
If Game of Thrones had ended the way it started, it would likely have taken over one of the top three spots on our list.
But what if this massive fantasy saga, which made us want to take out a Westerosi passport, didn't deliver the goods in real time.
And yet, unforgettable scenes such as the Red Wedding, Tyrion's revenge on his father, Hodor's self-sacrifice, Oberyn's mowing, what happened to Joffrey, and the way in which Bran became crippled at the very beginning of the series - will be remembered forever.
Wait, did we already say we were disappointed with the ending?
3rd place: "The Hidden" (2002-2008)
You should fill in the gaps.
"The Hidden", photo: HBO
The decision to rank this police-political-media-intimate crime drama in third place was not easy, and we debated whether to lower it one or two levels.
But in the end we decided to go for it, because despite everything it is a fascinating, realistic and gloomy masterpiece.
"The Undercover", which deals with the jeep of the city of Baltimore in all its layers, may have been a little forgotten since it came off the screens, and this is precisely why we feel the need to urge anyone who has not watched it and considers himself a fan of police and crime series, to fill in the gaps now.
2nd place: "The Sopranos" (1999-2007)
made HBO the powerhouse it is today.
"The Sopranos", photo: HBO
True, many consider "The Sopranos" to be the best TV series of all time, not just HBO but in general.
They certainly have a case, but for us this crime drama has to settle for second place.
And yet, it cannot be denied that Tony Soprano and Co. were the ones who ultimately made HBO the powerhouse it is today, and also influenced countless other crime series that gave their tough heroes human dimensions (including Breaking Bad, of course).
It really was and still is an iconic, ground-breaking series, with or without the legendary but controversial final frame - a sudden black screen in the middle of the meal - that made people fear something had happened to their TV just before it was all over.
And in the first place: "Deep in the ground" (2001-2005)
They crushed us.
"Deep in the ground", photo: HBO
We didn't come to troll, we really think so.
With all due respect to "The Sopranos" - "Deep in the Ground", Alan Ball's dramatic saga about the lovable family of undertakers who face death on a daily basis, thrilled, fascinated and charmed us from the very first episode.
Not to mention its unforgettable finale - the amazing montage set to Sia's song "Breathe Me" (long before she was famous) - just crushed us.
Who knows how many rolls of tissue were eliminated around the world just because of this morbid montage, and for how many rolls of them we are responsible for, but one thing is certain: "Deep in the Earth" taught us, in a tear-jerking way, that everything comes to an end in life.
Even this rating.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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