The network that defined prestige television. From The Wire and The Sopranos to Succession and Chernobyl, the HBO series critics rank among the greatest ever made.
The full ranking
The network that defined prestige television. From The Wire and The Sopranos to Succession and Chernobyl, the HBO series critics rank among the greatest ever made.
The Wire
David Simon's multi-season portrait of Baltimore follows the drug trade, the police, the docks, the school system, and the press through interlocking storylines that build one of television's most comprehensive indictments of institutional failure. Frequently cited as the greatest TV drama ever made.
Band of Brothers
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks produced this ten-part miniseries following Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment from their D-Day jump through the fall of the Third Reich, based on Stephen Ambrose's oral history. Its battle sequences and ensemble performances set the template for prestige war television.
Succession
A dark comedy about a fictional Murdoch-like media dynasty whose ailing patriarch refuses to name a successor, leaving his adult children in perpetual, humiliating competition. Won the Best Drama Emmy in three of its four seasons and is credited with reviving HBO's prestige standing in the streaming era.
Chernobyl
Craig Mazin's five-episode dramatization of the 1986 nuclear disaster and its Soviet-era cover-up is regarded as one of the best limited series ever produced, praised for its period accuracy, its portrayal of bureaucratic cowardice, and its quietly devastating final episode. It became the highest-rated TV series on IMDb shortly after airing.
The Sopranos
David Chase's drama about a New Jersey mob boss in therapy while managing his crime family and his suburban household was the show that defined the golden age of TV drama. Its refusal to moralize about Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, and its ambiguous final cut-to-black remain touchstones of television criticism.
Six Feet Under
Alan Ball's drama set inside a family-run Los Angeles funeral home used death-of-the-week as a lens for examining grief, sexuality, dysfunction, and the cost of self-deception. Its series finale, in which every character's death is shown in a single montage, is widely considered the best final episode in television history.
I May Destroy You
Michaela Coel wrote, co-directed, and starred in this twelve-episode series about a Black British writer processing a sexual assault she initially cannot fully remember, weaving together trauma, friendship, race, and social media with structural ingenuity. Won the BAFTA for Best Drama Series and generated significant critical conversation about what TV storytelling could do.
Game of Thrones
George R.R. Martin's fantasy saga was adapted into a landmark series celebrated in its first six seasons for its willingness to kill main characters, subvert genre expectations, and sustain an ensemble of unusual complexity. The final two seasons were divisive, but the series' influence on prestige television production is undeniable.
Deadwood
David Milch's revisionist Western set in the lawless 1870s South Dakota gold camp is celebrated for its Shakespearean-inflected dialogue and for portraying how power, commerce, and civil order emerge in a vacuum. Criminally cancelled after three seasons, it was partially resolved by a 2019 reunion film.
Watchmen
Damon Lindelof's 2019 sequel series picks up Alan Moore's superhero deconstruction decades later in an alternate Tulsa, using masked vigilantes as a frame for examining the real history of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and present-day white supremacy. Won eleven Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited Series.
Ranked across 3 sources: Rotten Tomatoes · Best HBO Series Ranked by Tomatometer 2026; Collider · Best HBO Shows Ranked by IMDb; IndieWire · The Best HBO Series of All Time, Ranked. Full scoring is on the Methodology tab above.
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