HBO has had a reputation for creating the best shows on TV for decades. HBO Max may have diluted the brand, but that reputation is largely intact.
Some shows like And Just Like That have proven to be more popular as hate-watches, but there have already been some great HBO Max series this year that will probably be Emmy winners in the near future.
The Watch With Us team has selected our picks for the seven best HBO Max shows of 2025 so far.
There may still be some series in the remaining months of 2025 that could muscle their way onto this list. But we think most of these shows will still be in HBO Max’s top 10 when the year winds down.
The Mortician is an HBO documentary with more than enough twists to rival a scripted series. Nearly four decades have passed since the Lamb Funeral Home scandal was revealed in 1987, but it’s still shocking to revisit in 2025. This family-run business was under the control of David Sconce, and he faced a long list of accusations in court, including fraud, stealing gold from bodies, selling body parts and even a murder-for-hire plot.
This documentary features interviews with former employees of the funeral home and the police who investigated the case. There are also interviews with Sconce himself. Morally questionable doesn’t begin to cover everything that Sconce and his parents, Jerry Sconce and Laurieanne Lamb-Sconce, allegedly did. But it’s the kind of story you can’t look away from.
The relationship between veteran comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and comedy writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) has never been more tense on Hacks. At the end of season 3, Ava had to blackmail Deborah into giving her the head writer job she so desperately wanted after the former initially reneged on it.
In season 4, that made it incredibly difficult for the two women to find a way to make Deborah’s new comedy talk show a hit. If they can’t put their personal feelings aside, then their respective comebacks are going to crash a lot sooner than anyone expected.
Holloway played Jim Ellis, a getaway driver who ends up teaming with Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson), the FBI’s first Black female agent. More than anything else, Nina wants to bring down Jim’s boss, Ezra Saxton (Keith David), and his entire criminal empire. That’s easier said than done, even after she convinces Jim to help her. This was a fun show while it lasted.
The White Lotus returned for its third season this year, and series creator Mike White successfully juggled many new characters and stories. Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood were particularly captivating as a pair of lovers, Rick and Chelsea, whose fate was inevitably tied to the man Rick hated, Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn).
Natasha Rothwell reprises her role from the first season as Belinda Lindsey, and through her, the saga of the late Tanya McQuoid got some closure from her still-living ex, Greg (Jon Gries). For some visitors, the White Lotus resort offers renewal, while others can’t get out of their own way long enough to realize the second chance they’ve been given.
The Last of Us returned for its second season, which partially adapted the divisive video game sequel, The Last of Us Part II. Consequently, Pedro Pascal had a much smaller role as Joel this season, and his screen time was largely about Joel’s broken relationship with Ellie (Bella Ramsey), the young woman he loves like a daughter.
As for Ellie, her desire for revenge against Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) fueled most of the season, despite being joined by her new girlfriend, Dina (Isabela Merced), on a dangerous trip to enemy territory. It’s going to be a long wait until season 3 arrives, but if fans really want to see how the season finale’s cliffhanger ending plays out, they can always try the game.
The Gilded Age may take place in the late 19th century, but the future of the show has been assured for at least one more season. The currently in-progress third season finds Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) attempting to control the future of her daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), while enraging her husband, George (Morgan Spector), in the process.
Gladys wants to marry Billy Carlton (Matt Walker), but her mother is dead set on getting her to wed Duke Hector Vere (Ben Lamb) even though there isn’t much love between them. It’s the peril of trying to live in high society, and it never takes much to fall from grace.
There is actually a pending lawsuit from the estate of Michael Crichton that contends The Pitt is a derivative show based on the ’90s medical drama ER. That battle may take a few years to play out in court, but ER’s Noah Wyle does lead the cast as Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, one of the attending physicians at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s emergency room.
The team behind this series made a painstaking effort to portray modern medicine realistically, and the entire season was essentially a medical version of 24. Each episode chronicled one hour of a 15-hour shift that pushes Robby and the rest of the doctors and nurses to their physical and mental limits. We’ll be shocked if The Pitt doesn’t walk out of the Emmy Awards with several trophies, including a potential Best Drama win.
