HBO Max subscribers have been gifted numerous great shows to add to their rotation this year, and 2026 isn’t over yet. As one of the originators of prestige TV, HBO has conditioned audiences to expect high-quality programming, while HBO Max has expanded the company’s TV roster significantly with streaming-only content.
As part of our 2026 In Review (So Far) series, we’re taking a look at the best HBO and HBO Max shows that have premiered or returned this year. This list includes the highly anticipated returns of hit shows, as well as new series that have struck a chord with viewers. It can be difficult to keep up with all the new TV being released these days, so consider this our way of keeping you in the loop. Even some of the year’s strongest shows can get lost in the shuffle when another major premiere seems to arrive every week.
Whether you’re catching up on something you missed or deciding what to start next, there’s plenty here to fill out your watchlist. Here are our picks for the 10 best HBO Max shows of 2026 so far. Let us know your personal favorites in the comments below.
The Comeback
“The Comeback” made a comeback this year. The beloved HBO sitcom, which first premiered in 2005, is a cult favorite among comedy fans, but has largely remained under the radar. In 2026, “The Comeback” returned with a third season, 14 years after its second outing. In Season 1, sitcom actress Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow) stars in a reality show exploring her return to TV
Valerie’s number one goal in life is to stay relevant, and she furthers that goal in Season 3 with more misguided, attention-seeking behavior. The biggest difference in the show’s final season is that now everyone else is as desperate for work as Valerie is. Her finance-bro husband (Damian Young) is now starring in a reality show about finance bros, and Jane (Laura Silverman), an Oscar winner who produced Valerie’s original reality show, is stuck working at Trader Joe’s. Valerie now stars in a streaming sitcom called “How’s That?”, which is secretly written by AI despite its human showrunners (played by Abbi Jacobson and John Early).
Season 3 reflects the apocalyptic feeling of the industry today, and the overall chaos makes Valerie seem less unhinged than usual, even portraying her in a heroic light at times. Kudrow gives a typically amazing performance, playing a self-centered weirdo who you can’t help but root for. “The Comeback” left us cheering for Valerie, a fighter through and through, and concluded with a satisfying sendoff for the TV icon.
Hacks
The brilliant HBO show “Hacks” released its fifth and final season in 2026, much to the delight and heartbreak of fans everywhere. For those unfamiliar, “Hacks” stars Hannah Einbinder, in one of the best TV acting debuts of all time, as Ava, a young comedy writer in need of a job. She goes to work for Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a cantankerous comedy legend who performs in Las Vegas. Ava and Deborah, who are opposites in many ways, immediately have an antagonistic dynamic, but their relationship grows and deepens over years of working together.
In the show’s final season, Deborah rushes back from Singapore to Las Vegas after TMZ mistakenly reports her death. Deborah is desperate to correct the record, but a gag order prevents her from appearing publicly. Meanwhile, Ava is shopping around her screenplay and hoping to secure her first showrunner gig. Deborah concocts a plan to revive her career by playing Madison Square Garden, and Ava assists her in this endeavor.
Unlike in previous seasons, Deborah and Ava’s relationship isn’t adversarial here — they’re mostly around to support each other. This is refreshing to see, and it highlights their collective and individual growth over the years. “Hacks” is as funny as ever in Season 5, with guest stars including Ann Dowd, drag queen Katya Zamolodchikova, Cherry Jones, and Christopher Briney, but it maintains a poignancy throughout, never losing track of its central animating force: the relationship between Deborah and Ava.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is a refreshingly low-stakes “Game of Thrones” spin-off and a nice change of pace for those fatigued by the epicness of it all. Based on George R.R. Martin’s series of novellas, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” follows Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), also known as Dunk, a hedge knight – which, according to the show, is “like a knight, but sadder.” Following the death of his mentor, Dunk sets out to prove himself and plans to enter a jousting tournament. He’s joined by a young, rather mysterious bald child named Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), who offers himself up as Dunk’s squire.
What follows is a sort of anti-epic, focused primarily on two characters rather than numerous nobles and non-nobles who are hard to keep track of, and featuring not a single dragon. Though there is fighting — the result of Dunk angering a cruel Targaryen — the show is pleasantly slow-moving, perhaps due to Dunk’s large stature and ambling gait. The relationship between Dunk and Egg is the show’s most emotionally resonant element, and the two actors have great chemistry. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” swaps out dramatic speeches and salacious affairs for scatological humor and surprising earnestness. Clocking in at only 30 minutes or so each, the episodes feel breezy, but the show has heart, and the gorgeous cinematography adds grandeur to this humble tale.
The Pitt
“The Pitt” has been one of the most popular shows on HBO Max this decade, consistently topping the charts and generating widespread social media discussion every week. The show’s unique format is part of the appeal, with episodes taking place in real time, tracking a 12-hour shift (which, in both seasons, has turned into a 15-hour shift) minute-to-minute. Set in a Pittsburgh ER, former “ER” star Noah Wyle leads the pack as Dr. Robby, the senior attending physician. Overworked and underpaid, the team fights to help as many patients as they can with disaster looming on the horizon.
The show’s second season, which premiered in January 2026, takes place 10 months after the first, during a jam-packed shift on the Fourth of July. With Dr. Robby about to leave on a sabbatical, he gets to know the doctor replacing him, Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), deals with the return of Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), and welcomes two new medical students into the fold. Meanwhile, a cyberattack causes a system-wide shutdown that wreaks havoc on the ER.
Season 2 is just as strong as the last, as Dr. Robby’s mental health struggles once again take center stage. Moafi gives a mesmerizing performance as newcomer Dr. Al-Hashimi, who finds herself going toe-to-toe with the Pitt’s deeply flawed leader. The writing is as sharp as ever, with cases that shine a light on issues facing the medical community and our society at large — including a harrowing ICE storyline that makes a huge impact.
Industry
“Industry” is one of the best shows of the 2020s, though the Emmys continue to snub it year after year. The series is set in the world of finance, and in its first season, we meet a group of young, hungry employees at Pierpoint, an investment bank in London. These ruthless characters are desperate for power and success at any cost, leading to complicated interpersonal relationships and backstabbing business machinations.
Like Water For Chocolate
Based on the novel of the same name, “Like Water for Chocolate” tells a star-crossed historical love story through the lens of food. Tita (Azul Guaita) and Pedro (Andrés Baida) are childhood friends who fall in love, but Tita’s cruel and superstitious mother, Elena (Irene Azuela), prevents them from being together. In the first season, Pedro marries Tita’s older sister, Rosaura (Ana Valeria Becerril), so that he and Tita may remain in each other’s lives, but Tita is heartbroken by the betrayal.
In the show’s second season, Tita is forced to choose between her true love, Pedro, and a kind newcomer, Dr. Brown (Francisco Angelini). Season 2 is even steamier than the first, and Tita’s cooking continues to take center stage. In its final season, the show continues to play with magical realism, creating sumptuous, fantastical scenes involving food, nature, and feelings. The show smartly connects Tita and Pedro’s story to the Mexican Revolution even more explicitly than the book, creating narratively satisfying parallels on the micro and macro levels. The melodrama feels earned, as Tita and Pedro are faced with threats both existential and physical. It’s a fully realized adaptation of the novel, replete with sensitive, yearning performances and imaginative direction from Julián de Tavira.
House of the Dragon
Though it hasn’t yet matched the cultural impact of its predecessor, “House of the Dragon” is a worthy follow-up to the massive hit that was “Game of Thrones.” The HBO series is set nearly 200 years before “Game of Thrones” and tracks the Targaryen civil war. The show centers on Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (played by Milly Alcock as a teen and Emma D’Arcy as an adult), the heir to the Iron Throne. When Rhaenyra’s best friend, Alicent Hightower (played by Emily Carey and then Olivia Cooke), marries Rhaenyra’s father, King Viserys I (Paddy Considine), a bitter battle for power erupts between the two women.
Season 3 of “House of the Dragon” is a drastic improvement from Season 2, upping the ante in terms of both large-scale action and more intimate character drama. It begins with the epic Battle of the Gullet, waged with ships at sea and dragons in the sky. (In one of the best TV moments of 2026, Episode 7 also features an awe-inspiring dragon battle.) It’s one of the most impressive battle sequences in “Game of Thrones” history, and it sets the stage for the political scheming that occurs behind the scenes. Rhaenyra reckons with what it means to take power, while Alicent offers her a truce of sorts. The acting here is top-notch, and the tight focus on the Targaryens, rather than the larger world of Westeros, means the show can emphasize character at least as much as plot.
DTF St. Louis
“DTF St. Louis” strikes such a unique tone that it’s hard to describe on paper. Created by Steven Conrad, the mind behind the brilliant and underrated Prime Video series “Patriot,” “DTF St. Louis” is a suburban tale about love, intimacy, and murder. It’s also about the complex interiority and buried secrets we all have, whether we live in a beige suburb or a colorful, bustling metropolis.
Jason Bateman plays Clark, a weatherman who rides his recumbent bike to work and feels weird about how easy his job is. Clark befriends Floyd (David Harbour, delivering one of the best performances of the year), a sign language interpreter who cries at comic books and is desperate to befriend his stepson. His wife, Carol (Linda Cardellini), works in accounting at Purina and umpires Little League games as a side hustle. Clark introduces Floyd to DTF St. Louis, a hookup app for married couples. Floyd reluctantly joins, and weeks later, one of them winds up dead.
As detectives (played by Richard Jenkins and Joy Sunday) investigate the death, they uncover intimate details about this trio’s lives — details that take on renewed meaning considering the tragic circumstances. Though an uncharitable description of the show might call it “quirky,” that’s not quite right. These characters all have their specific eccentricities, but they feel like reflections of their personhood rather than tacked-on oddities. Conrad’s dialogue (he wrote and directed the series) is curiously off-kilter, but it sounds like the discourse of real people.
Rooster
“Rooster” is the best kind of dramedy, balancing uproarious moments with quieter, more emotionally reflective ones. From Bill Lawrence, who also co-created “Shrinking” and “Ted Lasso,” “Rooster” stars Steve Carell as Greg Russo, the author of a popular book series about a man named Rooster. Greg travels to the university where his daughter Katie (Charly Clive) works to give a lecture. His timing couldn’t be better (or worse), as Katie is going through a bit of a crisis thanks to her husband Archie (Phil Dunster of “Ted Lasso”) having an affair with a grad student. When Katie accidentally burns down Archie’s house, Greg is blackmailed into teaching at the school to save Katie from punishment.
Greg and Katie’s relationship is the heart of the show, and it feels lived-in and realistic. Indeed, while the series is filled with goofy gags and, at times, slapstick humor, the writing and acting also shine, and there is a groundedness to this adult-oriented, pseudo-hangout comedy. Carell and Clive are perfectly matched, and the excellent supporting cast includes Danielle Deadwyler as Greg’s surprisingly fleshed-out love interest, Connie Britton as Greg’s ex-wife, John C. McGinley, Alan Ruck, and Annie Mumolo. Like Lawrence’s other shows, “Rooster” balances humor with meaningful insights and has a cozy, lived-in feeling.
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe
“The Big Bang Theory” has officially become a franchise, and its third spinoff, “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” is its most ambitious yet. The show is a far cry from its originator, and that’s a good thing. The titular Stuart (Kevin Sussman) previously appeared on “The Big Bang Theory” but was mostly relegated to side-character territory. Here, Stuart is tasked with saving the world. He’s informed of this great prophecy by a version of himself from another universe who tells him that he must reset a quantum entanglement device built by the original “Big Bang” nerds.
Each episode follows Stuart as he jumps from bizarre universe to universe, trying to set things right. He’s joined by his ex-girlfriend Denise (Lauren Lapkus), deadpan geologist Bert (Brian Posehn), and annoying physicist Kripke (John Ross Bowie), who still has the same speech impediment in every universe. Their trips through the multiverse are wildly inventive, and the gang encounters magicians, centaurs, warlords, and a world where human beings have evolved from cows. Many players from the original “Big Bang Theory” cast appear as alternate versions of their characters, providing fun Easter eggs for fans.
Unlike the flagship series, which was a self-consciously stagnant show where the characters rarely left their familiar surroundings, “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe” flips this script on its head, with quick-moving, dynamic episodes where transformation is the name of the game. Its metatextual narrative is a hoot, and its brash unseriousness is refreshing.
