Key Takeaways
- HBO Max offers a diverse range of series, including superhero shows, dark satire, and steamy romance.
- Some notable series on the platform include Heated Rivalry, I Love LA, The Pitt, and Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake.
- The streamer also features popular shows like Harley Quinn, The White Lotus, and The Last of Us.
- With new seasons and episodes being added regularly, now is a great time to explore what HBO Max has to offer.
- The platform’s content includes a mix of original series, adaptations, and classic shows like Mad Men.
Introduction to HBO Max’s Offerings
With all the drama surrounding Warner Bros. Discovery’s plans to sell itself to another company, it’s not currently clear how much longer HBO Max will continue to exist in its current form. However, for the time being, the streamer is chock full of solid series that are worth checking out. Whether you’re in the mood for superhero madness, dark satire, or steamy romance, HBO Max has a little bit of everything. The streamer has a whole lot more coming down the pipeline, so now’s the time to check out some of what it had to offer in 2025.
Heated Rivalry and I Love LA
At a time when it often feels like TV is shying away from sex in favor of more family-friendly stories, Heated Rivalry feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s a classic frenemies-to-forbidden lovers romance set against the backdrop of professional ice hockey. The series is anchored by two stellar lead performances from Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. On the other hand, I Love LA is a love letter to one’s late 20s, a magical time when you understand that life isn’t all sunshine and daisies, but you still have the energy to say "screw it" and go out partying with your friends. The show’s feelings about Los Angeles as a showbiz industry town are much thornier, and its sense of humor is charged with a deliciously pointed nihilism.
The Pitt and Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake
In its first season, The Pitt reminded everyone what makes tightly-crafted procedural dramas with hefty episode counts so satisfying to watch. Even though the show’s story took place over the course of a single day, The Pitt felt so much bigger because of how much time it spent developing its characters and making them feel like people with lives outside of the emergency room. Season 2 is right around the corner, but there’s still time to get all caught up. Meanwhile, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake’s second season digs deeper into its whimsical multiverse as heroines Fionna and Cake set out to save Finn the Human’s life after he’s wounded in battle. Though the second season moves a bit slower than the first, the way it deepens the backstories of some of Adventure Time’s supporting characters is phenomenal.
Welcome to Derry and Harley Quinn
There was so much detail from Stephen King’s It novel that didn’t make it into Warner Bros.’ recent film adaptations, and one of the great things about HBO’s Welcome to Derry prequel series is how it manages to weave a lot of that lore into a wholly original story. Meanwhile, Harley Quinn has always excelled at lampooning the denizens of Batman’s home city, but the show’s fifth season takes things to the next level by taking aim at a bigger chunk of DC’s universe of heroes and villains. The couple, consisting of Harley and Poison Ivy, are together, stronger than ever, and shaking their lives up a bit by leaving Gotham City behind in favor of moving to Metropolis.
Classic Shows and New Seasons
Though Mad Men is almost 20 years old at this point, it is new to HBO Max, and the streamer has finally worked out most of those embarrassing technical issues that made the series’ 4K streaming debut such a fiasco. Mad Men’s approach to storytelling has always been excellent, and it’s especially wild in 2025 to see how the show’s characters evolve over the course of a seven-season run. The series is an all-time classic that embodies everything that was great about the last pre-streaming golden age of TV. Additionally, Mike White’s madcap dark comedy, The White Lotus, travels to Thailand in its third season to weave another tale about people who can’t escape their inner demons. The show takes a little bit longer to really get rolling, but if you can stick it out, the season mostly delivers and makes for a solid watch.
The Last of Us and Peacemaker
As was the case with The Last of Us Part II, the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us series goes through some major changes that take its story in a very different direction. Bella Ramsey’s Ellie has always been a tremendous on-screen presence, but there’s a dynamism to her performance in season 2 that is nothing short of amazing. The show’s production design, cinematography, and special effects make it feel like one of HBO’s strongest projects in ages. Meanwhile, the latest season of James Gunn’s Peacemaker snatched everyone’s wigs with a wild twist that makes a hell of a lot more sense when you watch the episodes for a second time. Multiversal superhero fare has long since grown a bit tiresome, but Peacemaker uses the comics convention to tell a surprisingly thoughtful and poignant story about its titular meathead.