Welcome to our 2024 edition of best crime, drama and thriller shows on (HBO) Max which includes some of some fan-favorites like The Thaw and Perry Mason as well as other new series.
Note: Our coverage of shows and movies on Max is available here. For our 2022 and 2021 best shows on HBO Max, please visit here and here. You can also check out our “Watching Lists” for the list of best new releases across all streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Paramount+, Apple TV+ and more.
37. The Thaw
Katarzyna Zawieja investigates the murder of a young woman, whose body was found on the bank of the Odra River and who gave birth to a missing child shortly before her death.
36. C.B. Strike: troubled Blood
Based on the best-selling novels by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling), Tom Burke (“The Musketeers”) stars as private detective Cormoran Strike, a former war veteran now working out of a cramped London office.
Together with his assistant, Robin Ellacott, Cormoran tackles cases that have, so far, baffled the police. Though struggling with the psychological and physical toll that combat have wrought on him, Cormoran is well-equipped to delve into complex conundrums thanks to his background as a Special Investigation Branch investigator.
35. Tokyo Vice
Loosely inspired by the work of Jake Adelstein, this crime drama follows an American journalist as he descends into the underbelly of late ’90s Tokyo.
34. House of Hammer
This is a Max Original true crime series: A shocking Hollywood scandal rips open the Hammer family’s perfect façade – from rape allegations against Armie Hammer to years of deceit at the hands of his great-grandfather, the family’s dark secrets finally come to light.
33. The Playboy Murders
Investigating murders that intersect with Playboy, exposing the pitfalls of fame for those appearing on their pages and forcing audiences to question everything they thought they knew about one of America’s most recognizable publications.
32. We Own This City
Based on the book “We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption” by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton, this gritty drama chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force.
It exposes the corruption and moral collapse that befalls an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest are championed at the expense of actual police work. Created and written by David Simon, creator of “The Wire,” and George Pelecanos, production took place in Baltimore.
31. The Last of Us
Joel and Ellie, a pair connected through the harshness of the world they live in, are forced to endure brutal circumstances and ruthless killers on a trek across a post-outbreak America.
30. Falling Skies
In the wake of an alien attack that has crippled most of the world, shock has turned to resolve as the survivors gather to fight back. Leading the charge is Boston history professor Tom Mason, whose wife was killed in the attack, and one of his three sons is among a group of captive teens.
Desperate to rescue his son, Tom joins forces with the 2nd Massachusetts, a makeshift regiment assigned to protect the survivors. As second in command to Weaver, Tom uses his knowledge of military history to gain intelligence about the aliens and form a plan of attack. But the plan keeps changing and more questions surface as the survivors discover what they’re really up against: a highly intelligent, heavily armed alien force whose purpose on Earth is the biggest mystery of all.
29. The Wire
In the city of Baltimore, there are good guys and there are bad guys. Sometimes you need more than a badge to tell them apart. This highly realistic and totally unvarnished drama series chronicles the vagaries of crime, law enforcement, politics, education and media in Baltimore as it follows a team of cops and the criminals they are after.
28. Warrior
Set during the brutal Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century, this gritty, action-packed series follows Ah Sahm, a martial arts prodigy who emigrates from China to San Francisco under mysterious circumstances and becomes a hatchet man for one of Chinatown’s most powerful tongs (Chinese organized crime family).
27. Station Eleven
An HBO Max Original. Based on the bestselling novel, this post-apocalyptic saga follows the survivors of a devastating flu as they attempt to rebuild and reimagine the world anew – while holding on to the best of what’s been lost.
26. Snowpiercer
Set more than seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, Snowpiercer centers on the remnants of humanity who inhabit a perpetually moving train, with 1001 cars, that circles the globe. Class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival play out in this riveting television adaptation based on the graphic novel series.
25. Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic
Watched any great books lately? Now you can watch the most celebrated graphic novel of all time, the graphic novel that broke the conventional mold and continues to break new ground.
24. The Sopranos
James Gandolfini stars in this acclaimed series as Tony Soprano, a husband and mob boss whose professional and private strains often land him in the office of his therapist. The ensemble cast includes Lorraine Bracco as his doctor, Edie Falco as his long-suffering wife, Michael Imperioli as his hot-headed nephew and Dominic Chianese as his uncle.
23. Boardwalk Empire
Atlantic City, 1920. When alcohol was outlawed, outlaws became kings. HBO presents this epic new drama series that follows the birth and rise of organized crime in ‘the world’s playground’ at the dawn of Prohibition. Steve Buscemi heads up the cast as Enoch ‘Nucky’ Thompson, the city’s undisputed czar who is equal parts politician and gangster.
22. Halfworlds
A world of mythological Demits collides with the human world in Jakarta; street artist Sara is caught in the middle.
21. Game of Thrones
Trouble is brewing in Westeros. For the inhabitants of this world, control of the Iron Throne holds the lure of great power. But in a land where seasons can last a lifetime, winter is coming…and beyond the Great Wall that protects them, a forgotten evil has returned. HBO presents this epic series based on the book series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ by George R.R. Martin.
20. Perry Mason
The world’s most renowned fictional lawyer is back on the case in this exciting HBO series that tells the origin story of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason. Set in 1932 Los Angeles, this edgy, noirish update puts a new spin on the iconic character with Mason (Matthew Rhys) as a low-rent private investigator who digs into a controversial and politically loaded case.
19. 30 Coins (30 Monedas)
An HBO Original series. From Álex de la Iglesia comes this bone-chilling horror series starring Eduard Fernández as a priest who is exiled to a small Spanish town.
18. The Alienist
Set in 1896 amidst a backdrop of vast wealth, extreme poverty and technological innovation, this psychological thriller stars Daniel Bruhl, Luke Evans, Dakota Fanning and Brian Geraghty. Viewers will be transported into the darkest corners of New York City during the Gilded Age.
17. Barry
Disillusioned at the thought of taking down another “mark,” depressed, low-level hit man Barry Berkman seeks a way out. When the Midwesterner reluctantly travels to Los Angeles to execute a hit on an actor who is bedding a mobster’s wife, little does Barry know that the City of Angels may be his sanctuary.
He follows his target into acting class and ends up instantly drawn to the community of eager hopefuls, especially dedicated student Sally, who becomes the object of his affection. While Barry wants to start a new life as an actor, his handler, Fuches, has other ideas, and the hit man’s criminal past won’t let him walk away so easily.
16. Euphoria
Multimedia superstar Zendaya stars in this drama series that follows a group of high-school students as they navigate a mine field of drugs, sex, identity, trauma, social media, love and friendship in today’s increasingly unstable world.
15. Blinded by the Lights
A Warsaw-based cocaine dealer’s perfectly organized life sinks into chaos in this series from Poland.
14. Carnivale
1934. The Dustbowl. In a time of sandstorms, plagues, drought and pestilence, the final conflict between good and evil is about to begin. This epic HBO series focuses on the battle as it plays out against a pair of unusual backdrops: a traveling carnival working the American Dustbowl circuit, and an evangelical ministry in California.
13. Doom Patrol
Doom Patrol is a team of traumatized and downtrodden superheroes, each of whom has suffered a horrible accident that gave them superhuman abilities but also left them scarred and disfigured. The members of the team have found their purpose through The Chief and have come together to investigate some of the world’s weirdest phenomena.
After The Chief mysteriously disappears, though, the reluctant heroes find themselves called to action by Cyborg, who comes to them with a mission that they cannot refuse. Doom Patrol — part support group, part superhero team — is a band of superpowered freaks fighting for a world that wants nothing to do with them.
12. Mare of Easttown
This is an HBO Original show. In a small Pennsylvania town, a detective investigates a brutal murder while her own life is falling apart around her.
Kate Winslet stars in this seven-episode limited series as the cop who deals with the loss of her son and a hectic household while trying to solve a cold missing persons case and the slaying of a teen girl in a place where everyone is a potential suspect.
11. Luther
Luther is a deeply thrilling crime series, crackling with energy, distinctive characters and snappy, clever dialogue. On a moral crusade, too often with only his convictions for company, John Luther is a deeply troubled man, a philosophical cop possessed by the insoluble problem of evil and justice in a Godless world.
Confronting depravity in its many terrible forms, over a succession of psychological duels between hunter and hunted, perpetrator and prey, Luther reveals his capacity for violence as well as kindness; his sudden vulnerability and dizzying, visionary mind; why his wife left him for another man, and why his colleagues are frequently left open-mouthed in awe. As the stakes get ever higher and more personal, Luther’s lonely path pulls him towards the very edge of temptation. Will the relentless pursuit of light tip him into the ultimate darkness?
10. His Dark Materials
From Philip Pullman’s epic “His Dark Materials” fantasy trilogy (which consists of the books “The Golden Compass,” “The Subtle Knife,” and “The Amber Spyglass”) comes this compelling HBO series that follows young orphan Lyra (Dafne Keen) on an incredible adventure into a parallel world where a human’s soul exists outside one’s body–in the form of a talking animal.
9. Lovecraft Country
A search for a missing father turns into an otherworldly trip. Based on Matt Ruff’s novel, this series follows Korean war vet Atticus Freeman, his friend Letitia and his Uncle George on a journey across 1950s Jim Crow America. What follows is a struggle to survive against the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters ripped from an H.P. Lovecraft paperback.
8. The Deuce
Get into the gritty and decadent world of NYC’s Times Square in the 1970s, as the business of pleasure begins its climb to become a billion-dollar industry in this drama series from the creative team behind ‘The Wire(R)’ and ‘Treme(R)’. James Franco, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Carr, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Dominique Fishback, Emily Meade, Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. head up a stellar cast.
7. Westworld
In this series set in a futuristic Wild West fantasy park, a group of android ‘hosts’ deviate from their programmers’ carefully planned scripts in a disturbing pattern of aberrant behavior. With an exceptional cast headed by Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright, ‘Westworld’ was inspired by Michael Crichton’s 1973 film.
6. Killer Truth
The story of a single murder is told through the perspectives of five people most intimately connected to the case, creating a full picture of the crime and ultimately leading to justice.
5. Generation Kill
Highly trained young Marines of the First Reconnaissance Battalion struggle with inadequate supplies, bureaucratic snafus and poor communication as they lead the drive into Baghdad during the first weeks of the war in Iraq, in a seven-part miniseries based on the best-selling nonfiction book by embedded Rolling Stone correspondent Evan Wright.
4. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark
Directed by Academy Award(R) nominee and Emmy(R)-winning director Liz Garbus (HBO’s Who Killed Garrett Phillips), this riveting six-part documentary series, based on the book of the same name, explores writer Michelle McNamara’s investigation into the dark world of a violent predator she dubbed the Golden State Killer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s.
3. The New Pope
A follow-up to “The Young Pope” from Oscar(R)-winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, this series picks up with Jude Law’s Pope Pius XIII in a coma and the Holy See searching for his replacement. Out of the fray rises Sir John Brannox (John Malkovich), a religiously moderate, sophisticated and sensitive intellectual who has secrets and insecurities of his own.
2. 4 Blocks
An HBO Max Original. Toni Hamady is tired of living a life of crime and wants to change things so he can have a quiet existence with his wife and daughter. That plan doesn’t come to fruition, though, when a police sting that has devastating consequences crosses his path.
He is forced to again step up as the leader of his crime ring to avoid handing control over to his hot-headed brother, Abbas. When an old friend shows up, Toni’s dream of getting out of the crime game seems like it could be within reach. But before he can achieve the quiet life he seeks, Toni must escape the downward spiral that is his involvement in illicit activity.
1. DMZ
This is a Max Original: In a near-future civil-war-torn America, fearless medic Alma sets out on a harrowing quest to find her missing son – crossing into the demilitarized zone of Manhattan, where a ruthless battle for control rages between rival gang leaders.
