Anything good on HBO

afterburnt

I did a one week trial and forgot to cancel so I got it for who knows how long. I want my fifteen bucks worth although I only found one movie to watch in a week

msg

Lots of good stuff. Great Seriesesesez.
Best thing is to get set up with HBOGO, and then search and stream on demand what you want, instead of waiting for something to air. Watch on a tablet too, if you like.

Westworld just started up again. I'm waiting for them all to play out so I can binge watch 'em "cause I hate getting cli...

Viking64

msg wrote: »

I hate getting cli...

....t

daddyjt

Chernobyl - one of the best shows I’ve ever seen on tv. Only 5 episodes.

https://youtu.be/s9APLXM9Ei8

afterburnt

daddyjt wrote: »

Chernobyl - one of the best shows I’ve ever seen on tv. Only 5 episodes.

https://youtu.be/s9APLXM9Ei8

I think that's what I got for, didn't see much else to watch.

daddyjt

True Detective - Season 1 was excellent. Season 3 was pretty good - season 2 was fair.

https://youtu.be/ahisFWxT2q4

rooftop59

Yea, season one of true detective was awesome, haven’t watched the other episodes since I haven’t had hbo in years. I also really liked the first season of Westworld, but same problem.

There is a soft **** role play game on there that everyone seems to love, haven’t seen it myself!

Jstas

The series are worth getting the subscription for.

If you have it over cable then you should have access to On Demand and HBO has he majority of their stuff up on On Demand, if not, if you are a subscriber through your cable provider (or satellite), you can go and just create an account for HBO GO, no fees necessary, they will just verify your account through your provider. Then, literally, everything they have ever made is available.

There's a few good shows to watch.

Crime Dramas
- Oz
- The Wire <-- very good
- Boardwalk Empire <-- very good
- The Sopranos <-- better than you think it will be
- True Detective

Fantasy/Sci-Fi
- Game of Thrones
- Westworld
- The Leftovers

Westerns
- Deadwood

Historical/Contemporary Drama
- Treme
- Carnivàle
- Rome
- The Newsroom <-- not as preachy as you think it will be, very well done


Then there's the miniseries
- Band of Brothers
- The Pacific
- Generation Kill
- The Night Of
- John Adams <-- a bit slow but extremely well done
- From The Earth To The Moon
- House of Saddam
- Our Boys
- Empire Falls
- Chernobyl

The stand-up comedy specials are usually pretty good if you like the comedian. The news shows will cover stuff that you don't see in regular media and good for a world perspective just be ready for a bunch of whiny, left-leaning bias. If you can ignore and get past that part, they journalism is actually pretty good.

You can forget anything from Bill Maher, it's ego masturbation and a bunch of self-important hollywood elite liberals trying to gang up on a single target. It's childish, sad and the opposite of informative.

There's a couple good docuseries like "The Jinx" and "The Defiant Ones".

The comedy series tend to be contrived or super left-leaning and preachy garbage. There are a couple good ones though, like:
- Divorce
- Crashing
- Hello Ladies
- Flight of the Conchords
- Silicon Valley <-- extremely good

I watch "Last Week Tonight" and it gets pretty preachy at times but it's no where near as bad as "The Daily Show". They will do current events first and that's where the bias comes in. But every episode usually has a big expose of a new story that is typically well done and informative. It's worth watching because even though it feels like it's left leaning, it's mostly because they pick polarizing topics that lean left and then deconstruct them. John Oliver's jokes are actually funny too and he will rip on anyone from any side. But it's worth watching for the news stories that are not mainstream.


The movies, there's usually a gem or two every month. November/December and May, June, July and August are when the blockbusters from last year usually come out.

Typically, HBO comes packaged with Starz and if you have that and access to On Demand for that then there's a few good shows to watch there too:

- Black Sails <--- ZOMG! One of the best shows ever made! Incredible visuals, top notch writing and award winning acting!
- The Girlfriend Experience
- Outlander
- American Gods

If you don't have Starz on your TV subscription, it's worth the cost of the streaming subscription, especially with the deals they have on now. Something like $25 for 6 months. The original series they have are as good as HBO's stuff.

One thing to do, though, is sign up for Amazon Prime (you can get a Starz subscription there too) and watch a few shows there that might not be available on your cable subscription.
- The Expanse <-- Best show on TV right now
- The Americans <-- incredibly compelling Russian spy drama based on actual events
- The Man In The High Castle
- Jack Ryan
- The Boys
- Good Omens
- The Grand Tour

Also, AMC has some of the best shows on TV right now too:
- Breaking Bad
- Better Call Saul
- Mad Men
- Preacher
- The Night Manager

msg

^^^ excellent post!

treitz3

^^^ These are an example of two completely useless and off topic posts, posted to pick a fight, aggravate and/or cause strife for absolutely no reason whatsoever. ^^^

One of them from a complete hypocrite (no names mentioned, we all know who it is) that gets mad when someone strays off topic on one of their posts.

Here's a thought. How about instead of posting just to post, add something relevant to the conversation that may just help someone out instead of piss someone off?

Now, back on topic. I used to have HBO and I found it pretty much useless for the times that I sat down to watch. I found it best when I utilized my DVR and recorded many movies or programs that I could watch at my leisure. I would set about 4-5 movies from the guide to record over a 3-4 day period. Then, when I had some time to kill, they would be there for me when it was convenient for me. FWIW.

Tom

afterburnt

@Jstas thanks for the thoughtful and detailed post. I have watched Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire and enjoyed those I have tried a few of the titles you mentioned and hated them. Breaking Bad and The Wire to name a couple. I am a documentary and some docudramas person. I did watch What's My Name which was interesting if there was more stuff like that And Chernobyl I could get my monies worth out of it. It fifteen bucks ain't a lot of money but pretty expensive to get nothing.

Jstas

Breaking Bad and The Wire both, admittedly, started out slow. Took like 5 or 6 episodes for the story to really get going.

Unless they just aren't your thing.

But Boardwalk Empire...that's the story of Atlantic City's rise to fame. Names are different and there's a ton of character filling in between but everything from how it got started as a resort town out in the middle of no where to how it became a center for organized crime and immigrant workers because of that remoteness and access to the ocean to even how the corruption brought people like Warren G Harding in to office. It all has historical relevance all based around Enoch Johnson and his influences over government, business and the organized crime world. Not to mention, again, the show was really well done. It has an entertainment aspect, of course but, again, based in reality around not just Johnson but how NJ was intricately tied to organized crime everywhere and how he was a major lynch pin in NJ's rise in success due to booze running in prohibition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_L._Johnson

You'd probably like the "True Detective" series too. They are based on real life cases but liberty is taken with the stories. But they are done like a documentary series switching back and forth between 1st person and 3rd person tellings. They are very well done, though.

If you have Netflix, "The Highwaymen" was really good too. Again, some liberties taken with the story but it's the Bonnie and Clyde story. If you liked Chernobyl, that'd be right up your alley.

polrbehr

Jstas wrote: »

The series are worth getting the subscription for.


One thing to do, though, is sign up for Amazon Prime (you can get a Starz subscription there too) and watch a few shows there that might not be available on your cable subscription.
- The Expanse <-- Best show on TV right now
- The Americans <-- incredibly compelling Russian spy drama based on actual events
- The Man In The High Castle
- Jack Ryan
- The Boys
- Good Omens
- The Grand Tour

+ 1 to Jack Ryan, I am on Season 2 Episode 6 and can't stop watching it (though it's still awkward to see Jim Halpert shooting people... )

Sneaky Pete is another contender so far, though I'm only on episode 3

treitz3

Just for the record, two posts were apparently deleted. Please disregard the above post by me, except for the "on topic part".

Thanks.

Tom

Jstas

I haven't watch "Sneaky Pete" yet but I heard it was good. Gets good reviews by critics.

Also, I forgot to put "The Outsider" in the HBO list of shows to watch. I haven't seen all episodes but the couple I watched so far, it's as dark and twisted as the "True Detective" series.

Also, my brother is telling me that "Ozark" on Netflix is one to watch too.

displayname

I only do the streaming element, so I'm suggesting older stuff which is worth it.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is a classic series if you haven't seen it.

I also enjoyed Girls for some lighthearted comedy. Drops off pretty sharply after season 3, but I enjoyed it enough to finish it.

Also watched The Watchmen, which was a good spin off from the movie. But if you didn't like the movie, the show isn't going to change your opinion at all.

Haven't had HBOGo for that long yet, but those have been the standouts I've watched so far.

Clipdat

I find Curb Your Enthusiasm hilarious, but my wife absolutely hates it and won't watch it.

rooftop59

Oh yea the first season of crashing was excellent. My religious background is similar to his so I can relate...luckily not to the part where his wife cheats on him 😂

First couple season of Sneaky Pete were awesome, the third was not quite as good but still very enjoyable...

Jstas

FYI

https://www.thedad.com/hbo-free-programming/?utm_source=FB&fbclid=IwAR3Z9Sj9vgvFD5r6lkkQfTZDtAbF1DT1DfYPftix6SFwWKJeAEYoU_GB4wM

afterburnt

treitz3 wrote: »

Just for the record, two posts were apparently deleted. Please disregard the above post by me, except for the "on topic part".

Thanks.

Tom

I enjoyed your post because it made absolutely no sense. I though you had completely lost your mind and for a moment I didn't feel so alone.

afterburnt

I watched an episode of To the moon and back or something like that. I thought it would be interesting because I like space ships and even space people. I think it was during a Gemini recovery the showed an Aegis Cruiser heading out to the capsule. From this I concluded that the moon landing was in fact faked. Evidently the US had the ability in 1965 to time warp advanced capital ships from the future to assist in the space program so why would they bother with something so retrograde as going to the moon. I bet that in 1965 they had already been to Uranus.