Every HBO show ranked from worst to best, according to critics

Metacritic Score: 40

“It's a painfully obvious shtick, so camp and arch it's impossible to enjoy the joke.” —TV Guide

Average Metacritic Score: 43

"Why would HBO, cable's most innovative network ... think it's a good idea to let Bill Maher bring the skeleton of his canceled ABC show, 'Politically Incorrect,' and stuff it into the tattered corpse of 'Dennis Miller Live'?" —Entertainment Weekly

Metacritic Score: 47

"A show so vile, it makes you think the company's arrogant It's Not TV — It's HBO slogan isn't a brag — it's a threat." —USA Today

Metacritic Score: 50

"Watching HBO's surfing drama 'John From Cincinnati' is like sitting through a bad play at a tiny experimental theater.... In short, if Gary Busey were a TV series, he would be 'John From Cincinnati.'" —The Boston Globe

Metacritic Score: 50

“[It] leaves only the flashes of comedic brilliance, and even they don't light up the sky very often.” —Wall Street Journal

Metacritic Score: 51

“His interview style is an effective one — opinionated without being overbearing, with just enough smugness to give some of his questions a provocative edge.” —Yahoo TV

Average Metacritic Score: 52

"Parker's irresistible charm keeps us on Carrie's side even as the character's act grows old." —People

Metacritic Score: 52

"The show operates at a tone of constant hysteria, which, as justified as that may be, begins to feel exhausting." —Variety

Metacritic Score: 56

“There isn’t much that can pass for comedy here, but there’s plenty of compelling viciousness and two powerful performances.” —Wall Street Journal

Metacritic Score: 58

"We've seen this show before, in fresher settings, with stronger comic structure — from, in fact, the same creators: [Stephen] Merchant and American 'Office' writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky." —Newsday

Metacritic Score: 58

“Unfortunately, it is difficult to stay interested in what happens to any of these characters because most of them are so absurdly unlikable.” —LA Times

Average Metacritic Score: 59

"As a portrait of struggling Manhattanites, 'How to Make It' effectively hones in on that hope-filled effervescence historically associated with the idealized American dream." —Slant Magazine

Metacritic Score: 60

“A faux documentary on actors who are not famous but who are struggling to be isn't inherently interesting to non-actors... 'Unscripted' isn't a complete flop. It's just rare that HBO fails like this.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Metacritic Score: 60

"The laugh-out-loud viciousness of the opening, which involves both a gun and vomit, is clearly the work of series’ creator Sharon Horgan, who also co-writes and stars in Amazon’s brilliant 'Catastrophe.' But 'Divorce' isn’t always as biting as it is in those moments, leading to a solidly acted but somewhat mundane exploration of a breakup." —The AV Club

Average Metacritic Score: 61

"A bloated mess ... 'Carnivale' is a little too full of itself. Believing that it has a fascinating story to tell with all the complex themes you could imagine, the series nevertheless fails the first test of television: Move forward." —San Francisco Chronicle

Average Metacritic Score: 61.6

"The series is kind of a mess, but one you can't really look away from." —San Francisco Chronicle

Average Metacritic Score: 63

"Despite its refreshing commitment to realism, 'Doll & Em' is ultimately too relaxed and meandering for its own good. There are times when you may wish it had embraced the occasional cliches with more gusto." —Vulture

Average Metacritic Score: 63

"It's a nice gimmick, actually. Too bad the results seem so childishly undeveloped." —San Francisco Chronicle

Average Metacritic Score: 64

"[Dwayne] Johnson himself is the best part of 'Ballers,' a charismatic, mostly responsive force that is our window to the precarious world of retirement from football. His perspective on the life of the partying ball player is one of nostalgia. But in the absence of forward momentum, the camera turns to looking for shock value anywhere it can." —Salon

Average Metacritic Score: 64

"'Bored' sometimes lags and drags, as if it took a few tokes, too. But when it's funny — and 'Bored' certainly can be — it's a winner." —Newsday

Average Metacritic Score: 64

“Measured against the yardstick of their own lofty standards, the show comes up a little short.” —Variety

Average Metacritic Score: 64.5

"It would all be terribly sad it if it weren't so incredibly funny." —TV Guide Magazine

Average Metacritic Score: 65.5

"I feel that there's a really good dark comedy about the decline of the American dream struggling to emerge from the often-forced plots." —Time

Average Metacritic Score: 66.8

"The show is vulgar, adolescent, and sexist — and seems proud of it." —The Baltimore Sun

Average Metacritic Score: 67

“'Vice' tries to go where other news, documentary, and magazine shows do not. That’s okay, though it does at times overstate its pioneering prowess.” —New York Daily News

Metacritic Score: 67

“A funny/sad 'Office'-style mockumentary depicting a year in the life of an Australian public high school, this wildly talented writer-star loves making you squirm (À la Gervais) while submerging himself inside the skin of characters so diverse (À la Ullman) you can hardly believe it's the same guy.” —TV Guide

Average Metacritic Score: 68

"It’s creepy, steamy, and funny at times, and it’s also a muddle, a comic murder mystery that is a little too enthralled with its own exoticism." —The New York Times

Metacritic Score: 68

"'The Young Pope' is TV’s equivalent of a dorm-room poster of Bob Marley blowing smoke or the Lenny Bruce mugshot: a depleted symbol of a radical reaction to society that finally most clearly represents the status quo." —Collider

Average Metacritic Score: 69.5

"'Rome' is most entertaining when it laces its wild, ancient antics with winks of the pedestrian." —Entertainment Weekly

Metacritic Score: 71

“‘Vinyl’ will leave you dancing to the music, but may leave you wondering why you should care.” —New York Post

Average Metacritic Score: 70

"'Oz' is flat-out the most violent and graphically sexual series on TV. By contrast, it makes ABC's 'NYPD Blue' look and sound like dancing Barney." —Los Angeles Times

Average Metacritic Score: 72.5

"None of this would work without compelling characters. Fortunately, 'The Leftovers' has bunches of them." —The AV Club

Metacritic Score: 73

"There is a lot of talk — practical and philosophical — about comedy, and 'Crashing' is very good with the details of low-level nightlife. But what most makes the show entertaining are Pete’s episodic adventures with characters who will help form him, challenge him, and wake him from his self-satisfied sleep into a better sort of happiness." —LA Times

Metacritic Score: 74

"It’s the kind of trippy conceptual project that would be unbearable if it weren’t so elegantly made. So far, it works, mostly — not because it’s perfect but because it gets under your skin." —The New Yorker

Average Metacritic Score: 74

"It's an okay cop drama, to be sure, but it's definitely a cop drama you have seen many, many times before." —Vox

Metacritic Score: 74

"A quirky and hilarious gem." —The Hollywood Reporter

Average Metacritic Score: 74

“A pallid imitation of 'The Larry Sanders Show,' the series works best when its real-life guests are funny.” —Publisher’s Weekly

Average Metacritic Score: 74

"Just when you worry the show is a pageant of ugly cliches about female rivalry, it gives you a poignant, nuanced scene to deepen the whole." —Entertainment Weekly

Average Metacritic Score: 74

"This challenging show offers the viewer nary a morsel of TV comfort food. But uncommonly good writing and acting are satisfying too." —People

Average Metacritic Score: 74

“There are no big sociopolitical statements here, no guerilla-style confrontations, no scenes of squirmy awkwardness, no multilayered pop culture references. It's just a very smart, very funny show.” —Entertainment Weekly

Average Metacritic Score: 75

"'Looking' doesn't make the mistake of arguing that gay men are just like straight women, or straight men, or gay women, or even each other. Instead it tells the story of three guys who are friends in a strangely wonderful and difficult time and what that looks like. To them." —LA Times

Metacritic Score: 75

"The parts that do work possess the doom-laden yet strangely optimistic romanticism of [David] Milch's best work." —Huffington Post

Average Metacritic Score: 75

"A very original, extremely well-acted, and complexly written drama." —San Francisco Chronicle

Average Metacritic Score: 76

"It's a slower-paced, smaller-scale show about the sad reality of sticking it out in Hollywood into middle age. It also veers into weirder territory that would feel impossible outside California. But thanks to the chemistry between Peet and Zissis, it's endlessly engrossing." —Entertainment Weekly

Average Metacritic Score: 76

"Oliver is terrific at mining humor from the most popular topics of the day, that is, the idiocy of the media and politicians. He's funny when he's knocking our intelligence." —Denver Post

Metacritic Score: 76

"'The Jinx' is wickedly entertaining: funny, morbid, and sad, at once exploitative and high-minded, a moral lasagna of questionable aesthetic choices (including reconstructions of ghastly events) and riveting interviews (of Durst, but also of other eccentrics, like his chain-smoking-hot second wife)." —The New Yorker

Metacritic Score: 78

"Both the book and the miniseries sketch admirably human portraits of historical figures such as Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin." —Chicago Tribune

Average Metacritic Score: 78.3

"'Eastbound & Down' holds together so well that it's worth looking past the ugly for the solid performances and the charcoal-black humor beneath." —The New Yorker

Average Metacritic Score: 79

"It definitely has a voice, and it's a great one: witty and wise and warm and not exactly like anything you've heard before." —Hitfix

Average Metacritic Score: 79.3

"The acting is brilliant, the problems are relatable, and the truths Dr. Weston is chasing are profound. On the other hand, 'In Treatment' is the epitome of American self-indulgence, both for the actors and the characters they're playing." —Chicago Sun-Times

Average Metacritic Score: 80

“This is a rare TV union where cast, writers, and directors appear to be of a single comedic mind; the humorous results speak for themselves.” —LA Times

Average Metacritic Score: 81

“The most original and brilliant show on television.” —The New Republic

Average Metacritic Score: 81

"It's a dark and astonishing gem of a show, with a bravely skillful cast juggling the petty obsessions of the workplace with Much Bigger Issues." —LA Times

Average Metacritic Score: 81

"'High Maintenance' stands out, not just because it’s on the front end of what is apparently a reefer TV trend, but because it’s so precisely made and has such an ambling, open heart." —Vulture

Average Metacritic Score: 81.2

"Like a good whiskey, it's rough and smooth in all the right ways. By a few episodes in, you'll want to order it by the case." —Time

Average Metacritic Score: 82

"From scene to scene, 'Treme' is novelistic in the best sense — a long, complex, involving story that takes a while to settle into, but that you can't put down and don't want to end." —Salon

Average Metacritic Score: 82.2

"The series reserves its most blistering humor for the universal narcissism on display, always distracting from the real work at hand." —Slant

Metacritic Score: 84

"It's a smart and often funny look at young people looking for love and professional satisfaction in Los Angeles, which is about as common a genre as TV has to offer these days. But taken in the totality of the TV landscape, Rae's voice is one that wasn't being heard and that voice is what makes 'Insecure' stand out, not necessarily as better than the Emmy winners or critical favorites in the field, but as gratifyingly distinguishable." —The Hollywood Reporter

Average Metacritic Score: 84.5

"A black comedy working many shades of gray, 'Enlightened' is about dark mornings of the soul and the fool's-golden glow of the new convert, and it measures the weight of the world with an eccentric scale." —Slate

Average Metacritic Score: 85

"It's like a procedural drama, about the drama of procedure — it isn't ever dry. There are some superbly mounted, loud, crowded big scenes — [David] Simon is a great orchestrator of chaos — but there is an intensity to the quieter, more private moments as well. I wouldn't trade it for a bushel barrel of tortured detectives or all the kings and queens in Westeros." —LA Times

Average Metacritic Score: 86

"To call 'Deadwood' great television doesn't begin to do it justice." —Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Average Metacritic Score: 86

"It doesn't even look like a TV miniseries — it's more like 10 theatrical films that do an amazing job re-creating battles." —Deseret News

Average Metacritic Score: 86

"Manages to be outrageous and innovative at the same time." —New York Daily News

Average Metacritic Score: 86

"Certain moments may verge on cliche (and once in a while, the dialogue is a little corny), but overall, 'The Pacific' is crafted and acted with such loving devotion that it's hard to find fault with its sincerity and sentimental forays." —Chicago Tribune

Average Metacritic Score: 86.5

"The show beautifully depicts a massive game of musical chairs, a world at war with doom ever present just across the border." —Boston Globe

Average Metacritic Score: 86.6

"Silicon Valley is a comedy, certainly, and a very funny one, but it doesn't spend all its time reminding you of the fact." —LA Times

Average Metacritic Score: 88

"An insanely funny romp thanks to its unique storytelling technique and an inspired performance by the star." —Chicago Tribune

Average Metacritic Score: 90

"As complicated and layered as life itself, 'The Night Of' is an instant classic." —TV Guide Magazine

Average Metacritic Score: 91.8

"It slowly develops into an engrossing look at the methodical nature of police work and the limits of individualism." —Time

Average Metacritic Score: 94.5

"Combining dark comedy and psychological drama, the show achieves a fresh tone to match its irresistibly winning concept." —New York Times

Average Metacritic Score: 94.8

"Razor-edged satire of late-night talk TV from people with an ear for truth and a taste for blood." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch