The 4 best thriller TV shows to binge on HBO Max right now
The 4 best thriller TV shows to binge on HBO Max right now
‘True Detective’ and ‘Barry’ lead a lineup of HBO Max thrillers that range from quick weekend watches to huge crime worlds.
HBO Max (and HBO before it) has been making genre-defining thrillers for decades. There’s maybe no better streamer if you’re in the mood for dark murder mysteries, huge crime worlds, and TV shows that push the envelope of what the genre can do. So yes, there’s a lot to choose from, but these four shows all scratch a completely different binge itch and explore different kinds of worlds to boot. If you want something tense, addictive, and very easy to get lost in, here are my picks for the best binge-worthy thriller shows streaming on HBO Max right now.
Best binge-worthy thriller shows streaming on HBO Max
Best murder-mystery binge: ‘True Detective’
If you somehow skipped “True Detective” Season 1, clear a weekend. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson play Louisiana detectives Rust Cohle and Marty Hart, and the season jumps back and forth through their lives as they investigate a ritualistic murder that slowly starts pointing toward something much bigger. McConaughey is just operating on another level here. Rust is brilliant, strange, miserable, and somehow completely fascinating to listen to, while Harrelson gives him the perfect guy to constantly push against. And the whole thing has this creepy Southern Gothic atmosphere that makes rural Louisiana feel like there’s something awful hiding behind every tree.
This is basically my ideal mystery binge because Season 1 is just eight episodes telling one complete story. Every answer gets you closer to another question, and because you’re jumping between different points in Rust and Marty’s lives, you’re also trying to figure out what happened to these guys along the way. Season 4, “Night Country,” is the other one I’d absolutely binge. Jodie Foster and Kali Reis investigate the disappearance of eight men from an Arctic research station in Alaska, and it brings back that same feeling that something much bigger and weirder could be hiding underneath the case. For my money, Seasons 1 and 4 are easily the best of “True Detective,” and both are short enough that once you’re hooked, good luck stopping.
True Detective
An American anthology police detective series utilizing multiple timelines in which investigations seem to unearth personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within or outside the law.
Best crime-world binge: ‘Boardwalk Empire’
Sometimes you don’t want to burn through a thriller in one weekend. You want a show you can basically move into for the next month. That’s “Boardwalk Empire.” Steve Buscemi plays Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, an Atlantic City political boss who realizes pretty quickly that Prohibition is going to be very good for business. From there, the show keeps expanding into bootlegging, politics, gang wars, betrayals, and the rise of real-life mob figures like Al Capone and Lucky Luciano. There are a ton of characters and storylines moving at once, but that’s part of the fun. You really feel like you’re watching an entire criminal world being built around you.
And honestly, I think “Boardwalk Empire” probably works even better as a binge than it did week to week. This thing is dense. Alliances change, characters disappear for a while and come roaring back, and something that seems minor in one episode can suddenly become very important three episodes later. Watching a few at a time keeps all of that fresh in your head. It also helps that the show looks incredible. Atlantic City feels alive, the cast is ridiculously deep, and when all that slow-building tension finally explodes into violence, it hits. With five complete seasons waiting for you, this is the pick if you want a thriller that’s going to keep you busy for a while.
Boardwalk Empire
Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition is a place where the rules don’t apply. And the man who runs things — legally and otherwise — is the town’s treasurer, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, who is equal parts politician and gangster.
Best dark-comedy binge: ‘Barry’
A depressed hitman walks into an acting class in Los Angeles and decides maybe murdering people isn’t what he wants to do with the rest of his life. That’s the wonderfully ridiculous setup for “Barry,” and somehow the show only gets crazier from there. Bill Hader plays Barry Berkman, who desperately wants to leave his life as a killer behind after discovering acting, except his criminal past has absolutely no interest in letting him go. That means one minute he’s in class trying to access his emotions, and the next he’s dealing with mobsters, assassins, or another horrible decision he made trying to fix the last horrible decision.
“Barry” might be the easiest show on this entire list to accidentally binge because the episodes are short and basically nothing ever settles down. The tone helps, too. This show can be hysterically funny, genuinely tense, and then shockingly dark in the span of about five minutes. Henry Winkler, Stephen Root, Sarah Goldberg, and Anthony Carrigan are all fantastic, and NoHo Hank alone is worth watching the show for. Four short seasons, one complete story, and almost no wasted time. You can absolutely tear through this thing.
Barry
A hit man from the Midwest moves to Los Angeles and gets caught up in the city’s theatre arts scene.
Best slow-burn binge: ‘Tokyo Vice’
The first thing that pulled me into “Tokyo Vice” is honestly just Tokyo itself. Set around the end of the 1990s, the show follows American journalist Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) as he lands a job at a major Japanese newspaper and starts digging into stories that pull him deeper and deeper into the city’s criminal underworld. Ken Watanabe plays detective Hiroto Katagiri, who becomes an important guide for Jake as he starts getting way too close to the yakuza. Before long, you’re bouncing between newsrooms, police stations, hostess clubs, back rooms, and neon-lit streets where everybody seems to know something Jake doesn’t.
This one takes a little more patience than something like “Barry,” but that’s exactly why it makes such a good binge. The deeper you get, the more all these seemingly separate characters and stories start connecting. You’re learning how the police operate, how the yakuza operate, how the nightlife works, and where Jake fits into a system he barely understands. And because you’re watching episodes close together, you stay inside that world instead of having to remember who betrayed who a week later. With only two seasons and 18 episodes, it’s also a really manageable binge. Give it a few episodes to get its hooks into you, and suddenly you’re not just watching for the crime story — you want to spend more time in this version of Tokyo.
Tokyo Vice
A first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat following Jake Adelstein, an American journalist who embeds himself into the Tokyo Vice police squad to reveal corruption. Based on Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction book of the same name.
More binge-worthy thriller TV shows on HBO Max:
‘The Wire’
The Wire
Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.
This brilliant series is routinely cited as the best TV show ever made. (Entertainment Weekly, The BBC, The Telegraph, The Guardian, and Salon.com have all ranked it #1.) It is the closest thing we have to a novel on television. Sprawling narratives, unforgettable characters, and jaw-dropping plot twists combine into something remarkable, unique, and definitively American. From the police to the drug dealers to the junkies to blue-collar workers to politicians to journalists to elementary students, all the pieces matter.
‘The Outsider’
The Outsider
When an insidious supernatural force edges its way into a seemingly straightforward investigation into the gruesome murder of a young boy, it leads a seasoned cop and an unorthodox investigator to question everything they believe in.
‘The Night Of’
The Night Of
After a night of partying with a female stranger, a man wakes up to find her stabbed to death and is charged with her murder.
‘Sharp Objects’
Sharp Objects
Reporter Camille Preaker confronts the psychological demons from her past when she returns to her hometown to investigate the murders of two young girls.