Severance (Left) The Sopranos (Right)
There was a time when HBO was the king of the television hill. You could count on HBO to put forward the most Emmy nominations just about every year, and take home the most wins. HBO shows were the standard by which every other competitor was judged. And when streaming was in its early stages, companies like Netflix tried—and often failed—to emulate HBO’s success with their own meaty, cerebral dramas.
Even when streaming was in full swing, and shows like The Sopranos and The Wire were in the rearview mirror, everyone wanted to create their own Game Of Thrones. Amazon spent big on rights to The Lord Of The Rings and produced The Rings Of Power, which fell well short of Thrones’ success and accolades.
Apple TV has had its own mixed success with big epics, producing the post-apocalyptic series See and the space opera, Foundation, neither of which gained huge audiences. But where Apple has had the most success in recent years is in offering perhaps the best ratio of quality-to-quantity of any streaming service out there, effectively stealing HBO’s thunder, especially in 2024.
HBO’s last genuinely great shows aired in 2023. Succession ended its four-season run and took home many well-deserved honors and awards. The White Lotus gave us a second season that genuinely improved on everything great about the first. Since then, HBO has floundered. Even The Penguin, which was one of my favorite shows of 2024, fell short of HBO’s past greatness, never quite becoming the masterful mobster story that The Sopranos was, nor really embracing its comic book origins to the extent it needed to in order to be a great comic book series.
Meanwhile, House of the Dragon offered up a truly disappointing second season—even George R.R. Martin was upset about it—and True Detective’s fourth season, Night Country, was an absolute disaster and personally my least favorite show of the year, if only because it was such an enormous disappointment.
Over on Apple TV, however, I can tick off plenty of great shows that came out in 2024. Shrinking’s second season was brilliant. Bad Monkey was a terrific debut season to a new series. Slow Horses was better than ever in Season 4. Despite a lousy twist at the end, Presumed Innocent was a phenomenal adaptation of the Scott Turow novel. Tack on Sugar and Sunny for good measure, and Apple had quite a year! And with the second season of Severance just around the corner, my money’s on Apple giving us one of—if not the—best shows of 2025.
Still, HBO and its streaming service Max have some cards to play this year as well. The new Game Of Thrones spinoff A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms looks terrific, and is based on Martin’s novellas which I enjoy perhaps even more than the main books. The White Lotus Season 3 also looks fantastic, with a rather steamy first trailer to whet our appetites. The Last Of Us is returning for a second season, though I maintain that while it is a very good show, the games are better.
With disappointing offerings like Dune: Prophecy behind us, it’s hard not to feel like the HBO of old has lost its teeth, nonetheless. That surefire quality we almost always expected from a new HBO drama or comedy has become hit-or-miss. And while there are far fewer offerings on Apple, it’s still the place you can find shows like Slow Horses and movies like Killers Of The Flower Moon and Macbeth. HBO still has its hits and I have no doubt it will continue to produce fantastic shows, but Apple has stolen at least a little of its thunder in the age of streaming. Of course, Netflix has many great shows as well, but the ratio there is wildly skewed the other way: Quantity over quality.
One way or another, I return to a comforting thought: Competition is good, and there is plenty of it and then some when it comes to streaming these days.
Apple TV was free this past weekend and I put together a list of some of the best shows and movies to watch on the streaming app if you have any interest in some recommendations.
