The list of the best fantasy TV shows onHBO Maxincludes some of the most popular, pop culture-dominating series ever, and little-known foreign series that are still certainly worth watching.Fantasy television is a surprisingly underrepresented genrecompared to other genres, possibly because of the expense.
It’s become an increasingly popular kind of TV storytelling over the last fifteen years, in part thanks to one TV show in particular,Game of Thrones. The flagship fantasy franchise of HBO ensured that the streamer remained king of prestige TV for another decade, but there are some other fantastic fantasy series to explore on the service.
A series that comes to HBO all the way from Turkey, The Prince, or Prens in the original language, is set in the fictional, medieval kingdom of Bongomia. When the beloved king of Bongomia dies, the title passes to the youngest son of the royal family, who is so overlooked, his parents never bothered to name him.
“The Prince,” as he is known, assumes the throne but has some trouble ruling due to constant distrust and dislike by just about everyone. It’s a very funny series that pokes fun at history and fantasy tropes alike, and Giray Altinok steals the show as the prince in question, stumbling from one mistake to the other.
The Swarmis a German series adapted from the 2004 novel by German author Frank Schätzing. The series follows a group of scientists who uncover an intelligence deep within the depths of Earth’s oceans. It has only recently revealed itself in order to fight back against the ecological destruction caused by human activity.
It’s a series that plays on two fears: one, our fear of the ocean and what could possibly be living deep beneath the waves, and two, the growing fear that our impact on Earth’s ecology could be irreversible at this point. It’s as straightforward about our problems as a show can be while still featuring humpback whales attacking boats.
The first adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy since the inertThe Golden Compassin 2007,HIs Dark Materialspremiered in 2019 and adapts all three books in the series. The show is set in a multi-world reality. In one, humans' souls manifest as animal companions known as daemons.
In this world lives a young girl named Lyra, an orphan who discovers a dangerous secret which could completely change the world if ever exposed.His Dark Materialsis a close adaptation of its source and presents the complex and philosophical story with incredible visual and production design.
Carnivàleis set in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression and follows the lives of the different people working in a traveling carnival roadside attraction.The two seasons ofCarnivàlefollow two plotlines that slowly come together. One is of young Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl), who discovers he has strange powers of healing.
The second storyline revolves around Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown), a Methodist preacher who discovers that he has the power to bend people’s wills toward him and exploit their weaknesses and sins. It’s a show packed with mythology, encompassing everything from Knights Templar lore to more traditional Christianity.
6The Hypnotist (2015-2017)
A Talented Hypnotist Has Strange Powers
TitledO Hipnotizadorin the original Portuguese,The Hypnotistis a two-season fantasy series that stars Leonardo Sbaraglia as Natalio Arenas, a hypnotist who suffers from insomnia. He’s so talented that he can make people reveal their innermost secrets, a talent that seems almost supernatural.
In the series, Arenas arrives in a quiet town and stays in a strange hotel while working at a local theater with his hypnotist act, and putting his skills to use to solve local crimes, all the while dealing with a mysterious past. It’s a beautifully designed world that has a dreamlike quality, adding to the disquieting atmosphere.
One of the first HBO original TV shows to garner the sort of pop culture attention and theory crafting that have since become the norm thanks to social media,True Bloodpremiered at the perfect time to take advantage of growing interest in prestige TV from much more varied audiences.
WhileTrue Bloodmay have ended on something of a whimper, the first few seasons of the show can stand up there with any fantasy series. Based on Charlaine Harris' series of novels,True Bloodis set in a world where vampires are real and society has learned to live side-by-side with them, to an extent.
Lovecraft Countryis a strange series. While it does take its atmosphere and some story moments from H.P. Lovecraft’s Eldritch monster stories, it’s mostly its own creation, and it is an odd one. The series starts off as a road trip undertaken by Leti (Jurnee Smollett) and Tic (Jonathan Majors), and goes in a variety of different directions.
The series is a fantastical, horrifying, and often disturbingly real look at 1950s Jim Crow America, where racist terrors are as frightening as any Lovecraftian being and sometimes are hard to distinguish from one another. More a series of stories than one narrative, there’s not a whole lot like it.
The follow-up to Game of Thrones, but set in the semi-distant past of Westeros, House of the Dragon came in with low expectations considering the ending of GOT, but it’s managed to surpass those and then some. It’s not simply more Game of Thrones, it’s a show with its own style and agenda.
The series is set towards the beginning of the Targaryen reign over Westeros, where dragons still ensured that no one, save for other Targaryens, could ever hope to challenge their supremacy. It’s slower, quieter, and in some ways smaller. However, it may also be smarter and richer for it.
It’s hard to describe just how bigGame of Throneswas during its prime.Even byGame of Thronesseason 8, many storylines and years later, the show had just as fervent a fanbase as when it started. Based on George R.R. Martin’sA Song of Ice and Firenovels,Game of Thronesis almost the quintessential fantasy TV series.
The series takes place over many years, following a huge number of characters from various families, kingdoms, and continents, tying together their stories with an overarching deadly threat that is on its way South from the brutal North. It’s the series that immediately proved general TV viewers were ready for long-form fantasy storytelling.
Station Elevenis based on Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 novel of the same name is mostly set 20 years after a flu pandemic caused the collapse of civilization, occasionally jumping back to the early days of the outbreak. In this new world, people continue with their lives, building new societies and realities.
It’s a striking and moving miniseries onHBO Maxthat provides a rare example of a post-apocalyptic landscape: one that is certainly dangerous, but dangerous in the way of Medieval Europe. There is still humanity here, including the continuation of critical art like Shakespeare, but it’s still a world people are struggling to get used to.
