10 Miniseries You Should Watch on HBO GO

HBO viewers would have to wait until 2024 before the next “House of the Dragon” episode, more than a month before the premiere of “The Last of Us,” and Bathala knows how many weeks before the next episode of “Succession.”

While waiting, you might wanna watch other shows on your HBO GO app that are worthy of your attention either because they tackle relevant issues today or they’re just plainly weird. I’ve listed below, in no particular order, limited series or miniseries that don’t require you to invest too much of your time. Some of the shows in this list have multiple seasons. I have included them anyway because each season were written to stand alone. Emmy rules state that a limited series should tell a complete story and that no main characters are retained in the subsequent seasons. Shows like the “The White Lotus” and “True Detective” are just two prime examples of this.

Let’s start the list with this two then.

1. The White Lotus

Comedy, Drama

With 20 wins in the 74th Emmy Awards last year, it would have been dumb for HBO not to order a second season of “The White Lotus” from multi-awarded writer-director Mike White. This show tells of the lives of the guests and staff at a “paradise” resort that couldn’t seem to offer anything other than snorkelling to its guests. Jennifer Coolidge’s performance as the weird guest Tany McQuoid who carries around her mother’s ashes is the highlight of the show for me, but all of the characters in this show are so well-written especially when they’re dealing with their own issues, and they have a lot.

There’s the entitled new husband who thinks his journalist wife is only doing her job for the money. Meanwhile, this journalist wife wants to change the world with her work but she only repurposes articles from bigger outlets. Then there’s this family composed of the controlling mother who’s a well-known tech entrepreneur, the father paranoid about the size of his testicles, the son who can’t let go of his gadgets, the woke daughter who cares about the rest of the world but indifferent towards her younger brother, and then her friend who looks like she’s a bad influence as they both spend time consuming drugs and judging people. The hotel manager, Armond, is a recovered addict, but all the stress at work causes him to relapse.

The second season isn’t even over yet, but the show has been renewed for a third season already. Do not worry, if you don’t want to invest a lot of time for this show, you don’t need to watch past season 1. Just know that Aubrey Plaza is in the follow up season and the critics seem to love it more than the first season. So you will? Good.

2. True Detective (Seasons 1 and 3)

Crime, drama

Just like “The White Lotus,” this show was really only meant to be one season, but a less popular follow up was made, followed by a third season that renewed viewers’ trust on the “True Detective” brand. The fourth season has started production last month.

In the first season, Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey star side by side as Marty and Rust, partner homicide detectives who are investigating the odd murder of a young prostitute. Most episodes switch timeline back and forth telling their investigations, and the investigations of two other detectives almost two decades later of a murder with a modus operandi similar to the earlier murders. I honestly haven’t seen the second season, but third season is almost as good as the first one. It stars Mahershala Ali and this time, the show explores three timelines.

3. Over the Garden Wall

Cartoon, Comedy, Adventure, Mystery

If you didn’t expect a cartoon show in this list, chillax a little bit. Just hear me out, okay? I’m a ’90s kid who grew up watching Cartoon Network. I probably had too much Cartoon Network. There are old Cartoon Network shows on HBO GO, too, but I’ll go ahead and say this is the best you’ll get if you’re looking for a miniseries. (“Rick and Morty” and “Adventure Time” don’t count because they’re not miniseries). The 10 short episodes are weird and funny because of Greg, who is voiced by Collin Dean, the voice of Tifanny in “Adventure Time.” Greg wears a tea kettle on his head for a reason I shouldn’t discuss here because… let’s keep this spoiler-free. Greg likes sharing Rock Facts and thinking of a name for his pet frog. Greg has a lot of energy and is an optimist, but not the annoying kind. Elijah Wood voices Greg’s older half-brother Wirt, a pessimistic kid who likes poetry. The show starts with the two getting lost in the forest. They then befriend a talking bluebird named Beatrice.

“Over the Garden Wall” takes a lot of inspiration from children’s tales from 1800s and old cartoons. The first episode borrows its title from a ’30s Disney movie, episode 9 borrows a title to an old children’s tale, an episode features anthropomorphic animals in reference to Beatrix Potter’s books, and there’s also a reference to a ’30s Betty Boop film.

The show also won best animated program at the Emmys.

4. Watchmen

Anti-superhero

It is rare for a limited series to lead the list of most number of Emmy wins in 2020 with 26, but “Watchmen” did that, beating even “Succession.” The show, obviously fictional, incorporates real-life events, and even dramatized the racial massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1920s, an event forgotten by many in America even by the Black community. “Watchmen” is a non-canon sequel to the comics of the same title written by Alan Moore (one of my all-time favorites) who also brought us legendary comics “V for Vendetta,” and “The Killing Joke,” and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” While still asking the question “Who watches the watchmen,” a question put forth by the original source, the show also explores racism and generational trauma, the concept that trauma is passed on to the next generation. Since the events in the show are supposed to be a follow up to the events in the original source, it helps that you have read the comics or at least seen the 2009 film adaptation directed Zack Snyder. But you’ll still enjoy the show without knowing anything about either of the sources.

In this show, law enforcers wear costumes and, to keep themselves and their families safe, hide their identities by wearing masks. The police are investigating a series of racial crimes committed due to the misreading of the Rorschach journal from the comics.

5. The Night Of

Crime, legal, drama

“The Night Of” tells the story of Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed), who was accused of murdering a girl after spending a night with her. All evidence point to the awkward Naz and the competent detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp) is working on his case, but he gets help from a lawyer John Stone (John Turturro). The show explores how the crooked justice system in the United States ruins the lives of promising kids like Naz. The show is slow, just the way I like it. Richard Price, who has written episodes for other memorable HBO shows wrote all the episodes. “All the King’s Men” writer and director Steven Zaillan co-wrote half of the episodes. Ahmed and Turturro deliver performances that earned them both nominations. Ahmed won in the Emmys for his lead role.

6. Olive Kitteridge

Drama

The show runs for only four episodes, so you can finish it in one afternoon, but only if you can handle its heavy themes on stoic marriage and mental health. “Olive Kitteridge” is based on the Elizabeth Strout novel of the same title. Frances McDormand stars as the titular character while Richard Jenkins plays her husband Henry. The show won Outstanding Limited Series in the Emmys in 2015.

7. Station Eleven

Post-apocalypse, drama

If you’re familiar with “The Leftovers,” this show will remind you of that show. “Station Eleven,” a show about a pandemic almost ending all humanity, actually started filming before the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores relationships, loss, grief, and how a sense of community can help ease the struggle caused by something that’s out of your control. Mackenzie Davis and Matilda Lawler star as older and younger Kirsten Raymonde, respectively. It’s Himesh Patel, though, and his performance as Jeevan Chaudhary who you should focus all your attention to while watching this show. You will download the soundtrack from this show because you should.

8. Sharp Objects

Drama, Psychological Thriller

“Sharp Objects” is based on the Gillian Flynn novel of the same title about the Camille Preaker, a journalist struggling with mental illness. Preaker returns to her hometown Wind Gap to write about recent crimes there involving young women. Her return brings back memories of her own childhood and her relationship with her overbearing mother. Do not be turned off by the slow pace of the show. I know most people don’t have the patience for slow burn these days. But the pace does pick up mid-series. Amy Adams was nominated in the Emmys for her lead role as Camille Preaker, while Patricia Clarkson was nominated for her supporting role as Preaker’s mother Adora Crellin.

9. Chernobyl

History, Drama

“Chernobyl” features the suspense, action, and facts surrounding the 1986 nuclear accident. Deep down, the message this show wants to communicate is that a community can only rise above a tragedy if its members are well-informed. Based on the experience of the chemist Valery Legasov (played by the magnificent Jared Harris), through “Chernobyl” we see how citizens were evacuated from Pripyat after the nuclear disaster. One of “Chernobyl’s” showrunners, Craig Mazin, is also involved in the upcoming small screen adaptation of the beloved post-apocalypse game “The Last of Us.”

The show earned numerous nominations in the Emmys and even won as best limited series. Mazin won an award for his writing in the show, while Johan Renck, another showrunner who was also supposed to be involved in “The Last of Us,” won for directing.

10. The Outsider

Supernatural, Crime

If you miss Paddy Considine (King Viserys in “House of the Dragon”), he appears in this show, too, as a bouncer in a strip club where a significant event in the show happens. But the show really stars Australian actor Ben Mendelson as Ralph Anderson, an alcoholic detective investigating the gruesome murder of a young kid in Cherokee City in Georgia. Some time ago, Anderson’s own son died of cancer, but before he died, he was coached in baseball by Terry Maitland (played by Jason Bateman), who is now the suspect in this case. The pieces of evidence against Maitland are strong—he was shown on camera and there are multiple eyewitness accounts of him. The only problem is that during the time of the murder, Maitland was also in a conference out of town and there’s evidence for that, too.

Seven out of 10 episodes in “The Outsider” were written by Richard Price, the same writer for “The Night Of.” This, in my opinion, is the best Stephen King adaptation so far and some of the reasons were the performances from Mendelson, Bateman, and Cynthia Erivo, who plays the eccentric private detective Holly Gibney.

Other limited series you should watch:
The Pacific
Mare of Easttown
Irma Vep
Band of Brothers
From the Earth to the Moon