Season 1 of a TV show is always the easiest. The audience meets the characters, their world, and the stakes they face. Every season after that, though, has to justify why the story deserves to continue. A great show needs to let its premise evolve and eventually recognize when it’s time to say goodbye.
That’s because even the most brilliant of shows can start feeling like lesser versions of themselves if they overstay their welcome. The acclaimed HBO shows on this list never had that problem, though, because they told meaningful, complete stories in four unforgettable seasons.
5
‘The Righteous Gemstones’ (2019–2025)
Adam Devine, Danny McBride, and Edi Patterson in The Righteous Gemstones finale.Image via HBO
Danny McBride’s The Righteous Gemstones is a wild ride. The hilarious HBO comedy series follows the wealthy televangelist Gemstone family patriarch, Eli (John Goodman), and his three deeply dysfunctional children, Jesse (Danny McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson), and Kelvin (Adam Devine). The funny thing is that all of them preach humility while living on enormous estates, flying private jets, fighting over church power, and escalating family arguments into blackmail, kidnappings, and worse. On paper, they are almost too ridiculous to care about, but the show doesn’t treat it all as a simple joke.
Despite their wealth, the Gemstones are still selfish and capable of terrible decisions, which grounds all the chaos surrounding them in something that feels relatable. The show is definitely hilarious to the point of vulgarity at times, but it also has an emotional foundation that carries a lot of weight. Eventually, even four seasons of pure chaos never completely cures the Gemstones of being the Gemstones, but even then, the show does a great job of making the audience care about them.
4
‘Barry’ (2018–2023)
Barry Berkman and Gene Cousineau standing onstage together in Barry.Image via HBO
Barry could have easily survived four seasons on its original premise alone, but the show’s commitment to reinventing itself is remarkable. The series follows Bill Hader as Barry Berkman, a depressed former Marine who starts working as a contract killer under the guidance of family friend Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root). While pursuing a target in Los Angeles, Barry accidentally wanders into an acting class run by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) and becomes fascinated by the possibility of becoming somebody else. There, he meets aspiring actress Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), finds a community that knows nothing about his real life, and decides that maybe Barry the hitman can disappear for Barry the actor to take his place.
The problem is that this shift isn’t remotely as easy as it sounds. Barry genuinely wants to change, but almost every attempt at that requires him to hide the terrible things he somehow keeps doing, even if it is to protect this new version of himself. Barry hangs somewhere between an absurd comedy and a genuinely dark drama without ever feeling abrupt. By the fourth season, the show is definitely much grittier, but that transition is not out of place at all. Barry spends its entirety exploring the same question but from completely different angles, and builds up to a truly fitting ending note.
3
‘My Brilliant Friend’ (2018–2024)
Lila and Lenu in Season 4 of ‘My Brilliant Friend’Image via HBO
My Brilliant Friend captures an entire lifetime in just four seasons, without ever rushing through anything. The series, based on Elena Ferrante’s famous Neapolitan Novels, begins in 1950s Naples with Elena “Lenù” Greco (Elisa Del Genio, Margherita Mazzucco, Alba Rohrwacher) and Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo (Ludovica Nasti, Gaia Girace, Irene Maiorino) as children growing up in a poor, violent neighborhood. Both are exceptionally intelligent, but their lives quickly move in different directions. Elena is allowed to continue her education and eventually becomes a successful writer, while Lila is pulled out of school and pushed toward work, marriage, and motherhood. However, neither ever completely escapes the neighborhood nor gives up on their complex friendship. Even when they are living completely separate lives, the universe keeps bringing them back together.
The fact that the audience gets to see these two friends visibly age also gives HBO’s My Brilliant Friend a lived-in quality that most other shows don’t have. They go from girls who once competed over schoolwork to women carrying decades of choices, disappointments, jealousy, love, and history with each other. Not many shows manage to feel so intimate yet so grand at the same time.
Collider Exclusive · Universe Personality Quiz Which Iconic Universe Do You Belong in the Most? Star Wars · Lord of the Rings · Harry Potter · Game of Thrones · Star Trek
Five legendary universes. Five completely different visions of what the world could be — or already was. One of them is the world your instincts, your values, and your particular way of existing were built for. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🚀Star Wars
💍Lord of the Rings
🧙Harry Potter
👑Game of Thrones
🖖Star Trek
01
What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning? Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.
02
Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit? The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.
03
How do you prefer your conflicts resolved? The shape of a world’s conflicts tells you everything about its soul.
04
Who do you want beside you when things get difficult? Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.
05
What is your relationship with power? How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.
06
How does your universe treat good and evil? A world’s moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.
07
What role would you naturally fall into? Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?
08
What do you ultimately believe about the future? The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.
Your Universe Has Been Chosen You Belong In…
Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.
You are drawn to the moral clarity of a universe where hope itself is a form of resistance.
You’d find your people in the Rebellion — a ragtag coalition of true believers held together by conviction more than resources.
Star Wars is fundamentally a story about ordinary people choosing to matter in an extraordinary conflict — and that is exactly your kind of story.
The Force may or may not be with you. But the will to use it for something larger than yourself certainly is.
Middle-earth
Lord of the Rings
You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.
Middle-earth is a world of ancient wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough small acts of courage accumulate.
You would thrive here because you value the fellowship more than the glory — the road more than the arrival.
Tolkien’s universe rewards patience, loyalty, and the willingness to carry something heavy across a very long distance.
Those are not burdens to you. They are simply how you move through the world.
The Wizarding World
Harry Potter
You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.
The Wizarding World is a place of wonder hidden in plain sight, where learning is transformative and the bonds you form at school follow you into every battle.
You would flourish here because you take both the magic and the friendships seriously — and you understand that one without the other is incomplete.
Harry Potter’s universe ultimately rewards those who choose to stand for something even when standing is terrifying.
That choice — made quietly, without guarantee — is something you understand completely.
Westeros · The Known World
Game of Thrones
You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.
Westeros is a world that rewards intelligence, adaptability, and the willingness to understand that every alliance is also a negotiation.
You would survive here — possibly thrive here — because you don’t confuse the world as it is with the world as you’d like it to be.
Game of Thrones is a story about what happens when the idealists and the realists collide. You are sharp enough to know which one lasts longer.
Winter always comes. You are already prepared.
The United Federation of Planets
Star Trek
You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.
Star Trek is a universe where the questions matter as much as the answers, and where encountering something utterly alien is cause for wonder rather than fear.
You would belong here because you are fundamentally optimistic about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being honest about how hard that achievement is.
The Federation is the universe’s most ambitious thought experiment: what if we actually got better?
You don’t just hope that’s possible. You think it’s the only thing worth working toward.
2
‘Westworld’ (2016–2022)
Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores and James Marsden as Teddy standing by their horses in Westworld Season 1 Episode 1Image via HBO
Westworld was never meant to be a simple show to follow. The series, created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, begins inside an enormous Wild West theme park populated by incredibly lifelike androids known as hosts. Wealthy guests can enter the park and do practically anything they want to them without consequences because every host is programmed to forget what happened and begin the same narrative again. Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) is the rancher’s daughter who repeatedly wakes up believing she is beginning another ordinary day, while Maeve Millay (Thandiwe Newton) runs the local saloon.
Slowly, both begin remembering pieces of lives they were never supposed to know they had lived, and that shifts everything. From there, Westworld keeps expanding its central conflict, and every season adds to the lore. The show was actually meant to receive another season, but was canceled by HBO in November 2022. However, the writers used the situation as an opportunity to ensure that its four-season run felt complete. The show began as a story about robots discovering some kind of consciousness, and ended on an unexpected and ambitious note.
1
‘Succession’ (2018–2023)
Brian Cox as Logan Roy in SuccessionImage via HBO
Succession might look like it’s about a corporate battle over a massive media empire, but it’s actually one of television’s most vicious family dramas at heart. The series follows Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the aging founder of Waystar Royco, and his four children, Connor (Alan Ruck), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Shiv (Sarah Snook), as they circle the question of who will eventually take control of the company.
The only problem is that Logan refuses to step aside, which leads to the siblings spending four seasons forming alliances, breaking them, betraying one another, and deluding themselves into believing that they are the rightful heir to the throne. Succession is extremely addictive in how it merges this relentless corporate struggle with the Roys’ extremely messed-up personal dynamics. Any time the siblings appear to be capable of working together, the possibility of one of them becoming CEO of Waystar reopens all old wounds. Succession will forever be remembered for its brutal yet inevitable ending that arrived at the perfect time. For a show about horrible people doing horrible things, this drama is definitely going down in history as an HBO classic.
Succession
Release Date
2018 – 2023-00-00
Network
HBO
Showrunner
Jesse Armstrong
Directors
Andrij Parekh, Lorene Scafaria, Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman, Adam Arkin, Kevin Bray, Becky Martin, Adam McKay, Matt Shakman, Miguel Arteta, S.J. Clarkson
