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Johannesburg - The worldwide internet TV wars are escalating as Netflix ramps up its global expansion. Big Red's trump cards are definitely its original shows, like House of Cards and Daredevil, but Netflix has no HBO content. And HBO shows are awesome.
Here are 11 heavy-hitting HBO series that you can only find on ShowMax.
1. Game of Thrones
The newly released trailer for season 6 was viewed more than 30 million times in 24 hours. It almost broke the internet as it was seen more times than Kim Kardashian’s nude Twitter post. Okay not really. But this is big. Bigger than Kim’s posterior.
There’s no need for a review here. This is the biggest show in the world right now and you can binge-watch all 5 seasons on ShowMax before the new one drops on 24 April 2016.
2. Boardwalk Empire
When alcohol was outlawed, outlaws became kings. An epic HBO drama set at the dawn of Prohibition in Atlantic City is a place where powerful politicians and gangsters collude to control the violent moonshine market. Produced by Martin Scorsese, Boardwalk Empire has been nominated for 57 Primetime Emmy Awards.
3. True Blood
In the not-too-distant future, vampires have come out of the coffin. Thanks to the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood, these oft-maligned creatures of the night no longer need a human fix – and as a result can walk freely, if not yet comfortably, among their living counterparts. Can a young Louisiana waitress buck conventional wisdom to forge a love match with a 173-year-old vampire?
4. Banshee
A wickedly funny series about a recently paroled master thief who assumes the identity of the Sheriff of Banshee, Pennsylvania. While playing the role of top cop, he reconnects with an old flame and partner-in-crime while avoiding the gangsters they both betrayed years earlier.
5. The Knick
Nudity, surgery and medieval medical techniques. Modern medicine had to start somewhere. Go back to the turn of the 20th century in this dark drama featuring the twisted staff of New York's Knickerbocker Hospital.
6. Girls
A witty half-hour series about a group of 20-something women in New York and their adventures as they adjust to life after college. Two years out of liberal arts school, Hannah (Lena Dunham) believes she has the talent to be a successful writer, and though she has yet to complete her memoir (she has to live it first), her parents cut her off financially without warning. Further complicating things for Hannah is her unrequited passion for eccentric actor Adam.
7. Entourage
Your best friend's star is rising in Hollywood and there's only one thing to do: join his entourage. Meet Eric, Turtle and Johnny Drama: three guys from Queens dedicated to helping their film star buddy Vincent Chase navigate the absurdities of modern-day Hollywood – where sex, parties and super-agents rule the town.
8. The Sopranos
Meet Tony Soprano: your average, middle-aged businessman. Tony's got a dutiful wife. A not-so-dutiful daughter. A son named Anthony Jr. A pill of a mother. A hot-headed uncle. A not-too-secret mistress. And a shrink to whom he tells all his secrets, except the one she already knows: Tony's a mob boss.
9. True Detective
True Detective is a sophisticated, riveting adult drama about Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson) and “Rust” Cohle (Matthew McConaughey), two detectives and former partners who worked in Louisiana’s Criminal Investigation Division in the mid-1990s. In 2012, the two are interviewed separately by investigators about their most notorious case: the macabre 1995 murder of a prostitute by a possible serial killer with disturbing occult leanings.
10. Strike Back
A high-octane, globe-spanning thriller with storylines ripped from today's headlines, Strike Back is a one-hour drama series that focuses on two members of a top-secret anti-terrorist organisation known as Section 20: Michael Stonebridge, a British sergeant in the ultra secret Section 20 anti-terrorist team, and Damian Scott, a Delta Forces operative who was disgraced and discharged on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq.
11. The Wire
On the drug-infested streets of West Baltimore, there are good guys and there are bad guys. Sometimes you need more than a badge to tell them apart. The Wire is one of the most compelling cop dramas you’ll ever watch.
Go to www.ShowMax.com to sign up for your seven-day free trial and start watching right now!
*Channel24 is part of Media24, a subsidiary of Naspers.
