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From smash-hit classics like The Wire and The Sopranos to contemporary fan favourites including Ballers, Big Little Lies and Insecure, HBO is the undisputed home of many of the world’s best series.
What's their secret? What sets the studio apart in a media landscape that provides thousands of TV series to stream on demand at any given time?
Here are a few factors that contribute to HBO’s reputation as a producer of excellent content. As Rolling Stones writes, one of the things that HBO has going for it is the sense of “I don’t know about this new show, but HBO has vetted it, so I’ll give it a try.”
1. Curation, not volume
On a panel titled "The Best of HBO" at a conference in Israel in March this year, HBO programming boss Casey Bloys said of rival Netflix, "They're in the volume business, we're in the curation business".
And that really gets to the heart of the difference between HBO series and the slews of new Originals that streaming services like Netflix are producing. Netflix has plans to release 700 original series and films in 2018, whereas HBO usually has around 15 new series on the go at once (of course, part of this is because HBO doesn't have the luxury of Netflix's unrivalled spending on new shows).
It's only natural that focusing on a smaller number of shows is likely to result in higher quality programmes. At the same conference, Bloys said that the reason Game of Thrones became the phenomenon it is, is because its curators only had one series to focus on, instead of trying to juggle multiple projects at once.
Francesca Orsi, head of drama series at HBO, went on to suggest that the sheer number of new shows coming from streaming services is "diluting" the quality of TV.
Though, of course, that's not how everyone feels about the streaming service's "more is more" attitude. As Rolling Stones says, having so many new shows in the TV landscape has led to more and more new, fresh voices we'd never hear from otherwise.
Among the hundreds of series produced by Netflix, Amazon and other streaming services, there are a few truly fantastic series. This was evident at the 2018 Emmy Awards, which saw Netflix and HBO both take home 23 awards. The challenge is sifting through hundreds of duds to find those gems.
But Orsi also said that some of the new creators they're working with refused to go to an Amazon or a Netflix because they wanted the focused attention that HBO could give them.
2. Unique, not familiar
Does it feel to you like you've seen a few Netflix originals before? Ben Travers, writing for IndieWire, says that's because you have. Not in exactly the same form, of course, but part of the streaming service's success, says Travers, is because they create originals by algorithm, relying on a formula that they know will appeal to their subscribers, because they know exactly what they're watching and what they love. "Netflix is building series off algorithms; it knows what viewers are watching and it’s catering to those pre-established tendencies," he says.
HBO, on the other hand, is spending time and money creating shows that are different, not as easily digestible or as predictable. He uses the supernatural family drama Here and Now as an example. "It's not going to put you to sleep," writes Travers, and it's series like this that remind viewers to step out of their comfort zone every now and then.
3. It was the original
We're not talking about "original series", here - we're talking about HBO as the first studio that looked at creating original TV shows instead of putting all their eggs in the movies basket.
Former HBO employee James Altucher writes that, right from the very beginning, HBO invested in good relationships, rather than throwing money at the "problem" of creating new TV series.
"HBO was a breeding ground of the most successful executives in the industry and basically created quality original programming across all of cable. HBO did this by not just focusing on good shows but bringing in and training and mentoring great talent. Note the many actors that appear on multiple HBO shows (Steve Buscemi is a great example)," he writes.
And because, unlike other networks, they did not have to cater to advertisers (HBO has always run on subscriptions, even before the era of internet TV), they could take chances with riskier series that might not have attracted a lot of ad revenue, but which were helmed by big names and were seen as edgier and less predictable than other, "safer" shows.
A good example of this was HBO's Vinyl, executive produced by Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese. The cast included Bobby Cannavale, James Jagger, Ray Romano and Olivia Wilde. It was a big-budget period drama that Jagger and Scorsese had been trying to get off the ground for 20 years. And it tanked.
“Vinyl didn’t launch in the way we were hoping it would; it’s disappointing, but it happens,” HBO’s outgoing head of programming Michael Lombardo told Deadline when the network announced that the second season was cancelled. And that's one of the things that sets HBO apart - it's a network willing to take a risk.
But, more often than not, HBO shows become smash hits, huge cultural moments for TV viewers around the world. And as the pressure from the new players increases, their commitment to quality and taking big risks will become increasingly important.
Want to watch HBO in South Africa?
Showmax is the only streaming service that has HBO shows, including series that haven’t aired anywhere else in the country including Succession, The Deuce, Room 104 and brand-new Camping starring Jennifer Garner and David Tennant.
Full box sets on the platform include Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Girls, Sex and the City, The Wire and True Blood.
Other highly rated HBO series include Ballers, Big Little Lies, The Night of, Westworld, Insecure and Silicon Valley.
Check out all the series on Showmax here
WATCH all the new series on Showmax this month:
