10 Best HBO Shows Based on True Stories, Ranked

The definitive spearhead of television’s ascent to becoming one of the most prestigious and popular forms of entertainment in the 21st century, HBO has become iconic in and of itself. Its reputation for small-screen storytelling greatness is anchored in the narrative ambition of its productions, be it the gritty intensity of gangland dramas like The Sopranos or the otherworldly majesty of fantasy epics like the sprawling Game of Thrones saga, but many of the premium network’s greatest tales have been based on true events.

While some of these series may not let the truth get in the way of a good story, all 10 of them are stunning examples of television drama at its most pressing and important. They range from the visceral intensity of true crime to the brutality of the battlefield, the complexity of politics, and even the turmoil of Ancient Rome, and all of them excel at extracting gripping drama from true stories.

10

‘The Staircase’ (2022)

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While its story of a well-publicized true crime may not hold many surprises for those familiar with Michael Peterson’s trial or the immensely popular 2004 docuseries exploring it, The Staircase still finds weight in the strength of its performances and its thematic interest in the modern true crime phenomenon. Colin Firth stars as Peterson, an accomplished author whose life is upended when he is arrested and tried for the murder of his wife, Kathleen Peterson (Toni Collette), after she is found dead in their home.

While the miniseries delivers thrills as both a murder mystery and a legal drama, and contains plenty of well-performed drama as an exploration into the turmoil the Peterson family endured, one of its most intriguing points is its exploration of how documentary filmmakers can shape and control a story. The eight-part biographical crime drama has become an underrated gem of HBO’s catalogue.

9

‘Landscapers’ (2021)

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Another great true crime miniseries, Landscapers finds an added punch by incorporating an element of macabre black comedy into the fold as well as a flourish of expressionistic surrealism. While it can’t be said that all of its ambitions land as desired, it does remain compelling from start to finish due to two outstanding lead performances from David Thewlis and Olivia Colman as they star as Christopher and Susan Edwards, a mild-mannered married couple facing the legal fallout of their murder of Susan’s parents over a decade after they committed the crime.

Its tone is certainly challenging, wafting between enigmatic complexity and morally tricky storytelling, but its outlandish premise works in tandem with Thewlis and Colman’s excellence to make for an undeniably captivating viewing experience. At its best, Landscapers is a hypnotic descent into delusion, a bewildering stranger-than-fiction story of love, lunacy, and murderous conspiracy that boldly plays into the inherent absurdity of the actual events while grounding the drama in the deftness and poignancy of the lead performances.

8

‘Show Me a Hero’ (2015)

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The first of several series on this list to benefit from the creative involvement of David Simon—who most notably collaborated with HBO as the co-creator of The Wire—Show Me a Hero is a piercing though underrated political drama that explores issues of segregation and racism, and the pitfalls of political heroism. Set between 1987 and 1994, it examines the efforts of Nick Wasicsko (Oscar Isaac), the mayor of Yonkers, New York, as his efforts to build low-income housing in the white neighborhoods of his town lead to fierce societal conflict.

While acknowledging the bureaucratic struggle of desegregating public housing, Show Me a Hero still manages to deliver a powerful and richly human drama as it casts its eye over political responsibility, the hardships of marginalized residents, and the nature of activism amid a spiraling civic crisis. Adapted from Lisa Belkin’s nonfiction book, the miniseries holds a timeless urgency in how it handles both the machinations of political progress and the desperation of vulnerable citizens.

7

‘The Corner’ (2000)

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Another underrated gem from David Simon, The Corner marks the writer and showrunner’s first collaboration with HBO and, from the outset, his penchant for humanizing drama and social relevance is plain to see. Based on Simon’s own nonfiction book that he co-wrote with Ed Burns, the limited series chronicles the lives of the McColloughs, a young family living in poverty in West Baltimore, who struggle with issues of addiction and opportunity as America’s war on drugs brings violence and gangland tensions to their neighborhood.

Simon and Burns’s original book was the result of three years’ worth of observations of a single street corner in Baltimore where inhabitants were consulted for their stories. As such, the series wields a sense of realism that is blunt but also heartbreakingly tragic, especially as the people it depicts are treated as flawed, desperate, and struggling human beings rather than as caricatures of addicts and dealers. 26 years on, The Corner remains one of HBO’s most important and underappreciated productions of all time.

6

‘The Pacific’ (2010)

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Brutal, relentless, and investing heavily in the trauma of war as well as the ferocity of combat, The Pacific soars off the back of the might of its production and its intense grounding in the experiences of three real-life soldiers. Instead of focusing on one military unit, it explores the journeys of three soldiers from different battalions to present a holistic illustration of the barbarity of WWII’s Pacific Theater while exploring themes of service, survival, the commodification of a hero, the loss of innocence, and the lingering psychological toll many soldiers face.

Heralded as something of a spiritual sequel to HBO’s 2001 production of Band of Brothers, The Pacific is able to give a visceral display of the stark contrasts between different theaters of the Second World War. It is grim and uncompromising, but in its morbid detail, character-driven depth, and stunning, albeit harrowing production value, The Pacific thrives as one of the best and most powerful war dramas the small screen has ever seen.

5

‘Generation Kill’ (2007)

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Another masterpiece of war drama, Generation Kill is one of the most immersive and intricate depictions of 21st-century warfare audiences have seen. Another HBO series that benefits from the journalistic attention to detail that David Simon brings to all his stories, it is based on Evan Wright’s nonfiction book documenting his time as an embedded reporter with the U.S. Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the first weeks of the Iraq War.

While it does display the intensity of combat, Generation Kill is even more interested in the logistical nightmare of war, with key ideas it examines including the difficulty of managing and acquiring resources, the bureaucratic red tape that hinders soldiers in active battles, and the chain-of-command miscommunications that further complicate already strenuous operations. Still, it finds its emotional core in the bonds between soldiers, realized with witty irreverence and boyish immaturity, and delivers a fascinating, raw, and often bewildering vision of war.

4

‘We Own This City’ (2022)

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The very best of David Simon’s collaborations with HBO to bring true stories to the screen, We Own This City is an astonishing exploration of police corruption and institutionalized inertia realized with gripping realism and excellent performances. Based on Justin Fenton’s book of the same name, it revolves around Sgt. Wayne Jenkins’s (Jon Bernthal) involvement with the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force, a corrupt outfit granted outlandish powers in the name of combatting street crime that routinely abused its authority to profiteer off the drug trade.

Framed as an FBI investigation into the GTTF that took place in the late 2010s, the series uses a rapid-paced non-linear structure that can be difficult to keep up with, but its incisive insights into timely issues of the systemic failures of the police force and the simmering social tension between law enforcement and the public make it a quintessential though underrated triumph of 2020s television. We Own This City certainly has strong convictions, but it still presents a level-headed and mature analysis of its central issue that examines the structural and cultural reasons why police corruption thrives more than simply lingering on the villainy of crooked cops.

3

‘Rome’ (2005–2007)

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Interestingly, Rome is the only series on this list that isn’t a miniseries, though its planned five-season arc had to be cut to just two seasons due to the exceptionally high production costs for each episode. While fans of the series lament what could have been, it still sees HBO present an astonishing descent into the gritty reality of Ancient Rome, with the series exploring the cultural and political shift of the era as the republic collapses and makes way for the Roman Empire.

Brilliantly combining key historical moments and figures with fictional elements—namely the characters of ordinary soldiers and their families experiencing the turmoil of the upheaval—Rome boldly depicts some of the most infamous and seismic chapters of Roman history not only from the perspective of those in power, but from the viewpoint of those who merely lived under the city’s shadow as well. With its keen eye for historical intrigue, raw and authentic characters, and stunning and intricately detailed production design, Rome is a masterpiece of historical drama as well as one of the most enrapturing series television has ever seen.

2

‘Chernobyl’ (2019)

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One of the most renowned and acclaimed HBO series in the past decade, Chernobyl delivers a haunting and visceral deep-dive into the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster of 1986. The five-part miniseries explores the heroics of the many ordinary people who sacrificed their lives in an effort to contain the fallout, while also exposing the self-serving political corruption of the Soviet leaders who tried to keep the severity of the catastrophe secret from the rest of the world.

Every one of its five episodes is a masterclass in atmospheric tension, epic-scale storytelling, and authentic, fact-based period drama. Propelled not only by its unflinching depiction of the many horrors that stemmed from the nuclear reactor meltdown, but by the strength of the performances, the brilliance of the writing, and the mastery of the period piece production value as well, Chernobyl stands as one of the greatest achievements in the history of television entertainment and a harrowing drama that illustrates both the heroism of humanity and the dangers of political manipulation and control.

1

‘Band of Brothers’ (2001)

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Regarded by many as the greatest production in television history, let alone the finest achievement of HBO’s forays into depicting true stories, Band of Brothers is a masterclass in war drama that depicts the horrors of the battlefield while emphasizing the bonds that develop between soldiers. The 10-part miniseries follows the troops of Easy Company in their campaign throughout the European Theater of WWII, opening with their training regime and their airdrop into Normandy on the eve of D-Day, and staying with them through to the end of the war.

The realism of Band of Brothers consumes the audience, not only because of the visceral realization of the many battlegrounds the soldiers fought on, but also because each episode features interviews with the actual soldiers whose service is being dramatized. The end result is one of the most heart-wrenching, immersive, and brilliant portrayals of war ever put to screen.