5 Greatest HBO Shows With Fewer Than 40 Episodes

Image via HBO Published Oct 28, 2026, 6:03 PM EDT Jennie Richardson is a TV Features and Lists Writer for Collider, and a graduate student pursuing an MFA in Fiction Writing. In other words, she really loves stories. Sign in to your Collider account Content Warning: This list contains a brief mention of sexual assault.HBO boasts some of the greatest television shows of all time, from drama shows like The Sopranos and The Wire, to comedy series like Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm. HBO is known for unique and bold shows that take risks and leave viewers deep in thought long after the final episode. Its drama series are intense and emotional, and its comedy series are sharply funny and surprising. HBO has a number of excellent long-running shows, but among its best shows are a handful of shorter-running series with less than 40 episodes. These shows draw viewers in immediately with strong beginnings, and they then tell a complete story in a limited number of episodes, ending in powerful and unforgettable conclusions. These are the greatest HBO series with fewer than 40 episodes. 'Mare of Easttown' (2021) Image via HBO Mare of Easttown is a crime drama miniseries that follows Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet), a detective sergeant in a small Pennsylvania town where a girl went missing a year earlier. After being unable to solve the case, Mare has been consistently doubted and questioned by the people around her, especially because she's currently grappling with a personal tragedy that she's still struggling to come back from. The series kicks off when a teenage girl named Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny) is found murdered. Mare is forced to work with a new partner, Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters) on the case, all while trying to determine if this is linked to her missing person's case from a year ago. HBO has a number of phenomenal miniseries, but Mare of Easttown stands out as one of its very best. In just seven episodes, the series tells a complete story and delivers a compelling central mystery. While Mare of Easttown has a suspenseful and captivating main plot, though, it is more than just a murder mystery series. The show is a deeply emotional and thoughtful exploration of topics like grief, violence against women, and the cost of secrets in a small and tight-knit community. The series' main mystery has multiple brilliant and shocking twists, but most of all, it takes Mare on a devastating and ultimately beautiful journey in its single season. 'Barry' (2018–2023) Image via HBO Barry is a dark comedy thriller series that follows a hitman named Barry Berkman (Bill Hader). While on a job in LA for his handler and old family friend, Fuches (Stephen Root), Barry follows his latest target to an acting class. Barry initially just attends the class and pretends to be an aspiring actor in order to get close to his latest target, Ryan Madison (Tyler Jacob Moore). While there, though, Barry finds that he actually enjoys the acting class. He likes the people that he meets there, and he is suddenly enamored with the idea of becoming an actor. After that first job, Barry couldn't help but keep going back to the acting class. He knows that it's risky in his line of work to keep frequenting the same place, especially one that is all about putting his face out there and getting exposure. Still, though, Barry continues to attend the class, forming bonds with the other people there, including his crush, Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), and his acting teacher, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler). All the while, Barry keeps taking assignments for Fuches, while getting more and more entangled with the Chechen mob. Barry is an absolutely brilliant series that balances a suspenseful main plot with wonderfully outlandish dark comedy and a scathing critique of the entertainment industry. In just 32 episodes, Barry tells an intense, devastating, and simultaneously hilarious story that is excellent from start to finish. 'I May Destroy You' (2020) Image via HBO I May Destroy You is a limited tragicomedy series that follows Arabella Essiedu (Michaela Coel), a social media influencer and novelist who is on deadline for her second book. While struggling with writer's block and in need of a break, Arabella goes out to a club one night for drinks with her friends. That night, Arabella is drugged and sexually assaulted by a stranger, and the 11 episodes that follow detail the aftermath of this attack. At the same time, Arabella still has to find a way to overcome her writer's block and finish her second novel before her deadline. I May Destroy You is unlike any other series out there, and it stands out amongst HBO's very best shows for its phenomenal writing and perfectly-balanced tone. While Arabella's story is at the very core of the series, I May Destroy You also focuses on her closest friends and the complex and messy relationships that she has with them. The series has a sharp and very dark sense of humor that pairs well with its gut-wrenching and deeply raw main story, and it leaves a lasting impact long after its incredible series finale. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Game of Thrones House Do You Belong To? Stark · Lannister · Targaryen · Tyrell Your drink, your weapon, your seat at the table, what you do to somebody who wrongs you. Eight quick calls and we will tell you whose banner you should actually be standing under. Four houses are still in this: the cold one, the rich one, the one with the dragons, and the one that has never needed a sword to get its way. 🐺Stark(Game of Thrones) 🦁Lannister(Game of Thrones) 🐉Targaryen(House of the Dragon) 🌹Tyrell(Game of Thrones) CLAIM YOUR HOUSE → 01 What is your go-to at the feast? Everybody has one, and everybody's says something. ADark ale by the fire, nothing fancy. BWhatever costs the most in the cellar. CWhatever gets poured, drunk far too fast. DOne cup, slowly, while I watch the room. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Pick a weapon off the wall. You get one. Choose quickly. AA greatsword, heavy and honest. BA dagger, plus a second one nobody knows about. CFire, obviously. DNothing sharper than the things I can say. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Where do you end up sitting? The seating plan is the politics. AHigh table, quietly wishing I was outside. BNext to whoever actually matters. CWherever I like, because people move. DA corner seat with a view of everyone. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What do people get wrong about you? Reputation arrives about a week before you do. AThat I am cold, when I am only quiet. BThat I say what I mean the first time. CThat I might be bluffing. DThat I am harmless. NEXT QUESTION → 05 One free evening in King's Landing. Where do you go? Nobody plots every single night. AOut of the city entirely, heading home. BSomewhere expensive, with people who owe me. CWherever it is loud and slightly dangerous. DA long dinner where everybody talks too much. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Somebody wrongs you. What happens next? This is the real personality test in Westeros. AI say it to their face, once. BI wait, because they will need me eventually. CEverybody hears about it before morning. DThey never find out it was me. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Your people are in trouble. What is your first move? No time to think about this one. AI turn up, even when it is a terrible idea. BI pay for the problem to go away. CI go after whoever caused it. DI already called in that favour last week. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Be honest. What do you actually want? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your house. ATo go home, and then to stay there. BTo own the room without sitting at the head of it. CThe crown, with everybody watching. DTo be the one everybody genuinely likes. REVEAL MY HOUSE → The Banner Is Raised Your House Is…Four houses, four completely different theories about how you survive a world like this one. Here is where your banner belongs, what the name would cost you, and what it would buy. House StarkYou belong in the North, where the weather does most of the arguing and nobody is impressed by a title. The Starks are the only great house on this list who genuinely believe that being right matters more than winning, which is exactly why the show spent eight years punishing them for it. Your loyalty runs to people rather than to crowns, and you would rather lose a war honestly than win one by doing something you would have to hide. The Stark tragedy is a simple one, since a family raised to keep its word ended up surrounded by people who treat a promise as an opening bid. You are the one who thinks about the winter while everybody else is still enjoying the summer, and the realm never thanks anybody for that. What saves the Starks in the end is not swords. It is the fact that the children grew up and became four completely different kinds of dangerous. House LannisterYou belong to the house that worked out early on that gold moves faster than armies. Casterly Rock runs on leverage, reputation and the certainty that everybody at the table owes you something, and you are perfectly comfortable with all three. You play a longer game than the people around you, and you would rather own the outcome quietly than be seen winning in public. Family is the thing you would burn the realm for, which is both the best and the very worst quality this house has. Tyrion, Jaime and Cersei are three of the most compelling characters on television precisely because they were raised with everything except the ability to be simple about it. You are not the villain of your own story. You are simply the one who read the rules properly and decided to use them. House TargaryenYou belong to the house that conquered a continent and never quite got over it. Targaryens do not ask for a seat at the table, because in their version of events the table was theirs to begin with, and that certainty is either magnificent or catastrophic depending on the week. You feel things at full volume, and nobody who has ever met a Targaryen has described one as measured. House of the Dragon made the family far more interesting than the original show could, because here the enemy is not some other house. It is the rest of the bloodline. Season 3 landed on HBO in June 2026 and pushed the civil war into the part everybody who read the book has been dreading for years. Your great strength and your great problem are the same thing, which is that you genuinely believe the story was always going to end with you. House TyrellYou belong to Highgarden, where nobody raises their voice and everybody gets exactly what they came for. The Tyrells feed the realm, charm the realm and quietly steer the realm, and they have never once needed to win a battle to get their way. You understand that being liked is a weapon, and you are genuinely better at it than the people who spend their lives trying to be feared. Olenna is the most quietly ruthless character in the entire series, and she does all of it from a chair with a bowl of fruit in front of her. Your house wins by being useful, since a kingdom that cannot eat without you will forgive you almost anything. The risk of being a Tyrell is simple enough. Charm works beautifully on everybody except the one person who has stopped caring what anyone thinks. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 'Succession' (2018–2023) With 39 episodes, Succession is just short enough to be considered one of HBO's shorter series. The phenomenal drama series follows the Roy family. Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is the wildly successful founder and CEO of a media conglomerate called Waystar Royco that he built from nothing. At 80 years old, everyone is expecting Logan to retire and pass the company on to one of his four adult children: Connor (Alan Ruck), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), or Shiv (Sarah Snook). Instead, though, Logan is determined to keep working for as long as he can, while continuing to prioritize the company above all else like he's done for the entirety of his children's lives. Succession has four perfect seasons that blend family drama elements with workplace drama elements, all while having a sharply funny and often dark sense of humor. Each season is an excellent slow burn, quietly building a sense of dread until the drama that's been lingering finally boils over. Succession perfectly fits its story into four compact seasons, making each episode feel absolutely vital all the way up until the very last scene of its breathtaking and gut-wrenching series finale. 'The Leftovers' (2014–2017) Image via HBO Based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perotta, The Leftovers is a post-apocalyptic mystery box drama series that is set three years after a mysterious event where 2% of the world suddenly disappeared without a trace. Police Chief Kevin Garvey (Justin Theroux) is just doing his best to keep things running smoothly in the small town of Mapleton, NY. This is not easy as the three-year anniversary of the Departure approaches, mainly due to a rapidly-growing cult called The Guilty Remnant, whose goal is to force everyone to remember the Departure instead of moving forward. Kevin's wife, Laurie (Amy Brenneman), left their family to join the Guilty Remnant a little while back, and she no longer associates with them or speaks at all. Each of The Leftovers' three seasons is drastically different but equally bold and phenomenal. They're all set close to a different anniversary in the years following the Departure, and they're each set in a different place. Over the course of The Leftovers' 28 episodes, the show explores themes of love, loss, and faith, all while gradually adding in clever and intentionally ambiguous speculative elements. The Leftovers is such a beautiful and devastating series, and it takes viewers on an unforgettable journey from its very first episode to its very last, leaving them forever changed after. The Leftovers Release Date 2014 - 2017-00-00 Showrunner Damon Lindelof Writers Damon Lindelof, Tom Perrotta Seasons 3 Story By Tom Perrotta Streaming Service(s) MAX