5 Mediocre HBO Shows That Should Have Been Canceled Sooner

Let's be honest: not every single HBO show is an outright winner. The premium network may "not be TV," according to its original tagline, but it's also not entirely perfect. For every excellent show like "The Sopranos," "The Wire," "Succession," or "Game of Thrones," there's at least one dud kicking around on HBO Max that probably didn't deserve much more than a single season.

HBO has won well over 100 Emmys throughout its run thanks to its slate of (mostly) genuinely great television, and again, I need to be clear: a lot of HBO shows are genuinely incredible. (Even "Sex and the City," which has its ups and downs, helped pave the way for shows like "Girls" and even "Broad City," even if it did spawn a truly infuriating reboot sequel that's only worth a hate-watch.) Across a vast number of shows and different genres, from comedies to dramas to shows that fall into the liminal place between those two, there are a handful that just aren't really worth your time. Still, these shows might not be the best that HBO has to offer, but it also doesn't mean that they're "bad," per se; it just means they're mediocre as hell. Middling. Absolutely average, if you will. Without further ado, here are some genuinely fine-to-bad shows HBO should have canceled sooner.

Showrunner Aaron Sorkin's absolute worst impulses are on display in "The Newsroom," but thanks to the undeniably talented cast he assembled, it all shakes out into a pretty middle-of-the-road show that definitely didn't deserve three full seasons. Jeff Daniels stars as Will McAvoy, the lead anchor for the absurdly named Atlantis Cable News — or ACN — who constantly has to be reined in by his staff, including his executive producer MacKenzie "Mac" Morgan McHale (Emily Mortimer, saddled with an underwritten role and a truly terrible character name), financial expert Sloan Sabbith (Olivia Munn), producers Maggie Jordan, Jim Harper, and Don Keefer (Alison Pill, John Gallagher Jr., and Thomas Sadoski), and the network's president Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston). 

Sorkin sort of tried to do "The West Wing" about cable news with this show, which is why I said all of his most irritating quirks and tics are present here. It's endless walking-and-talking, people being smug about the importance of their jobs (especially Will, who is absolutely insufferable even in his best moments), and big musical crescendos. (Memorably, Coldplay's power ballad "Fix You" plays over an episode that, because the show covers real-life events way after the fact, focuses on the shooting of U.S. House Representative Gabby Giffords. Come on!) "The Newsroom" is saved from outright failure because the actors are, and I say this earnestly, very good. Still, this should have been stopped after season 1, because that Coldplay thing happened in the fourth-ever episode. (Also, seriously, who signed off on the name MacKenzie "Mac" Morgan McHale?!)

Incredibly, "Ballers" — the sports drama helmed by Stephen Levinson that stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson before he became one of the biggest movie stars on the planet — ran for four years and five seasons, which is astounding considering that people probably forgot it was even airing during that time. Johnson stars as Spencer Strasmore, a former NFL star who retires earlier than planned after an injury and ends up working as a financial advisor for players who are still in the game, and he's flanked by Rob Corddry's Joe Krutel, another financial advisor who helps him figure out the ropes, and young football stars like Ricky Jerret (John David Washington). The show also features a ton of cameos from real athletes — including DeSean Jackson, Stephen Curry, Odell Beckham Jr., and Tony Hawk — making it sort of like the "Entourage" of sports shows. (More on that later, actually.)

"Ballers" is ... fine. It's fine! It's completely in the middle of HBO's crowded pack, making it the perfect fit for this list. Unlike some of its other comedies, "Ballers" never really entered the cultural zeitgeist in a real way, unless you could the fact that Massachusetts senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren wouldn't stop talking about the show in interviews (to the point where the show referenced her in return). Unfortunately, I'm here to make the call that "Ballers" should have been cut from the draft long before its fifth and final season.

It's actually insane that "Divorce," a series created by literal genius Sharon Horgan that stars Sarah Jessica Parker in her first lead role since "Sex and the City," wasn't a bigger hit — or, for that matter, better. Horgan, who created absolutely incredible shows like "Catastrophe" and "Bad Sisters," helmed this series — which ran for three seasons from 2016 to 2019 — that focuses on Frances and Robert Dufresne, a middle-aged couple in the middle of a divorce, played by Parker and Thomas Haden Church. The show's recurring and supporting cast included comedy powerhouses like Molly Shannon, Jemaine Clement, Dean Winters, and Becki Newton as well as outright legends like Tracy Letts and Talia Balsam, but like some of the other entries on this list, "Divorce" simply never got any major attention.

That's probably because, if I'm being honest, "Divorce" was unexpectedly dull. Sure, it was an insightful and incisive look at what happens when a marriage deteriorates after decades, but it's also a pretty blatant example of a show that focuses on "rich people problems," and Horgan, who's usually a master at building fascinating characters, simply fell short with Frances, Robert, and their friends. "Divorce" is okay, but it didn't need three seasons.

With all due respect to Pete Holmes — who is very, very funny — "Crashing" should have sputtered out much, much sooner than it did. Not to be confused with Phoebe Waller-Bridge's British comedy of the same name, Holmes' "Crashing" ran for three seasons between 2017 and 2019 and stars the comedian and actor as ... himself, but lightly fictionalized. As "Pete," a homegrown Midwestern guy who originally planned to become a youth pastor and now wants to try and make it as a stand-up comedian — and has to move out of his house after he catches his wife Jessica (Lauren Lapkus) in flagrante with another man — Holmes crashes on the couches of a bunch of famous comedians who also play themselves, including Artie Lange, Sarah Silverman, and Bill Burr.

Some of the comedians featured on "Crashing" haven't stayed successful (T.J. Miller, for example), and beyond that, the show largely treads water after its first season. Maybe "Crashing" should have been a miniseries instead, but the point is that it probably didn't require three seasons to tell a relatively simple and just "okay" story.

Everyone loves to dunk on "Entourage" and say it's "bad." I'm here to disagree. "Entourage" isn't bad, per se; it's definitively mediocre, because it just uses one plotline over and over again and hopes its audience doesn't notice. The plotline goes like this, multiple times: Vincent "Vinny" Chase (Adrian Grenier) books a huge movie role and gets rich, only to lose all of his money on another project or an indie film of some kind, so he has to take another huge movie role to rise through the ranks again. Also, his brother Johnny "Drama" Chase (Kevin Dillon) can't get a girl or book an acting role, his manager and best friend Eric "E" Murphy argues with his unrealistically beautiful girlfriend and acts like a wet blanket, and his old friend Turtle's (Jerry Ferrara) real name is Sal. No, really. That's it.

Yes, the show is deeply sexist. Yes, Jeremy Piven's super agent Ari Gold says some of the most odious things anyone's ever heard, none of which would or should fly in any sort of civilized society. Still, "Entourage" is firmly middling. It's remarkable in that it's become a punchline, but otherwise, it's a largely forgettable series. The movie, though? No, that sucks. The "Entourage" movie is actively bad. Avoid that at all costs.

All of these shows, should you choose to watch them, are streaming on HBO Max now.