The Best Political Movies and TV Shows on HBO

What it's about: Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros. Friction between the houses leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the farthest north. Amidst the war, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night's Watch, is all that stands between the realms of men and icy horrors beyond.

Where to Watch: 74 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 74 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

Where to Watch: 60 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 60 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: When Ripley's lifepod is found by a salvage crew over 50 years later, she finds that terra-formers are on the very planet they found the alien species. When the company sends a family of colonists out to investigate her story—all contact is lost with the planet and colonists. They enlist Ripley and the colonial marines to return and search for answers.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: The tale of three mothers of first graders whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.

Where to Watch: 14 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 14 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition is a place where the rules don't apply. And the man who runs things -- legally and otherwise -- is the town's treasurer, Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, who is equal parts politician and gangster.

Where to Watch: 56 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 56 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: After a night of partying with a female stranger, a man wakes up to find her stabbed to death and is charged with her murder.

Where to Watch: 8 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 8 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A down-to-earth account of the lives of both illustrious and ordinary Romans set in the last days of the Roman Republic.

Where to Watch: 22 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 22 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: In post-Sept. 11 Los Angeles, tensions erupt when the lives of a Brentwood housewife, her district attorney husband, a Persian shopkeeper, two cops, a pair of carjackers and a Korean couple converge during a 36-hour period.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The story of the early days of Deadwood, South Dakota; woven around actual historic events with most of the main characters based on real people. Deadwood starts as a gold mining camp and gradually turns from a lawless wild-west community into an organized wild-west civilized town. The story focuses on the real-life characters Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen.

Where to Watch: 36 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 36 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A half-hour satirical look at the week in news, politics and current events.

Where to Watch: 46 episodes (21%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 214 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (Google Play, Prime Video & 2 others).

What it's about: Young Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan decides it's time for an adventure after he finishes his formal education, so he decides to try his luck in Uganda, and arrives during the downfall of President Obote. General Idi Amin comes to power and asks Garrigan to become his personal doctor.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A look into American politics, revolving around former Senator Selina Meyer who finds being Vice President of the United States is nothing like she expected and everything everyone ever warned her about.

Where to Watch: 65 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 65 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A behind-the-scenes look at the people who make a nightly cable-news program. Focusing on a network anchor, his new executive producer, the newsroom staff and their boss, the series tracks their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles-not to mention their own personal entanglements.

Where to Watch: 25 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 25 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A hotshot Washington criminal lawyer becomes the target of a rogue security executive videotaped in the act of murdering a congressman when the incriminating tape is surreptitiously slipped into his shopping bag by the videographer, who is fleeing the executive's assassins.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (Google Play, Microsoft & 2 others).

What it's about: A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: Loving but irresponsible dad Daniel Hillard, estranged from his exasperated spouse, is crushed by a court order allowing only weekly visits with his kids. When Daniel learns his ex needs a housekeeper, he gets the job -- disguised as an English nanny. Soon he becomes not only his children's best pal but the kind of parent he should have been from the start.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: As Britain is rocked by unstable political, economic and technological advances, members of the Lyons family converge on one crucial night in 2019. Over the next 15 years, the twists and turns of their everyday lives are explored as we find out if this ordinary family could change the world.

Where to Watch: 6 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 6 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (Google Play, Vudu & YouTube).

What it's about: The historical recreation of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, in which Nazi and SS leaders gathered in a Berlin suburb to discuss the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Led by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, this group of high ranking German officials came to the historic and far reaching decision that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated in what would come to be known as the Holocaust.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Adapted from David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, this lavish seven-part miniseries chronicles the life of Founding Father John Adams, starting with the Boston Massacre of 1770 through his years as an ambassador in Europe, then his terms as vice president and president of the United States, up to his death on July 4, 1826.

Where to Watch: 7 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 7 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are then held prisoner in Connecticut, and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin to help his case. Eventually, John Quincy Adams also becomes an ally.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: To test its top-secret Human Hibernation Project, the Pentagon picks the most average Americans it can find - an Army private and a prostitute - and sends them to the year 2505 after a series of freak events. But when they arrive, they find a civilization so dumbed-down that they're the smartest people around.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: New York City, 1957. Lionel Essrog, a private detective living with Tourette syndrome, tries to solve the murder of his mentor and best friend, armed only with vague clues and the strength of his obsessive mind.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $14.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 3 others).

What it's about: Lyndon B. Johnson's amazing 11-month journey from taking office after JFK's assassination, through the fight to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and his own presidential campaign, culminating on the night LBJ is actually elected to the office – no longer the 'accidental President.'

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Based on the true story of a Russian serial killer who, over many years, claimed victim to over 50 people. His victims were mostly under the age of 17. In what was then a communists state, the police investigations were hampered by bureaucracy, incompetence and those in power. The story is told from the viewpoint of the detective in charge of the case.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A second-rate journalist from the US tries his luck in El Salvador during the military dictatorship in the 1980s.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: In the year 10,191, the world is at war for control of the desert planet Dune—the only place where the time-travel substance 'Spice' can be found. But when one leader gives up control, it's only so he can stage a coup with some unsavory characters.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Girl next door, activist, so-called traitor, fitness tycoon, Oscar winner: Jane Fonda has lived a life of controversy, tragedy and transformation – and she’s done it all in the public eye. An intimate look at one woman’s singular journey.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: An intimate look at the epochal financial crisis of 2008 and the powerful men and women who decided the fate of the world's economy in a matter of a few weeks.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Mayor Nick Wasicsko took office in 1987 during Yonkers' worst crisis when federal courts ordered public housing to be built in the white, middle class side of town, dividing the city in a bitter battle fueled by fear, racism, murder and politics.

Where to Watch: 6 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 6 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: An alternate American history told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey, as they watch the political rise of Charles Lindbergh, an aviator-hero and xenophobic populist, who becomes president and turns the nation toward fascism.

Where to Watch: 6 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 4 episodes (67%) are available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Vudu).

What it's about: During the Republican run of the 2008 Presidential election, candidate John McCain picks a relative unknown, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, to be his running mate. As the campaign kicks into high gear, her lack of experience, in both political and media savvy, becomes a drain upon McCain and his strategists.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Political strategist Dominic Cummings leads a popular but controversial campaign to convince British voters to leave the European Union from 2015 up until the present day.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO).

What it's about: In 1985, against the backdrop of Thatcherism, Brian Jackson enrolls in the University of Bristol, a scholarship boy from seaside Essex with a love of knowledge for its own sake and a childhood spent watching University Challenge, a college quiz show. At Bristol he tries out for the Challenge team and falls under the spell of Alice, a lovely blond with an extensive sexual past.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: In 2000, the election of the U.S. Presidential boiled down to a few precious votes in the state of Florida — and a recount that would add "hanging chad" to every American's vocabulary.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A headstrong young teacher in a private school in 1930s Edinburgh ignores the curriculum and influences her impressionable 12 year old charges with her over-romanticized world view.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO).

What it's about: A powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider's look at the way the USA goes to war—as seen from inside the LBJ White House leading up to and during the Vietnam War.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when Breathless Mahoney makes advances towards him while he is trying to battle Big Boy Caprice's united mob.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Each week Bill Maher surrounds himself with a panel of guests which include politicians, actors, comedians, musicians and the like to discuss what's going on in the world.

Where to Watch: 130 episodes (23%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO). 102 episodes (18%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: A dramatisation that follows Tony Blair's journey from political understudy waiting in the wings of the world arena to accomplished prime minister standing confidently in the spotlight of centre stage. It is a story about relationships, between two powerful men (Blair and Bill Clinton), two powerful couples, and husbands and wives.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A police detective in a South American country is dedicated to hunting down a revolutionary guerilla leader.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Police chief Brody must protect the citizens of Amity after a second monstrous shark begins terrorizing the waters.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A documentary news series with a taboo-breaking team who deliver incredible news stories from around the world.

Where to Watch: 113 episodes (98%) are available to stream on a subscription service (HBO). 114 episodes (99%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: In the 1930s, a social set known to the press – who follow their every move – as the “Bright Young Things” are Adam and his friends who are eccentric, wild and entirely shocking to the older generation. Amidst the madness, Adam, who is well connected but totally broke, is desperately trying to get enough money to marry the beautiful Nina. While his attempts to raise cash are constantly thwarted, their friends seem to self-destruct, one-by-one, in an endless search for newer and faster sensations. Finally, when world events out of their control come crashing around them, they are forced to reassess their lives and what they value most.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Peacock & PopcornFlix), stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX, HBO & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

What it's about: London, 1605. Robert Catesby, a 33-year old Warwickshire gentleman, devises a plot to blow up Parliament and kill the King.

Where to Watch: 3 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX, HBO & Hoopla). 3 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (Google Play, Prime Video & YouTube).

What it's about: When the body of Army Capt. Elizabeth Campbell is found on a Georgia military base, two investigators, Warrant Officers Paul Brenner and Sara Sunhill, are ordered to solve her murder. What they uncover is anything but clear-cut. Unseemly details emerge about Campbell's life, leading to allegations of a possible military coverup of her death and the involvement of her father, Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A look behind the curtain of Washington politics following three "renegade" Republican Congressmen as they bring libertarian and conservative zeal to champion the President’s call to “drain the swamp.”

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & HBO).

What it's about: Elizabeth I is a two-part 2005 British historical drama television miniseries directed by Tom Hooper, written by Nigel Williams, and starring Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I of England. The miniseries covers approximately the last 24 years of her nearly 45-year reign. Part 1 focuses on the final years of her relationship with the Earl of Leicester, played by Jeremy Irons. Part 2 focuses on her subsequent relationship with the Earl of Essex, played by Hugh Dancy. The series originally was broadcast in the United Kingdom in two two-hour segments on Channel 4. It later aired on HBO in the United States, CBC and TMN in Canada, ATV in Hong Kong, ABC in Australia, and TVNZ Television One in New Zealand.The series went on to win Emmy, Peabody, and Golden Globe Awards. The same year, Helen Mirren starred as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, with which she dominated the award season.

Where to Watch: 2 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a subscription service (HBO). 2 episodes (100%) are available to rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).