3 surprising HBO Max shows you can binge this week (August 10-16)

Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek Published Aug 11, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades. Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear. Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College's Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade. An avid skier, when all the snow's gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren. Sign in to your How-To Geek account What did you think of that massive House of the Dragon season 3 finale? Betrayals, big character deaths, dragon action—what more could you want?! Oh, you already want something else to watch on HBO Max? I get it. Well, while Lanterns is days away and season 5 of Abbott Elementary even longer, the pickings are a bit slim, but there's still some good TV to watch that might surprise you. This week we have ye olde classic mixed bag—the 64th season of Food Network's long-running high-pressure cooking gauntlet show, a dark and dramatic thriller limited series from 2023, and my top pick, some bingeable homework for a don't-miss upcoming special. 3 Chopped: Volume 4 (Season 64) Simmering mystery ingredients and a $10,000 payday Credit: Food Nertwork If you like food competition television, few shows have done it so reliably and so bingeably as Food Network's Chopped, which has been a staple of the network, cutting hopeful cooks down to size since 2009. Somehow the show has plated 64 seasons, serving up its tried-and-true format: four chefs go head-to-head for three rounds, whipping up an appetizer, main, and dessert, all made from the mystery ingredients revealed from a big basket. Quiz 8 Questions · Test Your KnowledgeHBO Max movies and showsTrivia challengeFrom Westeros to the ER — how well do you know HBO Max's biggest hits and most talked-about originals?DramaComedyFantasyMoviesCharactersBegin In The Pitt, what type of medical facility serves as the primary setting for the series?AA trauma surgery wingBA Pittsburgh hospital emergency roomCA rural urgent care clinicDA military field hospitalCorrect! The Pitt is set in a Pittsburgh hospital emergency room and follows the staff through a single grueling 15-hour shift. The show stars Noah Wyle and was created as a spiritual successor to the classic ER.Not quite. The Pitt takes place in a Pittsburgh hospital emergency room, not a surgery wing or clinic. The show unfolds in real time over one intense 15-hour shift, giving it a grounded, unrelenting pace.Continue In Hacks, what is the profession of Deborah Vance, the character played by Jean Smart?AA retired Broadway actressBA veteran stand-up comedianCA Hollywood talent agentDA late-night talk show hostCorrect! Deborah Vance is a legendary Las Vegas stand-up comedian who reluctantly teams up with a young, struggling comedy writer named Ava. Jean Smart's performance earned her widespread critical acclaim and multiple Emmy Awards.Not quite. Deborah Vance is a veteran stand-up comedian — a Las Vegas legend who is forced to collaborate with a younger comedy writer to reinvent her act. Jean Smart won Emmy Awards for the role.Continue House of the Dragon is a prequel to Game of Thrones — approximately how many years before the events of Game of Thrones does it take place?AAbout 50 yearsBAbout 100 yearsCAbout 200 yearsDAbout 300 yearsCorrect! House of the Dragon is set roughly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. It depicts the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, a catastrophic conflict over succession to the Iron Throne.Not quite. House of the Dragon is set approximately 200 years before Game of Thrones, not 50 or 100 years. The series is based on George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood and covers the Targaryen dynasty at the height of its power.Continue In the 2025 horror film Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, what supernatural threat do twin brothers face in the Deep South?AA cult of witchesBVampiresCA demonic possession outbreakDA vengeful ghostCorrect! Sinners features vampires as the central supernatural threat. Ryan Coogler's film stars Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as the twin brothers, and blends horror with themes of race, music, and history in 1930s Mississippi.Not quite. The supernatural menace in Sinners is vampires. Director Ryan Coogler crafted the film as a genre-bending horror story set in 1930s Mississippi, starring Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers caught in a terrifying night of violence.Continue Weapons, the 2025 horror anthology film on Max, was written and directed by which filmmaker?AJames WanBAri AsterCZach CreggerDMike FlanaganCorrect! Weapons was written and directed by Zach Cregger, who previously broke out with the acclaimed horror film Barbarian in 2022. The anthology follows multiple interconnected stories tied together by a disturbing central mystery.Not quite. Weapons was directed by Zach Cregger, best known for directing Barbarian. Cregger has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting voices in modern horror, and Weapons continued that momentum on Max.Continue A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight is another Game of Thrones prequel series — which character does it primarily follow?AAegon the ConquerorBSer Duncan the TallCBrynden Rivers, the BloodravenDBaelor BreakspearCorrect! The series centers on Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight, and his young squire Egg — who is secretly the young prince Aegon Targaryen. The story is based on George R.R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas.Not quite. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows Ser Duncan the Tall, a wandering hedge knight, alongside his squire Egg. The show is adapted from George R.R. Martin's beloved Dunk and Egg novellas set a century before Game of Thrones.Continue One Battle After Another, the 2025 Max limited series, is based on a novel by which author?ACormac McCarthyBDon DeLilloCThomas PynchonDDenis JohnsonCorrect! One Battle After Another is adapted from Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland. The series marks a rare screen adaptation of Pynchon's notoriously complex work, and generated significant buzz for its ambitious literary source material.Not quite. The series is based on the work of Thomas Pynchon, one of American literature's most elusive and celebrated novelists. Adapting Pynchon for television is a rare and ambitious undertaking given the dense, layered nature of his writing.Continue In Euphoria, what substance addiction is central to the storyline of the main character, Rue, played by Zendaya?AAlcoholBPrescription pillsCOpioidsDMethamphetamineCorrect! Rue's battle with opioid addiction is a core thread running through Euphoria. The show uses her struggle as a lens to explore trauma, identity, and mental health among teenagers, and Zendaya won Emmy Awards for her portrayal.Not quite. Rue struggles primarily with opioid addiction throughout Euphoria. Creator Sam Levinson drew on personal experience to shape her character, and Zendaya's raw, emotionally powerful performance earned her back-to-back Emmy wins.See My Score Challenge CompleteYour Score/ 8Thanks for playing!Try Again Endlessly parodied on comedy shows like Saturday Night Live, the chefs race the clock to make magic out of the often bizarre ingredients (gizzards, brains, snouts, weird fruit), to impress a rotating panel of judges, including Alex Guarnaschelli (Iron Chef America), Scott Conant, and Amanda Freitag, who deliver their verdict, eliminating one cook at a time until the winner of the $10,000 is crowned. Of course, Chopped wouldn't be Chopped without its stalwart host Ted Allen keeping things neat and tidy. Volume 64 of the show landed on HBO Max on August 4, with all eight episodes ready to binge. Chopped Release Date June 4, 2007 Network Food Network Cast Ted Allen Directors Michael Pearlman Main Genre Reality-TV Creator(s) Michael Krupat, Dave Noll, Linda Lea Producers Linda Lea, Edward Schindler, Amy Stanford, Laurie Benner, Kate Kenny, Beth Paholak, Sarah Douglass, Janet Pirchio, Nassdja Valentin, Noah Odabashian IMDb ID tt1353281 Seasons 64 TMDB User Rating 6 .3 2 Full Circle A kidnapping gone wrong uncovers dark family secrets A tense, runaway train of a mystery thriller from 2023 that didn't get near the viewership that it deserved, Full Circle is a dark, twisty limited series from the team of writer Ed Solomon (Men in Black) and Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh. A modern telling of Akira Kurosawa's classic 1963 kidnapping drama High and Low, Full Circle goes sideways out of the gate when a Guyanese crime boss (the extraordinary CCH Pounder, who usually plays tough detectives) orders the kidnapping of a Manhattan teen in an eye-for-an-eye retribution to end a family curse. But her thugs nab the wrong teen. The fallout drags the real target's parents, Sam (Claire Danes) and Derek (Timothy Olyphant) Browne, into the mess, and while it may seem like they're just the victims in this random plot, a determined inspector (Atlanta's Zazie Beetz) chips at a well-hidden family secret, corruption, and murder. Dennis Quaid also costars as Sam's father in this deliciously unraveling six-episode series that, while only sitting at 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, deserved far more praise than it got. The twist ending is a barn burner. Full Circle Release Date 2023 - 2023-00-00 Network HBO, Max Cast Zazie Beetz, Claire Danes, Jim Gaffigan, Jharrel Jerome, Timothy Olyphant, CCH Pounder, Phaldut Sharma, Adia, Sheyi Cole, Anita Sabherwal, Nicole Spiezio, Galen Hopper, Gerald Jones, Suzanne Savoy, Ethan Stoddard, Lucian Zanes, Dennis Quaid, Shemar Yanick Jonas, Kareem Savinon, Franklin Ojeda Smith, Henry Yuk, David Fierro, David Chen, Ted Sod, Tina WongLu Showrunner Ed Soloman Directors Steven Soderbergh Writers Ed Soloman Main Genre Drama Creator(s) Ed Solomon Producers Angela Quiles Seasons 1 Streaming Service(s) M Executive Producer(s) Ed Solomon, Casey Silver, Steven Soderbergh 1 Robot Chicken Seth Green's pop culture phenom is your next binge This week's top pick is one of my favorites and a certified pop culture institution. Robot Chicken, the insanely hilarious Emmy-winning stop-motion series from creators Seth Green (Family Guy, the Austin Powers movies) and Matthew Senreich, has been brilliantly skewering pop culture using action figures and dolls since 2005. And all 11 seasons are available to binge on HBO Max. Not that the setup is integral to the show's insanity, but for posterity's sake, the bite-sized sketches we enjoy are what's being force-fed to a dead chicken that a mad scientist has revived and turned into a cyborg. The nightmarish wall of televisions features everything from rapid-fire parodies of an endless array of pop culture icons—Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Gummy Bears, Mario, Batman, Barbie—all performed by action figures and other toys. Green (a seasoned voice actor) and Senreich voice dozens of the characters, with a seemingly bottomless roster of celebrity guest voices, including Mark Hamill, Bryan Cranston, Sarah Michelle Gellar, George Lucas(!), Scarlett Johansson, Emma Stone, Chris Evans, Snoop Dogg, Weird Al, and tons more. The timing couldn't be better for a binge, either: The Robot Chicken Adult Swim Special—a big crossover special for Adult Swim's 25th anniversary—premieres on August 30 before landing on HBO Max the next day. Robot Chicken Release Date 2005 - 2022-00-00 Network Adult Swim Cast Seth Green, Matthew Senreich, Breckin Meyer, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Macaulay Culkin, Frank Welker, Adrianne Palicki, Mae Whitman, Scarlett Johansson, Seth MacFarlane, Michael Chiklis, Lacey Chabert, Kesha, Liev Schreiber, Rachael Leigh Cook, Zahn McClarnon, Jason Alexander, Gina Rodriguez, Topher Grace, Mila Kunis, Jamie Kaler, Abraham Benrubi, Wilmer Valderrama, Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson, Kurtwood Smith, Debra Jo Rupp, Kyle Chandler, Gillian Jacobs, Mike Henry, Dan Milano Showrunner Matthew Senreich Directors Tom Sheppard Writers Breckin Meyer, Hugh Davidson, Brendan Hay, Dan Milano, Erik Weiner, Geoff Johns, Matthew Libman, Hugh Sterbakov, Jordan Allen-Dutton, Kevin Shinick, Matthew Ireland Beans, Charles Horn, Zeb Wells, daniel libman, Seth Green, Matthew Senreich, Mike Fasolo, Tom Root, Doug Goldstein, Andrew Ti, Milana Vayntrub, Deirdre Devlin, Harmony McElligott, Michael Poisson Main Genre Animation Creator(s) Seth Green, Matthew Senreich Producers Alexander Bulkley, Corey Campodonico, Ollie Green Seasons 11 Story By Douglas Goldstein Streaming Service(s) MAX, Hulu Executive Producer(s) Keith Crofford, Mike Lazzo, John Harvatine IV We dug deep for this one They may not be the big marquee shows that HBO Max splashed on its home page, but these three highly bingable picks offer a little competition, a lot of nonsense, and a peel-pack mystery you can sink your teeth into. For more picks across every streaming service, be sure to head to How-To Geek's streaming section for the latest shows and movies. Subscription with ads Yes, $10.99/month Simultaneous streams 2 or 4 HBO Max is a subscription-based streaming service offering content from HBO, Warner Bros., DC, and more. In 2025, the service re-branded itself as HBO Max after having previously cut "HBO" from its name. Live TV Live sports available in Standard and Premium plans Price Starting at $10.99/month or $109.99/year