This Brilliant 2-Season HBO Sci-Fi Series Is the Perfect Weekend Binge

Image via HBO, Warner Bros. Published Aug 4, 2026, 6:46 PM EDT Jordan Todoruk is a writer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He studied Screenwriting at the Toronto Film School. In 2019, He wrote and produced his first short film, The Mechanics Of A Nightmare. He is a cinephile and lover of literature. Sign in to your Collider account Avenue 5 is a hilarious science-fiction comedy that stars Hugh Laurie as the out-of-his-depth Captain of an ill-fated luxury liner spacecraft. So why exactly is Laurie's character, Ryan Clark, out of his depth? Well, because he is not a captain at all. Clark is an actor hired by the billionaire owner of the Avenue 5 craft, Herman Judd (Josh Gad), to give the passengers the notion that they are in good hands. Clark has no formal training to speak of; he is entirely ignorant of any operations on the spaceship, much to comedic effect. He uses a British affectation to soothe the demanding passengers of his crew, and most of the comedy revolves around keeping this ruse alive. His haughty and egomaniacal underpinnings constantly bump up against his severe ineptitude, which devolves into a cantankerous contempt for those in his charge, much to the audience's amusement. What Is 'Avenue 5' About? Avenue 5 may have been canceled after only two seasons, but the HBO series delivered some far-out laughs during its time. It's a comedically dystopian look into a self-obsessed future where considerable technological advancements have brought humanity to the stars. Still, it has simultaneously eroded any depth of character or emotional maturity in those willing to brave its cold and unforgiving vacuum. Space is now a playground for the well-to-do, a cruise among the stars for thrill-seekers and disaffected rich people who clink glasses of champagne, indulge in yoga, and stare out into the void in detached bemusement. It sounds like a lovely time until something goes horribly wrong. Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The MatrixYou took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare. You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it. The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. Mad MaxThe wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. In the wasteland, that distinction is everything. Blade RunnerYou'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. DuneArrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools. You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect. In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it. Star WarsThe galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of. In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ During a routine maintenance check, the ship's chief engineer accidentally dies, causing a momentary lapse in the ship's artificial gravity and sending the ship off course, a paltry 0.21 degrees. The small and seemingly insignificant departure from their projected flight path has massive consequences, sending the ship deeper into space and further from Earth. It will take an additional three years for the crew and passengers to get home, sending the crew scrambling with only eight weeks of supplies and an inept crew of Avenue 5 struggling to maintain order, leaving the audience to wonder if they will ever make it home in this zany intergalactic adventure. Who Is Captain Ryan Clark in 'Avenue 5'? Image via HBO In the pilot episode of Avenue 5, the audience is introduced to some genuinely sidesplitting characters. One of them is the eccentric billionaire owner of the luxury-liner spacecraft, the hilariously out-of-touch Herman Judd. Judd had spared no expense and filled his ship with every modern convenience that his money could buy. One of these expenses is Captain Ryan Clark, an elegant and seemingly self-assured British captain reminiscent of the seafaring vessels of old; with his stiff upper lip and stoic courage, he exudes the very essence of what it means to be a starship captain. His personality alone is enough to ensure that the passengers aboard the ill-fated ship feel secure and that they are in the capable and caring hands of a man who will fulfill their wildest dreams and keep them safe. So, when things go wrong, and the ship is knocked off course, the passengers know everything will be all right. There is just one small problem. Clark is really a classically trained actor who was hired to be a reassuring figurehead on what is otherwise a fully automated ship. When it all goes to hell, Clark's facade drops (at least for the audience, it does), and his woeful ineptitude becomes apparent, putting the fate of everyone aboard in jeopardy. As it turns out, Ryan was a wine merchant turned actor whom Judd hired to 'captain' Avenue 3, where he famously put out a fire that saved the passengers aboard, reportedly. His quick thinking prompted Judd to give Clark the commission on Avenue 5 as a self-assured friend that the passengers can interact with instead of freaking out about the ship's automation. But, as it turns out, Judd also had no idea Clark was an actor. After the gravity shift, Ryan reveals to the second engineer, Billie McEvoy (Lenora Crichlow), Iris Kimura (Suzy Nakamura), and Herman Judd (Josh Gad), that Joe – the engineer who died – was, in fact, the real captain of the ship. Ryan has no idea how to pilot the ship; it was Joe who also hired Ryan for Avenue 3, and he was the only one truly qualified to take control in a crisis. This confession creates a bond between Ryan and Billie as they form a pact to maintain the facade as long as they can so that they can maintain order on the ship, but as time wears on and mistakes are made, the passengers and crew learn of Judd's grievous staffing errors, and it sends everyone into a panic. With Clark in way over his head, surrounded by egomaniacal passengers and snarky subordinates, Avenue 5 is a hilarious space-adventure that has gone way before its time. While audiences will never know if the ship will make it home, they can rest easy knowing that at least the journey into hell will be a funny one. Hugh Laurie Is Perfect as 'Avenue 5's Captain Clark is the perfect Captain for a comedy of errors of galactic proportions, leaning heavily on the support of his much more experienced but hopeless, nonetheless, staff as they traverse the cold vacuum of space, wondering if they will ever reach home and if they do what will be left of them? Hugh Laurie's delivery of Clark's rigidity and debasement are some of the funniest moments in the show, as the character tries to maintain his tenuous grasp on the ship while simultaneously placating an eccentric man-child billionaire. Comedy writing has a standard principle of taking a bad situation and making it worse, and Avenue 5 is certainly no exception to this rule. What could be worse than being trapped on a ship staffed by self-absorbed actors and inept button-pushers? Captain Ryan Clark Was a Noted Departure From Hugh Laurie's Iconic Role on 'House' Image via FOX Laurie's versatility as an actor is on full display in Avenue 5, a far cry from the cocky, self-assured brilliance of his character in the medical drama House. While both House and Clark are cantankerous and combative elitists, Clark displays none of the skills and brilliance of his doctor counterpart, which is par for the course in a comedy. While House's toxicity is a product of his intelligence, Clark's ego is entirely undeserved as he bumbles his way through space, and this works to significant comedic effect. ​​​​​​​As House, audiences can rest easy knowing that he will undoubtedly uncover the truth of whatever ails his patient; as for Clark, we can't be so sure. Laurie's transition from House to Avenue 5, as well as his seeming ease in meeting the varied demands each character requires, emphasizes his strengths as an actor. While Avenue 5 does not get the credit it deserves when in conversation about Hugh Laurie's best roles on television, it remains one worthy of attention. Avenue 5 is currently streaming on Max in the U.S.