Eleven times Steve Carell has been up for the Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy. His win total sits at zero. Michael Scott accounted for ten of those nods. Number 11 arrived this year, courtesy of a series about a beach-read novelist who can’t stand teaching.
You can stream that show on HBO Max today, and it’s one of three titles deserving of an entire weekend.
It’s been a stacked 2026 for HBO Max: fresh seasons of The Pitt, House of the Dragon and Hacks, alongside originals such as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, DTF St. Louis and Half Man. Nothing’s happening to the back catalog either — The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and The Leftovers will all still be sitting there a month from now. The three below are less patient.
Steve Carell finally found a role that isn’t Michael Scott
Rooster arrived on HBO Max in March 2026 and became a streaming hit right out of the gate. Carell’s character is Greg Russo, a successful novelist churning out page-turners under his bestselling Rooster banner. The books, though, are nearly incidental.
What the series actually digs into is Greg the devoted dad and the unwilling professor at Ludlow College, a prestigious liberal arts school set on an idyllic New England campus. Bill Lawrence — of Ted Lasso and Shrinking fame — is a co-creator, which tells you the register: warm, funny, and every so often sharp enough to draw blood.
It runs ten episodes, a comfortable weekend’s worth. Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster, Charly Clive and John C. McGinley fill out the ensemble around Carell, and it all arrives just as back-to-school season kicks in — perfect timing or a cruel joke, depending on where you’re sitting.
HBO already has Season 2 in development.
The Seahawks let cameras into a title defense
With the 2026 NFL season only days out, this is precisely the right weekend for Hard Knocks: Training Camp. Now in its 21st season, HBO’s flagship sports reality franchise is still up to its usual trick: showing you how an NFL team really runs behind closed doors.
The team under the microscope this time is the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, chasing what could become a second straight title with QB Sam Darnold and head coach Mike Macdonald.
Of the season’s five episodes, four are already available. The finale lands Tuesday, September 1, roughly a week ahead of the NFL Kickoff game — which just so happens to be a Super Bowl LX rematch pitting the Seahawks against the New England Patriots.
Chaos has defined this preseason, too: injuries, contract disputes, all of it. A good year to be tuning in.
The DC show that’s beating everything else on the platform
Put Lanterns at the top of your list this weekend. Episode three of eight lands Sunday, August 30, so there’s time to burn through the opening pair and be fully caught up when it drops.
After just two episodes, Lanterns has already drawn praise as one of the greatest projects the modern DCU has released. Its Rotten Tomatoes score stands at 94%, and it has occupied HBO Max’s No. 1 worldwide slot ever since premiering on August 16.
Crucially, the tone plays grounded and True Detective-adjacent — meaning Green Lantern lore isn’t a prerequisite for hitting play. There’s no quiz on the Corps waiting for you.
Hal Jordan is played by Kyle Chandler; Aaron Pierre takes on John Stewart. The pair are members of the Green Lantern interstellar police force, digging into a series of deaths in Rushville, Nebraska, a small town. John is the newest recruit, and Hal is teaching him the ropes even as an extraterrestrial threat unsettles the local community.
Admittedly, three episodes by Sunday night barely qualifies as a binge. Still, this is the No. 1 show on HBO Max at the moment, and jumping on early beats playing catch-up in November once everyone has already spoiled the Nebraska of it all.