Stuff You Wish Were a HBO Show

Eversince there was that GROK! Studios production logo on the first two seasons of Game of Thrones, I'm hoping somebody is putting together a *Stranger in a Strange Land* HBO show. It has all the tits, violence, and intrigue such a thing needs - and if it'd be done right, like HBO likely would do it, it'd could be the greatest thing on TV ever.

*Oryx and Crake* would also be rather awesome, and rather topical too.

Or something riffing on Fukushima, taking the accidental nuclear apocalypse to its natural TV extreme.

What would you want to be given the HBO show treatment?

Y the Last Man. Just. Fucking. Do. It. Already.

I would love to see the following (this is pure fantasy)

The animation and production team behind the nickleodeon Avatar series and the team behind Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood hired by HBO to make a ten series run of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. It would be certified R obviously, because of the gore factor. It is the only way. The only way.

The Last Canadians. An animated series with art from the team behind Heavy Metal that follows the adventures of The Last Canadians as they explore Neo Detroit, and the rest of the post-apocalyptic 1987 United States. Obviously, with voice work from Vinny, Brad, Drew, and all of the team. I'd be happy to write and direct the first season, so long as we're allowed the budget we need. Considering it'd have to be entirely rotoscoped, hour long episodes, I'm guessing it would be a sizable budget. I also want guest stars like Dave Lang and Gene Simmons. And I request we air immediately before Game of Thrones, with a rerun of that night's episode directly following Game of Thrones.

Some sort of dark and gritty space adventure show. Like Star Trek meets Firefly meets Mass Effect but with the dark HBO tone.

Well I already got Game of Thrones so I wouldn't want to be greedy, but a couple other things I'd be please with are:

• Dan Simmons's The Terror
• If NBC's Hannibal gets cancelled, HBO picking that up
• The Dark Tower series maybe?
• EDIT: oh ohohohoh! Chew! I think one of the pay channels was gonna take a crack at that but given HBO's general level of just doing shit better might as well let them do it.

I'd love to see a series that explores and dramatizes different eras in human history, with a focus towards being entertaining but true to the era. Each season (or every other season) would feature a different era, linked or not. For example, I'd love to see the early days of colonial America with a small cast focusing on a journey across the pond and their early struggles to create a new home.

@sparky_buzzsaw: Quantum Leap?

I'd love to see a horror anthology series based on Lovecraft's work.

Also, I'm still waiting for that adaption of "Monster" Del toro was trying to get off the ground.

@sparky_buzzsaw: Couldn't help but think of Blackadder.

I don't wish anything was an HBO show since I don't get HBO & have little interest in anything they produce.

Good thing you let us know, I would have been sweating bullets wondering. I can sleep tonight now, thanks!

This isn't a new novel opinion, but Watchmen should have been an HBO miniseries.

Firefly.

I always thought Dune should be re-made as a LOTR style epic, but failing that, a TV series about it would be pretty neat. There's all sorts of violence, intrigue, and drugs in it, which is everything the kids are into! And it takes place on a desert world! Kids like deserts, right?

I'm crazy for even suggesting it, but a live action TV series of Berserk.

HBO is one of the few places that could get away with showing all that graphic violence and sex.

I'm just saying that people have this weird boner for all things HBO and it's a little annoying; plenty of other stations are capable of doing what HBO does but no one cares because, well, they're not HBO.

HBO have led everyone else by the scruff of their necks into a new way of producing television. The Sopranos changed everything. Sure, other networks can do what they do, but they don't. They don't because they are not allowed to. Too much interference. HBO is a prime example of what happens when a bunch of smart people decide to let another bunch of smart people do what they want to do.

When the Soprano's pilot was finished, some execs at HBO wanted to drop it. They even suggested re-casting Tony Soprano. That was their main problem. They said Gandolfini was "too ugly" to be the star. But, level heads prevailed and they stuck with their overall vision. That is something that rarely happens at other networks. An example I could think of would be Louie, Louis CK's show. The people at FX don't even know what he is doing. He sends them a finished product and they say "ok" and put it on screen. Louie is a landmark show for them now. There are not a lot of shows that work like that. Usually they are focus-grouped and focus-grouped until they change completely or no longer exist.

I have a serious boner for HBO, and that's because while anyone could produce that content, they are the only ones doing so.

Aquaman. It sounds fucking stupid, I know, and someone else already tried it. But that was on the WB or something.

If they took a Dark Knight approach to Aquaman I think it could be cool. The ocean is scary as shit, especially the really deep parts where light doesn't even break the surface. Loneliness could be a major plot point. Maybe he fucks a Mermaid or two. There's a lot of potential there.

Some great suggestions in this thread that make me weep for their non-existence.
I suggested this in another thread but I'll say it again, The Last of Us 8-to 10 part Mini-series.

I would be all for a dark, fucked up Aquaman. I know that's a bit of a cop-out, considering that's the way all the super-hero movies have gone, but your "Loneliness" comment conjures up images of deep-sea melancholy... that eventually leads to... deep-sea... murder? I dont know. That's the problem with Aquaman. He is kind of lame. He needs a goal of some sort.

I would love to see a serious character study of an aspiring professional wrestler. I think it would be awesome because I have never been a big fan of Keyfabe, and always preferred the stories of how dedicated wrestlers are to their craft. Plus, there could be some serious drama potential here. There are cliques, hookups, fights, rampant drug-use, and politics involved in this industry that could allow the show to stretch on for more than a single season.

@j23: I don't think anyone will ever get Dune right in visual media. It's been tried too many times, and well...yeah. Ugh.

Nothing, because I can't watch HBO without getting fucking cable or some shit. Get with the times HBO!

To be fair, HBO tends to have pretty stellar shows, but they need to make it more accessible.

@somberowl: You should read an old series of Sci-Fi novels called Hyperion. It's basically what you're describing.

I wish they had gone ahead with American Gods, like they were originally in talks to do. I have zero faith in whatever dog-and-pony show enterprise Freemantle Media is to do it justice.

Also, as @themanwithnoplan said, something full on Lovecraft would be awesome. True Detective already proved that HBO can absolutely nail that cosmic horror vibe; now they just need to actually throw in some goddamn Shoggoths.

I think Brian K. Vaughan's Ex Machina would be brilliant for an HBO show.

but I don't necessarily need adaptaitions all of the time. True Detective is my favourite thing ever, so just keep trying to make new shit

@animasta: It's harder than you might think for other channels to match HBO. Take AMC, for example, since they're the ones who led the TV revolution outside of Premium - "Walking Dead" had to keep cycling cast members/writers due to costs being so high, and the cancellation of Mad Men and Breaking Bad (or at least their recasting) were always real possibilities due to the costs associated with paying real actors for their work. And let's bear in mind that those are shows requiring relatively little in terms of effects or props compared to what HBO puts on.

Other premium channels have lower subscriber rates, so it's pretty much a given they will similarly have trouble keeping up, though I hear they've been improving. HBO is good for those of us who care, so there's no cause to hate.

I think Splinter Cell would be perfect as a serialized TV show. Preferably it'd get produced somewhere with money. A bit like a mash-up of Mission Impossible (the FIRST one) and Strike Back (shut up it's great).

Aside from that I'm not big on novel adaptations, but I'd like to see Sandman get the HBO treatment. Or, hell, anything by Gaiman.

That was my thought. But having a Colonial-era Blackadder style cast in one season and then transposing them into later periods of American history definitely has potential.

@veektarius said:

You're generally right, but one point to clarify; Mad Men is expensive. It's a fucking amazing drama, but it's expensive. All the props, sets, costumes, cars, are authentic to the era. That's actually one of the reasons the show caught attention in the first place. The attention to detail is insane, and as a result the show is a lot more expensive.

You're right about everything else, though.

Absolutely. The Golden Age Arc at the very least would be an amazing television series.

I always felt that Berserk would do well in a broader media such as live action television because of the themes of redemption and determination (The main character is called The Struggler).

The Last of Us.

I don't think a movie can hold up as well as a television series could.

@oldirtybearon: Thanks, that makes sense. I guess I was thinking if there aren't lasers or dragons, it can't be that bad.

a series that follows a basketball star sort of like entourage. would be great.

This is exactly what I've been hoping for since Game of Thrones blew up. As big fan of both nerd genre staples, Medieval Fantasy and space travel Sci-Fi, I've been dying for the sci-fi equivalent to Game of Thrones. We've never really had a big budget, mature, and serious in tone space travel show on the scale of what Game of Thrones is. Firefly was great, if a bit constrained by network tv and obviously way too short lived , and the closest we've ever really had was Battlestar Galactica, though the overly soapy plotlines, terrible ending, and overabundance of religious bullshit holds it back in my mind.

If HBO ever made a sci-fi show with the budget and quality of Game of Thrones I think it would probably be my favorite show of all time.

This is the correct answer.

I'd also like to see a show about an aspiring rapper but the 8 Mile and Hustle and Flow comparisons might prevent anything like that from establishing its own identity.

Yeah, I think that given the chance, Berserk would do really well. The problem is that most of the fans of the series have been fans for ages, and probably don't feel the need to rant and rave about it anymore.

The newest thing Berserk related is the animated movies that have been coming out recently, but I don't think that they've been marketed very well.

Oh, looks like @splodge: beat me to the punch on this one. Clearly the entirety of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. It's not quite as boobtacular as Game of Thrones, has about three times as many important characters (about ten times as many unimportant characters) and the plot meanders and drags around the midpoint of that series (also by that point you probably dislike half of the major characters in play), but I'd watch it... I guess those books are the definition of un-filmable, huh? This and Malazan: Book of the Fallen.

I would also watch @hatking's rotoscoped production of Giant Bomb D&D adventures.

I would also watch this show. (I would also also watch another series of Blackadder, but that is neither here nor there)

Preacher, although this is already coming to AMC

Sword of Truth series, and not fucking horrible ABC series

I would actually watch tv again were this actually a show.

Actually, speaking of all of these fantasy novel series, I want to see HBO's take on Xanth. Those books got so exceedingly stupid once the author stopped putting effort into plot and more effort into anthropomorphizing puns and making panty jokes. (What, you didn't think Japan had a monopoly, did you?) I don't even imagine that it would be a particularly good series or even really care about the quality. I just want HBO to make it so I could marvel the attempt to film those dumb, dumb books.

Something sci-fi.

I mean they've done alot of historical and fantasy shows, plus tons in modern day. Lets see what HBO can do with some Sci-fi. Get some HBO production values behind designing aliens and spaceships and shit!

Yes and FUCK YES.

I like to think that the King in Yellow stuff in True Detective is all real because ohgodIneedmorecosmichorror.

Something cyberpunk like Deus Ex would be awesome. Human Revolution would work better as a movie, but Deus Ex 1 would be fantastic as a 2 or 3 season series.

Adapting Max Payne 1 and 2 would be awesome as well. Dunno why I'm picking video games, but there it is.

I loved reading those books when I was in high school, mainly the first series of them though.

I really wouldn't want to see a live action Berserk. An animated Berserk on HBO would be cool. That old Spawn series was great.

Oh, and an HBO Constantine (Hellblazer) series could be cool too. NBC is making one but... eh.

There actually was a mini-series or two on Sci-fi channel a few years ago, don't think they were very good though. But yeah, it would essentially be like GoT but if half the characters started mouthing off like Rusty from True Detective every once in a while. The fact that it isn't already in pre-production is a little surprising. Maybe they're saving it for later, I dunno.

I mean, yes, obviously, but also, I kind of don't want them to just because I'm afraid they'll mess it up. And now that we're on the far side of a glut of post-apocalyptic shows n such, it might not work as well. I dunno. I guess maybe that's just something I'd prefer to read again instead.

House of Cards because the current show is complete fucking garbage and I want to like it but I can't

Yeah, there was a Dune miniseries back in like 2000-2001, and a second one that was based on one or two of the later books. On the other hand, if it means having to acknowledge the later books written by Frank Herbert's son, I'd rather that they remain books.