Consistently produces graphic sexual content, promotes anti-Christian worldviews, few redemptive offerings.
HBO has been the prestige television network since The Sopranos established what "serious" television could be in the late 1990s. Its brand promise — "It's Not TV, It's HBO" — was built on the willingness to produce content that pushed past broadcast television's content restrictions. This is both HBO's greatest creative strength and its primary concern for Christian viewers. HBO's most acclaimed content — The Sopranos, The Wire, Game of Thrones, Succession — combines genuine artistic excellence with content levels that significantly exceed what most Christian viewers can justify. HBO does not produce content for Christian audiences and does not apply Christian content standards. Understanding this is essential context.
Beyond the general content concerns, HBO has produced content specifically hostile to Christianity. "The Young Pope" and "The New Pope" portray Catholic leadership as corrupt, sexually deviant, and morally bankrupt across two seasons. "True Blood" — HBO's vampire series — features a vampire messiah character that explicitly parodies the resurrection of Christ. "Six Feet Under" and other HBO dramas consistently portray Christian characters as hypocrites. This is not simply secular indifference to Christianity — it represents an active pattern of portraying Christian institutions and characters negatively in ways that would be culturally impermissible if directed at other religions. Matthew 5:11 — "blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me" — establishes that such treatment is expected, not surprising.
Intellectual honesty requires acknowledging that HBO has also produced content of genuine quality that Christians can engage with. "Chernobyl" is one of the finest documentary dramas ever made and portrays institutional corruption, the value of truth-telling, and the courage required to bear witness to what is real — themes deeply compatible with Christian values. "Band of Brothers" portrays genuine heroism and sacrifice. Several HBO documentaries are excellent. Philippians 4:8 calls believers to focus on what is "true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable." HBO content that meets these criteria can be engaged with discernment.
HBO as a network scores 18/100. Its content philosophy is built on transgressing content boundaries, and its track record of anti-Christian content is documented. Individual titles must be evaluated separately — HBO's content ranges from genuinely excellent to deeply harmful. The network's prestige reputation can create a false sense that its content is acceptable simply because critics admire it.
Christians are called to be in the world but not of it (John 17:14-16). Practical discernment questions: What content is being amplified and normalized? What is the cumulative effect of sustained exposure on your values and worldview? Is the content consistent with Philippians 4:8? Score: see full guide.
See our Biblical Discernment Guide. The Gospel Coalition and GotQuestions provide thorough evangelical analysis.