Before streaming took over, these 3 HBO shows rewrote the rules of TV —and they're due for a rewatch
HBO has a rich history of producing groundbreaking television shows that have shaped the industry. Notable series like 'Oz,' 'The Sopranos,' and 'Sex and the City' have left a lasting impact on viewers and set new standards for storytelling. These iconic shows are worth revisiting, showcasing the evolution of television drama since the 1990s.
- ▪HBO has the highest number of Primetime Emmy wins and nominations in television history.
- ▪'Oz' was HBO's first one-hour dramatic series, airing from 1997 to 2003.
- ▪'Sex and the City' revolutionized television by celebrating women's sexuality and friendship.
Tom's Guide files mainly under tech. We currently carry 1,139 of its stories.
Story provenance
Source · retrieval · rights · ranking — open for full record
inspect →
Story provenance
Attribution is not the same as permission. This drawer separates discovery metadata, excerpts, WeSearch-generated summaries, reuse status, and whether the publisher receives the visit. Nothing here claims a legal grant the publisher has not made.
Record
| Original publisher | Tom's Guide |
| Canonical URL | https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/hbo-max/before-streaming-took-over-these-3-hbo-shows-rewrote-the-rules-of-tv-and-theyre-due-for-a-rewatch |
| Publication time | Sun, 24 May 2026 09:15:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-24T09:22:31.852Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-24T09:22:31.852Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | 5Ll15VYV7yfJ |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
WeSearch handling by dimension
| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Entertainment Streaming HBO Max Before streaming took over, these 3 HBO shows rewrote the rules of TV — and they're due for a rewatch Opinion By Christina Izzo published 24 May 2026 Why 'The Sopranos,' 'Sex and the City' and 'Oz' still clear everything on television today When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: HBO Max; Shutterstock) Copy link Facebook X Reddit Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter HBO is pretty synonymous with top-tier television shows, from dystopian stunners like “The Last of Us” to fantasy juggernauts like “Game of Thrones” to pulpy whodunnits like “The White Lotus.” The network has the highest…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Tom's Guide.
Discussion
0 commentsMore from Tom's Guide
