5 HBO Max Shows Way Better Than Stuart Fails To Save The Universe

It's honestly not surprising, considering just how popular "The Big Bang Theory" was — and honestly still is — amongst its fans, that Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady's show has led to a number of spin-offs. What is surprising is the direction taken by said spin-offs. The first, "Young Sheldon" — which casts Iain Armitage as, you guessed it, the young version of Jim Parsons' irritable genius Sheldon Cooper — is a pretty straightforward prequel, and it's followed by "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage," which centers that young Sheldon's brother George Cooper Jr. (Montana Jordan) and his first wife, Mandy McAllister (Emily Osment). The third major "Big Bang Theory" spin-off, "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe," takes a radically different approach.

In "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe," we reunite with original "Big Bang Theory" cast member Kevin Sussman as comic book store owner Stuart Bloom, who inexplicably finds himself unstuck in time in an apocalyptic version of his comic book. We eventually find out that Sheldon and Stuart's other friends Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) created a strange device that, when Stuart accidentally destroyed it, created what the show calls a "multiverse Armageddon." Alongside original "Big Bang Theory" character Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) and some of that sitcom's suppporting players — including Bert Kibbler (Brian Posehn), Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie), and Denise (Lauren Lapkus) — Stuart tries, to, well, save the universe. He also fails a lot.

"Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" feels like an exciting pivot for the "Big Bang Theory" universe, but it's ultimately underwhelming ... and it pales in comparison to these other HBO comedies. If you want to laugh really, really hard, try one of these five shows on HBO Max.

There is a level where it's almost cruel to compare anything to "Veep," much less a show like "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" that still adheres to some sitcom restrictions despite airing on the much more permissible HBO Max. Still, "Veep" and "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" share a streaming home, so it's fair game ... and sorry, but "Veep" is so much funnier. Created by Armando Ianucci (with David Mandel taking over as showrunner starting in Season 5), "Veep" ran for seven seasons between 2012 and 2019 and stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, the titular vice president who spends most of her time asking if the unseen president has called. (Every time Selina asks her intrepid assistant Sue Wilson, played by the deadpan Sufe Bradshaw, if the president has called, the answer is "no.")

Selina is as cruel as she is utterly incompetent, and across the board and through every single one of its characters, "Veep" presents a terrifying and probably all too realistic vision of the people commandeering the country from Washington D.C. There's her conniving and power-hungry deputy director of communications Dan Egan (Reid McCormack), the initially annoying and ultimately evil White House liaison Jonah Ryan (Timorhy Simons), Selina's perpetually stressed-out chief of staff Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky), and, of course, Selina's loyal and obsessive "bag man" Gary Walsh (Tony Hale). Together, this band of miscreants pulls the levers of power, especially as Selina rises to the highest office in the land (and falls, and rises, and falls again, and so on and so forth). The ending of "Veep" is as stunning as it is well-earned, and if you can handle some particularly cruel comedy, you're in for a treat with "Veep," which is acidic and laugh-out-loud funny from beginning to end.

Created by Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky, and Paul W. Downs (the last of which plays an integral role on the series to boot), "Hacks" is one of the most gorgeously emotional, brilliantly acted, and well-plotted shows in recent memory. It's also hysterically funny. When we first meet aging stand-up comedienne Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), a figure modeled at least in part on Joan Rivers, she's leading a sparsely attended and frankly boring Las Vegas residency while raking in millions through product lines on QVC. To help revitalize her image and help her write new material, her agent Jimmy LuSaque Jr. (Downs) insists that Deborah work with the super-woke zillennial writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), who finds herself persona non grata in Los Angeles after a series of insensitive social media posts surface. To say the women don't get along at first is a massive understatement; in fact, most of "Hacks," save for its pitch-perfect final season, sees Deborah and Ava at odds. What they ultimately realize, though, is that the work they make together is actually great.

Einbinder and Smart have both, deservedly, won Emmys for their role, and the series has also taken home a few trophies for outstanding comedy series; it's a rare series that's pretty universally liked, though we will warn you that it takes some seriously emotional twists and turns throughout its run. (Seriously, have tissues nearby during a binge-watch.) With standout supporting turns from Downs, Meg Stalter (as Jimmy's deranged cohort Kayla Schaefer), Carl Clemons-Hopkins (as Deborah's COO Marcus Vaughan), and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" star Kaitlin Olson as Deborah's difficult daughter Deborah Jr., "Hacks" is just perfect from beginning to end. "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" is fine, but "Hacks" is top-tier HBO.

One of the most quietly hysterical HBO comedies ever made — and one of the sweetest without question — is "Somebody Somewhere," created by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen. Bridget Everett, whom you might recognize from guest spots on shows like "Inside Amy Schumer" and small roles in films like "Trainwreck," tones down her typically abrasive comedic persona for the role of Sam Miller, a woman who moves back to her small hometown of Manhattan, Kansas to help take care of her terminally ill sister. "Somebody Somewhere" wisely sets the narrative right after Sam's sister passes away, though; rather than beginning the story during the most tragic time of Sam's life, it watches as she remains in the Midwestern Manhattan and picks up the pieces.

During her time in Manhattan, Sam is joined by friends like Joel (Emmy Award-winning TV stalwart Jeff Hiller), her remaining sister Tricia Miller (Mary Catherine Garrison) who runs an odd little trinket store, her farmer dad Ed Miller (Mike Hagerty), and her troubled mom Mary Jo "MJ" Miller (Jane Drake Brody). "Somebody Somewhere" is funny, mean, heartwarming, and gorgeously performed by every single actor involved ... and throughout its three seasons, which ran from 2022 to 2024, it is, with all due respect, a heck of a lot better than "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe."

If you've ever quoted an "I Think You Should Leave" sketch or episode — or perhaps, passed around that one meme of a guy in a hot dog costume yelling that they've got to "find the guy who did this" — you absolutely cannot miss "The Chair Company," Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin's absolutely deranged office comedy-drama that stars Robinson as a guy obsessed with ... the origin of an office chair. After Robinson's Ron Trosper, a project manager at a real estate firm called Fisher Robay, has an embarrassing incident during a major presentation where an office chair collapses underneath him and makes him look really silly, he moves on and never addresses the incident again because he's extremely well-adjusted. Just kidding! That's the opposite of what Ron does. In classic Robinson fashion, the character develops a sick obsession with who made the faulty chair and why it collapsed in the first place, but in the process, Ron discovers what might actually be a wide-ranging conspiracy characterized by several bizarre happenings, including Ron's family being stalked in their home by a guy in a Jason Voorhees mask and, somehow, telekinesis.

With Lake Bell as Ron's loyal but baffled wife Barb, Sophia Lillis as Ron's engaged daughter who's confused and hurt by her father's recent and bizarre behavior, and total newcomer Joseph Tudisco (who is astoundingly good) as Ron's unlikely new ally Mike Santini, "The Chair Company" is an absolutely wild ride from start to finish ... and if you like "I Think You Should Leave" or the Robinson-Andrew DeYoung movie "Friendship," "The Chair Company" is right up your alley. "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" tries a little too hard to be subversive and weird; "The Chair Company" earns both of those descriptors effortlessly.

In order to watch "Curb Your Enthusiasm," you have to have a pretty high tolerance for cringe comedy ... because, all things considered, this mostly-improvised HBO comedy series is one of the cringiest television shows in the history of the entire medium. After making millions creating "Seinfeld," comedian, actor, writer, and producer Larry David — who famously based Jason Alexander's "Seinfeld" miscreant George Costanza partially on himself — decided to turn the camera inward with "Curb Your Enthusiasm," a series that stars David as, well, himself. So what makes it so cringy?

Put it this way: the "fictional" version of David on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" — let's call him Larry — will, without fail, make the worst possible decision in any given situation. He steals flowers from a funeral. He opens a "spite store" next to a popular coffee shop to try to get the coffee shop to fail. He refuses to give a kidney to his longtime friend Richard Lewis (playing himself), he tries to break up with a lover right before she gets a cancer diagnosis so he doesn't have to deal with it, and he gets his therapist arrested. Larry sucks, but that's the joy of this series; you can always bet that Larry will do the worst thing possible at any moment.

With a structure that allows actors to freely improvise, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Garlin, and Susie Essman as Larry's wife turned ex-wife Cheryl, agent Jeff Greene, and Jeff's wife Susie (respectively) all shine, as do people "playing" twisted real-life versions of themselves like Lewis, Ted Danson, Jon Hamm, and Wanda Sykes (just to name a few). "Curb Your Enthusiasm" can be a tricky watch, but it's worth it. All of these shows, including "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe," are streaming on HBO Max now.