There’s no shortage of shows to watch on Max — there just isn’t as much scripted content as there used to be. The Discovery side of Warner Bros. Discovery is flooding Max’s lineup with reality programing and more spinoffs of 90 Day Fiancé than we can easily keep track of without a flow chart.
The good news is that there are still some great shows on Max that are a welcome oasis within this desert of reality programing. That’s why we’ve chosen three underrated shows on Max that you need to watch in March. Our picks include a wild medical series set at the turn of the 20th century, a tense miniseries, and a sci-fi drama that really deserves a second chance to breakout.
The Knick (2014-2015)
Is it possible to be a rock star surgeon? If so, Dr. John W. “Thack” Thackery (Clive Owen) lives up to that billing in The Knick, a medical drama that takes place in 1900 at New York’s famous Knickerbocker Hospital. Steven Soderbergh directed and executive produced this series, which ran for two seasons and presents Thackery as a surgeon who is years ahead of his time. He’s also hopelessly addicted to cocaine and opium.
The show also focuses on Dr. Algernon C. Edwards (André Holland), a brilliant assistant chief surgeon at the Knick who faces rampant bigotry simply because he is African American. Thackery is among Edwards’ most prominent detractors, which sets up a battle of wills between the two men as Edwards resists pressure to resign from his post. Instead, Edwards secretly begins treating Black and poor patients in his own makeshift clinic from the Knick’s basement.
Watch The Knick on Max.
The Girl Before (2021)
Surface‘s Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars in The Girl Before as Jane Cavendish, but the titular character is actually Emma Matthews (Jessica Plummer). The thing that unites these two women who have never met is that they both rented the same house from an eccentric architect, Edward (David Oyelowo), three years apart.
Edward’s house comes at a great price, with multiple restrictions including a ban on children and minimal personal belongings. Through the two different time frames, viewers see how Edward inserted himself into the lives of both Emma and Jane, first as a friend and then as a lover. But as Jane learns that Emma met a dark fate, she is forced to wonder whether she will meet a bad end as well.
Watch The Girl Before on Max.
Fringe (2008-2013)
Fringe was essentially the next generation of The X-Files — it just wasn’t appreciated during its five-season run on Fox. Anna Torv leads the series as Olivia Dunham, an FBI agent who is desperate to save her lover, John Scott (Mark Valley), from an unknown toxin. To that end, Olivia blackmails Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) into allowing his institutionalized father, Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble), to use his scientific knowledge to provide a solution.
Although the case ends badly for Olivia, she is convinced to work alongside the Bishops in the FBI’s Fringe division in order to solve unusual crimes. Doppelgangers, plagues, time travel, parallel universes, and the end of the world are all in play. And unlike The X-Files, Fringe actually gets to close out the series with a meaningful conclusion.
Watch Fringe on Max.
