Forget Suits, HBO Max's New Legal Thriller Officially Deserves To Take Over The World
Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy.
Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones).
It looks as if USA's Suits has a new rival in the world of legal drama television. It's officially been seven years since the show came to a close after nine seasons and 134 episodes, but it has by no means been forgotten. Suits is widely regarded as one of the best and most successful legal dramas of the age, and what it lacks in realism it makes up for in purely delicious entertainment. This allowed the series to maintain consistently high critical performance throughout its run, and today, a 91% score is reflected on Rotten Tomatoes.
There have certainly been plenty of legal dramas to hit the scene in the years since Suits came to a close, many of which, including Better Call Saul and Presumed Innocent, are benchmarks of prestige TV. Still, these exist in a different sort of television realm than Suits. We're talking fast-paced, case-of-the-week, comfort-binge glossiness, and this sort of project (which consistently maintains excellent quality) isn't so easy to come by. It's not impossible, however, as demonstrated by HBO Max's truly exceptional legal drama, War.
Created by George Kay (Lupin, Criminal, Hijack), War is an anthology legal drama that kicked off on HBO (Sky Atlantic in the UK) on October 1, 2026, so the show itself is still in its infancy. The general idea here is that each season of War will revolve around a single, ongoing legal case, focusing in on the law firms representing the opposing sides. It's war in the courtroom, marked by the dramatic ins and outs of revelations on the stand, the intimate workings and relationships of the legal system, and more delicious drama and flair.
The first season of War is set around a messy divorce case between a millionaire entrepreneur and his movie star wife, played by Dominic West and Sienna Miller, respectively. While their conflict is certainly centralized, the drama is doubled by the face-offs between their representing London law firms. War season 1 is Cathcarts & Sons vs. Taylor & Byrne, and the chaos is only just getting started.
HBO Max's War Is Off To A Truly Exciting Start
As of this publication, HBO has released three episodes of the first season of War, with five remaining before the debut installment comes to a close. This naturally means it will be a little while before we know how much lasting power this series has, but it's certainly off to an excellent start. War might not be HBO Max's most advertised show, but it has quickly become a sleeper hit for the platform, currently ranking number one among TV shows in the United States this week (via Flix Patrol).
This isn't for nothing either. War currently holds an 88% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise targeted particularly at the show's luxurious messiness. It's marketed as prestige TV, and it certainly checks many of those boxes. However, War manages this while layering on those very Suits-like, guilty-pleasure qualities.
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Perhaps the most promising thing about War is its anthology format. These days (especially on HBO), TV shows with a self-contained seasonal arc begin as limited series before being expanded into an anthology series. War, on the other hand, is jumping right to the chase. Season 1 is currently on the air, but the already-confirmed season 2 is in the works and will reportedly center on two new rival law firms as they duke it out during a high-profile defamation case.
We will have to say goodbye to West and Miller, but War season 2 is already set up to introduce a new batch of exciting characters. Clearly, the powers that be already have a great deal of faith in this project, since the assumption is already that audiences will be eager for more. Given War's current trending status just a few episodes in, this appears to be a good all. Only time will tell, but, for now, we can easily make some room in our hearts right next to (or even above) Suits.
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An intense rivalry brews between elite London law firms Cathcarts and Taylor & Byrne, competing over high-stakes legal battles inspired by headline-making cases.
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Suits
7/10
- Release Date
- 2011 - 2019-00-00
- Network
- USA Network
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Gabriel Macht
Harvey Specter
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Rick Hoffman
Louis Litt
Suits is a legal drama series that premiered in 2011, centering on Mike Ross, a college dropout with a photographic memory who lands a job at a top New York law firm despite lacking a law degree. Partnering with one of the city's best legal closers, Harvey Specter, they navigate the challenges of high-stakes cases and firm dynamics.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.