HBO Max is mixing prestige, horsepower, and hilarity in a single week, headlined by a fresh Game of Thrones prequel, a new season of Street Outlaws spinoff Locals Only, and a two-part celebration of Mel Brooks. It’s a compact slate, but it hits three distinct fanbases—fantasy diehards, gearheads, and comedy devotees—while underscoring HBO Max’s strategy of pairing buzzy tentpoles with reliable unscripted and documentary fare from its broader Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio.
Return To Westeros With A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
The next trip to Westeros adapts George R.R. Martin’s beloved Tales of Dunk and Egg, tracking the early adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and a boy who will one day become King Aegon V. Expect a more intimate, on-the-road story than past Thrones entries—a mentor-and-squire odyssey with duels, smallfolk politics, and the kind of sardonic humor that long-time readers know well.
House of the Dragon proved the franchise’s staying power—HBO reported more than 29 million viewers per episode across platforms for its first season—so momentum is real. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms taps directors like Owen Harris and Sarah Adina Smith to shape a tone that balances warmth with Thrones-caliber stakes. Fantasy fans who crave worldbuilding without an avalanche of warring factions should find this a welcoming on-ramp.
Insider tip: Keep an eye on heraldry and family names sprinkled across the journey. Martin’s novellas reward attentive viewers with connective tissue that later echoes through Targaryen lore. The series carries a TV-MA rating, but early chatter from production suggests fewer scorched-earth set pieces and more character-forward storytelling.
Street Outlaws: Locals Only Revs Up Season 2
Farmtruck and AZN hit the highway again to scout regional street racing scenes, crown local champs, and then put those winners up against their own crew in winner-take-all showdowns. The format remains lean, high-octane, and proudly blue-collar—precisely why the Street Outlaws universe has anchored Discovery’s unscripted lineup for more than a decade.
If you’re new to the spinoff, Locals Only trims away big-budget builds in favor of community bragging rights and $5,000 stakes, letting skill and street-savvy tuning shine. Viewer sentiment has historically been split—IMDb users have rated the series in the mid-5s—but the core audience shows up for authentic regional matchups and the chemistry of its hosts. Expect a TV-MA label and camera work that puts you inches off the tarmac.
Programming-wise, this is smart counterprogramming beside the Thrones prequel: one premium scripted series to anchor the week and one adrenaline-fueled unscripted cycle to drive nightly engagement.
Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man Takes a Bow
Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio helm a two-part docuseries that honors the singular comic engine of Mel Brooks, an EGOT whose résumé spans The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs. Few artists have warped American comedy—and then mainstreamed that warp—like Brooks. The series assembles a who’s who of collaborators and admirers to unpack why his jokes endure and how he smuggled sharp social commentary into broad farce.
For context, Brooks joined the very short list of EGOTs in 2001, propelled by the stage revival of The Producers, and his films have been recognized by institutions such as the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. A TV-14 rating makes this the most family-friendly headliner of the week, and it doubles as a primer on how boundary-pushing comedy ages in an era of shifting sensibilities.
Expect craft, not hagiography: Apatow’s documentary work tends to dwell on process, survivorship, and the mechanics of funny, using archival footage to let the subject’s instincts speak for themselves.
Also New on HBO Max This Week: House Hunters and more
Reality staple House Hunters continues its seemingly endless run with a new batch of episodes, the kind of lean-in background TV that still drives outsized completion rates across lifestyle programming, according to recurring reports from Nielsen’s streaming charts. It’s steady counterprogramming alongside genre-heavy headliners.
There’s also A Knight in the Making, a companion piece that’s poised to spotlight production design, stunts, and the literary roots of the new Thrones prequel. If you enjoy the lore, this side series is a smart pairing before or after each episode to deepen the viewing.
What to Watch First on HBO Max This Week
Start with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to ride the cultural conversation, then cue up Mel Brooks to reset your palate with laugh-out-loud history. Save Street Outlaws: Locals Only for a late-night jolt, and use House Hunters as the evergreen filler between tentpoles. It’s a compact week, but HBO Max’s blend of fantasy, factual, and fast cars shows how a streamer can still program like a network—one anchor, one counterpunch, one evergreen—while giving each audience something specific to rally around.
