I got a free trial once. What a filthy bunch of trash. There was some show listed in the guide about some sex thing or another. Figured I had to check it out just to make sure the kids didn't stumble across it, you know. It was a documentary sort of thing on the sexual proclivities of extremely ugly and perverse people.
The people that produced and participated in this show are worst examples of humanity imaginable. The took a fabulous topic like sex and made it hurt. HBO, more than even hard core porn, is the bottom of the cultural barrel; except maybe for Starz.
My parents got HBO in the 1970s when cable first reached our neighborhood and it was the first pre-TV-broadcast-of-(uncut) movies channel as the name suggests and was great to have at the time.
Back 2004-2006 I enjoyed Deadwood and Rome on HBO, both drama-historical series that didn't have the limitations of TV. I never really liked Sopranos but watched it sometimes. After that, most I saw was crap and liberal victim stuff and cancelled it for plain movies channels. I absolutely hated Mahar, he claimed to be libertarian but sounds socialist to me.
I found the Tudor on Showtime and loved it.