Every HBO show ranked from worst to best, according to critics

Although HBO has made attempts to separate itself from that thing we call television ("it's not TV, it's HBO"), the premium cable network has brought us some of the greatest TV of all time throughout its history of original programming, which started in the early '80s - from "The Sopranos" to "Game of Thrones."

Since HBO's list of original programming is so good, we decided to rank its shows according to their ratings on Metacritic, which aggregates critics' reviews and assigns each season of a show a score. (For shows with multiple seasons, we averaged their scores.)

The list is competitive. But like any other television network, HBO has released some stinkers in its lifetime.

(Note: We left off animated, children's, documentary/reality, and foreign programming as well as miniseries, with a few notable exceptions.)

Here's how HBO's shows rank from worst to best, according to critics on Metacritic: