HBO Max is doing just fine. It closed out 2025 with roughly 130 million global subscribers, and its library boasts more than 2,000 movies and 580 shows—including some of the greatest of all time. Unfortunately, what that often means is 20 minutes of scrolling for something to watch before just giving up and watching Game of Thrones again.
I’ve got a suggestion, though—watch a documentary. They’re real and often way crazier than fiction, and HBO Max has a boatload of them. For this weekend, I’ve zeroed in on three trending docs worthy of your time: a warts-and-all portrait of one of SNL’s OG stars, an exposé of the most dangerous amusement park ever created, and the tragic deep-dive into the turbulent life of grunge’s crowned king.
3
I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not (2025)
The complicated life and career of an SNL legend
Different generations know comedy icon Chevy Chase for different things. Some were lucky enough to witness him falling down stairs or manning the Weekend Update desk as one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live. Others, like me, were first introduced to Chase as Clark Griswold in the classic Vacation movies, or better yet, his brilliance in Caddyshack or Fletch. Or maybe you’re a bot younger and met him as Community‘s prickly Pierce Hawthorne.
However you like your Chevy, this revealing CNN Films documentary, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, chronicles the life and career of the polarizing living legend, through the ups, downs, and everything in between. The 97-minute feature doc, from Marina Zenovich, the director behind other in-depth documentaries on big names like Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, and Lance Armstrong, examines Chase’s famously abrasive personality that made him a pariah in the industry—Zenovich has called him one of the rudest subjects she’s ever interviewed.
Using interviews with Chase himself, his family, and a ton of celebrity friends like Goldie Hawn, Lorne Michaels, his Three Amigos costar Martin Short, Ryan Reynolds, and nearly the entire cast of Community, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, is eye-opening, honest, and totally compelling, more than earning its 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Quiz
8 Questions · Test Your Knowledge
Succession or Game of Thrones: Who said it?
Trivia challenge
Power, betrayal, and cutting one-liners — can you tell the Roy family from the Lannisters?
Power PlaysFamily DramaRuthlessnessQuotesScheming
Begin
Which character said: “I am not going to be one of those people who goes around bleeding all over everyone”?
ALogan Roy in SuccessionBCersei Lannister in Game of ThronesCShiv Roy in SuccessionDLittlefinger in Game of Thrones
Correct! Logan Roy delivers this chilling line, perfectly encapsulating his philosophy of emotional suppression and dominance. It tells you everything about why his children are so psychologically wrecked — vulnerability was simply not permitted in the Roy household.
Not quite — this is Logan Roy in Succession. The line captures his core ethos: weakness is contagion, and he refuses to catch it. It’s one of the most revealing things he ever says, which is precisely why it hits so hard.
Continue
Who delivered the memorable line: “A lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinions of sheep”?
ALogan Roy in SuccessionBTywin Lannister in Game of ThronesCKendall Roy in SuccessionDCersei Lannister in Game of Thrones
Correct! Tywin Lannister says this to Joffrey, and it’s quintessential Tywin — cold, patrician, and utterly convinced of his family’s supremacy. The irony, of course, is that Tywin spent enormous energy worrying about exactly that kind of opinion.
Not quite — this is Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones. It’s one of his most quoted lines, delivered with characteristic disdain. Interestingly, Logan Roy could have said something very similar, which shows just how much these two patriarch archetypes overlap.
Continue
Which character told their child: “You are not serious people”?
ATywin Lannister in Game of ThronesBLogan Roy in SuccessionCCersei Lannister in Game of ThronesDTom Wambsgans in Succession
Correct! Logan Roy wields this phrase like a weapon against his children throughout Succession, and it becomes one of the show’s most devastating refrains. The tragedy is that the Roy children spend the entire series trying — and failing — to prove him wrong.
That’s not right — this crushing dismissal belongs to Logan Roy in Succession. He uses it repeatedly to undermine his children’s confidence and keep them dependent on his approval. Few TV lines have done more psychological damage in fewer words.
Continue
Who said: “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder”?
ARoman Roy in SuccessionBVarys in Game of ThronesCLittlefinger in Game of ThronesDGerri Kellman in Succession
Correct! Littlefinger, born Petyr Baelish, delivers this monologue in one of Game of Thrones’ most celebrated scenes. It perfectly encapsulates his worldview — while others see disorder as a threat, he sees it as the very mechanism of his ascent.
Not quite — this is Littlefinger’s iconic speech in Game of Thrones. It stands as one of the show’s most quoted moments because it so nakedly articulates the opportunist’s creed. Roman Roy would probably find it relatable, even if he’d make a joke about it.
Continue
Which character said: “I will hurt you if you go against me”?
ACersei Lannister in Game of ThronesBLogan Roy in SuccessionCTywin Lannister in Game of ThronesDKendall Roy in Succession
Correct! Logan Roy says this with a simplicity that makes it more terrifying than any elaborate threat. It’s the kind of blunt menace that defines his character — no poetry, no performance, just a promise delivered like a fact of nature.
Not quite — this straightforward threat comes from Logan Roy in Succession. His genius as a villain is that he rarely bothers with elaborate intimidation. A simple, quiet statement of intent from Logan carries more weight than a monologue from almost anyone else.
Continue
Who said: “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die”?
ATywin Lannister in Game of ThronesBLogan Roy in SuccessionCCersei Lannister in Game of ThronesDDaenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones
Correct! Cersei Lannister delivers this line to Ned Stark in Season 1, and it essentially serves as the thesis statement for the entire series. She’s also, in a grim twist, warning him — though Ned famously refuses to heed it.
Not quite — this is Cersei Lannister speaking to Ned Stark early in Game of Thrones Season 1. It’s practically the show’s mission statement, and it’s one of the few moments where Cersei is giving someone a genuine, if ruthless, heads-up about how Westeros works.
Continue
Which scheming character said: “I’m not in the business of friendship. I’m in the business of business”?
ALogan Roy in SuccessionBTywin Lannister in Game of ThronesCCersei Lannister in Game of ThronesDTom Wambsgans in Succession
Correct! This is classic Logan Roy — stripping human connection down to a transactional frame. It’s funny and chilling in equal measure, and it explains why every relationship in his orbit eventually becomes a negotiation rather than a bond.
That’s not right — this is Logan Roy from Succession. It’s a line that sounds almost like a parody of corporate ruthlessness, yet Logan means it completely. It’s the kind of quote that makes Succession so effective: the comedy and the horror arrive in the same breath.
Continue
Who said: “Any man who must say ‘I am the king’ is no true king”?
ALogan Roy in SuccessionBRobert Baratheon in Game of ThronesCTywin Lannister in Game of ThronesDStannis Baratheon in Game of Thrones
Correct! Tywin Lannister says this to the boy-king Joffrey, and it’s a masterclass in patrician contempt. Tywin understood that real authority doesn’t announce itself — it simply acts, and others comply. It’s also a brutal indictment of Joffrey’s entire style of rule.
Not quite — this is Tywin Lannister dressing down Joffrey in Game of Thrones. It’s one of the most satisfying scenes in the show, watching the most powerful man in Westeros calmly explain power to someone who only performs it. Logan Roy, notably, never had to say he was king either.
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2
Class Action Park (2020)
The unbelievable story of New Jersey’s deadly amusement park
One of the greatest, funniest, and most shocking documentaries I’ve ever seen, Class Action Park is the gobsmacking account of the infamous and deadly playground of New Jersey Gen-Xers in the ’80s and ’90s—Action Point amusement and water park. The brainchild of shady entrepreneur and developer Eugene Mulvihill, often called “berserk Willy Wonka,” the Vernon Township park with “no rules” is a dichotomy of fond Gen-X nostalgia but also mired in tragedy, including at least six documented deaths. Six Flags it was not.
When I saw this insane documentary when it was first released in 2020, there was a section so crazy it’s stuck with me—and kind of sums it all up. It tells the story of how Mulvihill, with not a shred of engineering experience, scribbled the design for the deadly Cannonball Loop waterslide (yes, it literally looped upside down) on a napkin and told his builders to just make it happen. It was then tested by sending weighted dummies down the slide, which would come out the other side with their heads torn off. Mulvihill then started offering park employees $100 cash to ride it themselves. The carnage was so bad that ot was shut down after a month.
That’s just a taste of the carnage and shady dealings at Action Park, a.k.a. “Traction Park,” a.k.a. “Accident Park.” Told using some incredible ’80s-soaked archival footage, creative animations, and interviews from patrons (including Jimmy Kimmel) and former employees, and beautifully narrated by John Hodgman, this 96% rated documentary is a must-watch.
1
Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
An intimate, unflinching portrait of grunge’s tragic genius
Like a lot of kids of my generation, I remember exactly where I was on April 8, 1994, the day Kurt Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home. And like many more, he was a hero of mine. In his suicide note that his widow, Courtney Love, read at his public memorial a couple days later, Cobain quoted the famous line from Neil Young’s Hey Hey, My My—”It’s better to burn out than to fade away,” a line that will keep ringing in your ears as you watch Brett Morgen’s definitive portrait of the tortured Nirvana frontman, Cobain: Montage of Heck.
The first film about Cobain that was made with the full cooperation of his family, the two-hour doc traces Kurt’s life, from a child growing up in Aberdeen, Washington, and his complex and troubled relationship with his parents, to how he retreated to drawing, art, and songwriting to deal. Morgen uses rare home videos, beautifully rotoscoped animations, and archival footage to great effect as the story segues into Nirvana’s explosive rise to worldwide fame—something, as his mother Wendy shares with the camera, that Kurt was not ready for.
Morgen’s unprecedented access brings in candid and emotional interviews with those closest to Kurt, including his parents, Courtney Love, and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic with whom Kurt started Nirvana with. Dave Grohl, however, is one noticeable absence from the film. If you’re a fan of Cobain, Nirvana, the origins of Seattle’s pioneering grunge scene, or just someone fascinated by the genre or music history, Montage of Heck is required viewing.
Three wildly different subjects with some common threads—memorable stories and real-life characters you’ll be thinking about long after the credits roll. Hungry for more? How-To Geek posts weekly streaming roundups across every major platform to help you skip the scroll and hit play faster.
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