Lists · 12 picks
The 12 Best Miniseries
A list by sufferwithme
Dekalog
I've never watched a more dramatic series. This series Kieślowski made for Polish television fills the viewer's heart with pain and takes it captive; it searches for the meaning of life. I especially recommend this series, which Kubrick spoke of with praise, to everyone. Each of the ten episodes starts from one of the Ten Commandments and tells the moral dilemmas of people living in the same housing estate in Warsaw. Two of the episodes were also shot by Kieślowski as feature films.
Chernobyl
This miniseries, which is quite striking, tells of the Chernobyl explosion in Pripyat and what came after. The atmosphere is so good that it's as if the events are happening again and we're watching them. Watch this series, which conveys the atmosphere of the accident and its aftermath very well. The five-episode series, written by Craig Mazin, centers on Valery Legasov's effort to uncover the real causes of the accident and won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series.
Band of Brothers
A beautiful war series. Adapted from Stephen Ambrose's book, the ten-episode series follows Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division from the Normandy landings to the end of the war. Produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, the series includes the testimonies of the company's real veterans at the start of each episode. It won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series.
Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter
A good series about the Second World War that portrays war psychology, the situation of women and families, and friendship very beautifully. The three-episode German miniseries tells how five young friends who say goodbye in Berlin in 1941 are changed by the war: two brothers go to the Eastern Front, one becomes a nurse, one wants to be a singer, and a Jewish friend is forced into hiding. Broadcast on ZDF, the series sparked a wide debate in Germany about the responsibility of the war generation. Its English title is Generation War.
Das Boot
An impressive and realistic miniseries about what mostly novice soldiers experience in war on a German submarine in the Second World War. It is the long television version of the production Wolfgang Petersen made from Lothar-Günther Buchheim's novel. It tells the U-96 submarine's patrol in the Atlantic with tension in cramped and suffocating interiors. It shows the war through the eyes of the German crew, as a struggle for survival rather than heroism.
Pride and Prejudice
The six-episode series adaptation of Jane Austen's unforgettable work Pride and Prejudice, made for BBC television in 1995. With a screenplay by Andrew Davies, the series stars Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. Preserving the novel's irony and class issues by spreading them across a six-episode narrative, the adaptation is considered the benchmark for Jane Austen adaptations. It aired on the BBC in 1995.
Over the Garden Wall
A good animated series with a very good fairy-tale atmosphere. It tells of two brothers named Wirt and Greg getting lost in the Unknown, a strange forest adrift in time. Created by Patrick McHale, the ten-episode miniseries aired on Cartoon Network and is short enough to watch in one sitting. With its autumn atmosphere, old American folk music and fairy-tale story, it has gained a cult following.
Dopesick
A good series. Dopesick takes viewers from the boardrooms of the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma to a troubled Virginia mining community and the corridors of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), to the epicenter of America's struggle with opioid addiction. In the eight-episode series, adapted by Danny Strong from Beth Macy's book, Michael Keaton plays a small-town doctor who believes the drug is safe. The series tells how addiction spread through a company's marketing decisions with stories set in different time periods.
The Haunting of Hill House
A good series. A fractured family moves back and forth between past and present; they confront unforgettable memories of their old house and the horrifying events that drove them away from it. It is a drama, horror and mystery series. Mike Flanagan's ten-episode loose adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel builds fear through grief and family trauma.
North & South
A romantic drama series that romance lovers will enjoy; watch the 2004 version. Adapted from the book, the series is about what Margaret Hale goes through after she is forced to move from Helstone, a calm and peaceful town in the south of England, to the northern industrial city of Milton, and her difficulty adjusting between these two different places and the values they represent. In the four-episode adaptation by Sandy Welch, Daniela Denby-Ashe plays Margaret Hale and Richard Armitage plays factory owner John Thornton. It tells of the conflict between worker and boss during the Industrial Revolution together with a love story.
The Night Of
A good crime, drama and mystery series. It deals with the investigation and trial process of a young Pakistani man named Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed) accused of murdering a girl. A miniseries. In the eight-episode production, adapted by Richard Price and Steven Zaillian from the BBC's Criminal Justice, John Turturro plays John Stone, the lawyer who takes on the case; Riz Ahmed won an Emmy for this role.
The Offer
Those who love The Godfather can watch this series, which tells of the making of The Godfather. The ten-episode series made for Paramount+ tells of producer Albert S. Ruddy's struggle to bring The Godfather to the big screen amid pressure from the studio, the mafia and censorship. In the series, in which Miles Teller plays Ruddy, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Evans and Mario Puzo are also characters. It is based on real events but dramatizes some scenes.