Entertainment
9 Most Bingeworthy Miniseries of All Time, Ranked
There is little question that we’re living in the age of miniseries. This genre of television consists of shows that don’t want to commit to multiple seasons, and, instead, opt to tell their story in one short season, usually running no more than 12 episodes. The miniseries gained widespread notoriety in 1977, when the TV adaptation of Alex Haley’s best-selling novel Roots became a ratings juggernaut for ABC and took home nine Primetime Emmy Awards.
While there have been numerous miniseries that have garnered both critical and audience praise over the years, the genre really hit its peak with the rise in streaming, which allowed services such as Netflix to create one-off programming that could easily be consumed in a weekend, and there is little to suggest that this will be changing anytime soon. So, to honor the miniseries that reshaped the TV landscape, here are the most bingeable series that you can watch over-and-over again, and never feel like you have to poke your eyeballs out.
9
‘Little Fires Everywhere’ (2020)
Let’s rewind the clock back to March 2020. As bad as that year was health-wise, 2020 was a great year for miniseries, as people were ordered to stay at home and protect themselves and their loved ones from the “Virus That Shall Not Be Named.” Everyone was searching for the best series to binge while passing the “two weeks” it would take to “flatten the curve” (no need to explain how that worked out), and during this time, people tuned in to an eight-episode Hulu drama called Little Fires Everywhere, based off of the 2017 novel by Celeste Ng that told the story of two Cleveland-area mothers (Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington) from different backgrounds and how their fates intertwined with one-another.
There was something both sad and uplifting about Little Fires Everywhere, and Liz Tigelaar and her team did a great job in weaving a story about loss, secrets, identity, and hope, all the while exposing the myth that following the rules of society can avert disaster. If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend you do. It’s a tear-jerker, and a surprisingly bingeable series that will have you ugly-crying for a week.
8
‘Black Bird’ (2022)
True crime shows were made for the miniseries format. The story structure is tight, it’s engaging, and can easily be told in a nice, six-to-12 episode-long season with binge-watching opportunities oozing through the screen. This perfectly describes Apple TV’s Black Bird, which premiered in 2022, and is (rightfully) considered among the best modern true crime miniseries of our era.
Based on the 2010 autobiography In with the Devil: a Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption by James Keene and Hilel Levin, Black Bird follows Keene, a once-promising football player who gets recruited by the FBI while serving time in prison. Although this is a fictionalized version of the story, the series doesn’t deviate much from the book, and why should it? The true story of Jimmy Keene is fascinating, and Dennis Lehane did a great job in staying true to the book. Let’s also give a standing ovation to Taron Egerton, who portrayed the talkative Keene masterfully.
7
‘Watchmen’ (2019)
When HBO announced that they were making a TV series on the DC Comic Watchmen, the first thing that came to my attention-deficit mind was “why?” Did they not see the box office disaster that was Zack Snyder‘s 2009 version (even though I personally like it)? Why would HBO feel they would have better success than Warner Bros. did? Thankfully, when I watched the first episode in October 2019, I happily ate my words. Creator Damon Lindelof did an incredible job bringing Watchmen to life, and it was crystal clear that the story was better told in a TV format.
HBO’s Watchmen was a remix of sorts to the comic that gave birth to it; and, in my opinion, that is what made it work so much better than Snyder’s big-budget flop. Lindelof set off to create a new story that still stayed true to the Watchman universe, and we can’t overlook the binge-watching quality this series has, which is off-the-charts.
6
‘The Night Of’ (2016)
As I mentioned earlier in the Black Bird entry, true crime is a genre that was made for the miniseries format, and no streaming service or network realizes this more than HBO. In 2016, they released The Night Of, an Americanized version of the famed British series Criminal Justice. Here, John Turturro stars as John Stone, a lawyer who is hired to represent Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed), a college student who is on trial for the murder of a woman on New York City’s Upper West Side.
The Night Of is filled with tension from the first episode to the series finale, and the cast is simply phenomenal, creating the tension that will grip you and won’t let go. No wonder this drama took home five Primetime Emmy Awards.
5
‘When They See Us’ (2019)
This Netflix drama is tough to watch, and you wouldn’t think that a series that is hard to swallow at times would make for a great bingeable series, but When They See Us is different. For starters, the topic is so unbelievable, it will take multiple views for everything to sink in. Created by Ava DuVernay, When They See Us is based on the real-life events of the Central Park 5, a group of five Black and latino males who were falsely accused and convicted of sexually assaulting a jogger in New York City’s Central Park.
The five were later exonerated and awarded a settlement from the city in 2014, but the miniseries does a good job of highlighting the injustices wrought by the judicial system against people of color. As mentioned earlier, When They See Us is tough to watch, especially for people of color like myself. It can be enraging, but it is a story that needed to be told, and DuVernay was the right person to tell it and bring this sad stain of judicial injustice back to light.
4
‘Adolescence’ (2025)
There is something rather chilling about watching a young child, who should be enjoying his youth, being questioned for murder. That was the feeling I got when I watched Adolescence, and it didn’t fade after watching the final episode. So, I watched it again. And again. And again.
Each time, it was just as chilling as the last. That’s how unsettling this psychological drama is, and also what makes it great. With each episode being shot in just one take, you really get a sense of just how intense and dreadful the search for the truth was. The spectacular cast really goes in and turns out captivating and chilling performances that will make your spine shiver.
3
‘WandaVision’ (2021)
What can you say about the MCU shows that haven’t already been said? They are not up to the same quality as the movies are (well, were), and most have been a bust, except for WandaVision. Released in 2021, WandaVision is one of the rare MCU shows that was actually worth watching. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany didn’t cut corners here, and give A+ performances reprising their roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision.
One of the ways WandaVision set itself apart from its counterparts was the way the showrunners and writers used sitcom tropes to tell its story. In fact, I’ll go to my grave professing that the pilot episode, “Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience,” is one of the best pilot episodes ever, and it set the series up for a tremendous finish. Thank God the producers didn’t make this a multiple-season show, it would have totally ruined the vibes.
2
‘Sharp Objects’ (2018)
OK, I’m going to do a hot take here. Sharp Objects stands on the same pedestal as Oz, Band of Brothers and The Wire as one of HBO’s greatest original series, and I stand on business with that. There is just something unique and thrilling about this Marti Noxon-created psychological drama that will have you keeping your hands off of the remote.
Based on the Gillian Flynn novel of the same name, Sharp Objects follows a troubled reporter, Camille (Amy Adams), who heads back to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri to investigate the murder of two young girls. But this isn’t an ordinary reporting assignment for Camille, as she’s also forced to confront personal demons that she thought she long left behind when she left Wind Gap. Adams’ performance as Camille is truly spectacular, and it seems as if this role was specifically made with her in mind. Sharp Objects is dark, grim, and foreboding, and will leave you truly transfixed by this series for its entire eight-episode length.
1
‘Band of Brothers’ (2001)
For a war drama that premiered 25 years ago, Band of Brothers still gets praised as one of the best war shows of its time, and one of the best shows ever made, and it deserves that praise and then some. Created by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, Band of Brothers follows a parachute unit during World War II as they train and head into battle to help the Allies defeat the Axis powers.
What makes Band of Brothers such a great miniseries is how real it all feels. It’s like we are right there on the field with East Company, experiencing everything they’re going through, and the hurdles they have to overcome while fighting in the war. All the events in Band of Brothers were based on actual events that happened during World War II, and everyone, from the cast to the crew, treated the source material with the respect it deserves. I’ll argue that Band of Brothers is just as, if not better, than any war movie, and if you’re looking for a show to binge-watch, this, along with the other shows on this list, should be teed up for your viewing pleasure.
Band of Brothers
- Release Date
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2001 – 2001
- Network
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HBO
- Directors
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David Frankel, David Nutter, Mikael Salomon, Phil Alden Robinson, Richard Loncraine, Tom Hanks
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Donnie Wahlberg
C. Carwood Lipton
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