Your Favorite Miniseries
 

What are your three favorite miniseries? (or as many as you want to list)

First, we have to define exactly what a miniseries is. We’ll go with this definition (from Wiki). “ In the United States, a miniseries is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. A miniseries is distinguished from an ongoing television series because the latter does not usually have a predetermined number of episodes and may continue for several years.

As far as the Emmy Awards are concerned (not that it really matters) they dropped the term “Miniseries” and use the term “Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.” These shows must have two or more episodes, with a total running time of at least 150 minutes, as well as must tell a complete, non-recurring story, and not have an ongoing storyline or the same main characters in subsequent seasons.

The current holder of the award is “Baby Reindeer” (2024). Note that season one of the White Lotus did win in 2022. This show qualifies even though it has multiple seasons because there’s (almost) a different set of characters in each season. Here’s a list of the winners (in yellow) and runners-up since the award has been instituted in 1973:

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series - Wikipedia


I notice that it has two of the three shows that are my favorites. I’ll list them, as well as why I like them, soon, but feel free to start us off if you want. (I noticed that many miniseries have already been mentioned in this forum in different threads but feel free to mention them again along with the reason you like them.)

Band of Brothers .
Fargo.
Lonesome Dove.
The Pacific .
Shogun.

Reacher
Fargo
Jack Ryan

Honorable mention- Mr. In between

Also really liked Downton Abbey.

The Wire
The Crown
Any of the true crime ones
Mathewsons
Ozark
Justified
Duck Dynasty
Landman
Delhi Crime
Downton Abbey
Mayor of Kingstown

Shogun
Reacher
Jack Ryan

Don’t know if these qualify as miniseries or tv shows. Sopranos, Ozark, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, Animal Kingdom and The Recruit. The Recruit definitely qualifies. Watching Suits currently

Shogun
Band of Brothers
The Wire (not really mini)
The Unit (not really mini)
Landman
Madmen (not really mini)

Blasts from the past
 

dark shadows
have gun will travel
mission impossible

Blacklist
Suits
Outlander
Sons of Anarchy

When a series runs for too many seasons, it gets boring, such as Lost.

I got lost trying to follow Lost .

The Gilded Age; Handmaids Tale; The Bear

By miniseries I assume you mean 1 season and done, so…

DEVS, on Hulu I think
Adolescence (recent)
Presumed Innocent
The Night Manager
Chernobyl
The Jackal ( recent version)
The Pitt
Under the Banner of Heaven

Many seasons
Scott & Bailey (Britbox)
Homeland
Breaking Bad

Dexter, Breaking Bad, The Gilded Age, The Good Wife, Sopranos, Godless.

Thanks for posting this link to Award winning Miniseries! It is very helpful!
 

My most recently watched favorites are:

CLARKSON'S FARM (Prime)
PRISON BREAK. (Netflix)
FAUDA

Dune

The Handmaids Tale, Queen of the South, Outlander, King of Tulsa, Lincoln Lawyer, 1923. Watching animal kingdom right now

Mini series
 

Many have listed actual full season series rather than mini series. My top 3 mini series are Rich Man Poor Man, The Thor birds, and Shogun.

Thornbirds

Favorite mini-series
 

Civil War by Ken Burns
Centennial
Baseball by Ken Burns
Shogun

Extraordinary Attorney Woo
TrueBlood
The Tudors
Downton Abbey
Orphan Black
Vikings and Vikings Valhalla
The Last Kingdom
Pride and Prejudice (1980 version)

some other mini series I enjoyed
 

The good witch
NYPD Blue
In the heat of the night
Everwood

The Good Wife
The Good Fight
Suits
Matlock 2024
Damages with Glenn Close is my all time favorite

Ken Burns has a new series coming out. Home - Ken Burns Home - Ken Burns


The American Revolution - The Better Angels Society The American Revolution - The Better Angels Society

I see a LOT of series (Lost, Dexter, Sopranos, The Wires, etc. ) being listed here that, by definition, are not mini-series. That said...

Godless an outstanding mini-series western that came to mind immediately when I read this thread.

An honorable mentions would be The Stand (the 90's version -- not the new one).

On that note, when we will all admit that the series paradigm (not so new, really) has morphed into the equivalent of nighttime soap operas. That's what a lot of these long-rerunning series seem to be, IMHO. The biggest of these? Grey's Anatomy. How, on earth, is that show still running? LOL!!

Mare of Easttown
Broadchurch

Among my favorites that come quickly to mind
are: Breaking Bad; Game of Thrones; Roots; Money Heist; Winds of War; 1883; and Teheran.

Lonesome Dove
Don't f**k With Cats.
Nightstalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer

All of these are MINIseries, not simply TV Series, of which I have other favorites as do other judging by many of the misguided posts above.

Once an Eagle
Yellowstone

I am pretty sure The Jackal is returning. They left a lot of the story hanging.

It is hard to define a series as there are so many variations of these .


Seinfeld is a fully developed series.


35 Best Limited Series on Netflix 35 Best Limited Series on Netflix

Lonesome Dove
24
Better Call Saul

The Queens Gambit

Miniseries
 

Paradise
Reacher
Anne with an E
Several others, I am sure.

All wonderful:

Downton Abbey
Outlander
Ozark
Suits

What are your three favorite miniseries?
 

Roots
Lonesome Dove
Shogun

Minis
 

Band of Brothers
Roots
Lonesome Dove

I just got bored watching lost

Ooooh, this was very good also!

Band of Brothers. Fargo, Lonesome Dove, Shogun, OA, Roots, Blind Ambition, Winds of War, Lincoln, Bourne, The Stand, The Shining, In Cold Blood, Hiroshima, Nuremberg, Taken, Traffic, Elvis, Into the West, John Adams, The Adromeda Strain, The Pacific, Roots, Watchmen, The Queen's Gambit, Mare of Easttown, Daisy Jones and the Six, Obi-Wan Kenobi, True Detective: Night Country season 4, Stranger Things, Raised By Wolves 1 and 2, Black Mirror, The Expanse, Avenue 5 and best of all .....Fallout.