Miniseries or limited series TV shows have a specific number of episodes which is viable for people who get tired of watching shows that have never-ending seasons and ever-arching plotlines. Some of the best miniseries to watch today are available to stream on HBO, which makes it easy for one to stream and watch everything in one place.
From the ground-breaking sensational series ‘Chernobyl,’ to the bewitching cast and plot of ‘Big Little Lies’, HBO is home to original miniseries which are popular among viewers and highly appreciated by critics.
So, browse through this list of 20 best miniseries and get streaming.
Band of Brothers
Band of Brothers is a war drama series starring Kirk Acevedo, Eion Bailey, and Michael Cudlitz. The miniseries follows Richard Winters, the paratrooper in Easy Company, and other men who embark on a journey to complete the company’s mission in the beginning of 1942 after their training till the end of World War II.
Chernobyl
Chernobyl is a tragic history drama starring Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, and Paul Ritter. The miniseries follows the tragic nuclear plant explosion in Pripyat, a city in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. The format of the show incorporates interviews and accounts of the first responders at the scene of the tragedy which includes firefighters, volunteers and some miners who helped dig a tunnel hole under the reactor.
Sharp Objects
Sharp Objects is a psychological thriller series starring Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, and Chris Messina. The miniseries follows Camille Parker, a crime reporter and a recovering alcoholic who after a stint in a psychiatric hospital returns to live with her mother to investigate a strange case of two missing women.
Angels in America
Angels in America is a political fantasy drama series starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Patrick Wilson. In 1985, Prior Walter is diagnosed with AIDS after which his partner leaves him. Dying of the disease, Prior dreams of an angels who visits him to become a prophet.
Watchmen
Watchmen is a dystopian drama series starring Regina King, Don Johnson and Tim Blake Nelson. After the attack by the Seventh Cavalry on police officers who worked for the Tulsa police department, a law was passed for police to hide their identity by wearing a mask. Detective Angela Abar, a survivor of the attack and member of the rebuilt team finds herself facing the Seventh Cavalry again while some other sinister forces are also on the move.
Mare of Easttown
Mare of Easttown is a crime drama series starring Kate Winslet, Julianne Nicholson, and Jean Smart. Marianne “Mare” Sheehan, a detective in a small town of Philadelphia is something of a star status but it’s all been affected by her failure to solve a girl’s missing case for a year and her grandson’s custody battle when she has to investigate a teenage mother who is found murdered.
True Detective
True Detective is an anthology crime drama starring Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, and Michelle Monaghan. The miniseries follows an anthology format where every season is dedicated to one crime story. The mystery of the crime cases revolves around genres of sci-fi and supernatural with tones of neo-noir and Gothic.
Big Little Lies
Big Little Lies is a mystery drama series starring Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Shailene Woodley. Three mothers: Madeline, Jane and Celeste, who are mothers of four first-graders become friends but on the very first day of school, Ziggy, Jane’s son is accused of choking another girl, throwing the kindergarten children and mothers into a frenzy.
Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great is a historical drama series starring Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, and Rory Kinnear. The miniseries follows Catherine II who married Peter III and became the empress of Russia. Later, along with a lover of hers, she orchestrated a coup d’état and usurped the throne to gain more power.
Mildred Pierce
Mildred Pierce is a period drama starring Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce and Evan Rachel Wood. Mildred Pierce, a divorced woman during the Great Depression tries to pick herself up by starting a restaurant business in the falling economy all the while trying to gain respect in the eyes of her elder daughter, Veda Pierce who has a narcissistic temperament.
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I is a historical drama starring Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons, and Patrick Malahide. The miniseries is divided into two parts, where the first part follows Queen Elizabeth I’s relationship with her favorite advisor, Earl of Leicester and the latter explores her relationship with the Earl of Essex, both of whom make a large part of her history and how they influenced her.
Show Me A Hero
Show Me A Hero is a legal and political drama starring Oscar Isaac, Bob Balaban, and Jim Belushi. Based on the true events, the miniseries follows Nick Wasicsko, the mayor of Yonkers, New Yorkers and its residents who stood in resistance against the federally mandated construction of scattered-site public housing units across the city.
Olive Kitteridge
Olive Kitteridge is a period drama starring Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, and Zoe Kazan. Olive Kitteridge, a retired school teacher, is married to a kind man, Henry Kitteridge who runs a pharmacy and they have a son together. The miniseries follows Olive in her daily life as she navigates interpersonal relationships, her marriage, and her depression with her own unique set of charming wit.
The Pacific
The Pacific is a war drama series starring James Badge Dale, Jon Seda, and Joseph Mazzello. The miniseries follows three United States Marine Corps officers: PFC. Robert Leckie, Cpl. Eugene Sledge and GySgt. John Basilone who belongs in different regiments but are on a mission to fight in the Pacific War.
The Young Pope
The Young Pope is a religious drama starring Jude Law, Diane Keaton and Silvio Orlando. After Lenny Belardo is elected as the new pope of the Catholic Church in the Vatican, his radical and quick changes with interference in local politics bring forth a plot to control him or stop him before he implements more ideas.
Generation Kill
Generation Kill is a war drama starring Alexander Skarsgård, James Ransone and Lee Tergesen. Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone news reporter and columnist is sent along with the US Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion on their mission Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Night Of
The Night Of is a crime drama series starring John Turturro, Riz Ahmed, and Bill Camp. John Stone, a disenchanted defense lawyer takes up the case of Naz, a young Pakistani man who is accused of murdering a woman after he is discovered with a knife that matches the crime scene investigation.
John Adams
John Adams is a biographical drama series starring Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, and Stephen Dillane. The miniseries follows John Adams, an upright and studious lawyer whose life began to change when he took up the case to defend several soldiers who were implicated by their commander, Captain Thomas Preston in the Boston Massacre.
The Corner
The Corner is a family drama series starring T. K. Carter, Khandi Alexander, and Sean Nelson. The miniseries, based on true events, follows an African American family of three: Gary McCullough, an unemployed drug addict, Fran Boyd, Gary’s ex-wife and an addict who lives with two sons and sisters and DeAndre McCullough, Fran and Gary’s son who becomes a drug dealer at an early age to take care of his brother and mother.
From the Earth to the Moon
From the Earth to the Moon is a space documentary drama starring Tom Hanks, Lane Smith, and Clint Howard. The miniseries follows 32 astronauts who took up 12 missions under the Apollo Space program between 1960 and 1970. The format follows their training and their friends and family’s accounts about them and their journey.
