7 Greatest HBO Series With 4 Episodes or Less

Image via Sky/HBO Published Jul 30, 2026, 6:53 AM EDT Remus is a writer, editor, journalist, and author with an eye for detail and an extremely active imagination. He is an enthusiast of everything to do with the graphic medium, whether it's Western comics and their adaptations or manga and anime. Remus is also the author of the sci-fantasy novel Once Upon a Time in Hyperspace and several works of short fiction in the mystery, comedy, and horror genres. Sign in to your Collider account Over the years, HBO has been home to some of the most acclaimed television programs of all time. From long-running prestige shows to engaging miniseries, the network offers audiences a wide range of quality entertainment through both traditional television and streaming. And while HBO has earned a certain reputation for its long-standing dramas and thrillers, the network’s miniseries library is equally interesting and certainly worth exploring. For those occasions when you do not have the time or do not want to invest in multi-season shows, but are still looking for something substantial, HBO’s library includes some of the most critically acclaimed miniseries ever made. That includes a handful that consist of just four episodes (or less). These shows in particular are not only perfect as a quick watch, but also offer valuable entertainment on par with many of their longer-running counterparts. Ranging from historical dramas to real-to-reel translations to gripping thrillers, here’s our handpicked selection of the best HBO shows with four episodes or fewer that you could binge right now. 1 ‘Landscapers’ (2021) Image via HBO A true-crime black comedy drama created by Ed Sinclair and directed by Will Sharpe, Landscapers recounts a real-life murder case that took place in 1998 in Mansfield, England. It reveals the circumstances that led to the murders of William and Patricia Wycherley, who were killed by their daughter, Susan, and her husband, Christopher, exploring the killers’ personal background, their marital relationship, and how they managed to keep the crime a secret for over a decade. Olivia Colman and David Thewlis star as the murderous couple, with Kate O'Flynn, Daniel Rigby, and Kathryn Hunter in notable roles. Presented as a non-linear narrative, Landscapers is a well-crafted psychological crime drama elevated by the outstanding performances of its leading duo. Highly intriguing, with a dark comedic flair, the four-part series chronicles the ghastly but tragic story from the perspective of the peculiar couple whose sense of delusion and absurdity upends their marriage and future. Critically acclaimed for its style, tone, writing, and acting, but relatively lesser-known, Landscapers is easily one of the best miniseries to watch on HBO. 2 ‘Olive Kitteridge’ (2014) Image via HBO Directed by Lisa Cholodenko and adapted from Elizabeth Strout’s 2008 novel of the same name, Olive Kitteridge tells the story of the titular protagonist, a strict, misanthropic retired schoolteacher living with her husband and troubled son in the fictional coastal town of Crosby, Maine. The series chronicles her struggles with her marriage, depression, bereavement, and jealousy, as she continues to go about her daily life for 25 years. Frances McDormand leads the ensemble cast as the protagonist, with Richard Jenkins, Bill Murray, Zoe Kazan, Ann Dowd, John Gallagher Jr., Jesse Plemons, and more in key roles. Critics have praised Olive Kitteridge for its cinematography, characterizations, and performances, with the show winning eight Emmies, including acting awards for McDormand, Jenkins, and Murray. The four-part miniseries thrives on its brutally honest depiction of marriage and human frailty and is widely considered to be a faithful adaptation of Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Frances McDormand is flawless as the complex, central character, alongside equally strong performances by Jenkins, Murray, and John Gallagher Jr., who plays Olive’s son, Christopher. 3 ‘Gunpowder’ (2017) Image via HBO Developed by Kit Harington and Daniel West, and written by Ronan Bennett, Gunpowder is a dramatized retelling of the Gunpowder Treason Plot of 1605 and the failed regicide attempt on King James I. The three-part historical series follows Robert Catesby, a grieving Catholic nobleman in 1605 London, who devises a plan to bomb the House of Lords and assassinate the protestant king with the help of other conspirators, including Guy Fawkes. Harington leads the cast as Robert Catesby with Peter Mullan, Mark Gatiss, and Liv Tyler in main roles. Gunpowder is a gripping and grounded take on one of the most explosive chapters of British history, intensified by Harington’s portrayal of the radical conspirator, who just so happens to be his direct ancestor. While several critics and fans have praised its suspenseful, atmospheric production, dark narrative style, and powerful performances, many have also criticized the brutal depiction of events and graphic violence. Even if it does not rank among the best historical shows on HBO, Gunpowder is still a great watch, especially for its themes, acting, and production values. Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor SheridanShow Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for. 🤠Yellowstone 🛢️Landman 👑Tulsa King ⚖️Mayor of Kingstown FIND YOUR WORLD → 01 Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind. ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly. AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed. AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing. NEXT QUESTION → 04 Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people. AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt. AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending. AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns. NEXT QUESTION → 07 How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested. ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you. AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me. NEXT QUESTION → 09 What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal. AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall. NEXT QUESTION → 10 When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind. AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it. REVEAL MY SHOW → Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes. 🤠 Yellowstone 🛢️ Landman 👑 Tulsa King ⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it. You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to. You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land. You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 4 ‘DMZ’ (2022) Image via Max Created by Roberto Patino and based on the DC comic book series by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, DMZ is a dystopian drama miniseries that centers on a medic named Alma Ortega in a post-Second American Civil War Manhattan. While searching for her son, who went missing during the evacuation, Alma crosses into the titular zone of the city to find him, becoming a symbol of hope in the process. Rosario Dawson stars as Alma, with Hoon Lee, Freddy Miyares, Jordan Preston Carter, Venus Ariel, Amandla Jahava, and Benjamin Bratt in other main roles. Upon its premiere, DMZ received mixed reviews for its limited adaptation of the original material, which is much more elaborate and complex in its world-building and political landscape. However, the four-episode series is praiseworthy for the committed performances by Dawson and Bratt, whose characters command the show’s four-episode runtime. An intense, explosive dystopian thriller with themes of community and resilience, DMZ makes for a quick, bingeable watch that somewhat succeeds in avoiding the typical post-apocalyptic tropes. 5 ‘Catherine the Great’ (2019) Image via BBC Created by Philip Martin, Catherine the Great is a historical miniseries chronicling the rise and fall of Empress Catherine II of Russia. Set between 1764 and 1796, the four-part series explores the Tsarina’s reign from her coronation to her death, depicting her decades-long affair with Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin and how their devoted yet turbulent relationship shaped the future of Russia. Helen Mirren portrays the legendary empress, with Jason Clarke as Potemkin, leading a stacked cast starring Rory Kinnear, Gina McKee, Kevin R. McNally, Richard Roxburgh, Clive Russell, and more in key roles. Packed with conflicts, intrigue, royal scandals, and political drama, Catherine the Great is an engaging historical series anchored by Helen Mirren’s remarkable portrayal of the iconic Russian royal. While the series has polarized reviewers with its narrative and intensely deliberate pace, critics and fans have universally praised its sprawling settings and lavish costumes that visually delight the viewer in every episode. On its premiere, Catherine the Great earned accolades for its opulent production and cinematography, including Golden Globe and Satellite Award nominations for Mirren. 6 ‘House of Saddam’ (2008) Image via HBO A BBC docudrama miniseries directed by Alex Holmes and Jim O'Hanlon and written by Holmes and Stephen Butchard, House of Saddam chronicles the rise and fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Set between the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the U.S. Invasion of Iraq in 2003, the four-part series charts the inner workings of Hussein’s family, exploring their domestic power struggles, political machinations, and involvement in geopolitics. Yigal Naor stars as Saddam Hussein, with Shohreh Aghdashloo, Philip Arditti, Amr Waked, Said Taghmaoui, and Christine Stephen-Daly playing other real-life characters. One of the most ambitious HBO shows of the 2000s, House of Saddam is largely powered by Naor’s portrayal of the dictator and his political cunning. Steeped in brutal violence, intense family loyalty, and infighting, the show’s cast (especially Saddam’s inner circle) has often been compared to The Sopranos or The Godfather. A dark, political drama emphasizing paranoia, extreme brutality, and systemic terror, House of Saddam is a violent and often unsettling screen translation of one of the most catastrophic chapters of modern Middle Eastern history. 7 ‘Elizabeth I’ (2005) Image via HBO Directed by Tom Hooper and written by Nigel Williams, Elizabeth I is a two-part historical drama series about Queen Elizabeth I, the last and longest-reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. The series chronicles the last 24 years of her 45-year reign, with the first part focusing on the final few years of her relationship with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, while the second part focuses on her subsequent relationship with Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex. Helen Mirren portrays Elizabeth, with Jeremy Irons, Patrick Malahide, Toby Jones, Hugh Dancy, Barbara Flynn, Ewen Bremner, and Ian McDiarmid as notable characters. With the possible exception of the Cate Blanchett-starrer Elizabeth, HBO’s Elizabeth I is arguably the most convincing portrait of the controversial queen. Critics have raved about Mirren’s performance, which is often cited as one of her best TV roles, perfectly portraying the duality of Elizabeth I’s personality as documented in history. At the time of its release, Elizabeth I earned widespread critical acclaim, and it went on to win Mirren a Golden Globe, SAG Award, and Primetime Emmy Award for her performance. Elizabeth I Release Date 2006 - 2005-00-00 Network Channel 4 Cast Patrick Malahide Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex