7 Greatest Series to Stream With 4 Episodes or Less

Image via Netflix Published Aug 13, 2026, 6:53 AM EDT Jessica is a young writer from Brisbane, Australia. An avid consumer and lover of all things Film and TV, you will never tear her away from a screen. A tendency rooted from childhood, she once had dreams of becoming a member of the famed kids-band 'Hi-5'. Perhaps that's what pushed her to secure an education with a theater background. But now, as dreams evolved, her passions have turned to admiring performances from afar. Frankly, she's just grateful that she can put her binging skills to good use. Outside of work, Jessica recently completed her undergraduate double degree in Arts/Communications. Other than that, she spends most of her free time with family and friends, probably never forgetting to talk about the new movie or show she watched the day prior. Sign in to your Collider account In an era where prestige television often (unnecessarily) stretches to years on end, there's something refreshing about a show that tells a complete, unforgettable story in just a handful of episodes. Rather than padding out their narratives, these programs make every minute count, delivering thrilling mysteries and emotional human stories with remarkable efficiency. In many ways, they're proof that quality doesn't depend on quantity. From gripping crime dramas to historical epics and award-winning character pieces, they're the stories made perfect for a weekend binge (or even a single evening). Running four episodes or fewer, each of these shows leaves a lasting impression without demanding a huge time commitment, making them some of the most rewarding watches available to stream yet. 1 'Des' (2020) Image via ITV Based on the crimes of real-life serial killer Dennis Nilsen (David Tennant), Des follows an investigation that begins after human remains are discovered blocking the drains outside Nilsen's London apartment. Across three episodes, rather than focusing on the murders themselves, the miniseries tracks the investigation, Nilsen's chilling interviews with the police, and the legal battle that follows as authorities attempt to identify his many victims. What makes Des so compelling is its restraint. The series avoids sensationalizing Nilsen's crimes and instead examines the devastating human cost left in their wake. Tennant delivers one of the finest performances of his career, portraying Nilsen with an unsettling ordinariness that makes him all the more disturbing. Tightly written and impeccably paced, the show proves that a gripping true-crime drama doesn't need sprawling seasons to leave a lasting impression. 2 'Death by Lightning' (2025) Image via Netflix Dramatizing the extraordinary true story of President James A. Garfield (Michael Shannon), this show chronicles his rise to the White House and the events that culminated in his assassination. Across four episodes, audiences witness his political ideals as well as the obsessive ambitions of Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen) — the disgruntled office seeker whose actions changed American history forever. Transforming familiar history into an engrossing political thriller, Death by Lightning manages to feel both intimate and epic. In particular, it explores ambition, power, and political division through richly drawn performances and elegant period detail, while never losing sight of the personal tragedy at its heart. Frankly, it's a fascinating reminder that some of history's most remarkable events are stranger (and more gripping) than fiction. 3 'Landscapers' (2021) Image via HBO Inspired by a remarkable true story, married couple Susan (Olivia Colman) and Christopher Edwards (David Thewlis) are caught up in an investigation after the bodies of Susan's parents are discovered buried in their back garden years after their deaths. But as the detectives piece together the truth, the duo retreat into elaborate fantasies inspired by classic Hollywood films, blurring the line between memory, denial, and reality. Rather than functioning as a conventional murder mystery, Landscapers became a deeply unconventional character study about denial, loneliness, and love. Colman and Thewlis are exceptional as the eccentric couple, grounding the show's theatrical visual style with surprisingly tender performances. And at just four episodes, it's easily one of television's most distinctive crime dramas, as it's equal parts heartbreaking, darkly funny, and quietly haunting. 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 'A Very English Scandal' (2018) Image via Prime Video In the 1960s, politician Jeremy Thorpe's (Hugh Grant) carefully constructed public life begins to unravel when his former lover, Norman Scott (Ben Whishaw), threatens to expose their relationship. Desperate to preserve both his career and reputation, Thorpe becomes entangled in a conspiracy that ultimately leads to one of Britain's most infamous political scandals. Russell T Davies manages to strike a remarkable balance between political satire, courtroom dramas, and genuine tragedy. Grant delivers one of the finest performances, capturing Thorpe's charm and ruthlessness in equal measure, while Whishaw brings heartbreaking vulnerability and resilience to Norman Scott. Funny, tragic, and frequently outrageous, A Very English Scandal demonstrates just how satisfying a short drama can be when every scene counts. 5 'Olive Kitteridge' (2014) Image via HBO Based on Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Olive Kitteridge follows the life of a retired school teacher (Frances McDormand) in a small coastal town in Maine across several decades. Through this, we witness Olive's complicated marriage, strained relationship with her son, and the difficult interactions with those around her, while also gradually revealing the tenderness hidden beneath her tough exterior. Before she won her Academy Awards, McDormand delivered a performance of extraordinary subtlety as she portrayed Olive as both prickly and deeply compassionate — without ever simplifying her contradictions. The show finds profound emotion in everyday conversations and ordinary moments, creating an intimate portrait of aging, marriage, regret, and resilience. It's proof that some of television's richest character studies shine in its mundanity. Think of this as the ultimate underrated miniseries that no one actually remembers. 6 'When They See Us' (2019) Image via Netflix Ava DuVernay's four-part miniseries tells the devastating true story of the Central Park Five — five Black and Latino teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of assaulting a jogger in 1989. Following the boys from their coerced interrogations through years of imprisonment and their eventual exoneration, the show lays bare the catastrophic consequences of institutional failures within the American justice system. Few miniseries have been as emotionally overwhelming or socially important as When They See Us. And this is largely attributed to DuVernay, who never loses sight of the human beings at the center of the story, allowing each young man and his family to emerge as fully realized individuals rather than symbols. Better still, Jharrel Jerome's Emmy-winning performance as Korey Wise anchors a finale that is as heartbreaking as it is unforgettable, making the show essential viewing despite its difficult subject matter. 7 'Adolescence' (2025) Image via Netflix When 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is arrested for the murder of one of his classmates, Adolescence quickly reveals itself to be far more than a conventional crime drama. Told across four continuous one-shot episodes, the series examines the investigation from multiple perspectives, including Jamie's family, the detectives leading the case, and the professionals attempting to understand what drove such a shocking act of violence. While the sheer technical achievement is undoubtedly remarkable, Adolescence never lets style overshadow substance. The uninterrupted camerawork creates an overwhelming sense of immediacy, while Stephan Graham (and Cooper) lead a phenomenal ensemble that captures the grief, confusion, and helplessness surrounding the tragedy. Intelligent, emotionally devastating, and impossible to stop watching, it's one of the most accomplished limited series Netflix has ever produced.