Every Stephen King TV Series, Ranked

Published Oct 10, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT Dani Kessel Odom (they/them) is an autistic lead writer and TV critic who covers sci-fi shows like Doctor Who and Pluribus, fantasy shows like The Magicians and Percy Jackson, and horror of all kinds. They also cover Marvel and DC TV shows and movies, with a robust knowledge of comic books. Their TV reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes. Dani is also part of ScreenRant's books team, using their fiction writing and literature studies as the backbone for their book analyses. They have covered events, such as the Denver Fan Expo. Professionals in the field, such as Damien Leone and Lucy Hale, have shared their articles. Their review of Ponies was quoted in the show's TV trailer. In university, they majored in English Writing with a minor in psychology. They have always had a passion for analyzing TV and movies, even taking filmography and scriptwriting classes in university. They also studied and participated in onstage and onscreen acting extensively from the ages of 7 to 18. Aside from working at Screen Rant, Dani has worked as a freelance editor and writer over the past decade, often in a ghostwriting capacity. Celebrated author Stephen King has around two dozen TV shows and miniseries based on his stories, with some phenomenal adaptations and others that fell flat. The King of Horror has 67 novels and novellas under his belt and over 200 short stories, making his catalog a gold mine for filmmakers and showrunners. While Stephen King movie adaptations are far more common, his works have appeared on the small screen just under 30 times, starting with the 1979 miniseries Salem’s Lot, a horror classic still loved today. The adaptations include big-budget projects like the Muschiettis’ It: Welcome to Derry and low-budget series like The Langoliers. Some stick very strictly to the source material, while others take more creative liberties. Interestingly, some of the least faithful TV shows rank high on the list of Stephen King's best shows. King has written three of the onscreen versions himself, with varying success. As expected, not every series rises to the same level as the others. If you want to explore television adaptations of Stephen King’s published work, here is ScreenRant’s official ranking from worst to best. 22 Lisey's Story (2021) With Stephen King’s five worst shows, it’s not a matter of which is better, but which is worse. Lisey’s Story on Apple TV+ is one of the worst shows on the streaming site and the absolute worst Stephen King TV adaptation. Books and TV shows have different needs, so adaptations usually require changes. Unfortunately, King wrote the miniseries and made it faithful to a fault. While the book's engaging, the story feels clunky and meandering on screen. The dialogue feels awkward. Lisey's Story's use of flashbacks within flashbacks brought the pace to a grinding halt. The showrunner also had the same actor play characters at different ages without changing anything, a really strange choice, and the sound mixing was awful. Ultimately, there’s nothing redeeming about the Apple TV+ miniseries. 21 The Mist (2017) The Mist TV show is an awful adaptation that abandons the source material. The characters aren’t in one place, losing the claustrophobic feeling. The monsters don’t make sense because many attacks come from unseen forces, and the mist causes hallucinations. What we do see, like the bugs, has bad CGI. The writers add completely unnecessary subplots that bog down the whole show and remove any sense of horror. The internal logic and lore seem to change to serve the plot, which is just bad writing. To make matters worse, the nonsensical character decisions get frustrating after a while. The Mist’s only redeeming quality is that it’s fun to complain about how bad it is. 20 The Stand (2020) Stephen King’s 2020 adaptation of The Stand has a good cast, high production values, and clean cinematography. For these reasons, it isn’t nearly as bad as a couple of other miniseries. However, none of the technical strengths make up for how laughably bad everything else is. The Stand should have done a lot differently. Rather than telling the story chronologically, they jump around in time, which destroys suspense and slows the pacing unbearably. The show just skips over the outbreak and societal collapse, which is the best part of the book. Despite being well-developed in the book, the societies are completely flattened and reduced to generic sci-fi worlds. The Stand’s characters feel over-the-top. Then they add a weird, unnecessary epilogue written by King that’s redundant and contrived. 19 Under the Dome (2013-2015) Image courtesy of Everett Collection CBS’s Under the Dome started out with a strong pilot episode and a gripping, fast pace. Season 1’s writing wasn’t awful at the start either. Unfortunately, the show quickly fell apart. The story had plotlines that went nowhere and major logical gaps. Characters make completely irrational decisions. If they'd stopped after season 1, Under the Dome would have been middling-leaning-positive. After all, it was planned as a miniseries. Unfortunately, CBS stretched it out without a cohesive plan, and adaptation developer Brian K. Vaughn left the show, taking its anchor with him. From there, things deteriorated quickly. Characters regressed. The plot twists are absurd. The show abandoned the source material for weird sci-fi plots that didn’t fit and were also poorly written. 18 The Tommyknockers (1993) ABC’s The Tommyknockers had potential to be great, and the miniseries had some redeeming qualities. Actors Jimmy Smits and Marg Helgenberger gave convincing performances. Memorable scenes, like the fireworks display and Gard’s drunken speech, are high points. That’s where the positives end, though. The sci-fi show’s stilted, awkward dialogue gets increasingly irritating as the show goes on. Unfortunately, it also failed to capture the cynical parts of the Stephen King book, including the grim ending. The horror was also noticeably absent. The King of Horror himself disliked the adaptation, rightfully calling the 1993 show “kind of cheap and thrown together.” Despite having a good budget, the special effects make The Tommyknockers look more dated than it is. Honestly, it looks like an 80s sci-fi B-movie and not in a charming way. 17 The Langoliers (1995) Stephen King’s novella The Langoliers would have made a better movie than a miniseries, given that the book is about 200 pages. The story was way too drawn out when stretched across a three-hour runtime. The original has phenomenal suspense and horror, creating a constant sense of existential dread. None of that’s present in the show. The characters just weren’t interesting in the miniseries, and the overacting just made it worse. The monsters look extremely goofy onscreen because the book relies on the reader’s imagination to make a sphere with teeth into something terrifying. This makes the screaming and running funnier. Perhaps it would look better with modern technology, but the CGI is just bad even by 1995 standards. 16 Haven (2010-2015) Based on The Colorado Kid by Stephen King, Syfy’s Haven is bad but more passable than some of the adaptations. The show seemed more interested in using King’s name than in adapting his novella. The story is completely unrecognizable, but it still borrows character names and has a Maine setting. It’s not even close enough for “based on” or “inspired by” to be fair labels. Aside from that problem, Haven is basically a terrible knock-off of The X-Files, with a much lower budget and generic cases of the week. The dialogue was painfully repetitive, and it lacked the nuance and emotional depth of King’s writing. Ultimately, it’s not ranked in the mid-low range because others are significantly worse. 15 Bag of Bones (2011) The two-part miniseries Bag of Bones had everything necessary to be great, but it was deeply mediocre. Pierce Brosnan gave the role his all, but he can’t fix bad writing and dialogue. The CGI looks cheap—a consequence of not having a bigger budget— making the ghost encounters feel goofy rather than spooky. Episode one dragged on so painfully slow, and then episode two rushed. Changes like Jo’s cause of death didn’t seem to have any purpose, and they weakened the character dynamics. The writing has logic gaps that didn’t exist in the source material, and the emotional depth of Stephen King's Bag of Bones just isn’t there. 14 Salem's Lot (2004) The 2004 adaptation of Salem’s Lot suffered because it existed in the shadow of the 1979 miniseries, which set the bar really high. The newer show isn’t completely bad. The main story exists within a frame story, which allows for reflective voiceover narration from older Ben Mears. The cable TV release meant the miniseries could include more violence and cursing, which fits King’s horror. It’s also a more faithful adaptation. Unfortunately, Rob Lowe was a questionable casting choice for Ben. The miniseries suffered from uneven pacing and inconsistent performances. On top of that, it wasn’t actually scary, especially compared to the 1979 show, which is a big problem because the book is creepy and unsettling. 13 The Shining (1997) Bob D'Amico/©Warner Bros. Television/courtesy Everett Collection Stephen King famously detested Stanley Kubrick’s take on The Shining, even though he enjoyed the filmmaker's other work. As such, he initiated, produced, and wrote the script for the 1997 miniseries version of The Shining. They filmed at The Stanley Hotel, the inspiration for the Overlook Hotel. This show is proof that an unfaithful adaptation can be amazing, and a faithful adaptation can be subpar. For Stanley Kubrick to agree to give Stephen King the rights to adapt The Shining, he had to agree to stop publicly criticizing the 1980 film (via Senses of Cinema). Steven Weber’s performance as Jack Torrance doesn’t get nearly enough appreciation because it’s compared to Jack Nicholson. However, he brings vulnerability and good intentions to the character, making his transformation more tragic. Unfortunately, the story drags on and becomes oversaturated, ruining every sense of suspense and fear. The dialogue lacks any nuance. Plus, it has no artistry, and the VFX look goofy. It’s not terrible but not good either.