HBO's 10-Part Sci-Fi Masterpiece Deserves Kudos For Having The Perfect Number Of Episodes

Published Sep 24, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT Zach Moser has been writing for ScreenRant since 2022, covering movies, classic TV, and streaming TV. His areas of expertise cover a wide range of genres with a particular interest in horror and drama, and the conversations around the TV and film industry. When he's not covering the latest film releases or chronicling the latest season of a new show, he's writing humor pieces for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Slackjaw, and Points In Case or working on short stories and his second novel. HBO's 10-episode science fiction series does everything right, including its episode count. The list of great miniseries on HBO grows longer and longer, and like their multi-season dramas, HBO's miniseries feature a wide range of genres, tackling stories other streamers may not be confident enough to explore. While science fiction has not been the bread-and-butter of HBO in the same way that it's been such a component of something like Apple TV, the network does have some excellent entries in the genre. In particular, HBO has had some great sci-fi miniseries, from Damon Lindelof's Watchmen to the alternate history drama, The Plot Against America. Its best, though, is Station Eleven, based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Emily St. John Mandel. This 10-episode post-apocalyptic miniseries came out in 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, though the series was ordered back in 2019, making it prescient rather than reflexive. In December 2020, the world is decimated by some kind of flu pandemic that kills off most people and leads to the cessation and destruction of most of our modern technologies and societies. 20 years later, the world, at least the world around Lake Michigan where the series is set, has managed a quiet, subsistence existence that's a cross between nomadic and medieval life. Kirsten Raymonde (Mackenzie Davis) was a child at the outset of the pandemic, and managed to survive the brutal first few months thanks to the care of brothers Jeevan (Himesh Patel) and Frank (Nabhaan Rizwan). They soon separate though, and Kirsten finds her way to a traveling troupe of actors who perform Shakespeare for the small villages that have risen from the ashes of the old civilization. Station Eleven Is One Of The Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Ever Station Eleven is a beautiful story, and a moving tale of what happens after the apocalypse. In almost all media, the end of the world portends escalating horrors and chaos as the survivors vie for what little remains. In Station Eleven, the end of the world has instead created a primitive land where you can do anything, but there's not much to do. Bandits can cause trouble on the road for unaccompanied travelers, carnivorous animals have gotten a little more bold, and your recourse for being wronged is generally up to the will of the local village, but other than that, life isn't too bad. It's different to be sure, and every survivor nurses a deep grief about what they lost. This grief and loss is felt throughout the series, and some of the most tear-jerking moments on television in the last five years are a result of characters confronting the loss, pain, and injuries they've inflicted in their past lives. Pain that had to be put on pause to survive the early stages of the pandemic comes flooding back decades later. Series Length Is Crucial In A Miniseries Station Eleven feels like the perfect number of episodes for a miniseries as well. At 10, it's a bit of an odd duck in the scope of HBO miniseries. Most miniseries on the platform have 8 or less, which is about standard for most miniseries. In fact, it's the only miniseries with 10 or more episodes since The Outsider in 2020. 10 episodes feels like a lot, and a story like Station Eleven requires a lot of space to tell its decade-hopping, winding story. The number of episodes in a miniseries is crucial in a way it's not in a show with multiple seasons. The number of episodes in a miniseries helps tell the viewers the scope of the show, how much depth to expect, and how long they should expect to wait before we start getting into the meat of the story. Release Date 2021 - 2022-00-00 Network HBO Max Directors Hiro Murai, Helen Shaver, Jeremy Podeswa, Lucy Tcherniak Cast Mackenzie Davis Kirsten Raymonde Himesh Patel Jeevan Chaudhary Writers Patrick Somerville, Sarah McCarron, Kim Steele, Cord Jefferson, Nick Cuse Creator(s) Patrick Somerville