The 6 Best Miniseries Released Between 2000 and Now

Image via Netflix Published Oct 2, 2026, 3:31 PM EDT Diego Pineda has been a devout storyteller his whole life. He has self-published a fantasy novel and a book of short stories, and is actively working on publishing his second novel. A lifelong fan of watching movies and talking about them endlessly, he writes reviews and analyses on his Instagram page dedicated to cinema, and occasionally on his blog. His favorite filmmakers are Andrei Tarkovsky and Charlie Chaplin. He loves modern Mexican cinema and thinks it's tragically underappreciated. Other interests of Diego's include reading, gaming, roller coasters, writing reviews on his Letterboxd account (username: DPP_reviews), and going down rabbit holes of whatever topic he's interested in at any given point. Sign in to your Collider account Also called limited run series, the miniseries format was born with the broadcast of the BBC's The Forsyte Saga back in 1967. These are series which, as opposed to regular shows, tell a pre-determined story over the course of a limited number of episodes. From the year 2000 until the present in particular, the world has been treated to many an exceptional miniseries. Because they're so cinematic, not prone to premature cancellations, and so undemanding in terms of scheduling that they can recruit the talent of A-list creatives and actors, they have become one of the most popular and prolific forms of television over the course of the last 26 years. From criminally underappreciated gems like It's a Sin to award-winning masterpieces like When They See Us, the greatest miniseries of the last 26 years are proof of just how far this form of television has come since its early days. Combining the deeply complex character development that characterizes televisual storytelling with the focused narrative structure of a film, a great miniseries tends to offer the best of both worlds and can easily be binge-watched over the course of a single weekend. Whether they're joyful, poignant, tragic, or exciting, the best miniseries that the small screen has seen since 2000 all share something in common: They're essential viewing for people who love the medium. Documentary miniseries deserve a conversation all of their own, and therefore do not qualify for this list. 6 'It's a Sin' (2021) Image via Channel 4 Created and written by Russell T Davies, one of the biggest legends in all of 21st-century British television, the British drama It's a Sin is one of the biggest creative triumphs in all of 2020s television. Both BBC One and ITV passed on it due to the undeniably heavy and difficult subject matter of the deadly HIV/AIDS epidemic, and Channel 4 only took it on after their commissioning editor of drama ardently fought for it. The result? One of those HBO miniseries that don't have any significant flaws. Critics adored it, it made Olly Alexander a mainstream star, and the series even had real-life impact, creating an upsurge in HIV and AIDS testing. It's the sort of legacy that only a bona fide modern classic can have; and, indeed, It's a Sin is bound to go down in history as one of the greatest miniseries of the 21st century as a whole. Its cast is phenomenal, every actor playing a beautifully complex character and sharing tremendous chemistry with the rest of the ensemble; its critique of how rampant homophobia, government inaction, and media stigma multiplied the epidemic's catastrophic effect is scathing; and though the show doesn't shy away from the harrowing nature of its subject matter, it balances that tragedy with deeply moving queer joy. 5 'Over the Garden Wall' (2014) Image via Cartoon Network People who think that cartoons somehow don't belong in the same category as history's greatest live-action televisual masterpieces clearly haven't seen animated gems like Over the Garden Wall, Cartoon Network's first-ever miniseries. Created by Patrick McHale and based on his own animated short film Tome of the Unknown, it's one of the greatest dark fantasy TV shows of all time, infused with elements of surreal horror and a level of emotional and thematic maturity that's uncommon in TV shows aimed at younger audiences. Over a decade after it aired, Over the Garden Wall is still widely remembered as not just one of the best animated miniseries of all time, but perhaps the very best. Tightly paced over the course of its ten incredible 11-minute-long episodes, it's a beautifully crafted story about grief, survival, and self-doubt. Zero filled, incredible visuals, and some of the most atmospheric world-building that any miniseries has ever seen are but a few of the reasons why Over the Garden Wall is a must-see not just for kids who love animation, but for pretty much anyone who loves well-made television. 4 'The Night Of' (2016) Image via HBO Based on the first season of the 2008 British crime series Criminal Justice, HBO's The Night Of is one of the greatest crime dramas that American television has delivered throughout the last decade. It's one of those thriller shows that are perfect from beginning to end, bolstered by a pair of powerhouse lead performances by John Turturro and Riz Ahmed (the latter of whom won an Emmy for his performance). With a nearly-perfect 94% approval rating from ciritcs on Rotten Tomatoes, it remains one of the most universally acclaimed miniseries of the 2010s. The whole series is a ruthless dissection and deconstruction of the American criminal justice system, subverting traditional whodunnit tropes and offering one of the most suffocatingly tense narratives that any crime miniseries has ever offered. Its sharp social commentary on things like class disparity and Islamophobia packs a hell of a punch, and instead of offering any sort of tidy and entirely unambiguous resolutions, the series is a morally gray masterpiece about how the pursuit of a conviction can at times eclipse the pursuit of true justice. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Netflix Character Would Be Your Best Friend? Dustin · Emily · Wednesday · Gi-hun Some friends drag you out of the house. Some sit with you on the worst night of your life. Netflix has written both, plus the one who tells you the truth you have been avoiding all week. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually do friendship, and find out which of them was always going to end up in your corner. 🧢Dustin(Stranger Things) 🗼Emily(Emily in Paris) 🕷️Wednesday(Wednesday) 🟢Gi-hun(Squid Game) FIND YOUR BEST FRIEND → 01 How do you usually end up making a new friend? The origin story says a lot about the friendship that follows it. AWe got loud about the same obsession and never stopped. BThey invited me somewhere before we had properly met. CWe bonded over disliking exactly the same thing. DThey noticed I was struggling and stayed with me. NEXT QUESTION → 02 What is a perfect Saturday with your best friend? Friendship is mostly built out of very ordinary hours. AA ridiculous plan neither of us should attempt. BSomewhere new, photographed heavily, ending very late. CSomewhere quiet, few people, zero small talk. DSomething simple, and a conversation that actually matters. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You call them at two in the morning. What happens? This is the real test of a friendship, and everybody knows it. AThey are already putting their shoes on. BThey answer instantly and turn it into a plan. CThey answer and say something unflattering and true. DThey listen for an hour and never check the time. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What do you want from them when you are clearly wrong? The best friendships are the ones that survive being corrected. ASupport first. We can review the mistake later. BA relentlessly positive reframe of the entire disaster. CThe blunt version. Do not soften it for me. DPatience, and no judgment about how I got here. NEXT QUESTION → 05 What do your friends actually value about you? The friend you attract says something about the friend you are. AI am all in, always, about everything. BI can turn almost any situation into a good time. CI say the thing nobody else in the room will. DI look after whoever is having the worst day. NEXT QUESTION → 06 You have a falling out. How does it go? How a friendship repairs itself matters more than how it breaks. ALoudly, briefly, then back to normal by Tuesday. BThey apologise first, enthusiastically, with a gift. CCold silence, then one dry joke that fixes everything. DWe talk until we both understand what actually happened. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What do you actually need a best friend for? Everybody is missing something. The right friend fills that gap. ATo make my life bigger than it would be alone. BTo push me out of the house and into my own life. CTo catch me when I start lying to myself. DTo be the person who never gave up on me. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Ten years from now, what keeps the two of you close? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who you get. AWe would still drop everything for each other, instantly. BWe still make plans, and we still actually go. CWe still cut through each other's nonsense in one sentence. DThey stood by me once when it cost them something. REVEAL MY BEST FRIEND → The Group Chat Has Spoken Your Best Friend Is…Four Netflix characters, four completely different ways of showing up for somebody. This is the one who fits how you actually do friendship, and what having them in your life would be like. Dustin HendersonYou do not do friendship at half volume, and neither does he. What you want is somebody who says yes to the plan before you have finished describing the plan. Dustin is the friend the entire show runs on: loyal past the point of sense, enthusiastic about everything, and incapable of leaving anybody behind. You have the same instinct. Your friendships are loud, specific and slightly ridiculous, and they last for decades because of it. He is also the one person who would take your strangest interest completely seriously, which is far rarer than it sounds. You would have a group chat. It would never once be quiet. Emily CooperYou are the friend who makes things happen, and so is she. Together you would be mildly exhausting to everyone around you and completely delighted with yourselves. Emily treats an ordinary Tuesday as something that could be turned into an occasion, which is either the best or the worst quality in a friend depending on your energy levels. You share her refusal to sit still. Neither of you has ever accepted a night in when something was happening somewhere else. She is far more loyal than people give her credit for. She defends her friends loudly, publicly, and occasionally before checking the facts. She would post the photo without asking. You would forgive her, because it is a very good photo. Wednesday AddamsYou have no patience for pleasant lies, and she has no ability to tell them. What looks like coldness from the outside is the most reliable friendship on this list. Wednesday never says a kind thing she does not mean, which makes the rare ones count for an enormous amount. You would rather be told the truth than be made comfortable. She is constitutionally incapable of offering you anything else. Underneath all of it she is ferociously protective. She simply refuses to make a performance out of caring. Do not expect a birthday message. Do expect her to ruin anyone who wrongs you. Seong Gi-hunYou look after whoever is having the worst day. So does he. It is the least strategic way to move through the world and the best possible quality in a friend. Gi-hun is not the strongest player in Squid Game, or the cleverest. He is the one who keeps choosing to protect somebody else, over and over, at genuine cost to himself. You have the same instinct. You notice who is struggling and you stay with them, long after anybody would blame you for leaving. He is a flawed friend, and that is part of why it lands. He lets people down, then comes back and tries again, which is more than most manage. He would give you his last chance and never once mention that he had done it. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 3 'When They See Us' (2019) People who love crime shows based on true stories should consider Netflix's When They See Us a must-see. And those who don't care much for the genre? They should nevertheless watch this show created by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, because it's one of the most timely and urgent miniseries that have come out at any point during the last 10 years. Based on the events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case and focusing on the families of the five suspects who were falsely accused of the rape and assault of a woman in NYC, it's one of the greatest true-crime dramas that the miniseries format has ever seen. Composed only of four parts, When They See Us could very easily be watched over the course of a single day, though it's such an emotionally draining and gut-wrenching experience that no one would blame anyone for choosing to space each episode out. It's an entirely unsparing indictment of systemic racism in the United States, a visceral human tragedy that captures the unflinching devastation of the real story with perfect sensitivity and respect. This is a story which shows that no apology of any sort can ever truly compensate for a false conviction, and DuVernay never shies away from the painful nature of such a premise. 2 'Chernobyl' (2019) Image via HBO Back in 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what is today Ukraine exploded, becoming the most destructive nuclear disaster and the most expensive disaster in human history. That is the subject matter of Chernobyl, and though its five episodes could easily be watched in only a day, its effect is bound to last a lifetime. This is, after all, one of the most harrowing stories ever told on television, certainly not made for the faint of heart. All in all, it's one of the most perfect miniseries that have aired since 2010. Creator and writer Craig Mazin took minimal creative license when making Chernobyl, a show that has been praised for its tremendous attention to historical detail. Add to that some masterful performances by the likes of Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgård, Hildur Guðnadóttir's deeply haunting score, and some of the most flawless technical qualities that any miniseries has ever had to offer, and you get one of the most horrifying explorations of institutional hubris and state-sponsored denial that the small screen has ever seen. It's an absolutely chilling show, but one that's oh so essential. 1 'Band of Brothers' (2001) Image via HBO What is the single most essential HBO miniseries? This is a question that may elicit several different answers, but there is one that's bound to come up far more often than most: the highest-rated miniseries of all time on IMDb and the 2nd-highest-rated fiction series overall, Band of Brothers. Based on historian Stephen A. Ambrose's 1992 non-fiction book of the same name, the miniseries dramatizes the story of World War II's "Easy" Company. It was created and executive-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, and it's a must-see for pretty much anyone who likes war films like Saving Private Ryan. It isn't even slightly difficult to see why so many people still continue to praise Band of Brothers as the greatest miniseries of all time. It is, all in all, one of the quintessential gold standards of modern television, a towering landmark of miniseries-making with an exceptional star-studded cast, a visceral sense of realism, and a story grounded in the testimonies of real WWII veterans. Spielberg and Hanks entirely succeeded at stripping away the romanticization and propagandistic feel of classic war cinema and shows, instead delivering one of the most realistic war TV series of all time.