5 Best Miniseries No One Can Forget About Years Later

In recent years, miniseries are the ones that keep modern audiences on the hook, offering them compelling stories that, whether it’s for better or for worse, are short enough to fit just into one season, despite these viewers always wanting more.

Some of these series, however, reach a success so big they eventually turn into typically formatted series with two or more seasons; others remain faithful to their original idea, wrapping things up forever after several episodes.

Still, in the latter case, these miniseries are usually the ones to keep a special place in many hearts, even years or decades after their release.

Chernobyl (2019)

Dramatising the story of the biggest nuclear plant disaster, Chernobyl remains one of the most historically accurate shows on modern TV, having stunned its viewers with believable visuals and powerful performances back in the day.

Throughout its five episodes, the miniseries aims at highlighting human irresponsibility and its consequences that way more people had to deal with; the overall effect gets even more immersive thanks to the gloomy atmosphere that penetrates the show from the beginning to the very end.

Chernobyl received widespread critical acclaim, securing a whopping amount of nineteen Emmy nominations.

Midnight Mass (2021)

One of Mike Flanagan ’s finest works, Midnight Mass masterfully blends supernatural horror elements with gothic suspense and psychological exploration of its characters, a mix that found some recognition even from Flanagan’s big fan Stephen King himself.

The combination also works pretty well with main themes like faith and grief, making the show one of the true standouts of the genre with a mystery brought from beginning to end.

Despite being frequently overlooked, Midnight Mass remains a critical darling and audiences’ favorite, holding scores of 87% and 80% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes.

Band of Brothers (2001)

Created by Saving Private Ryan’s duo Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, Band of Brothers is regarded as one of the most influential shows in modern TV history.

The miniseries tackles hardships of the warfare, following the events in the Western front of World War II and making itself some kind of immersive watch for viewers by kicking each episode off with short interviews with some real war survivors.

Band of Brothers came off the stunning success of Spielberg’s other World War II drama Saving Private Ryan and somehow established a solid place for the miniseries format which probably wouldn’t be this compelling today otherwise.

John Adams (2008)

Starring Paul Giamatti, the miniseries follows the life and career of one of the US Founding Fathers and the country’s second president John Adams amidst the United States’ growth as an independent land.

John Adams is another example of a pretty well constructed history lesson implemented in the modern TV format to engage with audiences, and the cast’s performances couldn’t do their work any better, being compelling enough to bring the crucial real-life historical figures back to life.

Jesus of Nazareth (1977)

One of the best narrations of the most famous story ever told on modern TV, Franco Zeffirelli’s religious drama resurrects common interest in the story of the life of Jesus Christ and many other figures mentioned in The Gospels.

The miniseries remains faithful to its source material, carefully following through the sacred texts, but still adding some truly spectacular cinematic elements to make it all even more intriguing.

Whether it sounds weird or not, Jesus of Nazareth might be not only one of the best miniseries to-date, but also a pretty decent book adaptation that’s worth checking out.