Top Mini-Series Ever
by jmasseysr7 | created - 29 Aug 2015 | updated - 13 Nov 2022 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. A.D. (1985)
600 min | Drama, History
Set just after the death of Jesus Christ, this mini-series chronicles the life & adventures of Jesus's disciples, and events in Rome during the reigns of the Emperors Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero.
Stars: Anthony Andrews, Colleen Dewhurst, Ava Gardner, David Hedison
Votes: 536
2. Roots (1977)
TV-14 | 74 min | Biography, Drama, History
A dramatization of author Alex Haley's family line from ancestor Kunta Kinte's enslavement to his descendants' liberation.
Stars: LeVar Burton, Robert Reed, John Amos, Louis Gossett Jr.
Votes: 18,886
3. The Bible (2013)
TV-14 | 44 min | Action, Drama, War
A religious dramatic miniseries about God's creation and physical landmark events leading up to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Stars: Keith David, Robert Powell, Jake Canuso, Diogo Morgado
Votes: 12,354
4. Shogun (1980)
TV-MA | 109 min | Adventure, Drama, History
An English navigator becomes both a player and pawn in the complex political games in feudal Japan.
Stars: Richard Chamberlain, Toshirô Mifune, Yôko Shimada, Furankî Sakai
Votes: 15,711
5. Rich Man, Poor Man (1976)
TV-PG | 63 min | Drama
An examination of the trials and tribulations of the Jordache family, from the period following World War II to the late 1960s.
Stars: Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, Susan Blakely, Dorothy McGuire
Votes: 3,429
6. North & South (2004)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Romance
North and South is a four-part adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's love story of Margaret Hale, a middle-class southerner who is forced to move to the northern town of Milton.
Stars: Daniela Denby-Ashe, Richard Armitage, Tim Pigott-Smith, Sinéad Cusack
Votes: 34,983
7. The Stand (1994)
Not Rated | 90 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
After a deadly plague kills most of the world's population, the remaining survivors split into two groups - one led by a benevolent elder and the other by a malevolent being - to face each other in a final battle between good and evil.
Stars: Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Jamey Sheridan, Laura San Giacomo
Votes: 38,429
8. Salem's Lot (1979)
PG | 100 min | Horror
A novelist and a young horror fan attempt to save a small New England town which has been invaded by vampires.
Stars: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia
Votes: 27,496
9. It (1990)
TV-14 | 96 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
In 1960, seven pre-teen outcasts fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns to their hometown.
Stars: Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Annette O'Toole, Harry Anderson
Votes: 140,922
10. The Tommyknockers (1993)
R | 94 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The small town of Haven becomes a hot-bed of inventions all run by a strange green power device. The whole town is digging something up in the woods, and only an alcoholic poet can discover the secret of the Tommyknockers.
Stars: Jimmy Smits, Marg Helgenberger, John Ashton, Allyce Beasley
Votes: 12,261
11. Small Island (2009)
TV-MA | 180 min | Drama
A gentle Jamaican woman reunited with her husband in post-World War II London encounters both racism and homesickness as she adjusts to her new life.
Stars: Naomie Harris, Hugh Quarshie, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo
Votes: 1,586
12. Poldark (2015–2019)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Romance
Ross Poldark returns home after the American Revolutionary War and rebuilds his life with a new business venture, making new enemies and finding a new love where he least expects it.
Stars: Aidan Turner, Eleanor Tomlinson, Jack Farthing, Beatie Edney
Votes: 36,129
13. The Winds of War (1983)
126 min | Drama, Romance, War
The trials of the Henry and Jastrow families in the early years of World War II.
Stars: Robert Mitchum, Ali MacGraw, Jan-Michael Vincent, John Houseman
Votes: 4,665
14. Prime Suspect (1991)
TV-14 | 104 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A female police detective investigates a series of serial murders while dealing with sexist hostility from her male comrades.
Stars: Helen Mirren, John Benfield, Tom Bell, Craig Fairbrass
Votes: 9,235
15. The Singing Detective (1986)
70 min | Drama, Musical, Mystery
Tormented and bedridden by a debilitating disease, a mystery writer relives his detective stories through his imagination and hallucinations.
Stars: Michael Gambon, Patrick Malahide, Joanne Whalley, David Ryall
Votes: 4,812
16. Band of Brothers (2001)
TV-MA | 59 min | Drama, History, War
The story of Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and their mission in World War II Europe, from Operation Overlord to V-J Day.
Stars: Scott Grimes, Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, Shane Taylor
Votes: 527,731
17. The Pacific (2010)
TV-MA | 53 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The Pacific Theatre of World War II, as seen through the eyes of several young Marines.
Stars: James Badge Dale, Joseph Mazzello, Jon Seda, Ashton Holmes
Votes: 130,167
18. The White Queen (2013)
TV-MA | 60 min | Drama, History, Romance
Three different, yet equally relentless women vie for the throne in 15th-century England.
Stars: Aneurin Barnard, Rebecca Ferguson, Amanda Hale, Faye Marsay
Votes: 31,418
19. Lonesome Dove (1989)
TV-14 | 96 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Two former Texas Rangers renew their spirit of adventure as they and several other residents of a small Texas town join a cattle drive to the Montana Territory.
Stars: Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover, Diane Lane
Votes: 25,931
20. Storm of the Century (1999)
PG-13 | 86 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A dangerous blizzard hits an isolated town and brings along a mysterious stranger intent on terrorizing people for his own desires.
Stars: Tim Daly, Colm Feore, Debrah Farentino, Jeffrey DeMunn
Votes: 24,400
21. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)
TV-PG | 43 min | Documentary
An exploration of our discovery of the laws of nature and coordinates in space and time.
Stars: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Christopher Emerson, Keythe Farley, Piotr Michael
Votes: 128,756
22. Cosmos (1980)
TV-PG | 60 min | Documentary
Astronomer Carl Sagan leads us on an engaging guided tour of the various elements and cosmological theories of the universe.
Stars: Carl Sagan, Jaromír Hanzlík, Jonathan Fahn, Jean Charney
Votes: 44,181
23. Top of the Lake (2013–2017)
TV-MA | 750 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Obsessed with the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant girl near a freezing lake in New Zealand, a brave detective will find herself up against small-town secrets and a side of herself that was meticulously kept at bay.
Stars: Elisabeth Moss, David Wenham, Peter Mullan, Thomas M. Wright
Votes: 37,732
24. Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 (2009 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 102 min | Crime, Drama, History
Rookie journalist Eddie Dunford is determined to find the truth in an increasingly complex maze of lies and deceit surrounding the police investigation into a series of child abductions.
Director: Julian Jarrold | Stars: Andrew Garfield, David Morrissey, John Henshaw, Anthony Flanagan
Votes: 13,688
25. Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1983 (2009 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 100 min | Crime, Drama, History
When another child goes missing, washed-up solicitor John Piggott unwittingly provides a catalyst for Detective Chief Superindent Maurice Jobson to start to right some wrongs.
Director: Anand Tucker | Stars: David Morrissey, Lisa Howard, Chris Walker, Shaun Dooley
Votes: 8,318
26. The Pillars of the Earth (2010)
TV-MA | 59 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
Set against a backdrop of war, religious strife and power struggles which tears lives and families apart.
Stars: Ian McShane, Matthew Macfadyen, Eddie Redmayne, Hayley Atwell
Votes: 33,125
27. I, Claudius (1976)
Not Rated | 50 min | Biography, Drama, History
The personal and governmental affairs of the Julio-Claudian dynasty at the beginning of the Roman Empire, as recalled by one of its rulers.
Stars: Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Siân Phillips, Brian Blessed
Votes: 19,381
28. House of Cards (1990)
TV-14 | 57 min | Drama
The schemes of a ruthlessly ambitious British politician who will stop at nothing to get to the top.
Stars: Ian Richardson, Susannah Harker, Miles Anderson, Alphonsia Emmanuel
Votes: 15,075
29. To Play the King (1993)
55 min | Drama
Francis Urquhart, the unscrupulous but cunning Conservative Prime Minister, has his survival threatened by a liberal monarch and an upcoming General Election.
Stars: Ian Richardson, Michael Kitchen, Kitty Aldridge, Colin Jeavons
Votes: 4,451
30. John Adams (2008)
TV-14 | 71 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of one of the USA's Founding Fathers, its second President, and his role in the nation's first 50 years.
Stars: Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, John Dossett, Stephen Dillane
Votes: 36,654
31. The Hollow Crown (2012–2016)
TV-14 | 150 min | Drama, History, War
A mini-series of adaptations of Shakespeare's history plays: Richard II, Henry IV: Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V.
Stars: Anton Lesser, Simon Russell Beale, Tom Georgeson, John Mackay
Votes: 7,319
32. Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
TV-G | 96 min | Biography, Drama, History
Beginning before the Nativity and extending through the Crucifixion and Resurrection, this mini-series brings to life all of the sweeping drama in the life of Jesus, as told by the Gospels.
Stars: Robert Powell, Olivia Hussey, Laurence Olivier, James Mason
Votes: 24,947
33. The X-Files (1993–2018)
TV-14 | 45 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two F.B.I. Agents, Fox Mulder the believer and Dana Scully the skeptic, investigate the strange and unexplained, while hidden forces work to impede their efforts.
Stars: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, William B. Davis
Votes: 250,003
34. Children of Dune (2003)
Unrated | 89 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
The twins of Paul "Muad'dib" Atreides become embroiled in the political landscape of Arrakis ("Dune") and the rest of the universe.
Stars: Alec Newman, Daniela Amavia, James McAvoy, Jessica Brooks
Votes: 15,183
35. The Expanse (2015–2022)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
The disappearance of rich-girl-turned-political-activist links the lives of Ceres detective, accidental ship captain and U.N. politician. Amidst political tension between Earth, Mars and the Belt, they unravel the greatest conspiracy.
Stars: Steven Strait, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham, Shohreh Aghdashloo
Votes: 172,445
36. The Witcher (2019– )
TV-MA | 60 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.
Stars: Freya Allan, Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra, Eamon Farren
Votes: 570,405
37. 61st Street (2022– )
TV-MA | 45 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Follows Moses Johnson, a promising high school athlete, who is swept up into the infamously corrupt Chicago criminal justice system.
Stars: Courtney B. Vance, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Mark O'Brien, Andrene Ward-Hammond
Votes: 1,217
38. Foundation (2021– )
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
A complex saga of humans scattered on planets throughout the galaxy all living under the rule of the Galactic Empire.
Stars: Jared Harris, Lou Llobell, Leah Harvey, Terrence Mann
Votes: 96,398
39. The Devil's Hour (2022– )
TV-MA | 60 min | Drama, Thriller
A woman who wakes up every night at exactly 3.33AM, in the middle of the so-called devil's hour between 3AM and 4AM.
Stars: Jessica Raine, Peter Capaldi, Nikesh Patel, Benjamin Chivers
Votes: 25,353
40. Rogue Heroes (2022–2024)
TV-MA | 52 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
SAS: Rogue Heroes charts the creation of the famed Special Forces unit. Based on the book by Ben Macintyre.
Stars: Connor Swindells, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Allen, Jacob Ifan
Votes: 21,371
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