Image via HBO
Published May 10, 2026, 2:50 PM EDT
Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.
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HBO has some of the best miniseries you'll see on television, especially from the last decade. Some of these miniseries are so great, in fact, that they're worth a rewatch. It might be to pick up on subtle nuances missed the first time around or to revel in the fantastic acting and compelling storylines.
So many of these series star Hollywood actors best known for movies, which contributes to the allure as they tackle small-screen roles. Several of these shows are frequently found at the top of lists of the best miniseries in recent years. Without further ado, there are eight HBO miniseries that demand a second viewing.
1 'Chernobyl' (2019)
Image via Liam Daniel / ©HBO / Courtesy Everett CollectionA historical drama based on the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Chernobyl might have some historical inaccuracies, but it reopened the conversation about one of the biggest nuclear tragedies of this generation. The series features an incredible cast, riveting handling of the subject matter, and has been praised for the depiction of the time period in the Soviet Union. What really captured viewers' attention beyond the story of amplifying the villains in the disaster (though many of those stories are embellished for dramatic effect) is the light shed on the heroes who worked tirelessly in the aftermath. Many paid with their lives, and their sacrifices are not to be forgotten.
A great idea is to read up on what's accurate and what's embellished in the series after watching, then watch again. Chances are, this will result in viewing the show with a different lens. Nonetheless, it won't be any less impactful. The reality is that, creative liberties or not, the story is rooted in true events. There's no doubt that Chernobyl is an HBO miniseries that is amazing from start to finish.
2 'The Night Of' (2016)
Image via Prime VideoRiz Ahmed and John Turturro shine in this eight-part crime series about a young Pakistani American college student who is charged with the murder of a woman. Though he doesn't recall what happened that fateful night, he is certain he's innocent. Circumstances, however, make the situation murky as racial biases come into play.
The Night Of earned 14 Emmy nominations, with Ahmed winning one of five for lead actor. Based on the first season of the 2008 British series Criminal Justice, it's worthwhile to watch that season, then re-watch The Night Of to see how they differ (and are the same). Beyond the comparison, the story itself will encourage conversation and leave you utterly gutted.
3 'Band of Brothers' (2001)
Image via HBOThe war drama Band of Brothers is often named as one of the best of its kind. Based on the 1992 non-fiction book by Stephen E. Ambrose, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks joined forces to turn it into a miniseries. The result was pure magic. Focused on a battalion during World War II, what adds to the compelling nature is that the characters are based on real people, with the story even including excerpts from actual interviews with the individuals.
Of course, as with any drama that isn’t a documentary, some liberties were taken to make the miniseries as exciting and action-packed as possible through its 10 episodes. But they're so good, it's worth watching again, especially when considering that it has been almost 25 years since the show was released. In fact, Apple TV series Masters of the Air is one of two companion series born from this one, along with 2010's The Pacific. Go ahead and have a marathon weekend watching all three.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz
Which Taylor Sheridan
Show Do You Belong In?
Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
FIND YOUR WORLD →
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly.
AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed.
AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending.
AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested.
ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it.
REVEAL MY SHOW →
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
4 'Sharp Objects' (2018)
Image via HBOAmy Adams is arguably one of the most underrated actors of this generation, famously known for having earned six Academy Award nominations yet never winning one. For Sharp Objects, she switched to the small screen and brought her tremendous talents to the episodic format. Sharp Objects follows her journey as Camille Parker, an alcoholic reporter who is coming off a stay at a psychiatric hospital after self-harming. Back in the real world, she must navigate the resumption of her life and the challenges of living with her ever-watchful and critical mother, Adora (Patricia Clarkson).
The series received eight Emmy nominations, including one for Adams (which she, again, unfortunately did not win). With just eight episodes, it's a tough, emotional watch, but it's the type of show to turn on again when in need of some self-healing. Try reading Gillian Flynn's novel on which the series is based before rewatching.
5 'Mare of Easttown' (2021)
Image via HBOKate Winslet has an Academy Award and was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine in both 2009 and 2021. Her acting is typically impeccable, from Titanic to The Regime, and Mare of Easttown is no exception. She's especially praised for her accuracy in replicating a proper East Pennsylvania dialect as Mare Sheehan, a police detective balancing a new case with an old one that haunts her, as well as personal challenges.
Mare of Easttown was one of the most talked about shows of 2021, earning 16 Emmy nominations and Winslet winning for her role. At just seven episodes, the intensity builds, the emotions are high, and it's a journey worth going on twice. Winslet was joined by other juggernauts, including Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, and Evan Peters, all of whom captivate on screen in this masterpiece of an HBO series.
6 'The Penguin' (2024)
Image via HBOColin Farrell is unrecognizable as the titular character in this crime drama based on the DC Comics character, but he absolutely nails the role. The Penguin sets out to tell the backstory of the popular Batman villain and his rise to power in the criminal underworld of Gotham City. From the story to the acting by both Farrell and Cristin Milioti as Sofia Gigante, it's a mob story that even those who aren't familiar with the DC Comics universe will enjoy. It doesn't even feel like a superhero series, but in the best way possible.
Earning 24 Emmy nominations and three Golden Globes nods, both Farrell and Milioti won the latter, and the wins were much deserved. With no plans for a second season in the cards, despite the sort of cliffhanger ending, The Penguin is the type of show to sink back into again and again, reveling in its brilliance and all the best plot twists. From the sets to the fight scenes to the intricate details as both Oz Cobb, a.k.a. The Penguin, and Sofia descend into unrecognizable versions of themselves, it's riveting. Rhenzy Feliz is also a scene stealer as the impressionable young Victor Aguilar, and Deirdre O'Connell was tailor-made to play Oz's mother, Francis.
7 'I May Destroy You' (2020)
Image via HBOThis 12-episode British black comedy drama isn't just a compelling story — it also has a powerful message about rape, victim blaming, and the trauma victims suffer. Praised across the board for its writing, directing, editing, soundtrack, and acting. Michaela Coel breaks down a situation that's all too familiar with many women, and even men, in a raw and deep way. In I May Destroy You, she plays Arabella, a young writer who realizes she was raped after what was to be a celebratory night out.
The series earned nine Emmy nominations and two wins, making history for Coel as the first Black woman to win for Outstanding Writing. At a time when the #MeToo Movement was in full swing, I May Destroy You spoke to many people and opened the eyes of others. It's still as relevant today, five years later, as it was in 2020. What fans also appreciate about I May Destroy You is that it centers around a predominantly Black British cast, making it an important example of representation on television as well.
8 'The Undoing' (2020)
Image via HBONicole Kidman and Hugh Grant are brilliant in The Undoing, a mystery psychological thriller that explores the idea of the perfect, well-to-do family and how secrets and lies weave into a plot that almost seems like it's, well, right out of a TV show. The story is fictional, based on the 2014 novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz.
Kidman captures the fractured wife, Grace, whose life is upended when her respected husband, Jonathan (Grant), is accused of murdering a young woman. As she peels back layers of the truth, she realizes her blinders, unintentional or not, hid her from a stark reality of her life. She might not truly know the man she married after all. Noah Jupe also does a fine job as Henry, the teenage son caught in the middle of the drama, along with Lily Rabe as Sylvia, Grace's best friend, and the late Donald Sutherland as her father, Franklin.
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