8 Perfect Miniseries That No One Remembers Today

If you're not interested in watching some of the well-known and raved-about miniseries but would rather dive into something a little more obscure but still good quality, here are the stellar miniseries that are 10/10, but no one remembers today. For fans of some long-forgotten and buried content, this list could help extend your watchlist.

'The Escape Artist' (2013)

It's rare for David Tennant to pick a bad show, and The Escape Artist is just one more proof of that. This three-part BBC miniseries is a perfect crime thriller gem that stars Tennant as a tenacious, vulnerable defense attorney and Toby Kebbell as a vicious, chilling villain. With only three episodes, it seems overly short, but each episode is presented as a different genre, keeping viewers glued to the screen; it runs like a longer feature film, combining everything from thriller and horror to character drama and tragedy.

The Escape Artist follows Will Burton (Tennant), a brilliant barrister who specializes in defending the accused and has never lost a case. However, after he successfully acquits a charismatic sociopath named Liam Foyle (Kebbell), Foyle becomes obsessed with him, launching a psychological terror campaign against Burton's family, culminating in a second murder trial—this time with Burton as the accused. The show is a suspenseful legal thriller that was potentially forgotten because of a fairly generic title but is definitely worth a watch—a forgotten classic that deserves to be rediscovered.

'The Good Lord Bird' (2020)

The Good Lord Bird is one of Showtime's most brilliant and overlooked series; in fact, many people have probably never heard of it until now. Fans of Westerns and/or Ethan Hawke will have the time of their life with this seven-episode series based on history, and its 98% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes further proves the show's worth. Even if you're not too keen on Hawke, this show will make you a fan; he delivers a career-best performance in a series he also created and produced. The Good Lord Bird doesn't fall into the trap of being a dry history lesson, rather embracing a mischievous, quirky, and strange energy that makes a 19th-century story feel urgent and alive.

The Good Lord Bird is told from the point of view of Henry "Onion" Shackleford (Joshua Caleb Johnson), a fictional enslaved boy and follows him meeting the radical abolitionist John Brown (Hawke) in the years leading up to the American Civil War. After a chance encounter, Onion is swept into Brown's eccentric and violent crusade against slavery, from the "Bleeding Kansas" conflict to Brown's legendary attack on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. The Good Lord Bird was released at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and suffered from a lack of publicity, preventing it from becoming the lockdown hit it deserved to be. The series was largely overlooked and faded from the cultural conversation, but its rave reviews are justified and make watching it worthwhile.

'Show Me a Hero' (2015)

If you like The Wire or anything that David Simon created, you'll love the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero with Oscar Isaac in the lead. It feels like a masterclass of socially conscious storytelling, and it was based on a true story about the youngest mayor ever elected in New York. Isaac delivers a layered performance as the troubled mayor, bringing to life a story about a big moment in American history that's rarely been heard of before this miniseries. Show Me a Hero is an empathetic and frustrating portrait of a system in crisis, and it has a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Show Me a Hero is a six-episode miniseries about Nick Wasicsko (Isaac), the youngest mayor elected in Yonkers, New York, in 1987. When a federal judge orders the predominantly white, middle-class city to construct 200 units of public housing on its east side as a desegregation measure, it ignites a political firestorm. Despite Wasicsko being elected on a platform that opposed the plan, he finds himself supporting it and struggles to balance his relationships with politicians and the public. Despite being an HBO production with a major star and a cult creator, Show Me a Hero is vastly underrated. Aside from Isaac, the incredible ensemble cast includes Alfred Molina, Catherine Keener, Winona Ryder, and Jon Bernthal.

'Catch-22' (2019)

Joseph Heller's seminal novel Catch-22 may have felt impossible to put to the screen until Hulu created a miniseries based on it. The iconic characters of John Yossarian, Milo Minderbinder, and Doc Daneeka were brought to life in this darkly comical and visually stunning masterpiece; unlike the 1970 feature film starring Alan Arkin, the series does a better job of encapsulating some of Yossarian's most important moments, including the feeling of being stuck in the "catch-22" situation. Nothing can fully depict how it feels to read Heller's novel, but this series complements it beautifully.

Catch-22 has six episodes that follow Capt. John Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), a WWII US Air Force bombardier who doesn't want to be a part of the war at all. He is trapped by the infamous "catch-22": a soldier can be grounded for insanity, but asking to be grounded for insanity proves he's sane enough to understand his mental health, so he has to keep flying. As his missions become more dangerous and the bureaucracy more absurd, Yossarian must find a way to survive in his increasingly maddening surroundings. The cast is stacked with stars, including George Clooney, who executive produced the series; critics praised it for being an "almost perfect series," capturing both the humor and the tragedy of Catch-22. For unknown reasons, the show remains swimming in a sea of underrated series, but fish it out and give it a try—you'll love it.

'The Honourable Woman' (2014)

Those who've seen The Honourable Woman with Maggie Gyllenhaal probably remember it in a fairly fresh and positive light—it was made during a decade defined by intense political series, and it feels just as relevant some twelve years later. Written and directed entirely by Hugo Blick, The Honourable Woman is a dense slow burn that captivates the attention easily. Blick, in an interview for the BBC said, "To a backdrop of the seemingly irreconcilable, this is a story about personal reconciliation," adding that he is "certainly not offering any actual, specific answers to such a complex and emotionally provocative issue." Using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a backdrop for a story of personal struggle feels like Blick just couldn't win, which may be why the show was sent to the back of the TV schedule after airing.

The Honourable Woman follows Nessa Stein (Gyllenhaal), the daughter of a murdered Jewish arms dealer who has reinvented her father's company into a telecommunications empire dedicated to connecting Israel and Palestine. As she navigates the sensitive politics of the Middle East, she is kidnapped, and in the aftermath unravels a conspiracy involving several intelligence agencies and her own family's dark secrets. The story jumps between present-day negotiations and flashbacks to her childhood and the kidnapping, slowly revealing what really happened. Gyllenhaal won a Golden Globe for this performance, and critics called the show "most satisfying" and "intricate."

'Bodies' (2023)

Bodies is one of Netflix's most ingenious sci-fi thrillers, but it went as quietly as it came. Based on a graphic novel by Si Spencer, Bodies is a masterclass in complex storytelling. It depicts different timelines with a distinct tone and aesthetic, yet they all feel cohesive and connected to follow the story's unusual thread. The show respects its audience's intelligence, rewarding close attention with dozens of "aha" moments. The cast is uniformly excellent, with Stephen Graham delivering a chilling performance (as always). Bodies is the kind of miniseries that demands an immediate rewatch.

Bodies follows four detectives in four different time periods—1890, 1941, 2023, and 2053—as they discover the same dead body on Whitechapel Street. As they investigate, they discover a centuries-long conspiracy that connects them to each other. They can't see how and why they are connected, but going toward the solution turns out to also mean preventing a dystopian future. Bodies never really cracked the top 10 for longer than a week, but word of mouth still keeps it on the top for dedicated mystery fans. Interestingly, the four detectives seem to represent four different genres: Victorian Gothic, wartime noir, modern police procedural, and sci-fi thriller, giving the series a very interesting shift from episode to episode.

'The Lost Room' (2006)

The Lost Room is a cult phenomenon that never went beyond its few episodes, despite devoted fans begging for a revival for so many years later. The Lost Room has exceptional world-building that focuses on things called Objects, which all have a specific, consistent power. The show's creator, Christopher Leone, co-created the show with the idea of everyday objects possessing supernatural powers, and reviewer David Yates interestingly connects its lore with the origins of creepypasta in his review of the show.

The Lost Room follows detective Joe Miller (Peter Krause), whose young daughter disappears while he's investigating a mystery. He discovers that Room 10 of the Sunshine Motel exists outside normal space and time and that the room's ordinary objects possess impossible powers. Joe must find a way to get his daughter back before a secret society of collectors, who hunt these everyday objects, find him and stop him. The Lost Room is a SyFy original, and while it's rarely available to watch today, it remains a word-of-mouth sci-fi legend that deserves another chance 20 years later.

'ZeroZeroZero' (2019–2020)

ZeroZeroZero was based on Roberto Saviano's nonfiction book, the same author whose novel inspired the critically acclaimed series Gomorrah. It's an operatic, globe-spanning masterpiece with a 94% critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus calling it "an addictive thriller whose greatest weakness is that it is at times too withholding." The series was shot in five countries across the globe and stars Gabriel Byrne, Andrea Riseborough, and Dane DeHaan as the Lynwood family; they give brilliant, career-best performances, together with a sprawling international cast. ZeroZeroZero is a nihilistic, stunningly shot crime epic that will stick with you long after watching it.

ZeroZeroZero opens with the leader of the Calabrian mafia ordering a single massive shipment of cocaine—5,000 kilos of the purest grade (000). The series follows this cargo as it travels across three continents and three overlapping perspectives: the corrupt Mexican cartel that makes it, the Italian syndicate that distributes it, and the Lynwood family, a fading American shipping dynasty from New Orleans that serves as the deal's broker. As the shipment travels from Monterrey across the Atlantic, the story unfolds in a non-linear fashion, jumping between timelines and continents, forcing viewers to piece together the complete picture through the world's grim, vicious, and devastating underbelly. ZeroZeroZero got lost in the shuffle of the streaming wars, and despite its massive budget and a cast of major stars, it failed to reach mainstream audiences—but it's worth the time.