Image via HBO
Published May 2, 2026, 8:52 AM EDT
Ryan Heffernan is a Senior Writer at Collider. Storytelling has been one of his interests since an early age, with his appreciation for film and television becoming a particular interest of his during his teenage years.
This passion saw Ryan graduate from the University of Canberra in 2020 with an Honours Degree in Film Production. In the years since, he has found freelance work as a videographer and editor in the Canberra region while also becoming entrenched in the city's film-making community.
In addition to cinema and writing, Ryan's other major interest is sport, with him having a particular love for Australian Rules football, Formula 1, and cricket. He also has casual interests in reading, gaming, and history.
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Striking a perfect middle ground between the expansive scope that extended television series wield and the contained, taut plotting of films that can be absorbed in one sitting, miniseries have become something of a rising phenomenon in recent years. Even within the limited series bracket, however, there is plenty of scope. Series that run for three or four episodes can be viewed in one night with ease, while 10-part titles can be enjoyed over a week or so.
Six-episode miniseries occupy a Goldilocks balance between the two, and it is no coincidence that many of the best and most intriguing limited series have unfurled over six installments. Ranging from devastating war epics to period piece adaptations, espionage thrillers, and even crime dramas, these six-episode stunners are worth all the praise they get and more.
9 'Liebes Kind' (aka 'Dear Child') (2023)
Image via NetflixA Netflix original series originating from Germany, Dear Child is perhaps underrated as an engrossing crime-mystery series that stands as a true gem of international television. It follows a mysterious woman who has endured a horrific tenure in captivity as she manages to escape. The circumstances of her confinement prove to be of interest to detectives whose investigation into the disappearance of a woman 13 years earlier might have just found a decisive lead.
Bold and confronting, the series never shirks its most disturbing elements but rather embraces its inherent darkness with a might that both absorbs and stuns. Its six episodes are laced with compelling twists and shocking revelations as it borrows generously from several of the most esteemed crime thrillers in recent years to create an entrancing story of evil, heartache, and deceit. In essence, Dear Child is an overlooked highlight of mystery and suspense that leaves an indelible mark on viewers with its underlying menace and its frightful unpredictability.
8 'Stateless' (2020)
Image via NetflixHere, the title is applicable not only in a literal sense of statehood and nationality, but with a more poignant meaning attributed to the identity crisis and loss of self that permeates within people when they are dislocated from society and culture. Stateless is a hard-hitting and powerful story of human connection underlined by its basis on true stories of Australia's immigration detention. It follows four interwoven tales of despair and loss as the lives of an Afghan refugee, a desperate air hostess, a young father, and a bureaucrat caught amid a devastating scandal overlap in a detention center in the Australian desert.
Buoyed by a litany of extraordinary performances, the series builds a compelling story of humanity and the immigration process rife with themes of morality and the quality of life in such institutions. It is designed to challenge viewers' perceptions of immigration and detention centers with its humanistic approach and emotional impact, making for a series that is thought-provoking, impactful, and timely.
7 'Alias Grace' (2017)
Image via NetflixBased on Margaret Atwood's 1996 novel of the same name, Alias Grace is a hypnotic hybrid of historical fiction, thematically loaded murder mystery, and character-driven drama that has come to be celebrated as one of the most intriguing miniseries of recent years. Set in 19th-century Canada, it follows Grace Marks (Sarah Gordon) as her conviction for the murder of her employer is challenged, with the lecherous psychiatrist, Dr. Simon Jordan (Edward Holcroft), hired to produce a report that will see her pardoned, leading to a detailed interview concerning Grace's past life.
It is a searing adaptation that perfectly captures the source material's emphasis on the treatment and judgment of women in history while leading viewers down an enticing mystery of scandal and justice. While its finale leaves something to be desired with its ambiguity, Alias Grace remains a thematically rich, compelling, and horrendously underrated miniseries that gorgeously realizes mid-19th-century Canada and the not-so-gorgeous views and beliefs of many who lived in that time.
6 'Bodyguard' (2018)
Image via BBCPolitical divides have seldom been more profound and spiteful than they are now, a notion Bodyguard plays on with gripping suspense and an intriguing central relationship. Richard Madden stars as David Budd, a war veteran serving in the Royalty and Specialist Protection branch of London's Metropolitan Police Service, who is assigned to protect Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), a controversial and ambitious politician whose aggressive policies he despises. As his resentment towards Montague only grows stronger as he works with her, Budd is torn between his values and his duty while still reeling from the physical and psychological scars of his time in Afghanistan.
Entrancing from its opening moments and never relinquishing its grasp on the audience until the final credits roll, Bodyguard thrives on the back of the searing performances of its stars and the engrossing complexity of its thematic focus on duplicity and conviction in politics. Highly conducive to a quick binge-watch bonanza, the series is an exciting and cerebral thriller that offers both gasp-inducing twists and intrigue aplenty for those who prefer their suspense to burn slowly and meticulously.
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
5 'The Little Drummer Girl' (2018)
Image via AMCBoasting the talents of the ever-magnificent Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgård, and Michael Shannon, The Little Drummer Girl is a piercing and propulsive spy thriller that revels in the splendor of its period setting and the intensity of John le Carré's source material. Charlie (Pugh) is an aspiring English actress with radical left-wing views who is recruited by a Mossad agent she has a fling with while on holiday. She is tasked with infiltrating a terrorist group plotting to carry out devastating attacks in Europe.
Unfurling with a measured pacing that is as agonizing as it is absorbing, The Little Drummer Girl embodies the winding and meticulous might of spy drama at its absolute best. With every element—from its performances to its twists, mesmerizing art design, and keen eye for geopolitical tensions—masterfully interwoven by veteran filmmaker Park Chan-wook, the miniseries is a gem that many missed initially, but should be sought out by lovers of the genre, especially.
4 'Black Bird' (2022)
With true crime turmoil and serial killer suspense, Black Bird unsurprisingly became something of an instant hit when released by Apple TV in 2022. James "Jimmy" Keene (Taron Egerton) is facing charges that could see him imprisoned for 10 years. An unlikely chance at redemption and freedom emerges when the FBI offer him a fully commuted sentence if he can use his natural charisma and talkative nature to procure a confession from Larry Hall (Paul Walter Haulser), a suspected serial killer and rapist held on abduction charges that he could beat in an upcoming appeal.
Realized with a depth and nuance that several other true crime dramas have noticeably lacked, Black Bird is a feat of character-driven narrative and prison yard grit that only becomes more entrancing as its story of manipulation, murder, and morality unwinds. Further bolstered by strong performances from its ensemble cast, it excels as a taut gem of crime drama that is largely an accurate recreation of Keene and Hall’s real relationship.
3 'Pride and Prejudice' (1995)
Image via BBCTrue classic novels are seldom done justice when they are adapted for the screen. The BBC's 1995 miniseries based on Jane Austen's iconic novel, Pride and Prejudice, is one of the rare ones that works an absolute treat with its handling of the period romance's themes of societal expectations and elitist biases. Set in Regency-era England, it follows the complex relationship that blossoms between Elizabeth Bennett (Jennifer Ehle), who hails from a modest family, and the wealthy and proud, though distant Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy (Colin Firth).
It is not an understatement to suggest the miniseries has become a defining icon of '90s television. Firth's portrayal of Mr. Darcy is widely regarded to be the best representation of Austen's characters in film or television, while its narrative is perfectly paced throughout the entirety of its six-hour run. Laced with Austen’s phenomenal yet poignant wit, Pride and Prejudice is as delicate as it is addicting, and a testament to the brilliance of the miniseries format years before it was in vogue.
2 'Das Boot' (1984)
Image via Neue Constantin FilmInitially released in 1981 as a 149-minute feature film that has come to be heralded as a defining masterpiece of war cinema, Das Boot brings a profoundly human perspective to those who fought for Germany during WWII. The claustrophobic classic follows the crew of a U-boat as they patrol the Atlantic Ocean, straying from extended periods of confined boredom to explosive episodes of grueling, white-knuckled naval warfare. However, as the film received partial funding from German television broadcasters, it was also obliged to shoot additional footage to produce a television series.
Said series was released in 1984, with its extended six-episode run featuring more of the emotional and mental duress that the crew endured throughout their prolonged, monotonous, and torturous service. Interestingly, director Wolfgang Petersen edited and released a director’s cut of the film in 1999, which, with a runtime of 208 minutes, includes much of the character development featured in the miniseries but was cut from the initial theatrical release. Brilliantly, all forms of Das Boot are masterful displays of humanity, camaraderie in war, and heart-stopping tension that depict life in a submarine in agonizing detail.
1 'We Own This City' (2022)
Image via HBOComing from the creators of The Wire and simmering with its true story basis, We Own This City is a breathtaking albeit elaborate odyssey of police corruption that, in true David Simon fashion, observes debilitating systemic faults in society's most integral institutions while treating all of its deeply flawed characters with humanity. With a non-linear narrative sprawled across 15 years, it follows the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force, a rogue and corrupt outfit spearheaded by Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal).
Its scope is awe-inspiring, not only covering well over a decade of police corruption and cover-ups, but a litany of other stories within that framework. Its examination of police corruption is brilliant because it delves deep into societal, psychological, and institutional reasons why it occurs and is so difficult to curtail, while also depicting the impact it has on a community. Further bolstered by Bernthal's brilliantly committed performance and David Simon's intrinsic knowledge of Baltimore’s criminal landscape and police force, We Own This City is an astonishing masterpiece of crime television that stands as perhaps the most underrated miniseries in the history of the medium.
We Own This City
Release Date 2022 - 2022-00-00
Network HBO Max
Directors Josh Charles
Writers Josh Charles
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Josh Charles
Daniel Hersl
English (US) ·