My Top Ten Miniseries

Well, this is going to be another of those lists with a lot of obvious omissions. I haven't seen "Roots" or "Shogun" or dozens of the other most famous, most culturally resonant television miniseries. However, I have seen an awful lot of miniseries anyway, and I thought it was time to enumerate my favorites. It's only fair, having done the TV movies last time. Entries below are unranked and arranged by airdate. Spoilers should be minimal.

I, Claudius (1976) - It's Roman history as a bitter family drama, from the point of view of the unlikely Emperor Claudius. Did any other television production ever have a cast as amazing as this one? The BBC made this very cheaply, with little by way of production values, which just meant there was less getting in the way of the magnificent performances. And while all the various acting greats playing the various Emperors are all well and good, the standout is Sian Phillps as Livia - as great a screen villain as there has ever been.

Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) - Possibly Rainer Werner Fassbender's magnum opus, a fifteen hour adaptation of the Alfred Doblin novel looks at the tragic life of a man in Weimar Germany. The production is sparse, and the early hours fairly repetitive and mundane. However, the surreal finale is worth all the tedium, paying off all the various character relationships and conflicts with a bizarre dream sequence. Again, there's not much to the production, as was Fassbender's usual style, but it certainly doesn't hurt the drama.

V (1983) - Honestly, I don't remember which of the multiple "V" miniseries I saw first, but some of my earliest memories of television were watching the alien invasion unfold night after night with rapt attention. Television miniseries were truly events in the '70s and '80s, because it was never certain if you were ever going to see them rerun. And, having not seen much classic sci-fi at that point, I think "V" was my first real exposure to the whole concept of the alien invasion. Another reason why the 2009 reboot was so disappointing.

The Decalogue (1989) - Krzystof Kieslowski's series about the Ten Commandments is an anthology of different stories, each related to a different Commandement, and several linked to each other via common characters, locations, and other elements. It's an uneven series, but a rewarding one. Two of the hour-long installments would be expanded into full features, "A Short Film About Love" and "A Short Film About Killing." "Killing" is easily the best of the lot, depicting the career of a young murderer and his eventual capture.

Gulliver's Travels (1996) and Merlin (1998) - In the '90s, the fantasy miniseries produced by Robert Halmis Sr. and Jr. were everywhere. These two were my favorites of the lot, both featuring all-star casts, a ton of shiny special effects sequences, and fabulous looking (and sounding) productions. And though both deviated significantly from their source material, they were both very good examples of modernizing and streamlining these older adventure stories for new audiences. I wish current Hollywood producers would take notes.

Band of Brothers (1999) - But if you want to talk about high production values, HBO spared no expense to dramatize the experiences of Easy Company during WWII. The most high budget television production of its time, "Band of Brothers" remains one of the most beloved depictions of WWII in any medium. I think this is because it stays on the ground with the soldiers for the most part, and is ever sympathetic to their experiences and their losses. And the episode where they discover the concentration camp, is of course, impossible to forget.

FLCL (2000) - Studio Gainax's tale of an alien woman crashing the life of a bored youngster on the verge of adolescence. It's anime style overload - incredibly fast paced, aggressively bombastic, and cool, with a rock score that is out of this world. Personally, I think the whole thing is a giant metaphor for puberty, but with a lot of good humor and a lot of animated weirdness that only anime can provide. Yeah, it originally premiered as an OAV in Japan, but "FLCL" aired as a miniseries in the U.S on Cartoon Network, so I'm giving it a spot on this list.

Angels in America (2003) - I'm the most hesitant about including this one, because there are parts of Mike Nichols' adaptation of the Tony Kushner play that never quite clicked with me. However, I just adore the whole spirit and idea of the work, the soul searching of the LGBT community in its darkest hour, and characters grappling with some of America's worst demons (and angels). The cast, of course, is full of familiar faces doing some of their best work. Al Pacino's aging, ailing version of Roy Cohn is especially powerful.

Over the Garden Wall (2014) - Created by Patrick McHale for Cartoon Network, this is a singularly unusual cartoon. It's an autumnal mystery series that builds its fantasy world and introduces its characters little by little, bite by bite. There are ten episodes of ten minutes each, short enough to watch all in one sitting, but structured in a way that keeps each installment feeling brief and fragmentary. It's a very spooky show for brave children, but endlessly charming. I love all the little nods toward older spooky media too.

Chernobyl (2019) - The brilliance of this show hit me when I realized Craig Mazin hadn't just made a miniseries about the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, but about the modern day climate of anti-science and denialism that has gotten us all into so much trouble. Anchored by the performances of Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgaard, "Chernobyl" finally puts the disaster in very human terms, shining a light on the heroism of the unsung Soviets who sacrificed so much to contain the damage, and everyone who dared to tell the truth.

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