What are the best TV miniseries in the world?

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Yeah so this is me being disappointed. Good thing Berlin Alexanderplatz was here! Anyhow, Kieslowski's ten-part Dekalog is basically a ten-film series with each film depicting a modern day version of one of the ten commandments. It's basically the coup-de-grace for Kieslowski's career and when you've got stuff like the Three Colors -trilogy and Double Life of Veronique under your belt, that's saying something. It's very heartfelt and real like his best work. Gripping, I guess is another word you could use.

Dekalog is why I made this thread. I finished it last week. Loved it and wanted more shows like it.

I still think Peep Show is the best comedy show (or comedy anything, really) ever. I think you'll find all episodes on YouTube.

EDIT: Not exactly a miniseries but still awesome.

The original UK version of Office is also better than the US one, if you're into that.

Band of Brothers is miniseries perfection!

I remember being excited for The Pacific but it didn't have any of the charm that Band of Brothers did. The characters were not interesting or very likeable.

I went through a mini-series phase this last year as well. In no particular order, here are some mini-series I enjoyed watching :

Pillars of the earth, The Night Of, The Night Manager, 11.22.63, Wolf Creek, Wolf Hall, Generation Kill, John Adams, Bleak House, Generation War, This is England '86, This Is England '90, The Game, From The Earth To The Moon, The Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe, Southcliffe, TInker Tailor Soldier Spy, Run, The Pacific, Broken Trail, Angels in America, The Odyssey, GUllivers Travels, Band of Brothers, And Then There Were None, Deutschland 83.

I recommend Band of Brothers, John Adams, War and Peace, The Night Manager, Generation Kill, Horace and Pete, The Jinx and The Night Of.

From the Earth to the Moon is a docudrama miniseries that is fantastic

Band of Brohters

/thread

It just occurred to me that I love The Wire but never watched The Corner, the miniseries that David Simon and co. put out before they made The Wire. I should probably fix that at some point.

Some of my faves:

Out 1 (Jacques Rivette) -- Not too long ago, cinephiles wondered if they'd ever get a chance to see the full, 13-and-a-half hour version of what was reported to be one of the best films by one of the most interesting directors of the French New Wave. Now it's on Netflix! (Listed as "Season 1." Don't hold your breath for a second season.) It's divided into eight episodes and the first may be the most challenging.

The Sandbaggers -- One of the best espionage dramas I've seen, and all available on YouTube.

Perfect Lives (Robert Ashley) -- Ashley called this a "television opera" and tried for years to get one of the networks to air it. It's really unclassifiable, but I think it's the greatest long-form American poem since the first edition of Leaves of Grass. Ashley himself said, "They're not poems, they're songs. Like The Iliad." First four (of seven) available on YouTube, and the whole thing is up on UbuWeb (along with Ashley's great Music With Roots in the Aether, featuring interviews with and performances by some of the other leading composers of his generation, including Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier, Terry Riley, and Phillip Glass.)

I'd also second or third the mentions of The Prisoner, Twin Peaks, Berlin Alexanderplatz, and The Kingdom. For Bergman-heads, the long version of Fanny & Alexander should count. And I love Jean-Luc Godard's video work (especially France/Tour/Detour/Deux/Enfants and Histoire(s) du Cinema.)

Nobody has mentioned Over the Garden Wall yet?

Great characters, songs, story, and it's perfect for this time of year. Watch it ASAP

As @fisk0 and @mrbgone mentioned - The Kingdom (Riget) is really good. It's in danish and it's 2x4 episodes long - with the first half being especially great.

@ezekiel: It was too much. I enjoyed the first season so much more. Billy Bob Thorton was so good.

These are the best recommendations that I can verify.

For other pretty good stuff:

I liked Murderland, a British 3-part crime drama, as well as the first standalone series of the British miniseries on which (the utterly atrocious) The Night Of is based on, called Criminal Justice. Both of these are, relative to the above recommendations, fairly forgettable, but I enjoyed them nonetheless.

Someone else mentioned The Corner, the precursor to The Wire. It's worth noting that, while interesting, The Corner feels like a proof of concept. It features 'interviews' with the characters that feel very stagey, and overall it just feels pretty 90's. There's no comparison at all between The Wire and The Corner, frankly, but it's neat seeing so many familiar actors from The Wire in roles that are often the inverse of the roles they played on The Wire.

The Lost Room was also mentioned. It's fun and has a lot of heart, but as it's a sort of real-world-meets-fantasy thing, it requires that you accept some dumb stuff to allow it to work. Worth watching, and it works if you let it.

I've been meaning to get around to The Shadow Line, another British conspiracy thriller miniseries from 2011. Maybe check that out!

Also, you know, there's a surprising amount of good anime miniseries...

@alucitary: I second Over the Garden Wall, one of my favourite series of all time.

For short comedy series my favourite is Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. The first episode is something I can return to anytime and find hilarious.

It also has a great Matt Berry song.

@ezekiel: BHO's band of brothers

True detective season one and The night of were both great. Westworld is airing right now and is also really great. Pretty sure these are all considered miniseries.

I liked The Pacific, though not as much as Band of Brothers. Just want to note that the best part of The Pacific is probably Rami Malek. Turns out he's pretty good at playing haunted, disassociated oddballs.

If I were to be overly simplistic it seems the war in Asia had less of a "rah-rah beat Hitler stop the Nazis, we're all heroes but we're not gonna admit it because really we were just doing our job!" sort of vibe and more a "oh god oh god this is horrific and it seems like this killing is never going to end we're trapped in an endless nightmare" sort of vibe and they lean into that.

Mother fucking Banshee.

If you like how action movies used to be in the 90s, Banshee is the show for you. It is fucking awesome!

Not really. You pick up the gist pretty quickly. You understand when people get fucked over in this without needing political nuance. I assume they have the whole trilogy (House of Cards, To Play the King, The Final Cut?)

Its a pantomimey at times but I'd stand by Ian Richardson's FU over Kevin Spacey's version.

The remake became pretty dull for me in the second season, partly because the characters were all unlikable assholes, with the only goodhearted one, Peter Russo, being crushed for his weakness. Kevin Spacey was despicable, without the charisma of someone like Tony Soprano or Walter White. I gave up.

Yes, Netflix has them all. But they cropped the 4:3 aspect ratio into 16:9. The Blu-ray retains the original aspect ratio. I find it gross that Netflix denies cropping movies and TV shows.

I sent a note to Peter (the author of this piece) as well, but just to everyone knows we don't crop movies or TV shows at Netflix. We want to offer the best picture and provide the original aspect ratio of any title on Netflix. However, unfortunately our quality controls sometimes fail and we end up offering the wrong version of a title. When we discover this error, we replace that title as soon as possible. — Joris Evers, Netflix PR

http://gizmodo.com/you-wont-believe-how-much-netflix-crops-your-movies-816686310

http://flavorwire.com/409632/the-netflix-cropping-mystery-solved-maybe

Shogun is an amazing mini series for the time, and holds up fairly well.

Firefly and Fargo spring to mind for me.

Season 1 of True Detective. Season 2 never happened in my eyes so I say 8 episodes constitutes a mini-series.

i don't know why i've sat on from the earth to the moon for so long, seeing as i'm fascinated by everything space/space race/nasa related. too bad it doesn't appear to be streaming anywhere.

Glad this has already been mentioned. Was pleasantly surprised by this show.

This Is England '86 is a follow-up of the film This Is England, which is pretty great in a gloomy Northern kind of way.

I started watching The Night Manager and I've been meaning to go back and finish it, about a Hotel manager in Cairo who gets roped into infiltrating an arms dealership - It's got a great cast (Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, etc). I've also been bugged by friends to start watching Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell, though I've heard the ending isn't particularly satisfying?

The problem with The Night Manager is that I read the book first. John Le Carre really knows how to write "Fuck." moments and they struggle to translate into screen. Laurie's great in it. Hiddleston less so. Pine in the book feels like a cunt that could pull this off. Hiddleston is just a fop.

Speaking of scenes that rendered me shaken to my core, This is England '86 has something that stopped me sleeping one night. And I contacted Shane Meadows to be all, "That was a bit much, mate."

@ezekiel: That's arguably the best quality Ian Richardson brings to the role. You'd vote for FU. His knowing nods, winks and monologues are pretty playful and he plays the part like someone who thinks all of this is in the national interest.