This year streaming companies have brought their A game with twisty miniseries, from gut-wracking thrillers to taunting dramas.
As you brood the last stretch of summer, here's a list of limited TV series to stay in and absorb.
This year streaming companies have brought their A game with twisty miniseries, from gut-wracking thrillers to taunting dramas.
As you brood the last stretch of summer, here's a list of limited TV series to stay in and absorb.
Keep Breathing is a six-part survival series created by Brendan Gail and Martin Gero for Netflix. Having premiered on July 28 2022, Keep Breathing headlines a woman Liv (Melissa Barrera), whose small plane crashes in the middle of nowhere in Canada. Liv must beat all odds to survive.
Critics applauded Barrera’s compelling performance, giving the series an overall 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Samuel L. Jackson gives a commendable performance in this six-episode limited series. The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey released its first episodes on March 11 2022, and features Jackson as the main character Ptolemy Grey, a 91-year-old man with dementia.
With Ptolemy being able to recall bits of his past, he uses his time to investigate the demise of his nephew.
The miniseries is based on a novel of the same title by Walter Mosley. Though The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey has been critically appraised, scoring 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, Google users feel a bit meh, giving a 58% rating.
We’ll let you decide where the show lies with you once you watch it.
Here’s one for you animation lovers! Having only premiered on August 24 2022, Lost Ollie has an impressive 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes and 93% on Google Review.
The four-part Netflix series is based on the children's book Ollie's Odyssey (2016) by William Joyce. It focuses on a lost toy dog, Ollie voiced by Jonathan Graff, who searches for the boy that lost him, Billy (Kester Talbot).
The miniseries presents an interesting cast alongside the main characters, including Mary J. Blige, Gina Rodriguez, Tim Blake Nelson and Jake Johnson.
This crime drama miniseries earned Andrew Garfield his first Emmy nomination this year. Based on a nonfiction book of the same title by Jon Krakauer, Under The Banner of Heaven sees two detectives, Jeb Pyre (Garfield) and Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham), who investigate a grisly murder of a woman and her infant daughter seemingly related to Mormonism.
The limited series questions morality and religion, and generally received favorable reviews, scoring 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and 80% on Google Reviews.
Under the Banner of Heaven premiered on April 28 and contains seven episodes.
Jessica Biel found her niche in this chilling five-episode series. Released on May 9 2022, Candy features Biel as Candy Montgomery, a woman accused of grisly murdering her neighbor Betty Gore (Melanie Lynskey).
The biographical crime drama series focuses on the real events that took place in 1980 Texas.
Candy received relatively good reviews, rating 71% on Rotten Tomatoes and 76% on Google Reviews.
Peacock's Angelyne is a five-episode series starring Emmy Rossum as the enigmatic blonde bombshell Angelyne who rose to stardom in the 1980s, with her eccentric billboard adverts focusing on her body.
Alex Karpovsky plays the Hollywood reporter Jeff Glover who tries to uncover Angelyne’s personal life. But his efforts are cumbered by her confidentiality and clashing accounts from herself and other interviewees.
Angelyne premiered on May 19 2022, and has pending Emmy Award nominations. Let's see if they win.
Echoes is a seven-part Australian miniseries that premiered on August 19 2022, on Netflix. It showcases Michelle Monaghan as identical twins Leni and Gina McCleary who occasionally swap lives, including their spouses Jack Beck (Matt Boner) and Charles 'Charlie' Davenport (Daniel Sunjata). The ridiculous switching comes to a halt when one of the twins suddenly goes missing.
Netflix painted the mystery drama series to attract eyeballs. So watch it with an open mind without overthinking.
Though Echoes has been heavily criticised, rating 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of the Google audience loves it.
This four-episode Lifetime series is a prequel to 2014's Flowers in the Attic and a sequel to Petals in the Wind. It debuted on June 29, 2022, and follows the story of Olivia Winfield (Jemima Rooper), who locked her grandkids in the attic for complicated reasons.
Set in the 1920s, the miniseries explores Olivia’s twisted past. Working in her father’s company and looking forward to her freedom to vote, the protagonist soon discovers that her seemingly perfect life is a nightmare.
95% of Google Users adore this limited drama series. Oh! And Vampire Diaries’ Paul Wesley stars in it too!
Pistol is a biographical drama limited series created by Craig Pearce. It debuted on May 31 2022, and features six episodes, headlining Sex Pistol's guitarist Steve Jones and the band's infirmity. Get to see how the band of rowdy working-class kids changed culture and music forever.
The Pistol gang is portrayed by Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, Toby Wallace as Steve Jones, Anson Boon as John Lydon and Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Malcolm McLaren.
Though critics were fairly critical, giving a score of 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, a large percentage of Google Users claim to love it, rating 85% on Google Reviews.
The story of Michael Peterson has been told in different versions, including in Netflix's documentary, podcast and recently in HBO Max's eight-part series The Staircase released on May 5 2022.
Starring A-listers Colin Firth and Toni Collette, the miniseries showcases novelist and failed politician Michael Peterson accused of murdering his wife, Kathleen Peterson.
The murder story is based on Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s docuseries. It was also parodied in the sitcom Trial and Error.
The miniseries is criticised for its slow-pacing first half. The latter half, however, shifts the gear to something entirely different. So, stick around to the end.
The Staircase scores an exceptional 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 87% on Google Review.
The ten-part miniseries, The Offer is a biographical drama that launched on April 28 2022 on Paramount+.
Featuring an all-star cast including Miles Teller, Giovanni Ribisi, Matthew Goode, Dan Fogler, Colin Hanks, Burn Gorman and Juno Temple, The Offer presents Albert Ruddy’s (Teller) experience of producing the 1972 film, 'The Godfather', together with Francis Ford Coppola (Fogler).
Though it received mixed reviews, rating 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s worth looking into. The show rates 83% on Google Review.
Hulu's Santa Evita is a Spanish-language seven-episode limited series that follows the unbelievable fate of Eva Perón’s body after she passed away in 1952 as it awaited burial for several decades.
Since landing on the small screen on July 26 2022, the series has garnered an impressive 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Released on August 12 2022, Five Days At Memorial is a disaster medical drama miniseries based on the 2013 book of the same title by Sheri Fink.
The five-part series narrates the agonizing events at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. The Memorial’s health care professionals, headed by Dr Anna Fou (Vera Farmiga), were forced to implement tough decisions that later haunted them.
Though the series is highly acclaimed, scoring 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and 81% on Google Review, you need a strong stomach to digest its contents.