The Best Miniseries, TV Movies, and Specials of 2018

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 29, 2018

Above are the 20 highest-scoring special TV programs—including "limited" series, made-for-TV-movies, and one-off specials—debuting in the United States between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018. Titles are ranked by Metascore (an average of grades from top professional critics on a 0-100 scale) prior to rounding, and any programs with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded. (Looking for the best regular TV series of 2018? Those are ranked in a separate list.)

Note that Netflix original films (such as Roma and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) generally open in at least a few theaters prior to (or in conjunction with) their streaming debuts, and are excluded here. (They will be eligible for our Best Movies of 2018 list instead.)

1 of 21 photo by BBC AMERICA/BBC NHU 2017

97 #1: Planet Earth: Blue Planet II

Metacritic's Best TV Miniseries of 2018.

It was 2017's most-viewed TV show in Britain, and 2018's best-reviewed miniseries in the United States, where it aired on BBC America. This sequel to 2001's The Blue Planet follows on the heels of 2017's hugely acclaimed nature miniseries Planet Earth II, and was met with an equally rapturous response from critics for its stunningly beautiful survey of life present in our planet's oceans, which was filmed over four years (including 6,000 hours of underwater dive time) and narrated by David Attenborough.

And there's more to come, with the first half of 2019 bringing two more Attenborough miniseries: BBC America's Dynasties, which follows endangered species around the globe and starts January 19th, followed by Netflix's ambitious, 4K video Our Planet (from the team behind Planet Earth) on April 5th.

“It's a visually astonishing and riveting seven-part collection of images so surreal they almost feel like science fiction. ... Something like this doesn't happen overnight or come around very often. This is television as an educating device for the globe.” —Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter

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