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.)

4 of 21 photo by Kyle Kaplan/HBO

90 #4: The Tale

One of the biggest acquisitions at January's Sundance Film Festival—where it received stellar reviews—this Emmy-nominated HBO film is the semi-autobiographical narrative feature debut from documentarian Jennifer Fox (My Reincarnation), in which she draws from her own experiences to create a harrowing story of sexual abuse. The Tale stars Laura Dern as a documentary filmmaker (also named Jennifer Fox) who investigates her own memory of the sexual abuse she suffered as a 13-year-old after she comes across a short story she wrote at the time. Elizabeth Debicki, Jason Ritter, Frances Conroy, John Heard, Common, and Ellen Burstyn round out the main cast.

“It’s almost impossible to conceive of a movie better suited to the present moment of reckoning with sexual abuse, and one better equipped to extend and complicate that extraordinarily necessary conversation. The time for The Tale is now.” —Sam Adams, Slate

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