The 20 Best TV Shows Based on Movies, Ranked

by Amber Dowling, for Metacritic – August 5, 2022

Movies have the ability to deliver punchy stories, top-notch action, and ideas that can linger well after the closing credits roll. TV shows, on the other hand, can take those same pros and extend them over a much longer timeframe. Only on TV can viewers really get into a character and get to know all of their nuances, plus watch them develop and change as the episodes or seasons go on.

Given that, it’s no surprise so many TV shows are based on movies. Here, Metacritic has rounded up the 20 best film-to-TV adaptations as ranked by Metascore. Only live-action TV shows from 1985 and onward are eligible for inclusion.

Note also that we opted to make all Marvel Cinematic Universe shows eligible based on their ties to the film series as a whole even though many of the shows are not a direct adaptation of a single film. Don't like that decision? Here are seven honorable mentions that would have made the top 20 if we excluded MCU shows:

  1. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
  2. Obi-Wan Kenobi
  3. The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers
  4. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
  5. Westworld
  6. The Mandalorian
  7. Cobra Kai
20 of 21 photo by Sundance Network
89 The Returned (Sundance, 2013-15)

adapted from ▣ Les Revenants (aka They Came Back) (2004)

(#1) Nine years after Robin Campillo made his directorial debut with the French horror film Les Revenants (or They Came Back), a French TV series followed with critical acclaim in 2012. Like the film, the BAFTA-nominated show revolves around a small French mountain town where dead people began to inexplicably return. The eight-episode first season won an International Emmy and returned for another eight-episode season in 2015, earning fans including Stephen King in the process. That year an English version of the show (also called The Returned) from Carlton Cuse bowed as well, but it didn’t earn the same level of accolades and ended after its 10-episode run.

“The creepiness is slow and almost elegant. The vision is grand, epic even. The music, by Mogwai, is wonderfully absorbing. The whole creation, by Fabrice Gobert, is first-rate supernatural drama more than a mere horror show." —Joanne Ostrow, The Denver Post

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