The Best Miniseries, TV Movies, and Specials of 2019

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 27, 2019

Above are the 15 highest-scoring special TV programs—including "limited" series, made-for-TV-movies, and one-off specials—debuting in the United States between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019. 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.

Note that most Netflix and Amazon original films (such as The Irishman and Marriage Story) 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 2019 list instead.) But any streaming movies that bypass theatrical distribution are eligible here.

(Looking for the best regular TV series of 2019? Those will be ranked in a separate list coming in a few days.)

10 of 16 photo by Liam Daniel/HBO

82 Chernobyl (HBO)

(#10) It may not technically be a horror series, but HBO's five-part true-story miniseries Chernobyl might just be the scariest show to hit the small screen in 2019—as well as one of the best. Jared Harris, Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Barry Keoghan, and Paul Ritter star in a dramatization of the 1986 nuclear disaster that aims to accurately portray how the world's deadliest nuclear accident occurred, how its causes were investigated, and how it impacted nearby residents. You'll want to skip it if you live anywhere close to a nuclear power plant.

“Powerful and haunting. ... As bleak as it all sounds, 'Chernobyl' is a riveting drama that’s full of payoffs. It’s a thoroughly researched account of an event that’s still misunderstood, and it captures the sacrifices made by the Russian people — knowingly and inadvertently — in their efforts to clean up another state-sponsored mess.” —Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times

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