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.)

2 of 16 photo by Ben Macdonald/Silverback Films

87 Our Planet (Netflix)

Metacritic's Best TV Miniseries of 2019.

(#2) It's the feel-bad series of the year. Netflix borrows the narrator (David Attenborough), production company, and Emmy aspirations (it won for best documentary series) behind the BBC's recent nature miniseries hits Planet Earth and Blue Planet for a similarly ambitious wildlife series filmed (in 4K video) across a wide range of habitats on all seven continents over a four-year period. The stunning cinematography services a series-long narrative about the effects of climate change on the natural world—which makes for a surprisingly difficult, if not impossible, binge watch.

“A painfully beautiful eight-hour experience, bewitching in its loveliness and diversity even as it agitates, relentlessly, for human action against climate change.” —Sonia Saraiya, Vanity Fair

Where To Buy