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.)

85 What's My Name: Muhammad Ali (HBO)

(#7) This two-part, 165-minute HBO documentary from director Antoine Fuqua (and producer LeBron James) chronicles the career of the legendary boxer using nothing but archival footage, with Ali basically serving as his own narrator.

“By stripping most of the standard documentary crutches from his version of the story, Fuqua lays it all bare, and the resulting portrait is vividly detailed even as it’s understandably incomplete.” —Josh Modell, A.V. Club

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