Every Stephen King TV Show, Ranked Worst to Best

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – June 3, 2021

Originally a reluctant convert to television, best-selling horror author Stephen King has seen over two dozen projects bearing his name reach the small screen over the past 40+ years, from Salem's Lot to the just-launched Lisey's Story. While most of these have been adaptations of King's novels and stories, a few were wholly new projects written by the author directly for TV. Some have been deeply mediocre at best, but quite a few of King's TV shows have received a warm welcome from critics.

In the gallery on this page, we rank every Stephen King series from worst to best by Metascore, reflecting the critical consensus at the time of each show's debut. Miniseries are included alongside conventional TV shows, but made-for-TV movies are excluded.

13 of 26 photo by CBS

63 Golden Years (CBS, 1991)

Written directly for television

[#13] Stephen King had little interest in pursuing television projects until two shows changed his mind. One was the successful 1990 adaptation of his own It, and another was David Lynch's unexpected hit Twin Peaks. The latter encouraged King to write his first project directly for television. A sci-fi series centering on a 70-year-old janitor who begins aging in reverse (like Benjamin Button) and is pursued by the government after an accident at the laboratory where he works, Golden Years was even structured like Twin Peaks, with a short miniseries (in this case, seven episodes) ending in a cliffhanger that would be resolved with a full-length first season. Unfortunately for King, CBS opted not to order the series—or even commission a movie to wrap up the story.

Golden Years did, however, serve as the first regular TV starring role for both Felicity Huffman and Stephen Root. And, yes, the theme song was exactly what you might be thinking.

“The writer’s achievement here is to have provided us with the video equivalent of a good summer read — Golden Years is entertaining and substantial at the same time.” —Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly

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