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.

17 of 26 photo by Dana Starbard/Hulu

67 Castle Rock (Hulu, 2018–19)

Based on multiple novels and stories

[#9] Why adapt just one Stephen King story when you can adapt them all? That was basically the guiding principle for this Hulu original anthology series, which came from Manhattan's Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason and was set in the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock that served as the setting for many King works. Over two unrelated seasons, the J.J. Abrams-produced Castle Rock mixed original characters, locales, and stories with others borrowed from Misery, Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, Needful Things, and many more King tales. The cast (different for each season) also blended King adaptation regulars with actors new to his work, and included Bill Skarsgård, Jane Levy, Sissy Spacek, Lizzy Caplan, Andre Holland, Paul Sparks, and Tim Robbins.

“Its puzzle-box plot is the Stephen King Mad Libs version of a straightforward mystery that, even in its most engrossing moments, lacks the pulpy imagination of the author's finest work. There are jump scares, and one sequence involving a children's game is disturbing, but even at its most frightening, Castle Rock is never surprising.” —Michael Haigis, Slant

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