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.

19 of 26 photo by Bob Mahoney/HBO

68 The Outsider (HBO, 2020)

Based on the novel The Outsider (2018)

[tied for #7] One of King's most recent books, The Outsider jumped almost immediately to the small screen in this HBO adaptation from fellow novelist/screenwriter Richard Price (Clockers, The Wire). Ben Mendelsohn stars as a detective investigating the brutal murder of an 11-year-old boy found in the Georgia woods, and, because it's an HBO show, the rest of the cast is also pretty terrific: Jason Bateman, Cynthia Erivo, Bill Camp, Mare Winningham, Paddy Considine, and Julianne Nicholson also star. But while King himself claimed The Outsider to be one the best adaptations of his work, critics offered a slightly less enthusiastic endorsement, with some reviewers warning that the show's horror and crime drama elements didn't play well together. It's listed in some places as a miniseries though that was not the intention; planning for a second season was underway when HBO opted not to extend the series.

“The past few years have seen a flood of Stephen King adaptations, and The Outsider is different than all of them. It's fascinating to see his familiar themes (grief) and tropes (people controlled by a malevolent force) rendered in the somber tones of an HBO drama.” —Liam Mathews, TV Guide

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