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.

4 of 26 photo by A&E

48 Bag of Bones (A&E, 2011)

Based on the novel Bag of Bones (1998)

[tied for #21] One of a dozen or so non-reality shows to air on cable's A&E over the past decade, this two-part miniseries came from director Mick Garris, who previously adapted King's Sleepwalkers for the big screen. That movie was panned by reviewers, and so, mostly, was Bag of Bones, which found Pierce Brosnan as a novelist and widower who visits his vacation house in an attempt to rid himself of nightmares about his late wife (Annabeth Gish). That turns out to be a bad idea, both for him and for viewers, as critics deemed the result lacking in scares and excitement.

“It starts slow, moves slowly, and goes nowhere.” —Robert Bianco, USA Today

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