For those who hate endless "soap operas" with a large number of faceless characters, where thirty-six implausible plot collisions coexist simultaneously, high-quality mini-series are like balm for a cinephile's soul. Boldly choose any from the selection below and enjoy watching after a hard day's work, and then reinforce the successful innovation again the next evening, and so on until the end of the week.
And Then There Were None, 2015, 3 episodes
Utopia, 2013–2014, 12 episodes
The Slap, 2015, 8 episodes
Millennium, 2010, 6 episodes
The Escape Artist, 2013, 3 episodes
The Town, 2012, 3 episodes
Houdini, 2014, 2 episodes
11.22.63, 2016, 8 episodes
Little Dorrit, 2008, 14 episodes
The Beauty Inside, 2012, 6 episodes
A Young Doctor’s Notebook, 2012–2013, 8 episodes
The Hollow Crown, 2012 - 2016, 7 episodes
Olive Kitteridge, 2014, 4 episodes
Parade’s End, 2012, 5 episodes
The Night Of, 2016, 8 episodes
A British adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel. The creators left the original ending of the source material and adapted everything else to modern realities, but they replaced the politically incorrect title ("Ten Little Niggers") and the word "niggers" in the nursery rhyme with "soldiers".
The series has eight characters, including the one and only Mr. Alec Norman Onim, or ANON...
"Utopia Experiments" is a manuscript in which, as is supposed, prophetic events of the previous century are described.
The graphic novel falls into the hands of a group of people who don't know each other. And soon they are hunted by "The Network," a mysterious private organization that doesn't shy away from criminal methods to achieve its goals. The "prey" has only two options: either hide or respond with force to a mortal threat...
The hostess of the house celebrates her anniversary with family and friends. Outdoor relaxation is fun until one of the guests slaps a mischievous child.
Honestly, the child is spoiled by his mother excessively, but it's also not right to raise someone else's offspring in such a way. Therefore, the guests' opinions about what happened divided into two warring camps, and the mother is in hysterics. The unpleasant situation doesn't end with the scandal among "their own": the parents take the offender to court...
Henrik Vanger's niece disappeared forty years ago, and all these years the Swedish industrialist has been tormented by terrible suspicions - did the greedy relatives kill the gentle girl? Now, at the sunset of his days, he has decided to hire journalist Mikael Blomkvist to find out the truth. Lisbeth Salander, an eccentric female hacker in love with the man, will help the investigator in his investigation.
At first glance, it seems like a trivial matter - the fantasies of a rich old man, which Mikael took on just for a generous reward, turned out to be a sore spot for a distinguished family...
In theory, a lawyer should defend any suspect, even if he is guilty and despicable, but on a human level, it is better to get rid of a dubious client right away, otherwise he will turn your life into hell, just like what happened to successful lawyer Will Burton.
Now the defender himself is under arrest, he lost his wife, and his son is psychologically traumatized, all because of a maniac named Liam Foyle, who has no intention of stopping...
The suicide of their parents drastically changed the plans of their son, 30-year-old Mark Nicholas, no matter how cynical it sounds. Now the man has to return to his hometown and take care of his underage sister and sick grandmother.
But over time, the hero realizes that his father and mother did not leave this life without the help of third parties, and the local inspector and representatives of the city administration are hiding something. There is no choice but to start investigating the tragedy himself and try to survive in the process.
The colorful life of the legendary illusionist will not let the bored viewer get bored: a poor Jewish boy, thanks to his hard work and perseverance, reached the pinnacle of artistic mastery, while also finding himself in the shoes of a spy and a debunker of mediums and their allegedly spiritualistic seances.
As a celebrity, Houdini had access to famous homes and was familiar with personalities such as "The Holy Satan" - Grigori Rasputin, Theodore Roosevelt, and Arthur Conan Doyle. But the most interesting thing is the "secret code" that the master - a mason left for his wife so that no one could disturb his spirit from the afterlife?
Jake Epping, an English teacher, passes through a time portal and finds himself in 1960 in order to try to prevent one of America's most resonant and controversial crimes - the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
In the past, he begins surveillance on Harvey Oswald while immersing himself in the rhythm of another era. The acculturation goes smoothly: respect from students and superiors at the new workplace, a romance with Sadie Dunhill, a librarian at his school. So Jake is not very eager to go back home, but no matter how good the hero feels, he is just an alien element...
Despite years of failures, Amy Dorrit remains a good person, and it has never been easy for her in this life: her father, William, a long-time bankrupt, spent twenty years in the "debtors' prison," Marshalsea, and his daughter was born in prison, in poverty and powerlessness.
But two loners found each other: Arthur Clennam and Amy. And so there is a chance for happiness, only if the unexpectedly inherited fortune that fell on the lovers is resolved peacefully...
Alex doesn't know where fate will throw his soul next day since he jumps from one human body to another. Women, men, different nationalities, social status, professions, and problems. Why him and when the metamorphosis will end - no one knows...
The situation is complicated by the fact that the hero falls in love with a beautiful girl named Lee, who may never see his true form.
A young doctor, who graduated from an educational institution with honors, Vladimir Bomgard, is sent to practice in the deep province. The time is already restless (1917), and the people are uneducated and prefer to be treated with dubious folk remedies.
One can easily degrade from boredom and loneliness, as happened to the grown-up hero years later, but for now, the daily routine turns Vladimir white and dependent on morphine. The series is based on stories by Mikhail Bulgakov.
Historical chronicles about the reign of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V, united under a common title.
In his time, the first of the kings (by the way, a negligent ruler for his subjects) on the list was overthrown by his cousin, but this betrayal wasn't easy for the latter: the torment of conscience and eternal fear for his son, the future Henry V. The father's nervousness passed on to his offspring, so Hal grew up as a complex person from whom anything can be expected...
A segment from the twenty-year family life of Olive and Henry Kitteridge. The wife is first a math teacher, then a retiree, but always stern and collected, while the husband is kind and caring, a small pharmacist, but a bit simple-minded.
The couple also has a son Christopher, whom the mother considers a slacker with no brains and therefore no prospects. Each member of the family has their own grievances against each other, which over time spoils the relationship between relatives.
Christopher Tietjens is a true gentleman from the upper echelons of British society, and he is not used to airing his dirty laundry, even if he has to endure his wife's infidelity and possibly another man's child, but under his name and in his own home.
So he would have existed unhappily in the shackles of Puritan morality and religiosity if he hadn't fallen in love with suffragette Valentine Wannop, a bold girl by the standards of King Edward VII's era. The couple would have had no chance of happiness if not for the radical changes in people's minds that coincided, strangely enough, with the world war...
Nasir Khan, a student of Pakistani origin, was in a hurry to the party of the year, so he borrowed his father's vehicle - a taxi. The car became the reason for the boy to meet a girl named Andrea, who was hitchhiking.
The young people liked each other at first sight, and soon the couple is having fun somewhere at an apartment, with a large amount of alcohol and drugs. But when the hero wakes up in the morning, he finds his girlfriend dead, and, not coming up with anything better, he leaves the crime scene. However, the police don't receive their salary for nothing - "Nas" is arrested and accused of a murder he didn't commit. Does the poor guy have a chance of being acquitted with the help of lawyer John Stone?
And what shows would you add to our list? Don't hesitate, write your list in the comments to the post!
