Collider’s Ranking of 8 Miniseries Perfect From Beginning to End

Collider has published a list of eight miniseries that critics believe are perfect from beginning to end, and the lineup runs from an animated fairy tale to a nuclear disaster drama. The ranking, titled “8 Miniseries That Are Perfect From Beginning to End,” covers shows released across nearly two decades, from Cartoon Network’s Over the Garden Wall to HBO’s Chernobyl and beyond.

The list argues that modern miniseries aim for lasting impact rather than awards, and that the best of them deliver a complete experience in a compact package. Not all of these shows were necessarily critical darlings or won any awards, but each offers resonant storytelling and a distinctive visual style, according to the ranking.

Over the Garden Wall and Chernobyl

The ranking begins with Over the Garden Wall, an animated dark fantasy adventure created by Patrick McHale. It follows half-brothers Greg and Wirt, voiced by Collin Dean and Elijah Wood, who become lost inside a strange forest called the Unknown. Melanie Lynskey, Christopher Lloyd, Jack Jones, and Samuel Ramey round out the main voices. The show blends 19th-century American folklore with a vintage animation style, and Collider calls it “wonderfully nostalgic and surprisingly deep.”

The second entry is Chernobyl, the 2019 HBO miniseries created and written by Craig Mazin, directed by Johan Renck. It dramatizes the 1986 nuclear disaster in Ukraine, drawing largely on Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s book about the incident. Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, Paul Ritter, and Jessie Buckley star as real-life figures of the time. The ranking calls it “one of the greatest and most immersive TV dramatizations of a real historical event,” citing its recreation of the 1986 disaster in intense detail.

Devs and The Fall of the House of Usher

Alex Garland’s Devs rounds out the sci-fi offerings. The 2020 miniseries follows a software engineer named Lily, played by Sonoya Mizuno, who investigates the death of her boyfriend after he dies on his first day at a secretive quantum computing company called Amaya. The show explores the company’s CEO, Forest, and the philosophical questions surrounding human consciousness. Nick Offerman, Allison Pill, Zach Grenier, and Carl Glusman co-star.

The ranking praises Devs for its “distinct narrative style” and ambition, calling it “as perfect as a sci-fi miniseries can get.” It notes that despite its short runtime, the show feels exhaustive with its trance-inducing visuals and mind-bending storytelling.

Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher adapts Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name. The 2023 series follows siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher, owners of a corrupt pharma company, as a mysterious woman named Verna resurfaces with deadly consequences. Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Mary McDonnell, and Mark Hamill lead the ensemble. The ranking calls it “a relatively underrated gem among Flanagan’s works” and a “21st-century small-screen masterpiece.”

Pluto and the Full List

The final entry is Pluto, an anime adaptation of the manga by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki. The show expands on Osamu Tezuka’s universe, following Atom and other advanced robots as they investigate mysterious deaths of high-profile robots and humans. A robot detective named Gesicht leads the investigation, and Atom becomes central to his search for the truth. Shinshū Fuji, Hiroki Yasumoto, and Koichi Ya play the main roles.

The full list, including all eight titles and their creators, is available on the website.

What This List Actually Shows

The ranking pairs each show with a specific reason for its inclusion. The four entries covered in full break down the shows’ creators, subjects, and platforms:

The anime Pluto rounds out the list.

Each entry is praised for its own specific excellence — an animated fantasy’s folklore, a disaster drama’s factual detail, a sci-fi thriller’s existential depth — without pretending all eight share a single formula.

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