The Best Limited Series of the 2020s
Rank the limited series that made the 2020s worth staying in for, and let your vote sort them. A show qualifies if it's scripted, premiered on or after January 1, 2020, and tells one complete story in a single season, with no second season aired as of October 20, 2026. Season-two talk doesn't count; an aired second season would. Docuseries and anthology installments are out; a season of The White Lotus or Beef is one chapter of a longer run. Watchmen misses on its 2019 premiere. Those rules decide who's eligible. The upper group holds every qualifier that won the series prize at the Emmys, the Golden Globes or the BAFTA TV Awards, ceremonies 2020 through 2026. The lower group is a selection: seats go to the qualifiers with the most nominations for those three prizes, and ties at the cut break on total Primetime Emmy nominations. Winners name their prize and year; the rest give both counts. A 2026 premiere has had at most one Emmy night and no Globes. Your votes order each group.
Baby Reindeer (2024) is #1 on “The Best Limited Series of the 2020s”.
- 1
Baby Reindeer (2024)
A free cup of tea, poured by Donny for a distraught customer named Martha in a London pub, starts everything, and in the final episode a barman hands Donny a free drink. Richard Gadd wrote all seven episodes from his own one-man show, first staged at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019, and plays Donny himself. Netflix released it on April 11, 2024; the Emmys named it best limited or anthology series in 2024, and the Golden Globes followed in 2025.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13649112/ - 2
Adolescence (2025)
Armed police arrest 13-year-old Jamie Miller at the family home, and the camera never cuts away: each of the four episodes is a single continuous take. Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham created it, Philip Barantini directed, and Netflix released it on March 13, 2025. Series wins followed at the 2025 Emmys and, in 2026, at both the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs. Graham said in January 2026 that any return was three or four years off.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31806037/ - 3
I May Destroy You (2020)
Michaela Coel turned down a reported $1 million Netflix offer to keep ownership, then made the 12 episodes for BBC One and HBO, writing all of them and co-directing from episode four. The finale, Ego Death, has Arabella imagine several ways of getting revenge on her rapist before she finishes her book. It won the BAFTA for best mini-series in 2021. Coel also took the Emmy for limited series writing in 2021.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11204260/ - 4
The Queen's Gambit (2020)
In the basement of the Methuen Home for Girls, a custodian named Mr. Shaibel agrees, after Beth keeps asking, to teach her chess. Scott Frank wrote and directed all seven episodes for Netflix, which premiered it on October 23, 2020, with Garry Kasparov consulting on the games. It took the Golden Globe's series prize in February 2021, then the Emmy in September 2021, the first time a streaming show won that category.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10048342/ - 5
The Underground Railroad (2021)
Griffin, South Carolina, treats Cora and Caesar kindly at first, until they learn the town controls its Black residents through coerced sterilization and forced drug use. Barry Jenkins directed all 10 episodes from Colson Whitehead's 2016 novel, and Prime Video released them on May 14, 2021, after a 116-day shoot that began in Savannah. It won the Golden Globe's limited series prize in 2022.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6704972/ - 6
Mr Bates vs. The Post Office (2024)
Jo Hamilton stays on the phone to the Horizon helpline while the shortfall on her screen keeps climbing, and you watch the number move with her. ITV aired the four parts on consecutive nights from January 1, 2024, written by Gwyneth Hughes and directed by James Strong. By May 24, 2024, an act of Parliament had quashed qualifying convictions. BAFTA's limited drama award went its way in 2025.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27867155/ - 7
DTF St. Louis (2026)
Floyd, played by David Harbour, is found poisoned in a community pool house in Twyla, Missouri, and his friend Clark Forrest, a TV weatherman played by Jason Bateman, gets arrested on air during a live weather report. Steven Conrad created it for HBO, which ran its seven episodes from March 1 to April 12, 2026. Its series win came at the Emmys on September 14, 2026, and the Golden Globes haven't held a ceremony since it aired.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34385331/ - 8
The Sixth Commandment (2023)
Sarah Phelps wrote the four parts from the deaths of Peter Farquhar and his neighbor Ann Moore-Martin in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, and the police case that followed, with Saul Dibb directing. The story runs through to the 2019 trial of Ben Field, the church warden who gaslights Farquhar. It premiered on BBC One on July 17, 2023; the BAFTA for limited drama, which absorbed the mini-series prize that year, followed in 2024, with Timothy Spall taking best actor too.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20916306/ - 9
Mood (2022)
Sasha sets fire to Anton's front yard after he ends their ten-year relationship and gets charged with arson, then starts online sex work as Lexi Caramel. Nicôle Lecky created, wrote and stars in it, adapting Superhoe, her one-woman play from the Royal Court in January 2019. BBC Three aired the six episodes from March 1, 2022, and episode three's 54,594 viewers put it 15th on the channel that week. It won BAFTA's mini-series prize in 2023.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17520694/ - 10
Mare of Easttown (2021)
Detective Zabel is shot dead in Wayne Potts's house in episode five, and a wounded Mare picks up his gun and kills Potts. Brad Ingelsby wrote all seven episodes for HBO, Craig Zobel directed, and it premiered on April 18, 2021. It drew 2 series nominations, Emmy in 2021 and Golden Globe in 2022, won neither, and collected 16 Emmy nominations overall. In January 2026 Kate Winslet called a second season a strong likelihood; none has aired.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10155688/ - 11
The Penguin (2024)
Episode one, After Hours, turns on Oz shooting Alberto Falcone dead on an impulse at the Iceberg Lounge. Lauren LeFranc developed the eight episodes for HBO, which premiered them on September 19, 2024. Its 2 series nominations, Emmy and Golden Globe, both came in 2025 and neither became a win, while the Emmys handed it 24 nominations overall. Colin Farrell said in October 2025 that he'd bet against a season two.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15435876/ - 12
Ripley (2024)
Steven Zaillian wrote and directed all eight episodes in black and white, and Robert Elswit's camera saves the only color for the end of episode five: a cat's bloody red paw prints on the steps. Before that comes the boat off Sanremo, where Tom kills Dickie with an oar. Netflix premiered it on April 4, 2024. Two years of awards brought 2 series nominations, Emmy 2024 and Golden Globe 2025, with no win, and 13 Emmy nominations overall.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11016042/ - 13
Dopesick (2021)
In Finch Creek, Virginia, in the mid-1990s, Purdue rep Billy Cutler talks a skeptical doctor, Samuel Finnix, into accepting a free bottle of OxyContin. Danny Strong created it for Hulu from Beth Macy's book, Barry Levinson directed the first two of eight episodes, and it premiered on October 13, 2021. Both of its 2 series nominations landed in 2022, at the Emmys and the Golden Globes, without a win; Emmy voters gave it 14 nominations overall.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9174558/ - 14
Daisy Jones & The Six (2023)
Episode 10 brings the band to its final show, in Chicago. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber adapted Taylor Jenkins Reid's 2019 novel into ten episodes for Prime Video, which premiered it on March 3, 2023, and Atlantic released the companion album, Aurora, that same day. The 2023 Emmys, held in January 2024, and that month's Golden Globes gave it 2 series nominations and no win; its Emmy nominations overall came to 9.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8749198/ - 15
Lessons in Chemistry (2023)
Elizabeth Zott picks Tampax as a sponsor, talks about menstruation on air and quits Supper at Six on live television in the final episode. Lee Eisenberg turned Bonnie Garmus's novel into eight episodes for Apple TV+, with Brie Larson as Zott, and the run, which began on October 13, 2023 and ended in late November, drew 2 series nominations, at the 2024 Emmys and the 2024 Golden Globes, with no win among them and 10 Emmy nominations overall.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13911628/ - 16
Pam & Tommy (2022)
Rand Gauthier, a carpenter Tommy Lee refused to pay, steals a safe out of Lee's Malibu garage in episode one, and inside it is a Hi8 tape of the couple's honeymoon. Robert Siegel created the series for Hulu, which premiered its eight episodes on February 2, 2022. Emmy voters in 2022 and Golden Globe voters in 2023 put it up for the series prize, 2 series nominations with no win, inside 10 Emmy nominations overall.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13659418/ - 17
Dying for Sex (2025)
Molly hears her stage IV diagnosis partway through a session of couples' therapy, walks out, and buys diet soda and menthol cigarettes at the bodega across the street. Kim Rosenstock and Liz Meriwether built the eight episodes from the podcast Molly Kochan made with Nikki Boyer, and FX released them on Hulu on April 4, 2025. Emmy 2025 and Golden Globe 2026 account for its 2 series nominations, neither a win, out of 9 Emmy nominations overall.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30252752/
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