Emmy Winners: Limited Series

Every Outstanding Limited Series since Roots, newest first. The one-season wonders — Chernobyl, Band of Brothers, Adolescence — that TV does better than anyone.

43 titles

  1. Adolescence (2025), Stephen Graham, Jack Thorne
    A 13-year-old arrested for murder, each episode a single continuous take. Won Best Limited Series at the 2025 Emmys. Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper. The most technically ambitious thing on Netflix and one of the most emotionally devastating. Nothing else in 2025 was close.
  2. Baby Reindeer (2024), Richard Gadd
    A struggling Scottish comedian is stalked by a woman who becomes obsessed with him. Richard Gadd wrote and stars, based on his own experience. Won Best Limited Series in 2024. A show about victimhood and complicity that refuses the easy framework.
  3. Beef (2023), Lee Sung Jin
    A road-rage incident spirals into mutual destruction. Steven Yeun and Ali Wong. Won Best Limited Series in 2023. A show about how we use anger as a substitute for what we cannot say out loud.
  4. The White Lotus (2021), Mike White
    A week at a Hawaiian luxury resort. Mike White wrote and directed all six episodes. Won Best Limited Series in 2022. The first season is the essential achievement; the second (Sicily) competed as a drama the following year.
  5. The Queen's Gambit (2020), Scott Frank, Allan Scott
    Anya Taylor-Joy as an orphaned chess prodigy in 1960s America. Seven episodes that made chess appointment television. Adapted from Walter Tevis's novel. One of Netflix's most- watched limited series of all time.
  6. Watchmen (2019), Damon Lindelof
    Damon Lindelof's continuation of Alan Moore's graphic novel, set in Tulsa with white supremacist threat at the center. Regina King. Won Best Limited Series in 2020. A show that introduced most Americans to the Tulsa Race Massacre.
  7. Chernobyl (2019), Craig Mazin
    The 1986 Soviet nuclear disaster. Craig Mazin. Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgard. Five episodes about bureaucratic denial that feels like a parable for every subsequent catastrophe mismanaged in its image.
  8. American Crime Story (2016), Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski, Tom Rob Smith, Sarah Burgess
  9. Big Little Lies (2017), David E. Kelley
    Three women in Monterey and a murder at a school fundraiser. Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman. Won Best Limited Series in 2017. A show about secrets, abuse, and what wealthy women do not say to each other's faces.
  10. Olive Kitteridge (2014)
    Frances McDormand plays a flinty retired schoolteacher in a small Maine town across twenty-five years, in HBO's four-part adaptation of Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer-winning novel, directed by Lisa Cholodenko. Won Best Limited Series in 2015, one of eight Emmys that year, including acting wins for…
  11. Fargo (2014), Noah Hawley
    Noah Hawley's first Coen Brothers universe season: a meek insurance salesman and the hitman who upends his life. Won Best Limited Series in 2014. Billy Bob Thornton as Lorne Malvo. Each Fargo season stands alone; this one is the closest thing to the films.
  12. Downton Abbey (2010)
  13. The Pacific (2010)
  14. Little Dorrit (2008)
  15. John Adams (2008)
  16. Broken Trail (2006)
  17. Elizabeth I (2005)
  18. The Lost Prince (2003)
  19. Angels in America (2003)
  20. Taken (2002)
  21. Band of Brothers (2001), Steven Spielberg / Tom Hanks
    Easy Company from training through the end of the war in Europe. Spielberg and Hanks from Stephen Ambrose's book. Won Best Limited Series in 2002. The Bastogne episode. Still the standard for war television.
  22. Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001)
  23. The Corner (2000)
  24. Hornblower (1998)
  25. From the Earth to the Moon (1998), Tom Hanks, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Michael Bostick
  26. Prime Suspect (1991)
  27. Gulliver's Travels (1996)
  28. Joseph (1995)
  29. A Woman Named Jackie (1991)
  30. Separate but Equal (1991)
  31. Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (1990)
  32. War and Remembrance (1988)
  33. The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988)
  34. A Year in the Life (1987)
  35. Peter the Great (1986)
  36. The Jewel in the Crown (1984)
  37. Concealed Enemies (1984)
  38. Marco Polo (1982)
  39. Shōgun (1980)
  40. Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978)
  41. Roots: The Next Generations (1979)
  42. Holocaust (1978)
  43. Roots (1977)