3 near-flawless HBO Max miniseries you can easily finish in a weekend
Latest from Tom's Guide ·
Alyse Stanley is a news editor at Tom’s Guide, overseeing weekend coverage and writing about the latest in tech, gaming, and entertainment. Before Tom’s Guide, Alyse worked as an editor for the Washington Post’s sunsetted video game section, Launcher, where she also wrote about indie games you shouldn’t miss, how to tackle your gaming backlog, and all things Nintendo. She previously led Gizmodo’s weekend news desk covering breaking tech news and has written game reviews and features for outlets like Polygon, Unwinnable, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun. A recent Chicago-area transplant born and raised in Virginia, Alyse is a big fan of horror movies, cartoons, and roller skating. She's also a puzzle fan and can often be found contributing to the NYT Connections coverage on Tom's Guide
Between school getting back into full swing and the holiday season on the horizon, fall can be hectic. Which makes fitting time in to watch new shows or revisit old favorites on the best streaming services into your schedule a bit trickier.
Fortunately, Max has you covered with a bunch of great (but relatively short) miniseries that you can easily watch from start to finish in just a couple of days. If you’re looking to lose yourself in a top-tier show that doesn't eat up a lot of time or leave you waiting for the next season, here are three highly rated Max miniseries you can comfortably finish by Sunday night. So without further ado, here are the best miniseries on Max to binge this weekend.
When brainstorming contenders for this list, "Chernobyl" immediately come to mind. Before Craig Mazin led Ellie and Joel's television debut in " The Last of Us ," he cut his teeth at Max as executive producer on "Chernobyl," one of the best HBO Max shows to date. It's a bleak but powerful story about the people whose lives were forever altered by the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and how the entities meant to keep them safe tried to bury the truth.
Jared Harris stars as Valery Legasov, a nuclear physicist brought in to deal with the unfolding nightmare, alongside politician Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård) — two real people who worked to help the cleanup efforts. Their investigation uncovers the rotting stench of negligence, and while everyone else is busy pointing fingers, authorities continue to throw bodies at Chernobyl without understanding the full scope. Explaining nuclear physics in a way that makes sense to an audience who probably hasn't thought about neutrons and atoms since high school science class is no small task. Making great television out of it is even harder, but "Chernobyl" manages just that.
Episodes: 5 Genre: Historical drama Rotten Tomatoes score: 95% Watch now on HBO Max
Director Damon Lindelof’s "Watchmen" pulls off what was thought impossible for decades: a direct sequel that stays true to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' iconic graphic novel while pushing the story further. Set three decades after the original events in an alternate Tulsa, Oklahoma, it follows Angela Abar (Regina King), a detective moonlighting as masked vigilante Sister Night who fights the Seventh Kavalry — a white supremacist terror cell that has co-opted Rorschach’s ravings to launch a war on minorities and the police.
Jeremy Irons does a phenomenal job as a disillusioned Adrian Veidt, now struggling to find meaning after completing his master plan to avert World War 3 at the end of the original comic. The god-like Doctor Manhattan also features prominently, as several groups compete to use his namesake to further their own causes. Best of all, since Lindelof treated it as a definitive one-and-done, the limited series ends in such a way that it's a satisfying and complete story in its own right — no season 2 needed.
Episodes: 9 Genre: Drama/action Rotten Tomatoes score: 96% Watch on Max
Rarely do I find a series so gut-wrenchingly honest and funny at the same time, but Michaela Coel, the creator and star behind "Chewing Gum," manages to pull it off with confidence. Inspired by her own experience of sexual assault while writing the award-winning sitcom, "I May Destroy You" sees her star as Arabella, a London author hitting a wall of writer's block after her debut novel blew up.
After returning from an Italian sojourn, she goes out for a night on the town to unwind and someone spikes her drink. The next morning, she vaguely remembers being assaulted, but the exact details are a hazy fog. As Arabella begins to piece together what happened to her, she leans on friends Terry (Weruche Opia) and Kwame (Paapa Essiedu) to help her process her trauma and seek justice. Coel doesn't pull any punches, and "I May Destroy You" is structured with the kind of electric, bite-sized momentum that makes it impossible to stop watching once you start.
Episodes: 12 Genre: Drama Rotten Tomatoes score: 98% Watch it on Max