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10 Short TV Shows You Can Finish Over A Long Weekend
TV shows with dozens of seasons and hundreds of episodes can take months to binge, but a shorter show like Fleabag or Chernobyl can be knocked out in a long weekend. It’s almost impossible to find the time to watch 11 seasons of The Walking Dead or 21 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, but most shows don’t run for that long.
A miniseries like Band of Brothers will air 10 episodes that tell the whole story from beginning to end. A British sitcom like The Office will typically go for 12 episodes across two seasons, sometimes concluding with a Christmas special. Shows that were canceled too soon, like Firefly and Freaks and Geeks, didn’t have a chance to go stale.
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Freaks & Geeks
The Short-Lived Teen Drama That Launched A Thousand Careers
Freaks and Geeks was canceled after one season of 18 episodes, but it just might be the greatest high school show ever made. It captures the relatable foibles and insecurities of adolescence much more accurately than any of the mediocre teen dramas that stayed on the air for years and years.
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Freaks And Geeks Cast: Where They Are Now
From Linda Cardellini to Jason Segel to Seth Rogen, many actors in the sadly short-lived Freaks and Geeks cast went on to become huge stars.
Despite being a one-season wonder, Freaks and Geeks launched an astounding number of stars’ careers: Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, Busy Philipps, James Franco — the list goes on. This series originated Judd Apatow and Paul Feig’s heartfelt style of comedic storytelling. There are plenty of laughs, but they all come organically from characters who feel real and human.
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Firefly
Joss Whedon’s Space Western Was Canceled Too Soon
Since Fox made the baffling decision to air Firefly’s episodes out of order, it didn’t attract enough viewers to score a second season. But in the years since, it has endured as a TV classic. The series reimagines all the tropes of the western genre — gunslingers, train robberies, brave pioneers forging ahead on the frontier — into a futuristic, intergalactic setting.
The series reimagines all the tropes of the western genre — gunslingers, train robberies, brave pioneers forging ahead on the frontier — into a futuristic, intergalactic setting.
The show’s ensemble cast, led by Nathan Fillion, is full of lovable, eccentric characters. It’s a dazzling spacebound spectacle, but it’s also a poignant commentary on humanity’s persistent moral divisions. Firefly only produced 14 episodes, and it was canceled after only 11 of them had hit the airwaves, so it’s a breezy watch that’ll leave you wanting more.
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Baby Reindeer
Richard Gadd’s Powerful, Semi-Autobiographical Tale Of Abuse
10/10
- Release Date
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2024 – 2024-00-00
- Directors
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Weronika Tofilska, Josephine Bornebusch
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Jessica Gunning
Martha Scott
Richard Gadd became a household name overnight when his Netflix series Baby Reindeer was universally praised by critics and found an audience around the world. Baby Reindeer tells the semi-autobiographical story of an up-and-coming comedian, played by Gadd, who unwittingly attracts the attention of a stalker when he’s nice to a lonely woman who frequents the pub where he works.
Baby Reindeer won six Emmys, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.
Across seven episodes, Baby Reindeer examines all the complexities of its lead character’s trauma. It’s a raw, honest depiction of the horrors of abuse and all the emotions surrounding it. Baby Reindeer isn’t an easy watch, but it is an important story to understand the mindset of someone who’s been abused and the difficulty of breaking out of that cycle.
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Pen15
A Special Kind Of Coming-Of-Age Show
Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle’s Pen15 is a coming-of-age show like no other. It’s a masterpiece of cringe comedy that captures the adolescent terror of middle school in a way that’s excruciating, thoughtful, and deeply relatable. But what makes it truly unique is that Erskine and Konkle, in their early 30s, play their 13-year-old selves surrounded by child actors.
What makes it truly unique is that Erskine and Konkle, in their early 30s, play their 13-year-old selves surrounded by child actors.
Pen15 has a ton of laughs, but it’s also a contemplative look at real issues that teenagers deal with, like absent parents and bullying. The conceit of adults playing kids never gets in the way of the poignancy. The series only has 25 episodes across two seasons, so you could easily knock it out in a weekend.
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Big Little Lies
An Absurdly Star-Studded, Emotionally Captivating Drama
Big Little Lies has one of the most star-studded casts on TV — Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Adam Scott, Zoë Kravitz, Alexander Skarsgård, Shailene Woodley — and it’s a rare case where the material is worthy of their talents. Liane Moriarty’s novel was tailor-made for television, and it was adapted perfectly into a seven-episode miniseries.
A third season of Big Little Lies is in development.
That miniseries proved to be so successful that HBO decided to keep the story going into a second season. Season 2 explores the aftermath of season 1 and brings in the biggest star of all, none other than Meryl Streep, to give a disturbing turn as the mother of a monster who’s in complete denial about her son’s true nature.
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Chernobyl
A Horrifying Dramatization Of A Devastating Nuclear Disaster
Before he chronicled a fictional apocalypse in The Last of Us, Craig Mazin made his HBO debut with a dramatization of a real-life apocalyptic event. Chernobyl depicts the titular nuclear disaster, from the initial explosion to the devastating aftermath to the frustrating search for the truth as the government attempted to cover it up.
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It fictionalizes some of the narrative elements, but the filmmakers paid meticulous attention to detail in bringing this period of Soviet history to life. Chernobyl is not for the faint-hearted, but this five-part miniseries is a TV masterpiece.
4
Fleabag
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Hilariously Frank Comedy
By the time Phoebe Waller-Bridge adapted her one-woman show Fleabag for the small screen, she’d developed this character into a three-dimensional portrait of rage and pessimism. Fleabag is a raw, warts-and-all look at life as a young woman in the modern world, through the eyes of this cynical, darkly hilarious character.
In true British TV comedy style, Fleabag wrapped up its run after two seasons of six episodes each. But that was all it needed to earn a reputation as a hall-of-fame show with pitch-perfect writing, anchored by one of the greatest sitcom performances of all time.
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Adolescence
A Hauntingly Immersive Look At Toxic Online Culture
Netflix’s chilling miniseries Adolescence could be viewed in its entirety in one sitting (if you’re sitting in a comfy chair). The entire show consists of four hour-long episodes, and each episode is its own distinctive chapter. Every episode is filmed in one continuous take and plays out in real time, so it’s much more immersive than the average TV show.
Every episode is filmed in one continuous take and plays out in real time, so it’s much more immersive than the average TV show.
In the first few minutes, a seemingly harmless 12-year-old boy is arrested on suspicion of murder. From that moment on, you’re hooked. The show explores poignant themes like the psychological impact of youth detention centers, the influence of toxic social media on impressionable kids, and the culpability of those kids’ parents. The acting is phenomenal across the board.
2
Band Of Brothers
A Deeply Cinematic Chronicle Of The Second World War
After working on Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks reunited to executive-produce another World War II story. Band of Brothers is one of the greatest miniseries ever made; it plays like a 10-hour war movie. It’s just as gritty and visceral and cinematic as Saving Private Ryan, but it has a lot longer to dig into its characters.
It’s just as gritty and visceral and cinematic as Saving Private Ryan, but it has a lot longer to dig into its characters.
Band of Brothers’ dramatization of the history of Easy Company has plenty of spectacular battle scenes, but it also sinks its teeth into the psychological toll of that warfare. It doesn’t have a single bad episode, and Band of Brothers’ best episodes rank among the all-time greats.
1
The Office (UK)
Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant’s Original Masterpiece
Although its American remake would run for more than 200 episodes, the original British version of The Office can be finished in a couple of days. It consists of two seasons of six half-hour episodes and concludes with a feature-length two-part Christmas special. But in that short space of time, it’s an emotional rollercoaster switching between heartwarming and heartbreaking.
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The Office captures the everyday mundanity of a boring workplace, and unearths the beautiful human moments buried within that mundanity. It’s one of the funniest shows ever made, but the underlying tragedy of David Brent and the will-they-or-won’t-they love story of Tim and Dawn will hit you in the feels.
