The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (2024)

HBO

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (1)

By Bankole Imoukhuede

Thread

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Manage Your List

Follow

Followed

Follow with Notifications

Follow

Unfollow

Link copied to clipboard

Sign in to your Collider account
The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (2)

The qualifier "Based on the book by..." has become more commonplace on TV in the age of Prestige TV and the boom of the miniseries. In recent years, screenwriters and directors have opted to adapt their favorite fiction and nonfiction works on the small screen instead of via the traditional theatrical route. This is due in large part to the extra time the medium affords them to fully flesh out the characters and replicate the level of detail employed by the book's author. While theatrical literary adaptations won't cease anytime soon, the growth of the miniseries over the past two decades and their evolving appeal to movie stars have made the medium an attractive avenue for authors and those looking to adapt their works. It's only logical to favor telling their stories in four to ten episodes instead of a two-hour runtime.

✕ Remove Ads

As a network, HBO has immensely benefited from this shift. A spearheader of the miniseries surge, HBO consistently delivers critically lauded and buzzworthy seasons of television. Thanks to their dependable track record, the premium cable network has attracted some of the best fiction and nonfiction writers and an assembly of television writers, actors, and directors to create some truly spectacular miniseries. These are the best HBO miniseries based on books, ranked by how well they adapt the source material, how acclaimed they were on release, and their overall legacy.

10 'Show Me A Hero' (2015)

Created by David Simon and William F. Zorzi

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (3)

✕ Remove Ads

Lisa Belkin's nonfiction book, Show Me a Hero, details a white middle-class neighborhood in Yonkers' resistance to a federal order demanding that the New York town provide affordable housing to its citizens, regardless of race. Perhaps best known for creating one of television's greatest shows, David Simon collaborated with his frequent The Wire writer, William F. Zorzi, to adapt the book for HBO.

Starring Oscar Isaac as the recently elected 28-year-old Mayor of Yonkers, Nick Wasicsko, Show Me a Hero tracks the aftermath of the federal order and the various protests that erupted to stop it from being enacted. The protests ranged from the normal residents of Yonkers to the city officials and councilors who consistently refused to uphold any desegregation laws. Directed by Paul Haggis, the show visualizes the scope of the conflict while giving voice to the personal stakes inherent in it. Unfortunately, as with most political and bureaucratic tragedies, the themes of Show Me a Hero remain prevalent to the present day. Positively, the show posits the idea that, try as the loud minority attempts to stop it, change will always come, and as a society, we are all the better for it.

✕ Remove Ads

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (4)

Show Me a Hero

TV-MA

Drama

History

Release Date
August 16, 2015
Cast
Oscar Isaac , Catherine Keener , Alfred Molina , Peter Riegert , LaTanya Richardson , Carla Quevedo , Winona Ryder

Seasons
1

WATCH ON MAX

9 'John Adams' (2008)

Created by Kirk Ellis

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (5)

Before he was the butt of the jokes in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, John Adams was the subject of a 7-part HBO miniseries. Stuck in between the overpowering legacies of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, the 2008 miniseries sought to highlight one of America’s more overlooked founding fathers. Written by Kirk Ellis, directed by Tom Hooper, and executive produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, the miniseries was adapted from the 2001 book of the same name by David McCullough.

✕ Remove Ads

The show, which begins in 1770, ambitiously covers 50 years, chronicling John Adams’ entire political career and the first 50 years of America’s independence, all the way to his death on July 4th, 1826. Paul Giamatti portrays the founding father and second President of the United States, with Laura Linney as his wife, Abigail. Both performances were universally lauded, leading to Emmy wins for both actors. With 13 Emmy wins, John Adams remains the most-awarded miniseries in Emmys history.

John Adams

History

Where to Watch

  • stream
  • rent
  • buy

Not available

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date
March 16, 2008
Cast
Paul Giamatti , Laura Linney , Mamie Gummer , David Morse , Rufus Sewell , Sarah Polley , Tom Wilkinson , Danny Huston

Seasons
1

8 'The Plot Against America' (2020)

Created by David Simon and Ed Burns

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (9)

✕ Remove Ads

In a story that could have been relevant at any point in the past 80 years but exponentially more so in the last decade, Philip Roth’s quasi-autobiographical, alternate history novel, The Plot Against America, tells the story of the Roth family during a 1940s Charles Lindbergh presidency. After declining multiple approaches to adapt the novel for television, David Simon – along with another The Wire collaborator, Ed Burns – finally decided to create The Plot Against America in the aftermath of the results of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections.

In both the novel and the show, Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential Election, and through his xenophobic, populist and isolationist policies, turns the nation towards fascism. Told through the lens of a working-class Jewish family (Levin, in the miniseries), the show never hides from the bleakness of its story and its stark similarities to the present day. The Plot Against America warns of the constant cycle of evil and the relative ease at which the worst parts of our society can overwhelm us if the good parts don’t stand against them. Zoe Kazan and Morgan Spector lead an ensemble cast that includes Winona Ryder, John Turturro, Anthony Boyle and David Krumholtz.

✕ Remove Ads

WATCH ON MAX

7 'The Outsider' (2020)

Created by Richard Price

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (10)

A list of book adaptations would be incomplete without an appearance by the prolific “King of Horror” Stephen King. Continuing his prolific output on HBO, Richard Price adapted King’s 2018 novel, The Outsider, into a 10-episode season led by Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo. In the story, an investigation is triggered, and unsettling questions are asked when a young boy is found dead with suspicious bite marks. Audiences unfamiliar with the source material may initially find it hard to believe that The Outsider is a Stephen King adaptation. Like the best fiction adaptations, Richard Price’s teleplay takes liberties with the source material that add up to a successful television show, if not necessarily a great piece of horror.

✕ Remove Ads

Price chooses to depict the story as predominantly a crime procedural before later sprinkling in the book’s horror elements as the story progresses. However, when he does introduce these supernatural elements, Price makes sure not to hold anything back. With fantastic performances from Mendelsohn and Erivo as well as a supporting cast of Jason Bateman, Bill Camp and Julianne Nicholson, The Outsider is one of HBO's best miniseries. While there have been false starts about a second season, the first season tells a complete, self-contained story, and until a second season is made, we can appreciate it for the spectacular miniseries it was.

WATCH ON MAX

✕ Remove Ads

6 'Sharp Objects' (2018)

Created by Marti Noxon

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (11)

Perhaps no author's works more perfectly illustrate the shift toward television adaptations than Gillian Flynn. After a very successful film adaptation of Gone Girl in 2014 and a less successful adaptation of Dark Places in 2015, Marti Noxon chose to adapt Gillian Flynn's debut novel, Sharp Objects, as an HBO miniseries. The author would also join the producing and writing teams, with the late, great Jean-Marc Vallée directing all eight episodes.

At the center of the show is an emotionally raw performance by Amy Adams as Camille Preaker, a reporter attempting to bury her past who returns home to investigate the murders of two young girls. Her homecoming and investigation into the vicious murders force her to confront both her relationship with her mother (Patricia Clarkson) and her larger, buried trauma. Jean-Marc Vallée carries over his deft directing from the first season of Big Little Lies in handling the show's overarching mystery. However, Sharp Objects' biggest achievement is how it masterfully examines Camille's damaged psyche while steadily revealing why her mind remains arrested in the past and the many physical ways she has unsuccessfully tried to move on.

✕ Remove Ads

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (12)
Sharp Objects

TV-MA

Crime

Mystery

Drama

Release Date
July 8, 2018
Cast
Amy Adams , Patricia Clarkson , Chris Messina , Matt Craven , Henry Czerny , Madison Davenport , Miguel Sandoval , Elizabeth Perkins

Seasons
1

WATCH ON MAX

5 'Mildred Pierce' (2011)

Created by Todd Haynes

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (13)

James M. Cain's eponymous 1941 novel has the distinct pleasure of receiving both a film and a television adaptation. The novel was first adapted into a Joan Crawford starring, Oscar-winning film noir before Todd Haynes adapted it once more as a miniseries for HBO. The filmmaker enlisted Kate Winslet for her first HBO production to play the titular Mildred Pierce. Set during the Great Depression, Mildred Pierce follows a recent divorcée juggling her new restaurant, a burgeoning love life, and trying to please her increasingly vain and demanding daughter, Veda (Evan Rachel Wood).

✕ Remove Ads

Todd Haynes' takes his time — both in the show's production and storytelling — to fully realize the world. Every frame and design of the show bursts with obvious attention to detail and immaculate production design and cinematography. Eschewing the film-noir approach of the original adaptation, the miniseries leans into the inherent emotionality of the characters and their relationships. It thoroughly examines the single-mother-new-lover-spoilt-child dynamic among the three main characters. The result is a sensitive depiction of a woman trying to start over and the lengths she will have to go to, set against the backdrop of The Great Depression's severe austerity. Anchored by Emmy-winning performances from Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce, Mildred Pierce is an excellently detailed book-to-screen adaptation well worth your time.

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (14)
Mildred Pierce

Drama

Family

Release Date
March 27, 2011
Cast
Kate Winslet , Guy Pearce , Brian F. O'Byrne , Melissa Leo , James LeGros , Mare Winningham , Marin Ireland , Murphy Guyer

Seasons
1

✕ Remove Ads

WATCH ON MAX

4 'Olive Kitteridge' (2014)

Created by Jane Anderson

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (15)

Elizabeth Strout's 2008 novel Olive Kitteridge is a collection of 13 interrelated short stories, with the earliest of written as far back as 1992. The character of Olive Kitteridge has a main role in most of the stories but a lesser role in others. In creating the HBO miniseries adaptation, Jane Anderson adapted the novel into four semi-standalone installments, with Olive Kitteridge serving as the constant throughline.

In choosing to interpret Strout's novel this way, Jane Anderson and director Lisa Cholodenko focus on Olive's worldview while investigating the previous versions of her character and subtly foreshadowing the upcoming changes she would undergo. Led by an Emmy-winning performance from Frances McDormand, Olive Kitteridge is a must-watch miniseries adaptation that paints a complex, misanthropic, depressed, and ultimately sympathetic portrait of the eponymous Olive. McDormand's work is supported by similarly impressive and Emmy-winning performances from Richard Jenkins and Bill Murray.

✕ Remove Ads

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (16)

Olive Kitteridge (2014)

TV-MA

Drama

Release Date
November 3, 2014
Cast
Frances McDormand , Richard Jenkins , Zoe Kazan , Rosemarie DeWitt , Martha Wainwright , John Gallagher Jr. , Devin Druid , Jesse Plemons , Bill Murray , Peter Mullan

WATCH ON MAX

3 'We Own This City' (2022)

Created by George Pelecanos and David Simon

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (17)

Returning to HBO and the streets of Baltimore, David Simon and George Pelecanos' We Own This City tackles the real-life rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force. The six-episode miniseries, based on a nonfiction book of the same name by Justin Fenton, employs several points of view and timelines to extensively portray the wide-reaching impact of the police department's corruption.

We Own This City highlights the level of reach evil and charismatic figures can have on their wider societies.

✕ Remove Ads

Shepherded by his King Richard director, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Jon Bernthal produces a quintessential villain performance. Bernthal's Wayne Jenkins (based on the real-life, convicted Wayne Jenkins) is charismatic and horrific in equal measure. His performance simultaneously straddles subtlety and over-the-top mustache-twirling, leading to an utterly complex and well-rounded villain. The efforts of Simon, Pelecanos, Green and Bernthal lead to an incredible series that captivates from the first minute and shines a light on the cultures of silence that run through police departments. In the case of Bernthal's Wayne Jenkins, the show also highlights the level of reach evil and charismatic figures can have on their wider societies.

WATCH ON MAX

2 'Watchmen' (2019)

Created by Damon Lindelof

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (18)

✕ Remove Ads

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 1986 graphic novel Watchmen remains a seminal piece of superhero literature. However, for his HBO miniseries, Damon Lindelof opted against a direct adaptation of the graphic novel and created the miniseries as a sequel set 34 years after the novel's events. This proved to be an inspired choice as Lindelof maintained the original story's themes while parlaying them into discussions about America's current (and upcoming) frustrations. In fact, Watchmen is so prophetic and incisive in its cultural analysis that it may be difficult to believe that it aired on HBO ahead of the societally and politically tumultuous year of 2020.

Aided by Emmy-winning performances from Regina King and Yahya Abdul-Matten II, Watchmen efficiently tackles discussions on race, institutionalized racism, legacy, power, identity, and much more. A central theme is America's historical relationship with race and how it chooses to disregard its crimes against its minorities, most especially the horrific events of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. In addition to the show's Emmy win for Outstanding Limited Series, future Oscar winner Cord Jefferson (American Fiction) won an Emmy for co-writing Watchmen's excellent sixth episode, which dealt with a Black vigilante's crime-fighting efforts in 1938.

✕ Remove Ads

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (19)
Watchmen

TV-MA

Crime

Drama

Mystery

Superhero

Where to Watch

  • stream
  • rent
  • buy

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date
October 20, 2019
Cast
Regina King , Don Johnson , Tim Blake Nelson , Yahya Abdul-Mateen II , Andrew Howard , Jacob Ming-Trent , Tom Mison , Sara Vickers , Dylan Schombing , Louis Gossett Jr. , Jeremy Irons , Jean Smart , Hong Chau

Seasons
1

1 'Band of Brothers' (2001)

Created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (23)

Following their very successful collaboration in 1998’s Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks returned to the World War 2 milieu with Band of Brothers, an adaptation of Stephen E. Ambrose’s nonfiction book of the same name. It follows the “Easy” Company, 2nd Battalion, a group of paratroopers in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. The members are portrayed by a large ensemble of actors led by Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston and David Schwimmer. It also features a host of up-and-coming acting talent, including appearances from Michael Fassbender, Tom Hardy, Dominic Cooper, Andrew Scott, and more.

✕ Remove Ads

The story follows the members of the “Easy” Company from their training to the landing in Normandy and the invasion of Germany, all the way to the end of the war. Arguably the most iconic HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers revolutionized military storytelling with its immense scope and ambition. As one would expect from a show co-created by Steven Spielberg, the battle scenes are expertly made and immediately immerse the audience in their chaotic nature. However, the show is much more than an exhibition of its movie-quality filmmaking. By including interviews with the company's real-life surviving members, the show grounds its story in reality and underlines the truth. Throughout its run, Band of Brothers balances immersive action and World War 2 re-staging with prescient and delicate discussions on mental health and PTSD. So warmly was it received that it spawned two spiritual sequels: The Pacific (2010), also on HBO, and Masters of the Air (2024) on Apple TV+.

✕ Remove Ads

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (24)
Band of Brothers

Action

Drama

Where to Watch

  • stream
  • rent
  • buy

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date
September 9, 2001
Cast
Damian Lewis , Donnie Wahlberg , Eion Bailey , Ron Livingston , Matthew Settle , Michael Cudlitz , Neal McDonough , Scott Grimes

Seasons
1

NEXT: The 30 Best Contemporary Romance Movies Based on Books, Ranked

  • HBO
  • Band of Brothers
  • Watchmen

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Manage Your List

Follow

Followed

Follow with Notifications

Follow

Unfollow

The 10 Best HBO Miniseries Based on Books, Ranked (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Ray Christiansen

Last Updated:

Views: 5923

Rating: 4.9 / 5 (69 voted)

Reviews: 92% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Ray Christiansen

Birthday: 1998-05-04

Address: Apt. 814 34339 Sauer Islands, Hirtheville, GA 02446-8771

Phone: +337636892828

Job: Lead Hospitality Designer

Hobby: Urban exploration, Tai chi, Lockpicking, Fashion, Gunsmithing, Pottery, Geocaching

Introduction: My name is Ray Christiansen, I am a fair, good, cute, gentle, vast, glamorous, excited person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.