Recommend a mini-series

pickarooney

It's kind of hard to find time to sit down and watch two-hour films at the moment, and hard to come to a consensus about which full-on series is worth the investment of a half-century of episodes, so I'm on the lookout for any decent mini-series, preferably under ten episodes. They seem fairly thin on the ground and the last ones I can remember watching were The Lost Room and Angels in America (and Jekyll, although I believe that might be coming back), so any suggestions outside of those are welcome.

Sherifu

Have you seen Band of Brothers?

giddyup

+1 Band of Brothers - well recommended sir.

odyssey06

State of Play (UK)
Roots
Lonesome Dove
North and South (US civil war epic)
Our Mutual Friend (BBC Dickens adaptation)
Wives and Daughters (BBC Elizabeth Gaskell adaptation)
The Way We Live Now (BBC Anthony Trollope adaptation)
Slings & Arrows (Canada)
John Adams (HBO series on 2nd US President starring Paul Giamatti, starts March 16th in US)

If you're a member of a Dublin library, you can reserve many of them on DVD to your local branch for 50c.

Aldebaran

I remember really enjoying Steven Spielberg's Taken when it was on a few years ago

humanji

Kingdom Hospital is pretty good. Actually, all the Stephen King mini series are fairly enjoyable and there's a hell of a lot of them.

sweetie

two recent one's i liked were kingpin (colombian mafia) and the lost room (6 eps of great sci-fi) but a lot of good US shows have only 10-13 episodes a season like cane, dirty sexy money, the wire, oz, big love, tell me you love me and the shield.

lizann

The Starter Wife

dulpit

Dexter - 2 series of 12 episodes each.
Extras - 2 series of 6 episodes each, plus a christmas special.

User45701

The Last Train

pickarooney

Some of these look worth checking out. Thanks
Just to clarify, for me a mini-series is about 4-8 episodes of a one off, not a multi-season show or one that was intended to be but got cancelled.

I watched the first episode of Band of Brothers but didn't like it. Taken was pretty good.

sweetie

angels in america,
ultraviolet,
traffik (channel 4 series that they based the movie on)
the lakes (two seasons but 6 or 8 episodes in each. also had john simm)

tvnutz

pickarooney wrote: »

Some of these look worth checking out. Thanks
Just to clarify, for me a mini-series is about 4-8 episodes of a one off, not a multi-season show or one that was intended to be but got cancelled.

I watched the first episode of Band of Brothers but didn't like it. Taken was pretty good.

You should try Band of Brothers again and stick with it. I remember the first time it was on tv I didn't think much of the first 2 episodes. I found it kind of complicated and there were so many changing characters. I also don't like watching shows like that week to week. Dvd is the best way. I picked it up on dvd last year and watched it all the way through and it is an amazing show. Well worth sticking with and watching through.

The excellent Kill Point starts tonight on Bravo. Well worth checking out and easily watched over an afternoon or so.

Degsy

Looking after JoJo

chalkitdown1

'Sleeper Cell' is well worth checking out.

Mark Hamill

pickarooney wrote: »

(and Jekyll, although I believe that might be coming back),

Where did you hear this? (Do you mean repeating it, or a new series)

odyssey06

+1 Ultraviolet (brilliant, dark updating of vampires into 1990s London)

pickarooney

I'm goign to give Looking after JoJo and Ultraviolet a go, maybe Traffik as well.

About a second series of Jekyll, it was just rumours on TV.com or similar but they appear to have been scotched (or the producers welched).

Pigman II

Our Friends in the North
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115305/

From the Earth to the Moon
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120570/

KevIRL

Underbelly
The Kill Point
The Company
Sleeper Cell

All class

iguana

The original mini-series of V. The effects have dated but the story hasn't.

paul666

madmen bbc 4 2200 sunday nights only
made by the same writer as the sopranos
i watched it last sunday and it wasnt too bad

oops just saw a whole thread devoted to it

Ivan

+1 to V. Truly terrifying in its storytelling when it first came out, it has still aged well and become a very involving story of developing characters with a very interesting plot.

Also, Jekyll was truly fantastic also.

Gran Hermano

Another +1 for The Kill Point - nice short mini-series.

Mr. Guappa

+1 for Kingpin... good show

odyssey06

For West Wing fans, an interesting mini-series is Kennedy, starring Martin Sheen as JFK. It's from 1983 and the DVD set is available for less than a tenner online from legit websites.

Not The Real Scarecrow

Breaking Bad is a good new one.Its the dad from Malcom in the Middle as a chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal cancer that becomes a meth dealer.Saw he first one last night, looks promising.

The Black Oil

Band of Brothers is excellent, have seen it for about 30 euro in the shops.

pickarooney

Meatwad wrote: »

Breaking Bad is a good new one.Its the dad from Malcom in the Middle as a chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal cancer that becomes a meth dealer.Saw he first one last night, looks promising.

Is this definitely a mini-series? I watched half the first episode and was really intrigued.

Ivicia

This Life - its two seasons. Had the highest tv rating for a bbc 2 program at the time even though they kept changing the times (as the bbc were prone to doing). Its circa 1998 and was cancelled due to the large number of complaints.

Party Animals - about 6 episodes but you will be hooked. It was last year and I cannot recomend it enough.

Not The Real Scarecrow

yeah tis a mini series alright, think there will be 9 eps in total, 7 have been shown so far.It is actually really good, when I saw it at first I was expecting a broad comedy and was very suprised by the tone and the way it is constructed.

Mr E

I think there was supposed to be 9, but they finished at 7 (writers strike, blah blah).
So its over now.

sweetie

is there a conclusion or is it left hanging?
just watched the first but don't want to keep going if they haven't finished it properly.

Not The Real Scarecrow

Hate when they end series like that, was looking at the black donnellys a while ago.Guaranteed wasn't great but because of the rush ending it just enraged me that I sat through a load of crap episodes with the hope that it would progress into a good season.Many of the best shows start of with either average or weak 1st seasons(i.e seinfield, buffy, every star trek, simpsons)while many shows hat start of strong just get crap, Heros being a prime example in my opinion.

rosboy

Meatwad wrote: »

Breaking Bad is a good new one.Its the dad from Malcom in the Middle as a chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal cancer that becomes a meth dealer.Saw he first one last night, looks promising.

Thanks for teh recommendation. I'm definitely going to check it out.

Bubs101

Firefly is worth a look for a series that was made mini by the boys at fox

Ghost Train

band of brothers was really excellent

watched into the west recently also not too bad

Conor108

The Re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries? Saw it in Xtra-Vision