Warning: Major spoilers ahead!
These 10 miniseries managed to cap off their incredible stories with fantastic endings. Miniseries make up some of the best TV shows of all time. Their small episode counts that still allow for 6 to 10 hours of story create maybe the perfect duration to tell a tight, but expansive tale.
Due to the short length of these miniseries, the ending of the show becomes an even more critical piece of the puzzle. While in a long-running series, a finale is only a small fraction of what the show offers, in a miniseries, the finale is a big chunk of the story, so let’s celebrate the best of them.
The Night Of (2016)
Episode 8, “The Call Of The Wild”
The last episode of The Night Of is a long one, running over 30 minutes longer than any other episode. All that extra time is crucial, though. We watch the nail-biting, and beautifully acted, trial that will determine Naz’s (Riz Ahmed) fate, and we discover who it was that actually murdered Andrea (Sofia Black-D’Elia).
The thing is that we don’t really care who killed Andrea; that’s not really the point of The Night Of. What matters is the perception of guilt and how the American justice system grinds all who enter it, innocent or guilty. Naz is released, but his life is forever changed. The only hope is that he keeps moving forward.
Adolescence (2025)
Episode, “Episode 4”
Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller in Adolescence
Adolescence is a four-episode miniseries with each episode filmed in one long take. Watch the making-of features on YouTube; the lengths production went to to get their shots are very impressive. Adolescence does not rest solely on its gimmick, however, and also tells a probing story about youth violence.
Throughout the show, we’ve been led back and forth about whether Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) killed one of his classmates. By the final episode, we’re certain it’s the truth. The series ends with an exhausted Eddie Miller (Stephen Graham), admirably moving on in life, but still giving himself a moment to break down on his son’s bed.
Sharp Objects (2018)
Episode 8, “Milk”
Sharp Objects is one of the best miniseries on HBO, and not enough people have seen it. It’s an incredibly bleak, tightly written series that perfectly balances the line between realistic family drama and psychological crime story. The final episode also includes one of the most fantastic recent TV twists.
The series ends with Camille’s (Amy Adams) evil mother, Adora (Patricia Clarkson), in jail for her crimes, and Camille gets custody of her young half-sister Anna (Eliza Scanlen). Life is good. Later, Camille discovers that the floor of Anna’s dollhouse is made of something strange: human teeth. Cue a credit montage of Anna committing her own series of murders.
The Queen’s Gambit (2020)
Episode 7, “End Game”
The Queen’s Gambit sees Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) overcoming every obstacle in her way to become a world-renowned chess champion. Some of her obstacles are structural, a result of her being an orphan and a woman, and some are self-inflicted, a result of arrogance or substance abuse problems.
As she becomes a more masterful chess player, she also learns to trust her instincts and those who love her, before beating her Russian foe in a thrilling and satisfying match. The last scene of her playing with starstruck elderly Russians in the park is a charming callback to the games she played with William (Bill Camp) at the orphanage.
Baby Reindeer (2024)
Episode 7, “Episode 7”
Donny (Richard Gadd) cries while sitting at the bar in Baby Reindeer.
Baby Reindeer is an odd project, not least because it’s based on Richard Gadd’s one-man play, which is based on his life. The series is a harrowing and darkly funny retelling of Gadd’s stalking experience. At the end of the miniseries, Donny (the Gadd stand-in played by Gadd) has managed to detach himself from his stalker.
However, he begins persistently listening to the hundreds of voice mails Martha (Jessica Gunning) has left him during this period. In the final scene, a bartender offers him a free drink, seeing his distress. The same way he met Martha. It’s a sobering suggestion that we all repeat cycles of abuse whether we know it or not.
Midnight Mass (2021)
Episode 7, “Book VII: Revelation”
At the end of Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan’s fantastic original horror series, most of the islanders have been turned into vampires by the “angel” brought there by a man who was once called Monsignor Pruitt (Hamish Linklater). Anyone, save for Bev Keene (Samantha Sloyan), can see that they’ve made a mistake.
Unwilling to give in to their base, blood-hungry urges, the once listless and powerless people of Crockett Island make a brave and powerful choice. They stay up until the sun rises and burn away. Their last moments are spent singing and being together in a moving montage that will bring a tear to your eye.
The Penguin (2024)
Episode 8, “A Great Or Little Thing”
Custom image by Simon Gallagher
The Penguin was never guaranteed to work, but against a lot of odds, it ended as one of the best shows or movies based on DC Comics in the last few years. The trouble is that Oswald “Oz” Cobb (Colin Farrell) is a heinous villain, but as the protagonist of the show, we would inevitably come to empathize with him.
The finale is as brave as you can get, and manages to swing all your feelings around on Oz and view him for the selfish, violent man he is. Never ever trust Oz. It’s a motto everyone in Gotham should learn. He’s a ruthless criminal with a black heart. Oz is no antihero; he’s just a villain.
Mare Of Easttown (2021)
Episode 7, “Sacrament”
Mare consoles Lori in Mare of Easttown season 1 finale
It’s no simple task to end a crime thriller TV show. If the central question of your drama is a mystery, then the answer better be plausible, shocking, and satisfying. Mare of Easttown hits all its targets, revealing that it was Lori’s (Julianne Nicholson) son, Ryan (Cameron Mann), who killed the young girl at the start of the series.
What Mare of Easttown shows is that while Ryan did pull the trigger, the sins and secrets of his family pushed him into this position. Mare of Easttown has a lot to say about generational trauma, not a lot of it good. However, the final scene of Mare (Kate Winslet) ascending suggests that there is a way through it.
Watchmen (2019)
Episode 9, “See How They Fly”
Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen continues asking the same questions about science and faith that Lindelof has been digging into since Lost. While the finale of his sequel series to Alan Moore’s comic doesn’t provide an answer, it does provide us with an incredibly satisfying and impactful wrap-up of the show’s core themes.
At the end of the series, all the characters have been brought together by a variety of means. It’s extremely satisfying. The villains are dispatched brutally and comically. The heroes win, and we get to see why Veidt (Jeremy Irons) is the smartest man in the universe. We also get a heartwrenching goodbye and a hint at a hopeful future.
The Curse (2023-2024)
Episode 10, “Green Queen”
Release Date
2023 – 2024-00-00
Showrunner
Nathan Fielder, Benny Safdie
Directors
Nathan Fielder
The Curse is a black comedy satire series with all the inherent humor and cringe you would expect from a Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie production. However, it is also an intense, claustrophobic horror, a genre most clearly depicted in the final episode of the series, where Asher (Nathan Fielder) wakes up on the ceiling.
Nothing in The Curse miniseries confirms that there is actually something supernatural going on until the end, but the strange and unnerving events throughout the series make this reveal of Asher’s loss of gravity almost inevitable. Asher is a cursed man roaming the Earth, and so is cast out of it as inexplicably as a person is born into it.