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Last Updated: April 12th

A mini-series is much more than just a “10-hour movie.” It’s a self-contained story, one that expands over the course of just a handful of episodes. It has a captivating beginning, a thrilling middle, and (hopefully) a satisfying end. It’s a complete binge-watching experience normally filled with prestige actors and award-worthy storytelling. And Netflix is host to more than its fair share of compelling limited series in every genre.

From mind-bending comedies to true crime retellings, period spy dramas and more, here are the best miniseries on Netflix just waiting to be binged right now.

Unbelievable

1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 8.5/10

Toni Collette, Merritt Weaver, and Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever star in this mini-series that covers some heavy material. Dever plays Marie, a young woman charged with lying about her sexual assault. Collette and Weaver play the lone female detectives who become invested in her case and search for the truth while trying to prevent her rapist from striking again. It’s an interesting look at how we process trauma, and it’s held up by some powerhouse performances.

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When They See Us

1 season, 4 episodes | IMDb: 9/10

Director Ava DuVernay’s limited series about the wrongfully accused men in the Central Park Five case is an emotionally heavy reimagining of a truly tragic event in our history. The series sheds light on racial profiling and corruption in the NYPD as a group of young Black men are targeted for a heinous crime and put on trial with little evidence. It’s a gripping, heartbreaking retelling, but one that feels sadly relevant.

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Godless

1 season, 7 episodes | IMDb: 8.3/10

Written, directed, and created by Scott Frank, who wrote Logan and Out of Sight, Godless, is equal parts a feminist Western and s a show about fathers and sons. The series is set in the 1880s in the small mining town of La Belle, where nearly all of the town’s men have died in a mining accident. Enter Roy Goode (Jack O’Connell), a charming gunslinger on the run from the mentor he double-crossed, Frank Griffin (Jeff Daniels), who — along with his crew out desperadoes — had already murdered everyone in another small town for harboring Goode. The series ultimately pits a town of mostly women against a brutal, merciless outlaw gang. Scoot McNairy, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Sam Waterston play lawmen, but the standouts in Godless are Downton Abby‘s nearly unrecognizable shotgun-wielding pioneer woman Michelle Dockery and Merritt Wever, a bisexual woman all out of f*cks to give. It’s a tremendously good series buoyed by beautiful cinematography, poetic language, a few great shoot-outs, and fine performances from the entire cast.

London Spy

1 season, 5 episodes | IMDb: 7.5/10

This BBC drama imagines a clandestine love affair between two men from very different worlds. Ben Whishaw plays Danny, a club-loving hedonist who meets Alex (Edward Holcroft) and instantly falls in love. Alex is reserved and mysterious, something Danny only truly realizes when he turns up dead and news breaks that he was a secret intelligence officer. Danny goes looking for his killer and reconciles his love for a man he barely knew in the process.

Tiger King

1 season, 7 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

There are stories to bizarre, too mind-boggling to be true… and then there’s this seven-part docuseries. Cults, queer romance, exotic cats — this true crime binge has it all. Is Joe Exotic, a gay, gun-loving conman running an exotic zoo out of his home in Oklahoma, a criminal or an American hero? Did animal rights activist Carole Baskin murder her husband and feed him to her tigers? Why are so many zoo employees missing limbs? These are just a few of the questions you’ll ask while watching this train wreck. Have fun, kids.

Maniac

1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10

Cary Fukunaga’s limited series starring A-listers like Emma Stone, Jonah Hill, and Justin Theroux, is a real mind f*ck. It follows Stone and Hill, who are voluntarily being experimented on using some questionable methods that force them to live out alternate realities. Yeah, we got a headache just typing that but really, who doesn’t enjoy a batsh*t crazy series that keeps you guessing until the very end? There’s a bit of romance, some sci-fi, and even a Lord of the Rings nod in this one — so really, it’s an insane rollercoaster the whole family can enjoy.

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The Pharmacist

1 season, 4 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10

Netflix has a deep well of riveting docuseries to choose from and yet, this show feels distinctly compelling. Maybe it’s because it follows an everyday hero, a small-town pharmacist named Dan Schneider who, after losing his son to drugs, takes on Big Pharma for its role in the Opioid Crisis. Schneider first finds justice for his son’s death in a drug-related shooting before vowing to protect the countless young people overdosing on Oxycontin in his hometown by investigating the sinister dealings of pharmaceutical companies pushing dangerously addictive painkillers on doctors. It’s the kind of story that would make for an Oscar-winning drama, but it’s even better as a docuseries.

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The Spy

1 season, 6 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10

Sacha Baron Cohen dons a new identity in this limited series for Netflix, but it comes with noticeably fewer laughs than his more famous characters. That’s because Cohen inhabits the identity of an Israeli intelligence agent named Eli Cohen, who served undercover for years in ’60s era Syria assuming the name Kamel Amin Thaabet. Cohen (the operative, not the actor) posed as a wealthy importer/exporter who infiltrated the highest echelons of Syrian government during a dangerous period for the two countries and Cohen (the actor, not the operative) does a bang-up job of delivering his most serious performance to date in this war-time thriller.

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Dead Set

1 season, 5 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10

A zombie outbreak overtakes the set of Big Brother, but don’t be fooled into thinking that this will be a Shaun of the Dead satire of the genre. It’s gruesome. It’s gory. It’s a strong entry in the walking/running undead. All you need to know is that it’s written by Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker, meaning it’ll be bleak as hell. Much like Black Mirror, Brooker also draws underlining parallels within Dead Set about the global obsession with TV and its perversion of reality. With just five episodes, it’s around just long enough to set itself apart from a cluttered genre before its bloody end.

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Alias Grace

1 season, 6 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10

Alias Grace, adapted by Sarah Polley from a Margaret Atwood novel which itself is based on a true story, is set in Canada in the middle of the 19th century, where a house servant Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon) has been convicted of a double murder. After spending time in a mental asylum and while serving time in prison, an early version of a therapist is called in to try and discern if Grace is guilty, innocent, lying or telling the truth. Grace’s account of the murders is as confounding to the viewer as it is the doctor, but the truth is not the point. The point of Alias Grace is to illustrate how the men in her life and the lives of the women around her have tyrannized and abused them. They are the product of that abuse, of a system controlled by men, and if a woman were to rise up and murder her terrorizer, who could blame her? It’s a smart, brilliantly acted, and entertaining series, but more than that, it’s an important one for these times.

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It was reported earlier this week that SNL would return after a lengthy break (for obvious reasons) with an at-home, remotely produced episode featuring “original content,” including a Weekend Update segment and the involvement of the entire cast. Other than that, no one knew what the heck the episode would look like. It turns out, it would look every other time Tom Hanks hosted, with a twist: his monologue was filmed in his house.

Hanks, who was one of the first celebrities (along with his wife Rita Wilson) to go public with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, assured viewers that he was doing better now, and “ever since being diagnosed, I have been more like America’s dad than ever before since no one wants to be around me very long and I make people uncomfortable.”

He also made fun of SNL‘s reputation.

“Will it be weird to see sketches without big sets and costumes? Sure. But will it make you laugh? Eh, it’s SNL, there will be some good stuff, maybe one or two stinkers, you know the drill. Stay safe. We are in this for the duration, and we are going to get through this together. We are going to thank our hospital workers, our first responders, and all of our helpers… the men and women who are keeping this country going when we need them more than ever. We’re going to take care of them, and we’re going to take care of each other.”

Watch it below.

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Devin Booker is the king of the basketball video game world. The Phoenix Suns’ star guard took down a pair of formidable challengers on Saturday evening, including one of his teammates, to win the first NBA 2K Players Tournament on ESPN. Booker rode the Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors to a 2-0 series win in the semifinals before deploying the Houston Rockets and the Denver Nuggets en route to a sweep in the championship series, earning him the title of the league’s best 2K player for the time being.

The festivities started off with Booker and Montrezl Harrell squaring off in the first semifinal. While the Clippers were one of the teams, they weren’t used by Harrell — he selected the Rockets, while Booker decided to go with Trez’s squad. The first half was tight throughout, and while Booker was ahead for most of it, Harrell managed to keep things close. But during the final few minutes of the second quarter, Booker gave himself some breathing room, and the Clippers went into the locker room up by 10.

We did get a moment of lighthearted trash talk when Booker used Kawhi Leonard to strip Harrell’s ball-handler, leading to the Phoenix Suns star raising a good point: Why on earth would one of Kawhi Leonard’s teammates try to dribble against him?

Booker celebrated his big first half with a four-legged friend.

Not much went right for Harrell in the third quarter, while Booker was able to extend his lead. Things weren’t particularly competitive in the fourth, and by the time the final buzzer went off, Booker picked up a 68-54 win in Game 1. To rub salt in the wound, Booker used virtual Harrell to give real Harrell the blues a few times during the half.

In a must-win Game 2, Harrell turned to the Milwaukee Bucks, while Booker opted to use the Toronto Raptors. As oftentimes is the case in games of 2K, the Bucks proved to be a formidable opponent, with the two teams going to the locker room all tied up at 31.

The Bucks were able to race out to an early lead in the third quarter, but Booker and the Raptors battled back and picked up a lead midway through the frame, setting up a hotly-contested final six minutes.

Ultimately, the Raptors were able to hang on by the skin of their teeth. It wasn’t without some tension, though — Booker, when up by two in the game’s final few seconds, hit one of two free throws. While Harrell had the ball with a chance to tie, an untimely turnover led to points for the opposing squad, and the Raptors picked up a 65-62 win.

The second semifinal started off with an Atlantic Division matchup: Ayton picked the Brooklyn Nets, while Patrick Beverley opted for the Boston Celtics. The two kept it close for the opening half, with the Nets clinging to a narrow 33-31 lead heading into the locker room.

In the second half, the two teams passed the lead back and forth, opening up leads only for their opponent to storm back and go ahead on their own. We even got a little bit of the trash talk that has become one of Beverley’s hallmarks.

But ultimately, Ayton and the Nets managed to come out on top, 75-69, edging out Beverley’s Celtics.

For the second game, Beverley turned to the Nuggets to keep himself alive, while Ayton went for victory with the team his knows best: his Phoenix Suns. suns up at the half 35-29,

double-digit lead heading into the fourth. suns win, 74-67

Ayton coming out on top led to Beverley, a notoriously fierce competitor, walking away from his TV after he was bounced.

This set up an all-Suns final, pitting Booker against Ayton. In Game 1, Ayton opted to use the Lakers, while Booker decided to use the Rockets. The pair played a cagey opening two frames, with the Rockets taking a 33-29 lead into the locker room, with Ayton hitting a buzzer-beater to end the second quarter with JaVale McGee that Booker found extremely funny.

Booker was able to use the Rockets to keep his big man at bay for the rest of the second half, however. While Ayton put up a fight, he wasn’t quit able to pick up the win, putting Booker in position to come out the victor. In Game 1, Houston topped Los Angeles, 72-62.

With his back against the wall in the championship game, Ayton opted to use the best team in the game, the Bucks. Booker, meanwhile, decided to head to the Western Conference and retained the services of the Nuggets. Things were close for the entirety of the first half again, but Booker once again held a halftime lead, going into the virtual locker room up 41-35.

At one point in the second half, Ayton looked all set to quit after Booker used Miles Plumlee to get a bucket.

But both Suns stayed in it, and by the time the virtual buzzer sounded, Booker knocked Ayton off, 74-62, en route to his second sweep of a night and a championship.

It’s been about a month since the United States began locking itself down, state by state, as COVID-19 began to seriously impact communities nationwide. In that time, we’ve seen essentially every single sports league in the country shut down, with the exception of professional wrestling.

In response to the virus spreading, WWE relocated all of its TV shows to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, creating closed sets with limited personnel. Still, COVID-19 is currently undefeated at hide and seek, so it was only a matter of time before someone within the company tested positive.

An internal memo from WWE was leaked to Fightful which confirmed a member of the WWE talent pool tested positive for COVID-19 and appeared at the WWE Performance Center as recently as March 26 — the same day Roman Reigns asked to sit out this year’s WrestleMania due to health concerns. While the person who tested positive has been confirmed as an on-air talent, they are not an in-ring performer. The memo reads in part:

“We have just been notified that (name redacted by Fightful) was diagnosed with COVID-19. WWE doctors spoke with (redacted) this morning and reported (they) last had contact with anyone at WWE on March 26 at the Performance Center. As you know, (redacted) is not an in-ring performer and we believe this matter is low-risk to you per the following chronology […]

Those of you who were potentially exposed would be cleared for travel by the evening of Thursday, April 9 at the latest, since the last possible exposure to any WWE talent personnel should have been at least 14 days prior.”

WWE later provided an official statement confirming the contents of the internal memo, saying the talent in question was not exposed until after leaving TV tapings on March 26:

“A WWE employee has tested positive for COVID-19. We believe this matter is low risk to WWE talent and staff, as the individual and a roommate became symptomatic in the days following exposure to two people working in acute health care on the evening of March 26, after WWE’s TV production on a closed set was already complete. The employee had no contact with anyone from WWE since being exposed to those two individuals, is doing well, and made a complete recovery.”

With WWE reportedly going back to live broadcasts for Raw, Smackdown and NXT from here on out, forcing their talent to travel in the midst of the deadliest pandemic on American soil in more than 100 years, one has to wonder when Vince McMahon will finally realize losing money on his TV deals is a better option than killing a member of his roster or one of their family members — and one also has to wonder if this will finally be what it takes for wrestlers to unionize.

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Time to D-I-Wine.

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