The Best Single-Season/Limited-Series TV Shows I Watched in 2023

Monday is about movies. And sometimes TV. Today I celebrate television’s rebrand of the old-fashioned “mini-series”. Now called a Limited Series, or something like that…

I grew up on those classic mini-series TV events. Some of them were repeats (Roots), some of them felt like at-home red-carpet premieres (V). One of my favourite blu-ray watches of recent years was powering through Lonesome Dove - so good! I had thought to keep it going and work through all the sequels, binge that whole world. But I haven’t even seen Yellowstone yet, so I decided to slow my roll.

Anyway, as TV shows pile up, I struggle to commit to things the way I once did. It felt like heaven watching all six seasons of The Sopranos (in fact, it still does. Currently rounding the corner on season two for my third time through the whole series) but if someone recommends a show to me and it’s up at four or five seasons, I’ll just say, “sounds good, thanks - will add it to the list” knowing, in fact, that I never ever will.

I’ve slowed on Slow Horses and I adored its first season. And they’re only six episodes a throw. And already, I can feel that wagon pulling out and rolling far away. Season three landed this weekend, and I’m still staring at my navel, wondering when I might kick into season two. I stuck with The Morning Show because it was a nice throwback to the big network episodic stuff - like House or The Good Wife - only to have it all blow up in my face with a final episode of season three that was basically an insult to any shark-jump that has ever happened ever! Seriously, fuck that show. Twenty-nine episodes all ruined because of that one. I was pissed off.

I feel like Succession might have been the last time I’ll care to sit through more than two seasons of something at the time, in real time, as it’s happening. Spooning it up as and when it arrives. I cannot imagine something else hitting that hard.

But I take solace in the “Limited Series”. Yes, far too many of them are voyeuristic true-crime docos or scripted recreations of some tragedy. And yes, sometimes the ‘stranger-than-fiction’-type tagline still pulls me in, and I’m rendered powerless.

And yet, also, there are some strange, wonderful gems, that suit the pacing of a small series over being a movie (I’d argue that Scorsese’s brilliant Killers of the Flower Moon might have benefited from being even longer, though just in the guise of an episodic, limited series). But I don’t want them rolling on into successive seasons just because they brought in some bank.

So, my favourite limited series TV of 2023, in no particular order, included:

Dead Ringers - I absolutely love the 1988 film, also called Dead Ringers (by David Cronenberg). So I can’t lie, I was a tiny bit sceptical when I heard about his remake/repositioning of it. Why fuck with demented genius? But they nailed it. The new version of Dead Ringers is a gender-switch, and replaces Jeremy Irons (as twins in the original) with Rachel Weisz. First of all, Rachel Weisz is fucking excellent and someone in the world should just greenlight whatever she wants to do always. Second of all, this creepy, wonderful, dark, awful, intriguing story deserved another go-round. And I absolutely binged the shit out of it.

Available on Amazon Prime

The White Lotus (Season 2) - Maybe this is cheating, but I don’t care. The White Lotus was created as a single, standalone series. It was so popular that they begged Mike White to make another. I really thought it would fail. But if anything “Season 2” was better. Stronger. And there will be a third. And so of course I worry that the third will do the shark-jump, but I also can’t wait to see it! I’m counting the second season as its own thing, because it’s a new location and a new set of characters - with just one as the hinge. You could absolutely watch (and love) this without seeing the first season. But that, too, was super great. So, yeah, I’m bending the rules here, but I don’t see The White Lotus as a proper long-running series, it’s an umbrella term for separate anthology seasons. Anyway, I loved this so much.

Available on Neon

The Rehearsal - I’m such a huge Nathan Fielder fan that I basically devoured this in a day. And yes, technically, a second season has been ordered - but he’s off making The Curse (well, he’s made it, but it’s still showing - and I’m waiting until its finale next year before I dive right into that). So I wonder if there’ll actually be a second Rehearsal after all. It made me binge all of Nathan For You all over again. Brilliantly uncomfortable TV that feels so perfect for right now.

Available on Neon

Beef - Whilst not a total slam-dunk the chaos, anger, and absurdity of Beef felt right for 2023. Great acting, great writing, great fun watching this type of implosion.

Available on Netflix

Fleishman Is In Trouble - Technically a 2022 release, but it arrived right at the very end of the year, and I watched it at the very start of this year, so I’m adding it in here. Amazing TV. Basically it was like the very best of Woody Allen crossed with movies like The Squid And The Whale and The Door In The Floor. I was blown away by the acting in this, and though I haven’t read the book, it was devised for TV by the author, so I had some sense that it’s a book I’d very much like to read.

Available on Disney+

Cunk on Earth - May Diane Morgan’s Philomena Cunk character have a TV life as long as Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge. And then some. I’ve been a fan of Cunk for years, and though Cunk on Earth was a 2022 release, it didn’t go worldwide until this year, via Netflix. There is the risk of a season two, but more likely Morgan will take Cunk elsewhere. So the same good gags, the same deadpan delivery, just a new show title. There is absolutely the risk that the joke is getting a bit thin. But I have faith that Morgan and Cunk will always find a way through the thinness to deliver a thick laugh from me.

Available on Netflix

After The Party - There were so many reasons to admire this. The acting, the writing. The direction. The darkness of the story, the moral quandary and confusion, and of course Wellington looking lovely on the screen! But if you needed one reason only you would say Robyn Malcolm. A victory lap of a performance from an actor that has been especially great for decades now. I did feel, watching last night’s final episode, that the show was somehow cheated of an extra ep or two. That could just be me. It didn’t fail but I felt they rushed a few things in the hurtle toward a conclusion and I felt sad that maybe the powers that let this show be had to pinch some pennies or plan for some pre-Christmas TV scheduling or something. But I wanted one more episode of context ahead of the finale. That’s a small little nit to pick though. And I could be way off. Maybe this show played exactly as planned. At any rate, this was the best local television I’ve seen in years. And good, old-fashioned appointment viewing too. We were glued. Every Sunday for six weeks. We had to be there. And that felt good.

Available on TVNZ+

So that’s my list. Now I know I’m missing some really meaty drama there, but I’ll catch up with a few more over the summer holiday period I’m sure. How about you? See anything there you also loved? Anything on that list you absolutely loathed, or avoided? And what are your picks for best limited-season TV in 2023?