Ranking Every HBO Miniseries From Worst To Best
23. Laurel Avenue
This 1993 drama directed by the terrific neo noir practitioner Carl Franklin feels years ahead of its time. In depicting one weekend in the lives of a family in Minnesota, it’s the kind of character led show the network would specialise in 10 or so years down the line. While Laurel Avenue wasn’t seen as revolutionary at the time, it did something decidedly different and should be regarded as influential.
The protagonists are the Arnetts and their extended family. Lauren Avenue features an entirely Black cast, though this is never the point of the series - it’s a sensitive and realistic depiction of a family going through tough times. The show is stuffed with drama - there are revelations, issues with addiction, and bust ups.
It’s all shot in a realistic, almost documentary-like style, and the miniseries refuses to go for easy explanations or neat resolutions. Family dramas like Six Feet Under and the works of novelist Jonathan Franzen, similarly fascinated by multigenerational Minnesota narratives, have an unacknowledged debt to this work.