Ranking Every HBO Miniseries From Worst To Best

Spielberg and Hanks’ first World War II drama casts a larger net than The Pacific, but in its scope, sensitivity, drama, and ambition, it can stand proud as the finest miniseries HBO has yet put on our screens.

Band Of Brothers was acclaimed as a masterpiece on its 2001 release, and it’s lost none of its lustre since. Following Easy Company, a parachute regiment, from basic training to their exploits in the final days of the European conflict, this is a sweeping ensemble piece with myriad great performances and moments of triumph and heartbreak.

At the show’s centre are two men, Richard Winters (Damien Lewis) and Lewis Nixon (Ron Livingston). Real men whose recollections made up part of the script, these are our most heroic figures who we follow through the war. Just as fascinating are the secondary roles; maybe the most interesting is David Schwimmer as inept trainer Herbert Sobel, a man who hides his fear beneath a heavy cloud of bluster.

The episodic nature of the show sees each installment focus on a different moment of the war, all the way up to the liberation of concentration camps and the Eagle’s Nest. This remains a staggering achievement in TV.