Mildred Pierce (2011)

Five episodes with no crime or battle at their center, but no less gripping for it. Todd Haynes adapted James M. Cain's 1941 novel about a Depression-era mother who leaves her husband, builds a restaurant business from nothing and spoils a daughter who repays her badly. Kate Winslet won the Emmy and the Golden Globe for the title role, and the series lets her carry long, quiet stretches of work, money worries and pride. The pace is slow and the period detail meticulous, so it suits evenings when you want a novel on screen more than a thriller. The mother-daughter battle in the later episodes is where it really bites.