Olive Kitteridge (2014)

Only four parts, the shortest commitment on this list, and each one jumps ahead in time across 25 years of one marriage in a small Maine town. Lisa Cholodenko directed all four from Elizabeth Strout's 2008 novel, with Frances McDormand as Olive and Richard Jenkins as her patient husband, Henry. Olive is blunt, often cruel and hard to like, and the series never softens her to make you comfortable. What it offers instead is a clear-eyed picture of depression, loyalty and regret, with flashes of very dry humor. It is quiet rather than harrowing, though not light. It won eight Emmys, including Outstanding Limited Series.