Film News Blitz writer Jesse-Ann Baron ranks the five anthology series that nailed TV’s hardest format.
An anthology series has no returning cast, no ongoing arc or a safety net; this format demands creators to reinvent a new story every episode or season.
This is the most risky format in the industry but these five series that didn’t just attempt it, they defined it.
1. The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
This series invented the format and inspired many of the anthology series that we see today.
The creator of the show, Rod Sterling, didn’t just make a sci-fi anthology series but social commentary hidden behind the genre.
Each episode dropped ordinary people into twisted scenarios that were often supernatural but it always was commentary for something real.
The absurd premise acted as a trojan horse for the real issue it is addressing from prejudice to the fear of technology.
This series wasn’t popular at first and faced many cancellation threats but after its original broadcast, through reruns it had built a mass audience.
The Twilight Zone inspired a movie and three separate reboot series, with the most recent being Jordan Peele’s 2019 version.
2. True Detective
Season one of legendary HBO series True Detective was so popular it became a cultural moment, with many lines and scenes of Mathew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson that still resurface online today.
This anthology series opened up by allowing one director for the whole season with a brilliant star-studded cast.
Each season of True Detective is a contained crime story built around a pair or trio of detectives chasing a case that is dark and deeply twisted the more they investigate.
This series proved that an anthology crime series can be art-house cinema that has a balance between heavy crime themes with drama.
The second season fumbled a little with mixed reviews and a muddled plot – but the third season recovered the iconic show a decade later with Night Country.
Season five is anticipated to premiere in 2027 after the massive success of the previous season with Issa López.
3. Fargo (2014-present)
Fargo took the 1996 Coen Brother film of the same name and turned it into an anthology series.
It borrows the same snowy-Midwestern setting, dark-comedy and the intersection of ordinary people colliding with criminal chaos.
Each season is a standalone crime saga in different decades with a new cast of con-men, killers and small-town cops.
No one thought it would work but it actually excelled – Fargo won Golden Globes and Emmys already with season one, all because the cast changed but the writing stayed sharp.
This series mastered the format by keeping a signature tone throughout the ever-changing seasons.
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4. Black Mirror (2011-present)
Black Mirror made the fear of technology their whole genre and it massively paid off.
Each episode is a standalone story that shows how technology makes humans do unsettling things.
The premise ties every episode together from the dangers of VR, social media, and dating apps to the obvious fears of tech surveillance.
It is less sci-fi and more of a collection of cautionary tales but the craziest part about Black Mirror is that some of its episodes started to feel more like reality now.
The daily anxiety around the advancement of technology is tapped into with this show and masterfully it holds a mirror of society to any viewer.
It is a massively-acclaimed series available on Netflix with 99 nominations, 29 awards and the Prestigious Peabody Award.
It has been renewed for an eighth season so recap the whole series and dive into the dark ugly side of human nature and digital innovation.
5. Love, Death & Robots (2019-present)
Arguably the best animated anthology series ever made – hands down.
This series took the format even further with each episode being a standalone animated short in a different visual style with a different animation studio.
There is no fixed genre with creators being able to really be artistic with episodes ranging from folklore to dark comedy.
It is so popular because there really is nothing else like it – one episode could be hand-painted stop-motion style and the next has heavy CG.
This took the anthology format to the extreme by having a whole different visual language in every bite-size episode.
It won many Emmy awards and gave real R-rated animation that is binge-worthy and thought-provoking, which is definitely a massive leap for animation.
Honorable mentions
Inside No.9 is a British cult-classic that is an essential watch as every episode is 30 minutes of a new story that perfectly blends horror and comedy.
Why Women Kill is an underrated anthology series that is great for those who love dark comedy and women in the lead role.
The White Lotus gets better and more popular with every season, with the only constant in each new season’s story being a murder and the themes of greed and lust.
American Horror Story is a favorite to many and is on a must-watch list for any thriller and horror enthusiast.
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