There are very few anthology shows where every single episode is perfect, but believe it or not, they do exist. Anthology shows, by their very nature, tend to be pretty hit-and-miss. From episodic anthologies like Black Mirror to seasonal anthologies like American Horror Story, almost every anthology series out there is a mixed bag of strong installments and others.
True Detective is dragged down by its second season; Fargo is dragged down by its third. Love, Death, and Robots has some incredible episodes, but it also has more than a few not-so-incredible episodes. From Joe Swanberg’s Easy to Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, these anthology shows are absolutely flawless.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical
Although it seems to have been dismissed by all but the superfans, The Boys Presents: Diabolical is one of the best things that The Boys franchise has to offer. It was shrugged off on its initial release, because it’s an animated spinoff mostly lacking the characters we all know and love, so it felt like an unnecessary universe add-on.
But Diabolical is actually more consistently great than the flagship show. Much like Star Wars: Visions, every episode gives a different visionary creator a chance to put their own unique stamp on the franchise. The tone jumps all over the place. There’s a different animation style and visual approach to each episode, exploring lots of new characters, new storylines, and new corners of The Boys universe.
But each one is fascinating and fun in its own way. There’s a Looney Tunes-style episode by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. There’s a Rick and Morty-style episode by a pre-disgraced Justin Roiland. There’s a K-drama-style episode by Andy Samberg. There’s an Ernest & Celestine-style episode by Broad City’s Ilana Glazer. There’s even an episode in the style of the original comics by Garth Ennis.
Inside No. 9
Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith of The League of Gentlemen co-created this twisted little gem for the BBC. Every episode of Inside No. 9 is a new story with new characters, featuring some nightmarish blend of pitch-black comedy and deeply disturbing horror. Its rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes tells you everything you need to know.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is a mystery anthology show presented by — you guessed it — Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock only directed 17 episodes throughout the show’s run, but the series’ other directors perfectly replicated that unmistakable Hitchcockian style. This show was Hitchcock’s side hustle during the years he made his most iconic movies.
During his time hosting Alfred Hitchcock Presents in its original CBS/NBC run, Hitchcock directed Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds. This isn’t a washed-up filmmaker past his prime, resorting to gimmicky TV work; it’s the Master of Suspense at the height of his powers, bringing you a new half-hour thriller every week.
Easy
Joe Swanberg, one of the early pioneers of the mumblecore movement, brought the tenets of that low-key indie filmmaking style to Netflix for his anthology series Easy. Swanberg wrote and directed every single one of Easy’s 25 half-hour episodes, so it basically plays like a really long Joe Swanberg movie.
Over the course of its three seasons, Easy chronicled the complicated relationships of a handful of characters living in Chicago. It jumped all around a massive ensemble, dipping in and out of these people’s lives, featuring poignant turns from wonderful actors like Jane Adams, Zazie Beetz, Kiersey Clemons, Dave Franco, and Marc Maron.
Hammer House Of Horror
Hammer is the first name in British horror, and its foray into television gave the UK its quintessential horror anthology. Hammer House of Horror is Britain’s take on a Twilight Zone-style horror anthology. It has 13 hour-long episodes and they’re all bangers.
It never settles into a formula or tells the same kind of story twice. Every one of those 13 episodes is wildly different from the others, and explores a different type of horror. There are a lot of supernatural threats (ghosts, witches, werewolves, devil worshippers), but there are some real-world monsters, too, like a former Nazi concentration camp guard continuing the Nazis’ human experimentation.
Every couple of episodes, you’ll spot an actor you recognize. Hammer House of Horror’s revolving-door cast brought in such famous faces as Indiana Jones’ Denholm Elliott, Succession’s Brian Cox, Hammer staple Peter Cushing, and Pierce Brosnan in one of his earliest roles.
The White Lotus
Mike White’s satirical drama The White Lotus is one of those seasonal anthologies that tells a new story with a new cast of characters each season (as opposed to every single episode). This format is riskier, because the misses stand out on a larger scale. A not-so-great episode is a lot easier to forgive than a not-so-great season.
While The White Lotus’ third season was a bit soapy, sensationalist, and sluggishly paced compared to its tighter predecessors, it’s still better than 99% of the television out there. Even in its weakest season, The White Lotus is darkly hilarious, wildly entertaining, and brilliantly performed by some of the best actors in the world.
Conceptually, The White Lotus is a searing upstairs-downstairs satire contrasting the frivolous problems of the one percent with the very real problems of the lowly resort staff waiting on them hand and foot. But that conceit has just paved the way for White to indulge in darkness and depravity, and the show is all the better for it.
The Twilight Zone
The anthology show that laid the groundwork for the rest also happens to be the best. In the late 1950s, with overbearing advertisers and oversensitive broadcasters to worry about, Rod Serling couldn’t get a network to pick up a politically charged script about a real-life injustice like the murder of Emmett Till. But he still wanted to comment on the civil rights violations and political divisions happening in the United States.
When he created The Twilight Zone, he landed on the perfect solution. If he allegorized timely political issues into horror and science fiction stories, the advertisers would be none the wiser. He could comment on McCarthyism and the Red Scare through a sci-fi story about a neighborhood trying to out the alien impostor in their midst. The Twilight Zone is still the gold standard when it comes to anthology shows.