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Best War TV Shows

Discover your next binge-worthy TV show. Filter by streaming service, genres, or release year.

63 results

63 results

1. The Underground Railroad

May 14, 2021 • Rated TV-MA

Cora (Thuso Mbedu) and Caesar (Aaron Pierre) escape from a plantation and learn the Underground Railroad is an actual physical underground railway line. But a bounty hunter named Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton) is determined to bring Cora back in this Barry Jenkins adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel of the same name.

2. The Vietnam War

Sep 17, 2017 • Rated TV-MA

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick returns with a 10-part, 18-hour miniseries about the war features interviews, archival footage, home movies, photos, and audio clips.

3. The Hollow Crown

Sep 20, 2013 • Rated TV-14

The adaptions of William Shakespeare's plays Richard II, Henry IV part 1 and 2, and Henry V.

4. The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

Sep 14, 2014 • Rated TV-14

The 14-hour documentary series from Ken Burns covers the history and influences the family had from the birth of Theodore Roosevelt in 1858 to the death of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962.

5. Band of Brothers

Sep 9, 2001 • Rated TV-MA

Band of Brothers is a 10-part miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks for HBO. The miniseries follows Easy Company, an army unit during World War II, from their initial training at Camp Toccoa to the conclusion of the war. The series is based on the book written by the late Stephen E Ambrose. Tom Hanks approached Steven Spielberg, who just finished production of Saving Private Ryan. Together they approached HBO with their idea. The station was willing to spend a industry record sum of $120m to realize the project.

6. The Pacific

Mar 14, 2010 • Rated TV-MA

From the creative team behind Band of Brothers comes this ten-hour miniseries tracing three American marines as they fight World War II in the Pacific. The series was shot on location in Australia, and is produced by HBO Films in association with Playtone and DreamWorks television.

7. Shogun (2024)

Feb 27, 2024 • Rated TV-MA

In feudal Japan, Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), British captain John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) and translator Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) are brought together as a civil war looms in this limited series adaptation from Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks of James Clavell's novel of the same name (that was also made into a 1980 miniseries).

8. The Good Lord Bird

Oct 4, 2020 • Rated TV-MA

A young slave named Onion (Joshua Johnson-Lionel) becomes a part of John Brown's (Ethan Hawke) family, interacting with other abolitionists like Frederick Douglass (Daveed Diggs) and eventually the 1859 raid of the Army depot at Harpers Ferry in this limited series adaptation of James McBride's novel of the same name.

9. A Small Light

May 1, 2023 • Rated TV-14

Miep Gies (Bel Powley) and her husband helped Otto Frank (Liev Schreiber) and his family (plus 4 others) from the Nazis during World War II in this eight-part limited series from Joan Rater and Tony Phelan.

10. Roots (2016)

May 30, 2016 • Rated TV-MA

The second adaption of Alex Haley's book is a four-night, eight-hour miniseries about the journey of Kunta Kinte (Malachi Kirby) from Gambia into slavery in colonial America and eventual freedom of his family.

11. Wartorn: 1861-2010

Nov 11, 2010 • Rated Not Rated

This documentary film explores combat stress and post-traumatic stress in the military throughout American history.

12. Five Came Back

Mar 31, 2017 • Rated TV-14

Narrated by Meryl Streep, the three-part documentary based on Mark Harris's 2014 book about filmmakers experiences in and after World War II focuses on Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens and William Wyler with interviews from Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Greengrass and Lawrence Kasdan.

13. Generation Kill

Jul 13, 2008 • Rated TV-MA

Not for the faint-hearted, this seven-hour scripted mini-series spotlights Marines fighting in the Iraq war during the early onset of the conflict. This is an adaptation of Rolling Stone's contributing editor Evan Wright's book of the same name.

14. The Long Road Home

Nov 7, 2017 • Rated TV-MA

The eight-part limited series based on the book by ABC chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz focuses on the ambush on the Fort Hood soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter on April 4, 2004 in Iraq's Sadr City.

15. The Sympathizer

Apr 14, 2024 • Rated TV-MA

North Vietnam spy The Captain (Hoa Xuande) ends up living in a South Vietnamese refugee community in Los Angeles and finds his loyalty tested in the limited series based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel of the same name.

16. Manhattan

Jul 27, 2014 • Rated TV-14

Created by Sam Shaw, the drama follows the (mostly fictional) scientists and their wives as they settle in New Mexico to work on the Manhattan project.

17. Vietnam in HD

New, unseen footage is included in the six-part mini-series about the Vietnam War narrated by Michael C. Hall.

18. Rogue Heroes

Oct 30, 2022 • Rated TV-MA

During World War II in 1941, Lt. David Stirling (Connor Swindells), Lt. Robert Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne (Jack O’Connell) and Lt. John ‘Jock’ Lewes (Alfie Allen) are some of the soldiers who formed the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS) in Steven Knight's adaptation of Ben McIntyre's book "SAS: Rogue Heroes." [Premieres in the UK under the name SAS: Rogue Heroes on BBC One on 30 Oct 2022 and in the US under the name Rogue Heroes on Epix on 13 Nov 2022]

19. The Book of Negroes

Based on the novel by Lawrence Hill, it follows the life of a West African woman named Aminata Diallo (Aunjanue Ellis), who was sold into slavery in South Carolina before the American Revolution leads her to freedom via Nova Scotia, Sierra Leone, and finally England.

20. Manhunt (2013)

The documentary directed by Greg Barker and based on a book by journalist Peter Bergen, explores the nearly 20-year hunt for Osama bin Laden by the CIA with interviews with the analysts and operatives.

21. Vikings

Mar 3, 2013 • Rated TV-MA

Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) defies local Viking chief Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne) and sets out to pillage lands to the West.

22. Fallout

Apr 10, 2024 • Rated TV-MA

Lucy (Ella Purnell) surfaces from the underground bunker her forebears took shelter in 200 years ago to find a hostile, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles in the TV adaptation of the video game series of the same name.

23. Parade's End

Feb 26, 2013 • Rated TV-MA

During World War I, Christopher Tietjens (Benedict Cumberbatch) struggles with duty, decorum, and his feelings for his socialite wife Sylvia Satterthwaite (Rebecca Hall), who may not be carrying his child and suffragette Valentine Wannop (Adelaide Clemens) in this five-part miniseries adaption of Ford Madox Ford's novels.

24. World On Fire

Apr 5, 2020 • Rated TV-14

Set during World War II, the drama written by Peter Bowker follows the lives of British Army translator Harry Chase (Jonah Hauer-King); his Polish lover Kasia (Zofia Wichłacz;, Lois (Julia Brown), his girlfriend in Manchester; American journalist Nancy Campbell (Helen Hunt); American surgeon Webster O’Connor (Brian J. Smith) and his lover Albert Fallou (Parker Sawyers).

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Titles with fewer than 7 critic reviews are excluded.