10 Best Stephen King TV Shows, Ranked

Stephen King is one of the most influential figures in horror history, and his best TV shows prove just how great the stories he is capable of telling truly are. Following Carrie, his debut novel in 1974, King has gone on to be one of the most prolific writers of all time. King has written over 60 books during the course of his incredible career, including The Long Walk, Salem’s Lot, Pet Sematary, The Stand, It, and so many other classics. His name is virtually synonymous with the horror genre at this point.

It didn’t take long for the first adaptation of a King novel to be released, as Carrie came out in 1976, just two years after the novel. Since then, dozens of his works have been adapted into different media — television, film, comics, and even video games. King’s best films are often considered bona fide classics in their own right, but his work also thrives in the television format, as it allows even more time to explore the complex stories and characters King has crafted. With Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series forthcoming, it’s a great time to look at King’s best shows.

10

Castle Rock

2018-2019

Castle Rock

Release Date

2018 – 2019-00-00

Showrunner

Dustin Thomason

Directors

Dustin Thomason

Writers

Dustin Thomason

Castle Rock is very good, and it could be argued that it deserves to rank even higher, but it isn’t necessarily a direct adaptation like a lot of the best shows based on his books are. Instead, Castle Rock takes place in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, a setting that Stephen King utilizes in a number of his stories. It pulls from a number of King’s works to create something entirely new, with Castle Rock also including a variety of characters who appear in the author’s books.

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Running for two seasons on Hulu, Castle Rock faithfully adapts the King tone, making it a tense horror television series that also has streaks of dark humor here and there. The cast is also very good, including Bill Skarsgård, Melanie Lynskey, André Holland, and Lizzy Caplan. It’s a worthy attempt at making a King story without directly adapting one of his iconic works.

9

Creepshow

2019-2023

Working in an anthology format, Creepshow was a worthy continuation of the 1982 film of the same name, and even managed to adapt a few Stephen King short stories in the meantime. Though it featured adaptations from a variety of writers (including King’s son, Joe Hill), the series adapted two short stories by King himself: “Gray Matter” and “Survivor Type”.

Running for 25 episodes across four seasons, Creepshow was a success for Shudder, and its two segments adapting King’s work do an admirable job of capturing the tension and atmosphere the legendary writer is so good at evoking. It’s a shame that the series didn’t adapt more of his stories, as a lot of his short fiction works are perfect for the type of show it was. Creepshow is a lot of fun, and it’s enjoyable to see a variety of different scary stories on display.

8

Under the Dome

2013-2015

For some reason, Under the Dome is incredibly underrated when it comes to Stephen King adaptations overall, never really being talked about as much as it should be. It’s quite good actually, and it enjoyed three successful seasons on CBS before the series came to an end in 2016. It features a stellar cast led by Mike Vogel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight), Natalie Martinez (Death Race), and Dean Norris (Breaking Bad).

Under the Dome is loosely based on the 2009 novel of the same name and revolves around the residents of Chester’s Mill who find themselves cut off from the rest of the world when a transparent, and apparently indestructible, dome covers the town. The series does a fantastic job of exploring the mystery behind the phenomenon and wraps nearly everything up in a satisfying way by the end of its story. Though it might not be as highly regarded as some other Stephen King adaptations, it does a worthy job in its own right.

7

The Stand

1994

The Stand

Release Date

1994 – 1994-00-00

Directors

Mick Garris

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The Stand is one of Stephen King’s greatest novels, and the thought of adapting it seems like a Herculean task given how incredible the source material is. While the 2020 adaptation failed to capture the magic of the story, The Stand miniseries from 1994 did a much better job of living up to the high standards King’s novel deserves. It’s a worthy addition to the post-apocalyptic genre.

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The Stand was a four-part miniseries and featured a massive cast of characters, led by Molly Ringwald (The Breakfast Club) and Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump). Though it is only four episodes long, and the novel is quite large, The Stand does a fantastic job at adapting the story faithfully for its medium, and although some parts of the production may feel dated at times, it is an often gorgeous-looking series that has an amazing soundtrack.

6

Nightmares & Dreamscapes

2006

Much like Creepshow, Nightmares & Dreamscapes is another horror anthology television series, but every episode is based on a Stephen King short story, with most of them coming from the book collection of the same name. Officially titled Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King, it is one of the most underrated King adaptations of all time, with a stellar lead performance by the late William Hurt in the very first episode.

Nightmares & Dreamscapes doesn’t have a throughline story over the course of its eight episodes, which allows it the freedom to tell a number of different stories within the horror genre, including deadly toy soldiers, sinister paintings, and a man being witness to his own autopsy. The mind of Stephen King is fascinating, and Nightmares & Dreamscapes perfectly captures what it feels like to read his stories. The variety of stories also makes it one of his most interesting adaptations as well.

5

11.23.63

2016

11.22.63

Release Date

2016 – 2016-00-00

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  Sarah Gadon

  Sadie Dunhill

Not everything Stephen King has written is scary. In fact, some of King’s best adaptations aren’t even in the horror genre. 11.22.63 is one of those adaptations, as it pulls from the 2011 novel 11/22/63. The series focuses on a time traveler who goes back in time to attempt to stop the John F. Kennedy assassination, but finds himself drawn to the life he is living during the time period. The story is incredibly engaging as he gathers information about the people and events that led up to the actual assassination.

James Franco leads the way as the time-traveling English teacher Jake Epping, and his chemistry with Chris Cooper and Sarah Gadon is one of the best aspects of the show. 11.22.63 is a magnificent science-fiction thriller that shows another side of Stephen King’s storytelling abilities and does an admirable job of adapting the really great source material.

4

Mr. Mercedes

2017-2019

Mr. Mercedes

Release Date

2017 – 2019-00-00

Showrunner

David E. Kelley

Directors

Jack Bender

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Like 11.22.63 before it, Mr. Mercedes isn’t a horror series like many of Stephen King’s works. Instead, it is a crime thriller that adapts the Bill Hodges novel trilogy, telling the story of the retired detective (Brendan Gleeson) still haunted by the “Mr. Mercedes” unsolved case 16 years prior. When a troubled young man sets his sights on Hodges, the two of them are pulled into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. It’s all very exciting stuff that is brilliantly told over the course of the series.

Mr. Mercedes ran for three seasons, with Gleeson’s monumental performance at the forefront, making it a satisfying adaptation that does justice to one of Stephen King’s more underrated novel series. It might not be as widely recognized as King’s heavy hitters, but it is one of the best adaptations of his work there has been over the course of five decades.

3

It

1990

There isn’t a lot to say about Stephen King’s It that hasn’t already been said. The behemoth novel is one of his most popular books of all time, and has endured since it was first released in 1986. Despite its popularity, there haven’t been as many adaptations of It as some might assume, with the two-part movie series coming out in 2017 and 2019. Prior to those, though, the It miniseries from 1990 was the first attempt at adapting the source material, and for many, it is still considered one of the best.

While It hasn’t aged well in some of its production quality, the most obvious strength of the two-part miniseries was the unbelievable performance from the legendary Tim Curry as Pennywise, the shape-shifting entity that haunts a group of children. It’s likely that Curry’s Pennywise was personally responsible for the fear of clowns instilled in ’80s and ’90s kids. It is sometimes silly, often scary, and quite heartfelt — everything that makes King such an amazing writer.

2

Salem’s Lot

1979

Following the success of Carrie, Stephen King turned his attention to vampires for his next novel, and wrote the horror masterpiece Salem’s Lot as a result. Revolving around vampires taking over the fictional town of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine, Salem’s Lot explores small-town America, humanity’s ability to tolerate evil, and the way religion can often mask a lot of what lies underneath. The two-episode miniseries from 1979 is a faithful adaptation that gets to the true scares in the source material.

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Once again following in Carrie‘s footsteps, Salem’s Lot was the second novel of King’s to be adapted, and the choice to make it a two-part miniseries instead of a movie does justice to the story it is trying to tell. Salem’s Lot is a dense work of fiction, and the series is able to translate a lot of the themes successfully to the screen, while the iconic look of James Mason’s Richard Striker is nearly unmatched in vampire media.

1

The Outsider

2020

With HBO production values behind it, The Outsider is arguably the best TV adaptation of Stephen King’s books purely from a technical standpoint. Couple that with it also being an incredible slow-burn that tightens up the tension with each passing episode, and The Outsider stands atop of everything that came before it. Exploring a number of genres, including psychological thriller, horror, and drama, The Outsider follows a detective and unconventional investigator who comes across a supernatural entity while investigating a child murder.

Ben Mendehlson as detective Ralph Anderson and Jason Bateman as murder suspect Terry Maitland are doing some of the best work in their resective careers, adding an incredible amount of weight and emotion to each unraveling mystery that The Outsider uncovers. It’s fascinating to see play out over the course of the show’s 10 episodes, as the tension The Outsider‘s atmosphere is able to convey fills every scene with dread.

Birthdate

September 21, 1947

Birthplace

Portland, Maine, USA

Professions

Author, Screenwriter, Producer, Director, Actor

Height

6 feet 4 inches