10) Olive Kitteridge
Expertly adapting Elizabeth Strout’s episodic novel that explores the ins and outs of a rocky Maine marriage, Olive Kitteridge was often as wryly abrasive and distant as its title character. With a performance built like a powerlifter, Frances McDormand established Olive as one of TV 2014’s most indelible characters over the course of a short 4-hour run. It didn’t hurt to have McDormand backed up by a cadre of acting luminaries that any HBO miniseries can attract, including Bill Murray, Rosemarie DeWitt, and an equally stellar Richard Jenkins as Olive’s willing punching bag of a husband.
The scope of Olive Kitteridge never extended much beyond the typical adventures of sleepy coastal living, which made it ideal material for Lisa Cholodenko and her sharp directorial eye for finding the stifled yearning and frustration that accumulate over three decades of domesticity. The show maturely addressed oft-ignored topics of end-of-life care and mental illness, while stoking drama out of the daily struggle not to say something you can’t take back to someone you love.
Even without such accomplished performers, the slow-burning hearth contained within Olive Kitteridge’s prickly exterior made it as wholly satisfying as it was unassuming.
