Television series

The Miniaturist

Name: The Miniaturist
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: 2017
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Alex Hassell, Hayley Squires, Paapa Essiedu, Romola Garai

A haunting three-part miniseries set in 1686 Amsterdam, where a young bride discovers her husband's grand house harbors secrets—and a mysterious craftsman's miniature replicas of her home seem to predict darkening events. Gorgeously shot, deeply unsettling, it's a slow-burn psychological drama that prizes dread over explanation. For viewers who love Gothic atmosphere with period detail and don't need everything spelled out.

TVMaze rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slow-burning period mysteries where a small object carries big unease, and you enjoy watching a naive newcomer slowly read the rooms of a house full of secrets.

Skip it if you want brisk plotting or a fast payoff, since this two-part miniseries lingers on atmosphere, silences and glances, and some viewers will find it too measured.

What it asks of you: Two episodes of roughly 75 minutes in total, unhurried and quietly tense, asking you to keep close track of who is looking at whom and why.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Killing Eve2018

Obsessive cat-and-mouse tension between two women on opposite sides of the law, with lavish production design and psychological complexity that rewards close attention to character over plot mechanics.

But The violence can feel gratuitous, and later seasons lose focus. Some find the style prioritized over substance.

The Little Drummer Girl2018

Another period-set spy thriller with a young woman at its centre, directed by Park Chan-wook. Rich cinematography, intricate plotting, and the pleasure of watching someone smarter than everyone else outmanoeuvre her opponents.

But Spans six episodes so it's a larger commitment. The pacing is glacial if you're expecting action rather than psychological gamesmanship.

The Nightingale2018

WWII France seen through the eyes of two sisters navigating impossible choices. Raw and visceral where The Miniaturist is ornate, but shares that same sense of mounting dread and women trapped by circumstance.

But It's relentlessly bleak. The violence against women is not stylised, and some scenes are genuinely harrowing rather than entertaining.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Miniaturist

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya2013

Both centre on a young woman brought into a wealthy household, surrounded by beautiful objects and circumstances that conceal entrapment. Both prioritise visual metaphor and mood over exposition.

A Studio Ghibli feature told entirely through exquisite watercolour animation, about a mysterious girl raised in a wealthy household who does not belong to the world that claims her. It has The Miniaturist's core DNA—the strange bride, the house as prison, secrets embedded in beauty—but reimagines it as a melancholy fairytale.

But It's a completely different register: painterly, dreamlike, almost plotless. Hand-drawn animation may feel like it trivialises the story if you were expecting live-action realism.

His Dark Materials2019

Epic HBO-BBC co-production with sumptuous design, dark fairytale logic, and a world where objects carry symbolic weight. Builds an entirely believable parallel reality with genuine stakes and beautiful production values.

But The early episodes are expository worldbuilding, which bores some people. It's also very long, and seasons vary wildly in quality.

Crimson Peak2015

Guillermo del Toro's Gothic romance: a grand old house that's almost a character itself, gorgeous costumes, and a plot that doesn't hide what it is but luxuriates in the reveal. Pure atmosphere and melodrama done with visual intelligence.

But It's unabashedly romantic and haunted-house traditional. Some find it pretty but slight, or the story too familiar to sustain two hours.

Rebecca2020

Ben Wheatley's adaptation captures the psychological claustrophobia of a woman in a grand house haunted by her predecessor's shadow. Lush, tense, and deeply concerned with how power operates through architecture and objects.

But The film divides Daphne du Maurier fans. The pacing is uneven, and some scenes feel overwrought rather than affecting.

The Hunger Games2012

A woman arrives at a decaying Irish estate where nothing is quite right and the locals won't explain why. Slow-burn folk horror with extraordinary production design and the same unsettling logic as The Miniaturist, but weirder and darker.

But It's genuinely cryptic to the point where some viewers feel the mystery is never properly solved. Very little happens in a conventional sense.

Penny Dreadful2014

A Victorian ensemble of literary monsters and outcasts navigating London's shadows. Sumptuous visuals, baroque dialogue, and genuine intelligence about Gothic tropes. Each episode is beautifully constructed.

But It's slow, wordy, and occasionally lost in its own ambition. Some seasons lose momentum, and the ending divides viewers.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford2007

Both use accumulated visual detail and period setting not as decoration but as psychological landscape. Both are about being watched, being miniaturised, trapped in tableaux of someone else's design.

A Western that plays as a psychological thriller about obsession and performance. Shot with the painterly precision of a Dutch Golden Age painting, every frame dense with symbolic detail. It's a genre film that moves like a miniseries of ideas, patient and utterly absorbing.

But It's a Western where almost nothing happens and it's nearly three hours long. The pacing will feel glacial if you want story momentum. Some find it pretentious.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford poster

Under the Skin2014

Both create dread through accumulation and refusal to explain. Both trust the audience to sit with discomfort. Both use a key object or ritual (miniature, van) as an instrument of something much darker underneath the surface.

An art film with Scarlett Johansson driving through Scotland in a van, picking up hitchhikers for unclear purposes. Almost no plot, no exposition, purely atmosphere and dread. Hypnotic, strange, and increasingly unsettling as your questions multiply.

But It's glacial, cryptic to the point of frustration, and deliberately offers no explanation for what you're watching. If you need narrative clarity or conventional drama, this will feel like a punishment.