The 12 Best Shows About WWII, Ranked

By this time, Band of Brothers hardly needs any introduction. HBO's groundbreaking 2000 miniseries set a standard for realism and dramatic power that has arguably never been equalled in a WW2 TV series.

The series follows the exploits of Easy Company, an elite paratrooper unit of the 101st Airborne, from their training in Georgia to the end of the war. Dropped into action the night before D-Day, the Easy Company soldiers participated in the battle for France, then saw action in Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and the final weeks of the war. Along the way they witnessed the horrors of a concentration camp and even occupied Hitler's retreat at Berchtesgaden.

If you want a historically accurate retelling of the American combat experience in the European theater of WWII, it's hard to do better than this.

From its first episode, Combat! feels like something different in media depictions of WWII. The guts-and-glory vibe seen in so many wartime films has been replaced by something grimmer and grimier. The soldiers' dialogue is laconic, laced with gallows humor and resignation. Nobody's having any fun here – just doggedly finishing a job that must be done.

Airing from 1962-67, the show was created by Robert Pirosh, a WWII veteran who saw action in the Battle of the Bulge. Starring Vic Morrow as Sgt. Chip Saunders, it follows a squad of American soldiers fighting their way through France in the aftermath of the Normandy invasion – much the same terrain that Private Ryan's would-be rescuers would cover. At five seasons, it's still the longest running WWII drama series. 

2010's follow-up to Band of Brothers took a look at the Pacific Theater of WWII. Following the experiences of three soldiers in the 1st Marine Division, it begins in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and depicts several key campaigns in the theater, including Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Like its predecessor, The Pacific depicts its battle scenes with an emphasis on accuracy and unflinching violence. It also helped launch the career of Rami Malek, who portrays Corporal Merriell "Snafu" Shelton, and would go on to stardom in Mr. Robot and Bohemian Rhapsody.

Made by the producers of Band of Brothers and The Pacific, the 2024 miniseries Masters of the Air brings a big budget and a high level of authenticity to its depiction of the 100th Bombardment Group of the US Eighth Air Force, which flew bombing missions over Germany at an incredible cost (some 26,000 airmen perished in action over the course of the conflict). Austin Butler stars as Major Gale “Buck” Cleven, a key player in the 100th Bombardment Group.

As can be expected from its pedigree, the action in Masters of the Air is both lavishly detailed and unflinchingly harsh. Given the lack of airworthy B-17s nowadays, the production relied heavily on CGI, but also built a pair of full-scale replicas. Recreating the full scale and violence of the European air war would have been nigh impossible with only practical effects and real aircraft.

Based on Herman Wouk's epic 1971 novel, The Winds of War follows multiple characters from early 1939 – a time when various nations still cautiously hoped for peace – through the attack on Pearl Harbor, by which time the European war had been blazing for two years.

The big-budget ABC miniseries features Hollywood legend Robert Mitchum as Victor “Pug” Henry, a high-ranking Naval officer who is sent to Berlin to serve as a Naval attaché. The lives of Henry and his grown children are intertwined with the growing political and ethnic tensions across Europe, and Henry finds himself face-to-face with some of the key players in the war, from Hitler to Roosevelt and Churchill. 

Fifteen years before Schindler's List, there was Holocaust, one of the earlier attempts by mass media to come to terms with the horrific atrocities committed by the Third Reich. A sprawling '70s miniseries in the vein of Roots, the show follows the travails of multiple characters as the Third Reich comes to power and launches WWII. Inga (Meryl Streep), a Gentile, marries Jewish painter Karl (James Woods); they are torn apart when he is thrown in the Dachau concentration camp. Meanwhile, unemployed German Erik Dorf (Michael Moriarty) gets a job in the SS. Initially a tolerant man, he becomes twisted by Third Reich doctrines.

The miniseries features a stacked cast; perennial villain David Warner even shows up to portray the notorious SS officer Reinhard Heydrich. Reaching a wide TV viewership, it marked a sea change in popular understanding of WWII.