It might be difficult to admit but some TV series are better one and done.

While I really want to know how Normal People’s Connell fared in New York, I know it’s sweeter that I can’t. There is power in the not knowing, in the bow that was double-knotted and soldered shut so we can’t delve back in, as much as we think we want to. It remains pure and perfect.

And while it can be deeply reassuring to start a series like Gilmore Girls, and know you have 153 episodes to mark your year with, there’s also something very satisfying about being able to complete your immersion into a different world in one weekend.

So, in honour of that, I’ve come up with a definitive list of the best limited series you can start and finish this weekend. And I set myself a couple of strict rules.

I can’t include anything with even the possibility of a second series. So while hope is still alive that we’ll see Mare of Easttown return (Kate, ignore everything I said above about some things being better alone), that series, while excellent, is not valid here. The same goes for the recent Netflix hit Ripley – Patricia Highsmith wrote five books in the original series, and the show’s creator has expressed interest in a revisit.

Also, the complete watching time for the whole series has to be less than nine hours so, if you set your mind to it, you can consume it all in one weekend – whether in three nighttime binges or one long glorious day on the sofa.

The best miniseries you can get through in a weekend, according to Stylist’s entertainment director