Collider·United States·Monday, November 9, 2026 at 12:56 PM UTC

The 10 Greatest War TV Shows That Are 10/10 Masterpieces

Translate

Safwan Azeem

Published Nov 9, 2026, 7:56 AM EST

I'm terrible company during war shows. I celebrate when somebody finds clean socks. I worry whenever a soldier mentions home. And if two men who've survived something awful start laughing together, I immediately become suspicious of whatever the writers have planned next.

That's what happens when television gives you enough time to become attached to people whose lives are constantly in danger. You begin praying for the smallest things on their behalf. The greatest war stories also make it difficult to enjoy the fighting without confronting its consequences. With that said, these are the 10 greatest war show masterpieces of all time.

10 'Catch-22' (2019)

John Yossarian (Christopher Abbott) has a perfectly reasonable ambition. He wants to survive World War II. Unfortunately, he's an American bombardier stationed in Italy, and his commanders keep increasing the number of missions he must complete before being sent home. Catch-22 adapts Joseph Heller's novel into a wonderfully vicious satire where military bureaucracy has become an enemy almost as dangerous as the people shooting at Yossarian's aircraft.

I find Abbott magnificent because Yossarian's growing desperation never feels like cowardice. He's surrounded by men who accept increasingly absurd orders, and his apparent madness comes from recognizing how insane the entire situation has become. Colonel Cathcart (Kyle Chandler) keeps moving the finish line while the airmen pay the price. The comedy can be gloriously ridiculous, but the losses gradually make laughing uncomfortable. That's the brilliance of this adaptation. Every bureaucratic absurdity becomes uglier when you remember that somebody might actually die because of it.

9 'Masters of the Air' (2024)

At 25,000 feet, there's nowhere to hide. German fighters attack from every direction, flak bursts around the aircraft, and a damaged B-17 might suddenly become an enormous metal coffin. Masters of the Air follows the American 100th Bomb Group through its devastating bombing campaign over Nazi-occupied Europe, particularly pilots Gale “Buck” Cleven (Austin Butler) and John “Bucky” Egan (Callum Turner), alongside navigator Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle).

The Münster mission absolutely broke me. Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal (Nate Mann) manages to bring his damaged aircraft home, only to discover that he is the sole returning bomber from the group's thirteen aircraft that continued toward the target. Imagine surviving something unimaginable and finding practically nobody there to celebrate with you. The enormous aerial battles are technically magnificent, but that terrible absence gives them meaning. This was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

8 'The Winds of War' (1983)

American naval officer Victor “Pug” Henry (Robert Mitchum) arrives in Berlin in 1939, where his responsibilities place him uncomfortably close to the political developments leading toward World War II. Meanwhile, his family becomes scattered across an increasingly dangerous world, including his son Byron (Jan-Michael Vincent), whose relationship with Natalie Jastrow (Ali MacGraw) places him near the escalating persecution of Europe's Jewish population. The Winds of War transforms Herman Wouk's enormous novel into a sweeping account of the years preceding America's entry into the conflict.

Mitchum is such an inspired choice. Pug isn't a man who enjoys explaining his emotions, and watching him quietly absorb the implications of what he's witnessing is fascinating. Dan Curtis directed the miniseries with an ambition that still impresses me. He moved between military strategy, political conversations, and relationships threatened by events nobody can control. The most painful moments involve people trying to maintain ordinary lives while history makes those lives increasingly impossible. We know what's approaching. They keep hoping there's still time to prevent it.

7 'Generation War' (2013)

Two soldiers looking at the camera in Generation-War

Five young friends gather in Berlin in 1941, expecting that the war will soon end and they'll be reunited. Brothers Wilhelm (Volker Bruch) and Friedhelm (Tom Schilling) head toward the Eastern Front, Charlotte (Miriam Stein) becomes a nurse, Greta (Katharina Schüttler) pursues a singing career, and Viktor (Ludwig Trepte), who is Jewish, faces the escalating danger of Nazi persecution.

Generation War follows their increasingly different experiences as their youthful confidence collapses. Friedhelm's transformation is especially disturbing. He initially questions the war's purpose, but prolonged exposure to violence gradually erodes his resistance to participating in it. The contrast with Wilhelm's exhaustion makes their relationship painful to watch. Philipp Kadelbach directed this three-part German drama.

6 'War and Remembrance' (1988–1989)

Natalie Jastrow (Jane Seymour) is trapped in Nazi-controlled Europe with her young son and uncle Aaron (John Gielgud), while her husband Byron Henry (Hart Bochner) serves in the American Navy. Their desperate attempts to escape persecution form one of the most harrowing storylines in War and Remembrance, the continuation of The Winds of War. Robert Mitchum returns as Victor Henry, whose military career carries him through the widening conflict in the Pacific.

I find the story of Aaron and Natalie almost unbearably upsetting. They keep searching for another official who might help, another document that might grant safety, another opportunity to leave. Instead, the machinery of persecution keeps tightening around them. Dan Curtis, who directed this adaptation of Herman Wouk's novel, filmed portions at Auschwitz, bringing a profoundly disturbing historical reality into the production. The enormous naval battles and political developments are impressive, but I remember the family's desperation most vividly. A war fought across continents becomes a woman trying to protect her child from people determined to destroy them.

5 'MAS*H' (1972–1983)

Alan Alda and Gary Burghoff as Hawkeye and Radar, having a chat in M*A*S*H

The surgeons of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital spend the Korean War operating on wounded soldiers and finding increasingly ridiculous ways to preserve their sanity. Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (Alan Alda) leads much of the mischief, alongside an ensemble of doctors, nurses, and military personnel whose friendships make their exhausting work bearable. M*A*S*H somehow turns an army hospital into the setting for one of America's greatest television comedies.

But then Radar (Gary Burghoff) enters the operating room with news that Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake's plane has been shot down. Henry (McLean Stevenson) was finally going home. Everyone had celebrated his departure. Now the surgeons must absorb the news while continuing to operate. I genuinely cannot think of many sitcom moments that have hurt me more. That was the show's extraordinary courage. It could spend twenty minutes being outrageously funny, then remind viewers that wounded soldiers were arriving because actual people were killing one another. Hawkeye's jokes become more affecting when you understand how desperately he needs them.

4 'The Pacific' (2010)

Ashton Holmes and Josh Helman sit among other soldiers, listening to instructions, in The Pacific.

Forget the clean uniforms and reassuring speeches. The Marines fighting across the Pacific encounter suffocating heat, disease, relentless bombardment, and enemies who frequently refuse surrender. The Pacific follows several real servicemen, including Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), John Basilone (Jon Seda), and Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello), through the brutal campaign against Imperial Japan during World War II.

There's a moment on Okinawa when Sledge encounters a dying Japanese woman who wants him to kill her. He's seen enough horror to understand her desperation, but instead of shooting, he lowers his weapon and holds her while she dies. It absolutely destroys me. Throughout the series, Sledge has been changing into somebody increasingly hardened by what he's witnessed. That small act of compassion becomes enormously important because we can see how difficult compassion has become. The performances are extraordinary, particularly Rami Malek as the disturbing yet oddly affectionate Snafu. These men don't leave the battlefield simply because the fighting has stopped. The war follows them into everything that comes afterward.

COLLIDERInteractive

Ballot sealed

Movies/Academy Awards/Best Picture

Collider · Best Picture Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie? Five winners · ten questions · one envelope

Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be and what it can do to you. One of them is the film made for the way your mind works, and ten questions will work out which. The nominees

2020Parasite

2023Everything Everywhere All at Once

2024Oppenheimer

2015Birdman

2008No Country for Old Men

Open the envelope

Reel01 / 10

Question 01 of 10TONE

01 What kind of film experience are you really after? The best movies do not just entertain. They leave something behind.

ASomething that pulls the rug out, that makes me think I am watching one kind of film and then reveals I am watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming: funny, sad, absurd and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty, a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I am watching. DSomething formally daring, a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless, pure tension with no wasted frame.