This Stephen King time-travel miniseries from JJ Abrams is a must-see on Netflix

Nowadays, we’re used to streaming services gaining attention for their new original movies and series, with Netflix being no exception. Their recent release of the fifth season of “Stranger Things” was a huge successin terms of audience. It’s important to remember, though, that the appeal of services like Netflix isn’t just about seeing the latest movie or series they’ve produced, but about seeing other things they’ve recently made available, especially things you may have missed the first time around. For the most part, big movies and popular long-running TV shows will always be at the heart of pop culture conversations and so there will likely be a place to see them. But the most one-off projects risk being forgotten, particularly limited series.

That’s why I wanted to highlight the news that, among the group of new movies and shows available on Netflix this month, there’s a limited series that I absolutely adore: “11.22.63,” which ran for 8 episodes as a Hulu exclusive in 2016. The series is an adaptation of Stephen King’s 2011 novel of the same name and was developed by showrunner Bridget Carpenter. JJ Abrams (currently working on “The Great Beyond” with Glen Powell) and his company Bad Robot produced. As the title suggests, the premise involves a modern-day school teacher, Jake Epping (James Franco), desperate to try to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy after a friend reveals that a time portal to 1960 exists in their small Maine town.

The miniseries functions as both an extended, serialized story as well as an episodic experience. This looks like an encapsulation of the kind of stories King excels at: There’s speculative science fiction, heartfelt romance, and mysterious supernatural events all in the same series, and that alone makes it a must-watch.

This main hook of “11.22.63” is the engine that powers the miniseries’ eight episodes, and it’s quite effective. King’s concept is that time is its own measurable force of nature, something that “repels” Jake and his quest to change things. As such, the series has the feeling of something like a heist or mission movie (or, more aptly, a mirror image of “Back to the Future” films) combined with a supernatural thriller, as time itself works against Jake from the shadows. There’s a more explicit antagonist in the form of Yellow Card Man (Kevin K. O’Connor), as well as the delightfully drawn-out drama involving Lee Harvey Oswald (Daniel Webber) as he is alternately pushed toward and away from his destiny. There’s even a fascinating thread involving the supporting character of Bill Turcotte (an excellent George MacKay), someone who joins Jake on his quest and whose involvement may or may not be predicted.

In addition to all the time travel shenanigans and ticking clock drama, “11.22.63” features a gloriously heartbreaking romance between Jake and a Texas librarian, Sadie Dunhill (Sarah Gadon). Even though people may not want to watch the series because of Franco’s real allegationshis work on the show is some of the best he’s ever done, and much of that is due to the star-crossed romance he has with Gadon’s Sadie. The most important theme of the series involves how complex everything can become when an intruder from the future travels to the past, and thus the romantic intrigue becomes a central part of the series rather than something added or obligatory. Overall, “11.22.63” is a fantastic example of how to best use a format like a miniseries, telling a story that feels solid and complete. Hopefully its Netflix debut will allow more people to discover it.