Netflix pioneered binge-watching thrillers with groundbreaking TV shows that revolutionized the industry, like Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards. Since then, the streaming platform has gone from strength to strength, giving viewers some of the best thriller shows on TV. Netflix has some must-watch completed thrillers in its originals, and streams other thriller masterpieces.
Netflix’s best thriller TV shows often last for several seasons, and focus on character development as much as explosive action and suspense. This has led many thrillers on the platform to gain great reviews from both critics and audiences, which is unusual for a genre that can sometimes polarize its viewers. The best of these are not afraid to take risks and create something unique.
The Night Agent
The Night Agent is about a low-level FBI agent whose job, watching over a silent phone, becomes much more interesting when the phone rings. The show is fast-paced and full of the elements that make thrillers great, balancing tension and action with plot twists and character development. The latest season has attracted great reviews and introduced some of the show’s best characters.
The Night Agent could last forever, with several characters who could front their own spinoffs, and storylines that could be developed for years to come. The show has increased in quality with every season, and fans will be pleased to know that season 4 has officially been confirmed. It is reportedly in development now, though few details are known about the next season.
- Release Date
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March 23, 2023
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Shawn Ryan
- Directors
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Adam Arkin, Guy Ferland, Millicent Shelton, Ramaa Mosley
- Writers
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Seth Fisher, Munis Rashid, Corey Deshon
Dark Winds
A major criticism of many older Western TV shows is the treatment of Native American characters, who are often sidelined or reduced to offensive stereotypes. Dark Winds‘ refreshing approach has given it a well-deserved place among some of the best game-changing Western TV shows every fan must watch. The show was created by a largely Native American team, and it gets better with every episode.
Dark Winds is a neo-Western set in the 1970s and blends a police procedural format with a supernatural mystery. The show features excellent acting performances from its main cast, as well as some perfectly-written villains. Every season of Dark Winds has a rare 100% positive Rotten Tomatoes rating from critics, and it is well worth binge-watching.
You
After his career-making role as the unassuming Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl, Penn Badgley was the perfect choice to play the main role in You, a psychological thriller that manipulates romance tropes and becomes terrifying. Joe Goldberg’s charming character is easy to underestimate, and the shocking twist revealing him to be a dangerous stalker is only the beginning.
You subverts the typical rules of the genre, as Joe constantly reinvents himself, only to meet and stalk a new victim. It would be a difficult feat to keep the tension up throughout all five seasons of You, but the show is unrelenting in its violence and sinister atmosphere. The fact that it is told through Joe’s eyes makes the experience even more disturbing.
Dark
Dark is a masterclass in storytelling. It is an intense and mind-bending sci-fi thriller TV show, but it begins on a very small scale, allowing viewers to get invested. The plot grows more complex with every episode, introducing new twists and turns, but one thing that never lets up is the character development, which is the heart of the show.
Dark begins with the disappearance of a child in a fictional German town. The world then expands, revealing a multiverse with several versions of the same characters. Critics and audiences have given Dark a 95% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and with just three seasons and a proper ending, it is a great thriller to get invested in, especially if you like sci-fi.
Money Heist
Money Heist redefined streaming, becoming one of the best crime thrillers on Netflix and starting its own franchise. The show is about a meticulously planned robbery, in which a team of people with different skills lock themselves into the Spanish Royal Mint. The plot moves between the current events and the classes the team took with the mysterious “Professor” before starting their operation.
Virtually every episode of the show ends with a nail-biting cliffhanger, and the characters, who are known only by aliases, are at the center of all the action. All are flawed in different ways and sometimes as dangerous to themselves as they are to the operation, which means that Money Heist is rarely predictable, with some shocking twists and a well-deserved happy ending.
Mindhunter
Of all the most frustrating TV cancellations in the past 10 years, Mindhunter is the one that is still mourned by the show’s fans today. The show lasted for two seasons, and expertly built up tension through a slow-burning plot that was terrifying without resorting to constant violence. Mindhunter is based on a true story, but was canceled due to its high budget.
The show follows two FBI agents who begin interviewing incarcerated serial killers in an attempt to prevent future crimes by spotting potential serial killers early. It features standout performances by the main cast, as well as some chillingly accurate portrayals of famous killers like Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton) and the cult leader Charles Manson (Damon Herriman.)
Breaking Bad
Over the course of Breaking Bad‘s five seasons, the hit thriller became a cultural phenomenon while Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul became TV legends. The show is about a chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with cancer and turns to making crystal meth to fund his treatment. Creator Vince Gilligan infamously described it as “turning Mr. Chips into Scarface.”
Breaking Bad sometimes defies genres, being a family drama, a crime thriller, and occasionally a dark comedy. That said, the mortifying mishaps in the first two seasons quickly become life and death situations, and each season increases the tension until the final inevitable showdown. Breaking Bad is a thriller masterpiece, and one of the best shows available on Netflix.
Breaking Bad
10/10
- Release Date
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2008 – 2013-00-00
- Showrunner
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Vince Gilligan
- Directors
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Vince Gilligan, Michelle Maclaren
Baby Reindeer
Baby Reindeer was groundbreaking when it first aired, being based on Richard Gadd’s stage show, which is based in turn on a real event in his life. The excellent thriller is a difficult binge, but it is worth every minute for the acting and the story, which documents a terrifying escalation of stalking by a female perpetrator.
Not only was Baby Reindeer praised by the horror legend Stephen King, but it also has a 99% positive critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The show gets better with every episode as the tension mounts and the main characters start to reveal horrifying and long-held secrets. Gadd plays Donny Dunn, a version of himself, while Jessica Gunning gives a fantastic performance as Martha, Dunn’s stalker.
Orphan Black
Orphan Black‘s opening scene sets up the sci-fi masterpiece by throwing viewers into the action immediately. When Sarah sees a distressed woman at the station, she is horrified to see that she is her doppelgänger. When the woman walks in front of a train, Sarah takes on her identity and uncovers a shocking secret about her life and family.
The sci-fi thriller stars Tatiana Maslany in an Emmy-winning performance as several very different clones, and the plot moves quickly from an unsettling mystery into a far-reaching conspiracy. That said, the show is so well-written that this fast pace is exciting rather than confusing, and Orphan Black builds to a satisfying ending, which will please viewers sick of great shows being canceled.
Lupin
Lupin is a must-watch crime thriller that keeps getting better with every season. Omar Sy plays Assane Diop, a gentleman thief who is on a mission to avenge his father’s death. Like many excellent thrillers, the show starts with this relatively small task and unfolds into something more complex. Lupin combines all the best features of a heist thriller with humor and unpredictable plot twists.
While the first episodes of Lupin followed a more procedural format with Diop undertaking a “heist of the week,” the show found its rhythm as it went on, establishing Diop as one of the best characters in a thriller show. The upcoming season 4 is thought to pick up immediately after the major cliffhanger in the season 3 finale.
