30 Thriller TV Shows That Will Have You on the Edge of Your Seat
We wouldn’t quite classify these as “comfort shows,” but they’re definitely must-sees.
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Every great thriller has one thing in common: It sucks you in within moments of pressing play. Whether the story centers on an unsolved mystery, a horrific crime, or a dystopian tale of survival, any suspense-filled TV show that’s worth watching is guaranteed to bring on the anxiety. And it’s going to do it in the best, most cliffhanger-packed way possible.
From psychological thrillers like Severance and You to high-stakes action-adventure thrillers like Homeland and The Last of Us, the most gripping series in the genre provide a very specific type of emotional rollercoaster for their audience. As a viewer, you’re pretty much glued to the edge of your seat as the episodes unfold. While that might seem, well, stressful, there’s a big payoff following all of the excitement and anticipation. Because when you slowly start getting some answers about what’s really going on onscreen, that level of satisfaction is unmatched. Below are 30 of the best thriller TV shows that you can watch right now—be sure to buckle up, because each one promises to take you on one hell of a ride.
You
Based on Caroline Kepnes’ book series of the same name, You follows Joe Goldberg, a bookstore manager with a deeply sinister—and disturbingly obsessive—side. In each of the show’s four seasons, Joe (Penn Badgley) sets his sights on a new love interest to stalk, only to become so deeply enmeshed in her life that he ultimately has no choice but to take deadly action in order to keep his secrets at bay. The fifth and final season of the Netflix psychological thriller is currently filming, so there’s time to catch up before Joe officially says one last, “Goodbye, You.”
Severance
Upon first glance, you might not think that Severance is a thriller. Boy, would you be wrong. Apple TV+’s sci-fi series is all kinds of creepy, with Mark (Adam Scott) leading a group of office workers who have willingly undergone a procedure that separates their professional and personal memories, so they have no idea what their biotech work at the mysterious Lumon Industries actually entails. John Turturro, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, and Christopher Walken play fellow “severed” employees, while Patricia Arquette stars as their ruthless manager. Production on the show’s much-anticipated second season is currently underway.
Yellowjackets
Plane crashes, teen angst, cannibalism, supernatural forces—Yellowjackets has it all. The Showtime series takes place in two separate timelines: One tracks the aftermath of a deadly 1996 plane crash, which occurred en route to a high school girls’ soccer tournament; the other explores the survivors’ lives 25 years later when, long after rescue, they’re still reckoning with the trauma of their time in the Canadian wilderness. Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, and Lauren Ambrose portray the haunted adult characters, while Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Ella Purnell, Courtney Eaton, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, and Liv Hewson star as the teens whose lives changed forever during those unspeakable 19 months in the woods. Season 3 will premiere in 2025.
Dexter
Dexter Morgan is, arguably, one of the most iconic TV characters of the past 20 years. Played by Michael C. Hall, the titular character is a blood-spatter analyst at the Miami Metro Police Department by day, vigilante serial killer by night. As he hunts down murderers who have gotten away with their crimes, Dexter presents himself as a shockingly normal guy to the world—but viewers are privy to his Dark Passenger-coded internal monologue, as well as visions of his late adoptive father, a cop who helped him hone his unique set of…skills. Following an original eight-season run on Showtime, Hall returned for an equally compelling reboot, Dexter: New Blood, in 2021. And there’s more to come; a prequel to the series, Dexter: Original Sin, is officially in production.
The Last of Us
With the post-apocalyptic cultural phenomenon that is The Last of Us, appointment TV viewing returned with a vengeance (if you watched in real time, you had to avoid spoilers like the show’s zombie plague). Based on the popular video game of the same name, the series follows an unlikely duo—grieving father Joel (Pedro Pascal) and orphaned teen Ellie (Bella Ramsey)—as they navigate a dystopian world ravaged by a fungal infection that turns its hosts into zombies. It’ll tug at your heartstrings as much as it’ll gross you out, which is all to say that if you didn’t catch the HBO drama’s first season in 2023, it’s certainly worth binging ahead of season 2.
Hijack
Hijack is the kind of nail-biting, pulse-pounding thriller that will keep you guessing—and stressing—until the very end. Idris Elba stars as Sam Nelson, a seasoned corporate negotiator who’s aboard a flight from Dubai to London that, as the Apple TV+ show’s title suggests, is hijacked by terrorists. Putting his professional skills to work, Sam attempts to broker peace between the passengers and their captors over the seven-hour trip, which unfolds in real time over the course of seven episodes. Word to the wise: Don’t watch this one right before heading to the airport.
Squid Game
Squid Game is not for the faint of heart. The series follows Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a gambling addict who’s invited to enter a mysterious contest—with a huge cash prize—that involves participating in a series of classic Korean children’s games. If it sounds too simple, that’s because it is. The catch: Losing a game results in death, which means that all 456 desperate players are actually risking their lives to get out of debt. Psychological and physical warfare ensues, and it’s all jaw-droppingly sadistic. Season 2 is in the works, and a reality competition inspired by the show also premiered last year.
Homeland
A high-stakes political spy thriller that ran for eight seasons on Showtime, Homeland never failed to put its CIA officer anti-heroine, Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), through the ringer. From early plotlines where Carrie suspects that a rescued prisoner-of-war has returned as an al-Qaeda operative to her later stints working in the Middle East and, eventually, Berlin, the series is rife with dangerous terrorists, covert operations, and corrupt politicians—all of which Carrie must navigate while struggling to manage her bipolar disorder.
Eric
If you’re looking to get lost in another world for a bit, Eric has got you covered. Set in a very gritty 1980s New York City, the Netflix limited series centers on Vincent Anderson (Benedict Cumberbatch), an addict and puppeteer whose 9-year-old son, Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe), goes missing one day on his way to school. Convinced that the only way to get Edgar back is by bringing his drawings of a seven-foot-tall monster puppet named Eric to life on TV, Vincent sets out to do just that—and his mental health and marriage (to Cassie, played by Gaby Hoffman) both continue to devolve as he loses his grip on reality.
The Patient
The Patient gives new meaning to the term “psychological thriller.” The limited series from FX on Hulu delivered 10 truly unhinged episodes in which a serial killer named Sam Fortner (Domhnall Gleeson) holds a therapist, Alan Strauss (Steve Carell), hostage. Sam wants Alan to help him curb his homicidal tendencies—but in order to do so, Alan needs to figure out how to get inside of Sam’s mind in a way that also allows him to survive his time in captivity. It’s equal parts disturbing and riveting.
Killing Eve
The classic game of cat-and-mouse gets a glamorous update in BBC America’s spy thriller, Killing Eve. Sandra Oh stars as Eve Polastri, a British M15 intelligence analyst who becomes obsessed with capturing the sociopathic—and incredibly chic—international assassin Villanelle, played by Jodie Comer. Turns out, Villanelle is just as hyper-fixated on Eve, and as the women come face to face over the course of four seasons, it becomes clear that their personal and professional fates (as well as their chances of basic survival) are more intertwined than they’d ever imagined.
Breaking Bad
If you missed out on Breaking Bad during its five-season heyday, now is the time to give the criminally entertaining thriller a binge-watch. Bryan Cranston famously portrays cancer-stricken high school chemistry teacher turned drug lord Walter White in the AMC series, which sees the character team up with a former student, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), to launch a crystal meth lab on wheels in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Let’s just say that there’s a reason why the show has been lauded as one of the best and most critically-acclaimed of all time—and went on to spawn the equally beloved prequel series, Better Call Saul.
The Diplomat
Political thriller fans, this one’s for you. Keri Russell stars as Kate Wyler, a career diplomat who prefers to strategize behind the scenes while her estranged husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), takes center stage in his own high-profile political career. But when an international crisis strikes, Kate is forced—albeit, begrudgingly—to accept her new appointment as the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, launching her into the spotlight and putting her crumbling marriage to the (very public) test. Allison Janney is joining the cast for an already-confirmed second season.
Ozark
If thrillers are defined by having a consistently heightened state of tension, then Ozark is right up there with the best of them. The Netflix saga’s four seasons follow Marty and Wendy Byrde (played by Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, respectively), a couple who finds themselves deep in the criminal underworld of the Missouri Ozarks after a money-laundering scheme gone wrong back home in Chicago. With their lives—and their children’s—perpetually at risk in their gritty new community, the Byrdes battle it out with local heroin producers, Mexican drug cartels, and, naturally, law enforcement officials.
True Detective
For simplicity’s sake, we’re combining all iterations of True Detective under one thrill-inducing umbrella here. From the HBO anthology series’ critically-acclaimed first season (which stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as a pair of Louisiana cops tracking a depraved serial killer) all the way up to season four’s True Detective: Night Country (in which Jodie Foster and Kali Reis portray detectives investigating the disappearance of a group of researchers in Alaska), there’s plenty of disturbing content that’s sure to keep you up at night. While the show’s central mysteries are certainly thought-provoking, it’s insight into the lives—and minds—of the detectives who solve them that will really keep you coming back for more.
Bodyguard
Richard Madden portrays heroic war veteran turned London police sergeant David Budd in BBC One’s fast-paced political thriller, Bodyguard. When he’s assigned to protect Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), a controversial politician whose beliefs—and policies—starkly contradict his own, Budd finds himself questioning his true loyalties while struggling with PTSD from his time in combat. Tensions are high right out of the gate: The show begins with a chilling 20-minute opening scene, in which Budd attempts to thwart a terrorist attack on a commuter train.
Clickbait
By now, we’re all aware that social media has the power to do more harm than good. That notion is explored in Clickbait, a twisted tale in which California dad-of-two Nick Brewer (Adrian Grenier) goes missing, only for a viral video—of a bloodied Nick, holding signs that say, “I abuse women'' and “At 5 million views I die”—to appear online in the wake of his disappearance. With no time to spare, Nick’s sister Pia (Zoe Kazan) and his wife Sophie (Betty Gabriel) race to find him and uncover the truth behind his kidnapping.
Cruel Summer
Season 1 of Freeform’s anthology series Cruel Summer alternates between the stories of two teen girls in two separate timelines. The 1993 plot focuses on the gone-without-a-trace abduction of popular Texas high schooler Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt), as well as the Single White Female-esque way in which nerdy Jeanette Turner (Chiara Aurelia) tries to take over Kate’s life in her absence. The 1995 story reveals that Kate has been rescued alive, that Jeanette may have witnessed her kidnapping, and that both girls are still hiding deadly secrets. The drama is at an all-time high right up until the bitter end—luckily, there’s a second sinister season with an entirely new cast of characters to watch when you’re done.
Mindhunter
Based on the true-crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker, Netflix’s Mindhunter centers on FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany). Set in the late 1970s, the series hones in on the early days of serial killer profiling in the Behavioral Science Unit, with the pair interviewing and studying convicted serial killers alongside psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv). Their goal? To better understand how a truly sociopathic murderer operates—and to solve other open cases along the way, in doing so.
The Watcher
If there’s one word to describe The Watcher, it’s most certainly “creepy.” And if there’s one thing that makes the Netflix mystery thriller even creepier, it’s that it’s based on a true story. The show follows Nora (Naomi Watts) and Dean Brannock (Bobby Cannavale), a married couple who are thrilled to finally move into their dream home in New Jersey. The house is eerie (there’s a dumbwaiter), the neighbors are strange (to put it mildly), and the family soon begins to receive threatening anonymous letters signed by “The Watcher.” It’s worth getting spooked just to relish in a bit of comic relief from Jennifer Coolidge’s powerhouse real estate agent character, Karen Calhoun.
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