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With the onset of streaming and the continuation of the medium’s golden age in the 21st century seeing both networks and streaming services grow increasingly daring with the kinds of stories they’re willing to tell, the past 10 years have been a goldmine of bold and impactful television. The thriller genre has been among the greatest beneficiaries of this, with small-screen suspense taking the form of everything from fast-paced politics to slow-burn murder mystery in the past decade.
Each of these 10 series have not only made an immediate impression on viewers with their heart-pounding perfection, but they have also gone on to influence television trends as well. Enshrining themselves among the finest small-screen titles of recent years, as well as being some of the greatest thrillers TV has ever seen, these suspenseful series make up the genre’s greatest hits of the last 10 years.
10
‘Squid Game’ (2021–2025)
Few series in the past decade have had the same cultural impact and medium influence as Squid Game, with the South Korean series not only captivating millions of viewers the world over with its high-concept capitalist critique, but ushering in a mainstream interest in Asian television as well. The show’s premise is remarkably simple; a group of financially desperate competitors participate in a series of children’s games with deadly twists until one emerges as the winner and claims the cash prize.
It’s high-stakes and relentlessly thrilling, with the ceaseless momentum of its life-and-death intensity beautifully supported by its unique and almost playful visual allure. What makes Squid Game such a defining hit, though, is its underlying commentary on wealth disparity. It is a commanding parable of economic strife, the amorality of the elite, and the grueling competitiveness society’s value of money breeds among people.
9
‘Counterpart’ (2017–2019)
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A criminally underrated marriage of high-concept sci-fi and ruthless espionage suspense, Counterpart is a fiercely intelligent spy thriller that centers on a cold war between two parallel universes. Howard Silk (J. K. Simmons) is a meek, low-level bureaucrat who discovers the Berlin-based U.N. office he works for is actually containing a secretive gateway to an alternate world. Working with the other world’s Howard Silk, a hard-edged espionage agent, they try to prevent attacks being carried out on innocent people by vindictive sleeper agents.
Anchored by Simmons’ outstanding dual performance, the series’ two-season run is an intriguing mixture of tight, John le Carré-style spy intensity and absorbing sci-fi world-building. It’s cold and callous, depicting humanity as being suspicious and violent, but it delivers heart-racing suspense from its magnificent opening episode right through to its finale.
8
‘The Diplomat’ (2023–Present)
Fast-paced and frenetic, The Diplomat has emerged as one of Netflix’s defining gems of the decade so far, a lively political thriller rich with shocking plot twists and character-driven tension. It follows Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) in her work as the new U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom just as an international crisis erupts. As she navigates the turmoil and political paranoia, she also strives to bolster her own career all while managing her deteriorating marriage to cunning political mastermind, Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell).
The series embraces its somewhat heightened allure, operating less as a realistic descent into the minutiae of global politics, and more as a frenzied thrill-fest of duplicity and betrayal where every daring scheme could destroy the already fragile standing of foreign policy as the U.S. deals with the temperamental and unpredictable British prime minister, Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear). Complimented by a litany of exceptional performances and a powerful, propulsive sense of momentum, The Diplomat is an enthralling hit of modern political drama that is addictive from the outset.
7
‘Dark Winds’ (2022–Present)
Integrating contemplative and authentic Indigenous storytelling with the bleak brilliance of neo-Western intrigue and period noir, Dark Winds is one of the more stunning and suspenseful crime shows to have aired in the past decade. Based on Tony Hillerman’s ‘Leaphorn & Chee’ novel series, it follows three Navajo Tribal Police officers as they investigate violent crimes that occur in Navajo County in the 1970s.
The AMC series finds an enthralling point of difference in its intimate focus on cultural authenticity, allowing for the spirituality and mysticism of Navajo folklore to be a powerful catalyst for palpable atmospheric storytelling while emphasizing the connection the detectives have to both the land and their people’s history. Also functioning as an intoxicating and intense crime mystery in its own right, Dark Winds is a bold blending of cultural sensitivities and classic television thrills that works on every level.
6
‘Sharp Objects’ (2018)
Miniseries have been a major television trend of the past decade. Many of which have incorporated suspense into their storytelling, like Chernobyl, The Haunting of Hill House, and Unbelievable. In terms of true genre purism, however, HBO’s underrated crime mystery Sharp Objects emerges as a noteworthy highlight. Based on Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name, it follows disturbed crime reporter Camille Preaker (Amy Adams) as she returns to her hometown to investigate the murder of two young girls.
Interweaving the grim brutality of the case with more character-centric suspense stemming from her volatile familial relationships, Sharp Objects is the epitome of slow-burn excellence. Adams’s incredible performance keeps viewers completely immersed, while the twisty nature of the storytelling and the rich Southern Gothic aesthetic ensure that the tension never dilutes, even as the series evolves at a meticulous and demanding pace.
5
‘Slow Horses’ (2022–Present)
A modern gem that has quickly become a staple of spy television mastery, Slow Horses soars as a decisively subversive spin on the typically glamorized genre, with its emphasis on deeply flawed characters a refreshing pivot from the brand of debonair excitement most espionage thrillers flaunt. Based on Mick Herron’s novel series ‘Slough House,’ it follows a team of banished MI5 agents who work under the instruction of the crude and callous Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) to combat threats to national security.
While it has found a substantial audience through its dry-witted playfulness, Slow Horses is fundamentally a heart-racing thriller, one that intelligently uses its profoundly human and imperfect characters to engross viewers in the emotional tension of the story, as well as the political and investigative suspense. Its five-season run thus far has been a procession of high-stakes thrills laced with black comedy, and it has made for a bona fide hit of 2020s television as well as a defining success for Apple TV.
4
‘Ozark’ (2017–2022)
The early years of television’s golden age had defining masterpieces like The Sopranos and The Wire that established crime drama suspense as a small-screen spectacle to behold. Then came series like Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire. While the genre has probably subsided somewhat in the past decade, it has still produced several noteworthy gems, with Netflix’s Ozark being chief among them as it follows the Byrde family who, forced to work as an asset for a Mexican drug cartel, relocate to the Ozarks to implement a money laundering and drug smuggling operation.
Not dissimilar to Breaking Bad, Ozark thrives as a pulsating thriller by featuring an ordinary protagonist thrust into a life of crime, making every decision feel more resonant, and every life-threatening obstacle more hopeless and enthralling. Through the journey of the Byrdes and the allies and enemies they make in their new home, Ozark delivers four seasons of relentless, ever-building tension that epitomizes crime television suspense at its absorbing and addictive best.
3
‘Dark’ (2017–2020)
Another small-screen masterpiece produced by Netflix, Dark overcame its language barrier to ensnare millions of viewers the world over with its winding, intricate story that includes everything from mind-bending sci-fi to visceral mystery drama. When children start going missing from the German town of Winden, the dark pasts and hidden truths of four of the region’s stalwart families begin to unfurl. The revelation of a wormhole in a cave delivers some sort of answer to the disturbing mystery, but it also plunges those involved on a time-jumping journey that could jeopardize the fate of the entire universe.
Conceived as a tight, three-season series from the beginning, Dark astounds with its narrative precision. Its ability to not only conjure suspense and even horror from the mere revelation of plot details, but to deliver every integral piece of information exactly when it is needed as well, is a feat that is nothing short of ingenious. Also finding tremendous weight in its nuanced and complex character, gloomy atmospheric dread, and its unwavering focus on emotional stakes, Dark is a masterful blending of sci-fi, mystery, and suspense that makes for one of the most defining and ambitious television thrillers in the medium’s history.
2
‘Severance’ (2022–Present)
The flagship series of Apple TV’s catalog thus far, and a defining triumph of small-screen entertainment in the 2020s, Severance marks another title to extract unbearable tension from a fundamentally science-fiction story. Set in a world where corporations can have their employees’ memories surgically divided between their work lives and personal experiences, it follows Mark Scout (Adam Scott) as he rallies a small cohort of his colleagues to figure out the true nature of Lumon Industries’ work.
Finding timely resonance in its emphasis on the cultural imbalance many people experience between their professional and private lives, the shady nature of powerful corporations, and the uneasy sense of power many workplaces hold over their employees, Severance is a masterful parable of modern life that asks compelling and relatable questions with its high-concept premise. Also flaunting a piercing satirical wit and rich, engrossing world-building that keeps viewers enthralled, Severance is a sci-fi thriller that has delivered two stunning seasons thus far, with a third set to begin production later this year.
1
‘Mindhunter’ (2017–2019)
In some ways, it is cruel that Netflix only produced two seasons of Mindhunter, with the arresting and atmospheric crime thriller finding a perfect balance between the modern interest in true crime and television tropes that have made crime series so alluring for decades. Set in the 1970s, it follows two FBI agents and a psychologist as they travel around America interviewing detained serial killers. The insights they gain into their motivations, backgrounds, and methodology are applied to active investigations, thus spawning criminal profiling.
Bolstered by David Fincher’s involvement, the series refrains from shocking imagery or grueling details to conjure suspense, instead delving into the warped psyche of some of America’s most notorious and infamous criminals to create a compelling and psychologically disturbing descent into the nature of human evil. Complimented by its agonizing yet hypnotic slow-burn pacing and its rich, cinematic visual display, Mindhunter is a defining triumph of thriller television that stands tall among the best series of any genre from the past decade.
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https://collider.com/best-thriller-shows-last-10-years-ranked/
Ryan Heffernan
Almontather Rassoul
