The 20 Best Thriller Series on Netflix Right Now
Spies undercover and political conspiracies that go to the top.
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Everyone loves a great thriller. Maybe it’s the influence of true crime on the culture or the declining state of the world demanding a bit of escapism, but thrillers are among the most robust TV genres across all streaming services. Some of Netflix’s recent biggest hits — The Night Agent, Ripley, The Madness, Black Doves, The Diplomat, and more — would qualify, and it even has an entire library of adaptations of novels by the literary king of the genre, Harlan Coben (none made this list — sorry, Cobenites). With the launch of Zero Day, it’s time to create a guide to the best of this genre on Netflix, which we will update as needed. If the last couple years tell us anything, updates will be needed often.
Year: 2024
Length: 1 season, 6 episodes
Creator: Joe Barton
Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw do phenomenal work in this British import by creator Joe Barton. They play spies for the titular organization with Knightley’s agent in a deep undercover job as the wife of the secretary of State for Defense. When her lover is murdered, it sets in motion a sequence of events that’s unpredictable and riveting.
Black Doves
Bloodline
Years: 2015–17
Length: 3 seasons, 33 episodes
Creators: Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman
The first season of this thriller is one of the shows that ushered in the second wave of original series success for Netflix, earning the streamer a Best Drama Emmy nomination. The show never quite lived up to that brilliant first year, but there’s really great work throughout from Kyle Chandler, Sissy Spacek, Linda Cardellini, and especially Ben Mendelsohn. They all play members of a Florida family caught up in a web of lies and betrayal.
Bloodline
Year: 2018
Length: 1 season, 6 episodes
Creator: Jed Mercurio
Fans of tense spy shows like 24 and Homeland shouldn’t miss this tight, six-episode miniseries about a guard for Home Secretary in the U.K. Our friends across the pond fell for it hard as it set records when it premiered. The only tragedy about this outing is that we never got a sequel (although Richard Madden did win a well-deserved Golden Globe for his one-and-done performance).
Bodyguard
Years: 2008–13
Length: 5 seasons, 62 episodes
Creator: Vince Gilligan
Maybe you’ve heard of it? If you have yet to see one of the most acclaimed shows of the modern age, it’s right here for you to make up for the biggest hole in your personal TV canon. Bryan Cranston gives one of the best performances in TV history as an average man who becomes an above-average drug lord. Even if you’ve seen it, it’s worth watching again.
Breaking Bad
Years: 2022–
Length: 2 seasons, 12 episodes
Creator: Graham Roland
Tony Hillerman is one of the most beloved fiction writers of the modern American west, crafting thrillers that typically take place on Native American land in the region known as Four Corners. His most famous series of books detail a veteran and newbie pair of Navajo Tribal Police officers named Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, played in this series by Zahn McClarnon and Kiowa Gordon, respectively. Set in the 1970s, each season of Dark Winds tells a stand-alone mystery, while also pushing forward the remarkable depth of character on this AMC show, especially in McClarnon’s performance, one that deserved an Emmy nomination both seasons that it didn’t get. Yes, he’s that good.
Dark Winds
Years: 2006–13
Length: 8 seasons, 96 episodes
Creator: James Manos Jr.
At the peak of the anti-hero, Showtime gave us one for the ages, Dexter Morgan, a serial killer with a code. Played by Michael C. Hall, Dexter is a forensic technician for the Miami police who feeds his urge to kill by making sure those he dispatches deserve to die. There’s some bumpy ground over the show’s entire run, but Hall is excellent from the unforgettable premiere to the divisive finale, which turned out not to really matter given two more series have been produced by Showtime with a third in development.
Dexter
Years: 2023–
Length: 2 seasons, 14 episodes
Creator: Debora Cahn
Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell star in this clever political dramedy from one of the writers of The West Wing. If you miss that show’s blend of personality and politics, then this one is definitely for you. Some of the plotting is a bit questionable, but it holds together on the sheer charisma and chemistry of its undeniably talented stars, who were joined in the second season by the great Allison Janney, who is sticking around for the in-production third outing.
The Diplomat
Years: 2020–
Length: 2 seasons, 17 episodes
Creator: Gareth Evans, Matt Flannery
Believe it or not, this is technically a video-game adaptation, as it was loosely inspired by a Sony Entertainment title of the same name from 2006. Of course, it was also inspired by generations of stories of warring families who have made their fortunes on violence. In this case, it’s rival gangs in modern London, led by patriarch Finn Wallace (Colm Meaney), whose son Sean (Joe Cole) is ready to take over the family business. It’s kind of like Succession meets The Departed, anchored by sharp plotting and a truly phenomenal performance from Sope Dirisu as Elliot/Finch, an undercover cop working his way into the Wallace family. One more thing: This was co-created by Gareth Evans, the man who gave the world The Raid and its banger of a sequel. So he knows action.
Gangs of London
Years: 2018–22
Length: 4 seasons, 32 episodes
Creator: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
It really didn’t stick the landing, but we’ll always have that amazing first season, which introduced us to Sandra Oh’s Eve and Jodie Comer’s Villanelle, a ruthless assassin who forms a very unique relationship with Eve’s British agent. And, honestly, Oh and Comer are good throughout the whole run, which you can watch in its entirety on Netflix.
Killing Eve
The Madness
Years: 2024
Length: 1 season, 8 episodes
Creator: Stephen Belber
The phenomenally talented Colman Domingo stars in this thriller about a CNN talking head named Muncie Daniels who has a very bad day. While vacationing in the Poconos, he discovers the dismembered body of his neighbor, then learns that he’s being framed for the crime. Deon Cole, John Ortiz, and Bradley Whitford star in a sharply written series that occasionally pushes suspension of disbelief, but in a fun way.
The Madness
Years: 2017–19
Length: 2 seasons, 19 episodes
Creator: Joe Penhall
Joe Penhall and David Fincher’s loose adaptation of the story of the man who invented profiling serial killers is a tense, riveting drama with some of the best performances and visual language to date in a Netflix series. The first season saw the creation of the Behavioral Science Unit and interviews with real serial killers based on actual conversations while the second was even more ambitious, injecting the concept of doubt into this world. It’s a fascinating, terrifying look at the darkness of which men are capable.
Mindhunter
Years: 2015–17
Length: 3 seasons, 30 episodes
Creator: Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro
One of the first Netflix original hits has an influence that’s still rippling through the industry, and not just because of the platform it gave Pedro Pascal. Just look at the number of other shows that have tried to capture the drug trade and how they pale in comparison to this study of the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, played with unforgettable passion by Wagner Moura.
Narcos
Years: 2023–
Length: 2 seasons, 20 episodes
Creator: Shawn Ryan
One of the biggest hits in the streaming world of 2023 was this old-fashioned thriller from the creator of The Shield. Who could have guessed that this would become the third-most-viewed series in Netflix history? People of all ages were drawn to the tale of an FBI Agent (Gabriel Basso) who ends up getting a fateful call one night that draws him into an international plot that culminates in an assassination attempt on the president. It’s a fun, smart, well-made thriller that recently dropped an even-better second season.
The Night Agent
Years: 2017–22
Length: 4 seasons, 44 episodes
Creator: Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams
Jason Bateman and Laura Linney star in this drama about an accountant who ends up a crime boss in the Lake of the Ozarks region after laundering money for the Mexican drug cartel. One of the most successful shows in Netflix history, it really is its Breaking Bad, a program that entertained viewers from the premiere through its shocking finale. It also elevated Julia Garner, one of the best performers of her generation, and we should be forever grateful for that.
Ozark
The Recruit
Years: 2022–
Length: 2 seasons, 14 episodes
Creator: Alexi Hawley
Noah Centineo is charming as Owen Hendricks, the new guy in the CIA. He may be just a lawyer, but he gets dragged into an international conspiracy in the first season, which was joined by a sophomore outing in late 2025, and it’s still in the Netflix top ten. Why are people drawn to The Recruit? It’s an old-fashioned blend of spy plotting with likable characters and sharp dialogue. Yes, a lot of it is very silly, but it’s never less than entertaining.
The Recruit
Years: 2024
Length: 1 season, 8 episodes
Creator: Steven Zaillian
The first adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s infamous novel since Matt Damon and Jude Law cavorted around Italy stars the phenomenal Andrew Scott as the title character, Tom Ripley. This version hews a little closer to the source and also has the coldest, most clinical take so far, courtesy of Robert Elswit’s gorgeous black-and-white cinematography and Steven Zaillian’s ace direction. It’s one of the best Netflix originals ever.
Ripley
Years: 2017–21
Length: 4 seasons, 32 episodes
Creator: Derek Simonds
Jessica Biel does the best acting work of her career in the first season of this USA Network mystery series. She stars as an ordinary mother who snaps during a beach outing and stabs a man to death in front of dozens of people. It’s not so much of a whodunit as a WHYdunit, and Biel is joined by great supporting turns from Bill Pullman as the cop who investigates the case and Christopher Abbott as her husband. Subsequent seasons (especially the second with Carrie Coon) are also worth a look. This could be your new obsession.
The Sinner
Years: 2021–
Length: 2 seasons, 16 episodes
Creator: Hwang Dong-hyuk
One of the biggest hits in the history of television, this South Korean import opened a door to dozens of foreign series becoming popular for Netflix and other companies. It’s a well-made thriller, but it’s the concept that’s the real hook. It’s about a contest where the last person standing wins a life-changing amount of money, but everyone who loses ends up dead. Unforgettable in its plotting, it continues to captivate Netflix subscribers with a second season that nearly topped the record-setting first. The third and reportedly final (although we’ll see) season airs in June 2025.
Squid Game
The Tourist
Years: 2022–24
Length: 2 seasons, 12 episodes
Creators: Harry Williams, Jack Williams
After premiering on BBC One in early 2022, this excellent thriller hopped the pond to Max, but that weird drama over at WBD caused it to let it go, sliding it over to Netflix. Of course, it’s already a huge hit for them. Why? Because it’s thoroughly entertaining. Jamie Dornan is great as a guy who wakes up in the middle of nowhere with no idea who he is, only to discover he may not have been a good dude. The second season, produced by Netflix, dropped in early 2024, and, while not quite as good, is still worth a look.
The Tourist
Years: 2021–
Length: 2 seasons, 19 episodes
Creator: Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson
Even fans would admit that the sophomore slump stung this Showtime hit, but that’s in part because the first season was so unabashedly brilliant. Taking place in dual timelines, this is the story of a high-school girls’ soccer team who crashed in the middle of nowhere in 1996 and were forced to go to extremes to survive. It’s also the story of them today as survivors, blending grief, mystery, and intrigue into a fascinating narrative stew. Most of all, it’s a show that clicks because of its rock-star cast, including great turns from Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Sophie Nelisse, and many more. The creators claim to have multiple seasons outlined, so there’s reason to hope that this show will fly again soon, possibly even in the third season, now airing on Showtime and Paramount+.
Yellowjackets
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