The thriller style is greatest served up on the small display screen in restricted doses, which is why it’s coming to the fore through the golden age of TV miniseries. Lengthy-running drama reveals battle to maintain the adrenaline hit we get from thrillers previous one or two seasons. In contrast, thriller miniseries are tailored for constant ranges of suspense and depth.
It’s these restricted thriller shows that typically have us hooked from start to finish, with self-contained plots that shock and misdirect us with myriad twists all through every particular person episode. For the sake of readability, we’re not together with thriller-adjacent miniseries comparable to Adolescence and Chernobyl – that are human tales primarily centered on tragedy and character growth – on this record.
However, thriller miniseries nonetheless span loads of subgenres, from twisting tales of crime and espionage to high-octane thriller and superhero reveals, in addition to sure mindbending psychological and procedural dramas. Each shade within the full spectrum of thrillers will get its due right here.
Lots of the best miniseries of all time fall inside this spectrum, particularly as we get nearer to the highest of the record. The best amongst them take their rightful place on the summit of the thriller style, over and above a lot of the style’s premier feature-length film releases of latest years.
The Affected person
2022
The Patient is an eminently bingeable hidden gem within the glittering profession of Steve Carell, because the actor performs a therapist kidnapped by his homicidal affected person. For probably the most half, the present’s 10 episodes play out as a minimalist but supremely suspenseful two-hander, with each Carell and his fellow lead Domhnall Gleeson on the prime of their sport.
The Stranger
2020
Unsettling British thriller thriller The Stranger is a must-watch for Netflix subscribers, notably those that benefit from the work of The Hobbit and Hannibal actor Richard Armitage. In the meantime, Hannah John-Kamen performs the titular stranger, whose connections to Armitage’s protagonist are progressively revealed through the course of the collection to devastating impact.
Watchmen
2019
This acclaimed nine-episode miniseries begins lengthy after the morally questionable ending of the Watchmen comedian e book collection, though the world remains to be reeling from the actions taken by supernatural vigilante Ozymandias to avert a nuclear holocaust. It’s the brainchild of Misplaced and The Leftovers co-creator Damon Lindelof, and bears his signature philosophical method to status tv.
The Undoing
2020
The Undoing has found renewed streaming success on HBO Max in September 2025, virtually 5 years after its authentic launch. Its fashionable attraction certainly hinges on the irresistible pairing of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant as a married couple who grow to be deeply embroiled in a terrifying homicide thriller, which leaves us questioning who to consider.
Bodyguard
2018
A gritty but fashionable procedural that hurtles by its six episodes at breakneck velocity, Bodyguard is arguably the best action thriller series on Netflix proper now. It stars Richard Madden as a specialist safety officer for a hated British Residence Secretary, who rapidly finds himself wrapped up in a significant conspiracy due to his job task.
A Homicide on the Finish of the World
2023
A homicide thriller that’s as thrilling as it’s intriguing, this miniseries sees Emma Corrin play a younger detective who finds herself investigating a suspicious dying at a distant Icelandic retreat. A Murder at the End of the World’s ending hangs on a dizzying set of reveals, however the intense drama that precedes them makes this complicated finale value it.
The Little Drummer Lady
2018
Among the many most underrated miniseries thrillers on the market at the moment, The Little Drummer Lady is predicated on style specialist John le Carré’s 1983 novel about an actor recruited by Mossad to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist organisation. Florence Pugh performs the morally conflicted central character beautifully, hanging the proper steadiness between wide-eyed naivety, double-agent savvy, and irrepressible empathy.
The Penguin
2024
For the reason that destiny of a possible season 2 of The Penguin remains uncertain, it’s value together with this unorthodox superhero thriller within the record of greatest miniseries within the style. The present takes its lead from Todd Phillips’ equally sanguine character research of the Penguin’s fellow Batman villain in 2019’s Joker. Colin Farrell provides a surprising efficiency within the title position.
Escape At Dannemora
2018
Based mostly on a real-life New York jailbreak, Escape at Dannemora is fronted by lead cast members Benicio del Toro and Patricia Arquette, who’re ably supported by Paul Dano. Ben Stiller’s debut as a TV drama director locations its focus squarely on the folks principally concerned within the titular escape, engendering real sympathy for his or her hair-raising makes an attempt to evade justice.
The Outsider
2020
The Outsider is probably the best Stephen King adaptation anyplace on tv. It won’t boast the shock worth of 1990’s It, or the nostalgia issue that 11.22.63 can provide up. Nevertheless it’s a consummate psychological thriller, tinged with King’s trademark supernatural horror, with a unprecedented, show-stealing efficiency from Cynthia Erivo tying all of it collectively.
