10 Thriller Shows Where Every Episode Is a Masterpiece

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It's not easy to make a thriller show as gripping, suspenseful, mysterious, and engaging as all the best ones always are; and it's even more complicated to make a thriller show where every single episode, no matter what it contributes to the show's overall narrative, is an absolute masterpiece. Thankfully, for fans of thriller television, however, there are noteworthy masterpieces that achieve such a feat.

These are all among the greatest thriller shows of their respective era. Some HBO classics, like Oz, others modern British gems like Broadchurch, others excellent miniseries like The Night Of. No matter what subgenre of thriller it belongs to or what kind of story it tells, a show that manages to deliver banger after banger over the course of its run is one that's an instant must-see.

'Broadchurch' (2013–2017)

Detectives Hardy and Miller look out toward the horizon standing on a beach in Broadchurch.

Created by Chris Chibnall, the British crime drama Broadchurch stars the legendary David Tennant and Olivia Colman, who play two detectives solving a case that sends the media into a frenzy. No one does crime dramas like the Brits, and this one is easily among the nation's best. Well-shot, slow-paced, and exquisitely mysterious, it's a masterpiece that everyone who loves the genre should check out at least once.

Every single episode of Broadchurch is phenomenal, as proven by the fact that each of the show's three seasons was met with great critical acclaim. This is one of the best detective TV shows with great acting, building an atmosphere of small-town intrigue that's as gripping as it is emotionally compelling. Every episode of this masterful police procedural feels like it's effectively building up to something greater.

'Narcos' (2015–2017)

Pedro Pascal as Javier Pena, wearing sunglasses with a cold expression, in an image from 'Narcos.'

One of Netflix's first original shows was Narcos, a crime drama chronicling the exploits of Pablo Escobar, played by Wagner Moura, and the many other drug kingpins who plagued Colombia through the years. It's one of the most nearly-perfect crime shows ever made, bolstered by a star-studded cast and writing so great that it hardly matters that the show is practically devoid of any sympathetic characters—you can't help but be fascinated by their conflicts.

Over the course of three exceptional seasons, Narcos remained high-concept drama television-making at its most ambitious and addictive, helping to popularize the concept of binge-watching in the streaming era. Every episode is sharply written and acted, mostly well-researched, and richly complex, making for a series that feels like it keeps evolving into something bigger after every single episode cuts to credits.

'Bodyguard' (2018)

The BBC political conspiracy thriller Bodyguard is one of those single-season thriller TV show masterpieces that show why the genre is so widely acclaimed. Led by Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes, who deliver a pair of towering lead performances, it's a show so exceptional that fans have been clamoring for a second season for years. Whether it will ever actually materialize remains to be seen; but even if not, it'll still be remembered as one of the best thriller series of the 2010s.

Pulpy, psychologically complex, and almost overwhelmingly suspenseful, the whole show feels like a ticking time bomb whose time of explosion is a total mystery. That keeps every episode brimming with tension, which allowed Madden and Hawes to really show off their acting chops, and directors Thomas Vincent and John Strickland to display a masterful understanding of what makes a thriller show like this work.

'Dark' (2017–2020)

Jonas standing in the middle of a rural road with a raincoat on in the series Dark.

Dark is a show so complex, so profoundly layered, and so intentionally mind-bending that you almost need a notebook to keep track of the whole thing as you watch. But it's also incredibly addictive, wildly creative, and tautly written. So tautly written, in fact, that it's worthy of the utmost admiration that over the course of three incredible seasons full of paradoxes and parallel universes, the writers managed to culminate in one of the best sci-fi show finales of the last 10 years, which left no loose ends and zero plot holes.

That's precisely what makes it so that Dark's every episode feels like a masterpiece; one that simultaneously adds to the greater whole yet feels entirely self-contained. It's one of the most impeccably constructed sci-fi series of all time, and there isn't a single moment in it that's not visually impressive, full of fascinating characters, and rewarding in its intellectually challenging nature.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix

🔥Mad Max

🌧️Blade Runner

🏜️Dune

🚀Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

NEXT QUESTION →

What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

NEXT QUESTION →

Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.

NEXT QUESTION →

Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.

AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

NEXT QUESTION →

What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.

You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.

You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Blade Runner

You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.
In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.

You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

'Mindhunter' (2017–2019)

Holt McCallany and Jonathan Groff show a crime scene photo to someone off-screen in Mindhunter.

Fans of the practically-flawless Mindhunter are still upset that Netflix cancelled this Joe Penhall and David Fincher true-crime masterpiece after only two short-lived seasons. However, that makes it so that this is one of the best crime shows to binge in a single week, which has to count for something. Whatever the case, this gem about a pair of FBI agents who launch a research project to interview imprisoned serial killers and understand their psychology will forever be remembered as one of the greatest crime shows of the 2010s.

Instead of functioning as a case-of-the-week type of show, Mindhunter intelligently makes its story feel like a more serialized, masterfully slow-burning psychological drama. That format, mixed with the psychological depth and complexity of each episode, as well as the excellent performances and production values, makes it so that the whole show makes you go "that was a masterpiece!" after every single cut to credits.

'Dexter: Resurrection' (2025–Present)

Showtime's Dexter was one of the most popular crime shows on television throughout its whole run from 2006 to 2013—at least until the series got to its finale, one of the most hated of any mainstream 21st-century show. Seven years later came Dexter: New Blood, a sequel that tragically also had a finale fans despised. Now, we're getting Dexter: Resurrection, and so far, things are looking remarkably promising.

Irrefutable proof of that is the fact that this threequel is one of the highest-rated shows of the 2020s on IMDb, with an impressive score of 9/10. This is, of course, still a pretty new show, and there will be plenty of chances for it to go off the rails in the future (knock on wood). At the moment, however, Resurrection's every episode has been a masterpiece, much like all fans of Dexter were hoping.

'Oz' (1997–2003)

Ryan and Adebesi talk in the kitchen in Oz.

Oz is not only one of the best prison shows ever made, but also one of the most groundbreaking crime dramas and thrillers in the history of the small screen. It was the first one-hour dramatic television series produced by HBO, and it ran for six consistently masterful seasons. It's hugely commendable that a show which has almost 60 episodes doesn't have a single one that's anything less than a masterclass of dramatic television.

The show invented prestige television before The Sopranos established the term itself, with a relentlessly intense tone and a delightfully theatrical structure. As brutal as it may often be, though, Oz tackles its themes and complex characters with tremendous courage and admirable humanism. That heart of gold is what makes it such a perfect show, where every single episode is a must-see.

'The Night Of' (2016)

If there's any network that has constantly proven to be a master of crime and thriller miniseries, it's HBO, whose The Night Of is far and away one of the greatest miniseries of the 21st century thus far. Based on the first season of the 2008 British series Criminal Justice, the show stars an incredible Riz Ahmed, whose tour-de-force performance anchors the whole thing throughout.

It's one of the most nearly-perfect thriller shows ever, a hyper-focused slow-burn tragedy that turns the police, legal, and court work of its story into some of the juiciest drama imaginable. Every episode evolves the story in a way that's irresistibly engrossing, all done with a technically stunning atmosphere and a structural tightness that even most miniseries aren't capable of achieving.

'Chernobyl' (2019)

Boris (Stellan Skarsgard) and Valery (Jared Harris) stand outside in 'Chernobyl.'

The HBO miniseries Chernobyl is not for the faint of heart. In exploring the story of the 1986 nuclear disaster in the titular Ukrainian city, the show holds back no punches, making it an absolutely brutal watch. But as stomach-testing as it may be, Chernobyl is still a masterpiece; and over the course of its five episodes, it builds itself up as perhaps the greatest miniseries in history.

It's no surprise that every single one of Chernobyl's episodes is among the highest-rated TV episodes on IMDb. Form, theme, and structure are all perfectly aligned in this beautifully acted, visually striking, technically faultless gem of a show. Scary, thrilling, suspenseful, and deeply dramatic, it's one of the greatest masterclasses in thriller television that the world has ever seen, without a single dead spot in any of its episodes.

'Breaking Bad' (2008–2013)

Even 13 years after its conclusion, many people still call Breaking Bad the single greatest TV show ever made—and for good reason. Created by the brilliant Vince Gilligan, it serves simultaneously as a gripping character study, a suspenseful drug crime thriller, and an adrenaline-pumping neo-Western that does all manner of fascinating things with the tropes of every genre it falls into.

It is, indeed, one of the best TV drama masterpieces of all time, and it's not even close. The story of Walter White and Heisenberg (Bryan Cranston) is one as engrossing as it is tragic, and every single episode contributes something absolutely essential to that arc—yes, even "Fly," the show's lowest-rated episode on IMDb, which is consequentially one of the most underrated episodes in TV history. Some are slow-burning, some are action-packed, some are hugely suspenseful, some are emotionally cathartic; but every single episode of Breaking Bad is an undeniable masterpiece.