The 30 Best Serial Killer Thriller Series

Profilers, detectives and the killers themselves take turns at the centre here, across network procedurals, Nordic noir and prestige limited series. A few cult picks never found the audience they deserved.

1. 1
   Dexter

   Showtime drama about a Miami blood-spatter analyst who secretly hunts other killers.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Sharp Objects

   HBO limited series in which a reporter returns to her hometown to cover the murders of two girls.
   732pts
3. 3
   The Alienist

   Period thriller in which a psychologist hunts a killer of boys in 1896 New York.
   706pts
4. 4
   Mindhunter

   David Fincher's Netflix series about the FBI agents who pioneered criminal profiling by interviewing serial killers.
   646pts
5. 5
   Millennium

   Chris Carter's 1990s series about a profiler who can see through the eyes of killers.
   573pts
6. 6
   Marcella

   Anna Friel plays a London detective who returns to work to catch a killer from an old case.
   573pts
7. 7
   Method

   Russian series with Konstantin Khabensky as an investigator who hunts killers by thinking like one.
   529pts
8. 8
   Manhunt: Unabomber

   Drama about the FBI profiler who used linguistics to identify Ted Kaczynski.
   480pts
9. 9
   Wire in the Blood

   British drama starring Robson Green as clinical psychologist Tony Hill profiling killers.
   423pts
10. 10
    The Following

    Kevin Bacon's ex-FBI agent battles a charismatic killer who runs a cult of followers.
    358pts
11. 11
    Prodigal Son

    A criminal profiler consults his imprisoned serial-killer father to solve new murders.
    358pts
12. 12
    Mr. Mercedes

    Stephen King adaptation in which a retired detective is taunted by a mass killer.
    358pts
13. 13
    Des

    ITV drama with David Tennant as Dennis Nilsen, told through his police interviews.
    358pts
14. 14
    The Chestnut Man

    Danish Netflix thriller about a killer who leaves small chestnut figures at his crime scenes.
    358pts
15. 15
    Cardinal

    Canadian crime drama in which a detective in a small Ontario town hunts a series of killers.
    358pts
16. 16
    The Fall

    Gillian Anderson's detective stalks a Belfast family man who leads a double life as a strangler.
    358pts
17. 17
    Hannibal

    Bryan Fuller's stylised NBC thriller pairing FBI profiler Will Graham with Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
    282pts
18. 18
    Criminal Minds

    Long-running procedural about the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit profiling a new killer each week.
    282pts
19. 19
    Luther

    Idris Elba plays a brilliant, volatile London detective chasing a string of murderers.
    282pts
20. 20
    The Long Shadow

    ITV drama about the five-year hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper and the women he killed.
    282pts
21. 21
    True Detective

    HBO anthology whose first season follows two Louisiana detectives on a 17-year ritual-killer hunt.
    282pts
22. 22
    Bates Motel

    Contemporary prequel to Psycho tracing Norman Bates's slide into murder.
    192pts
23. 23
    You

    Netflix thriller narrated by Joe Goldberg, a bookstore manager whose obsessions turn deadly.
    192pts
24. 24
    Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

    Ryan Murphy's Netflix dramatisation of Jeffrey Dahmer's crimes and the failures that let them continue.
    192pts
25. 25
    The Bridge

    Scandinavian noir that begins with a body left exactly on the border between Sweden and Denmark.
    192pts
26. 26
    The Serpent

    BBC and Netflix drama about Charles Sobhraj, who preyed on travellers on the 1970s hippie trail.
    192pts
27. 27
    Profiler

    1990s NBC drama about an FBI forensic psychologist stalked by the killer known as Jack of All Trades.
    192pts
28. 28
    Black Bird

    Apple TV+ series about an inmate tasked with getting a suspected serial killer to confess.
    192pts
29. 29
    Signal

    Korean thriller in which a walkie-talkie connects detectives across time to solve serial murders.
    192pts
30. 30
    Red Riding

    Channel 4 trilogy set against the Yorkshire Ripper years and police corruption.
    0pts

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