# 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.

*By YPB Team · Published October 31, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-30-best-serial-killer-thriller-series*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Dexter** — score 1000/1000
   Showtime drama about a Miami blood-spatter analyst who secretly hunts other killers.
2. **Sharp Objects** — score 732/1000
   HBO limited series in which a reporter returns to her hometown to cover the murders of two girls.
3. **The Alienist** — score 706/1000
   Period thriller in which a psychologist hunts a killer of boys in 1896 New York.
4. **Mindhunter** — score 646/1000
   David Fincher's Netflix series about the FBI agents who pioneered criminal profiling by interviewing serial killers.
5. **Millennium** — score 573/1000
   Chris Carter's 1990s series about a profiler who can see through the eyes of killers.
6. **Marcella** — score 573/1000
   Anna Friel plays a London detective who returns to work to catch a killer from an old case.
7. **Method** — score 529/1000
   Russian series with Konstantin Khabensky as an investigator who hunts killers by thinking like one.
8. **Manhunt: Unabomber** — score 480/1000
   Drama about the FBI profiler who used linguistics to identify Ted Kaczynski.
9. **Wire in the Blood** — score 423/1000
   British drama starring Robson Green as clinical psychologist Tony Hill profiling killers.
10. **The Following** — score 358/1000
   Kevin Bacon's ex-FBI agent battles a charismatic killer who runs a cult of followers.
11. **Prodigal Son** — score 358/1000
   A criminal profiler consults his imprisoned serial-killer father to solve new murders.
12. **Mr. Mercedes** — score 358/1000
   Stephen King adaptation in which a retired detective is taunted by a mass killer.
13. **Des** — score 358/1000
   ITV drama with David Tennant as Dennis Nilsen, told through his police interviews.
14. **The Chestnut Man** — score 358/1000
   Danish Netflix thriller about a killer who leaves small chestnut figures at his crime scenes.
15. **Cardinal** — score 358/1000
   Canadian crime drama in which a detective in a small Ontario town hunts a series of killers.
16. **The Fall** — score 358/1000
   Gillian Anderson's detective stalks a Belfast family man who leads a double life as a strangler.
17. **Hannibal** — score 282/1000
   Bryan Fuller's stylised NBC thriller pairing FBI profiler Will Graham with Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
18. **Criminal Minds** — score 282/1000
   Long-running procedural about the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit profiling a new killer each week.
19. **Luther** — score 282/1000
   Idris Elba plays a brilliant, volatile London detective chasing a string of murderers.
20. **The Long Shadow** — score 282/1000
   ITV drama about the five-year hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper and the women he killed.
21. **True Detective** — score 282/1000
   HBO anthology whose first season follows two Louisiana detectives on a 17-year ritual-killer hunt.
22. **Bates Motel** — score 192/1000
   Contemporary prequel to Psycho tracing Norman Bates's slide into murder.
23. **You** — score 192/1000
   Netflix thriller narrated by Joe Goldberg, a bookstore manager whose obsessions turn deadly.
24. **Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story** — score 192/1000
   Ryan Murphy's Netflix dramatisation of Jeffrey Dahmer's crimes and the failures that let them continue.
25. **The Bridge** — score 192/1000
   Scandinavian noir that begins with a body left exactly on the border between Sweden and Denmark.
26. **The Serpent** — score 192/1000
   BBC and Netflix drama about Charles Sobhraj, who preyed on travellers on the 1970s hippie trail.
27. **Profiler** — score 192/1000
   1990s NBC drama about an FBI forensic psychologist stalked by the killer known as Jack of All Trades.
28. **Black Bird** — score 192/1000
   Apple TV+ series about an inmate tasked with getting a suspected serial killer to confess.
29. **Signal** — score 192/1000
   Korean thriller in which a walkie-talkie connects detectives across time to solve serial murders.
30. **Red Riding** — score 0/1000
   Channel 4 trilogy set against the Yorkshire Ripper years and police corruption.

Tags: tv shows, thriller, crime, serial killers