The intriguing thing is that these crime drama programs nearly always rank among the top 10. The issue of why we are so drawn to witnessing atrocities take place is reasonable. Do we find it fascinating when people commit crimes? Do we like watching an utterly unrelatable individual come to life on screen? Is the character entirely unlikeable? Basically, why are real crime stories so appealing to us?
According to the hypothesis of forbidden thinking, one of the reasons we are drawn to such gory themes in media is to let our evil impulses and thoughts out. According to Psychology Today, everyone has dark urges. These might include fantasizing about eating, especially while you’re dieting, wanting to smack your coworker, slamming into someone on the street, hurting someone, stealing something, etc. They can also be subtle, such as gloating over someone else’s bad luck.
The hallmark of forbidden ideas is that we typically find the things we’re not permitted to think about to be the most alluring. In conclusion, we should not be thinking about violence, harming others, or being gory, so instead, we resort to watching others engage in it. We accept the truth that the story’s villains are not ourselves by coming to terms with this. Through criminal plotlines, we sort of channel our bad instincts and let them out.
In the Dark is an American crime drama that was released on The CW in the middle of the year 2018–19. Corinne Kingsbury came up with it. The CW called for a pilot of the program on January 30, 2018. The show was directed by Michael Showalter. The show received a series order in the year 2018 in May. The show In The Dark premiered in the year 2019 on April 4.
In April 2019, an announcement for the second season of In The Dark was made. The third season of the program, which The CW renewed in January 2020, debuted on June 23 of the following year, 2021. On February 6, 2021, the show was renewed for a 4th season, which debuted on June 6, 2022. The 4th season will be the final one, it was confirmed.
We have curated the list of the best 34 shows like In The Dark for the fans of the show to enjoy the shows from their favorite genre.
Chloe
The six-part British psychological thriller series Chloe was developed by Alice Seabright for BBC One and Amazon Studios in 2022. On February 6, 2022, BBC One in the UK broadcasted the world premiere, and on June 24, 2022, Amazon Prime Video launched it. It got favorable reviews, with particular attention paid to Erin Doherty’s performance.
A mystery by author and creator Alice Seabright explores obsession, lying, identity, and bereavement (director, Sex Education). A lady transforms into her alter ego, a strong, rebellious heroine with a life and lovers who are much more fascinating and alluring than the “no-one” she was previously known as. The lady runs the risk of losing herself entirely in the game she is playing as the illusion quickly blurs and muddles reality.
The Man in the High Castle
The Axis powers (Rome, Berlin, and Tokyo) win World War II in the alternate reality depicted in The Man in the High Castle. The series The Man in the High Castle is based on a novel written by Philip K. Dick. It follows individuals in the 1960s who live in a parallel universe in which Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire dominate the US.
However, an improbable newsreel video of a future in which Germany and Japan lose the war and some people rebel has surfaced. Producer Ridley Scott is in charge of The Man in the High Castle, which he steers to fully emphasize its dystopian characteristics. This is compelling television, well realized, and with a clear narrative.
Homecoming
While Homecoming’s second season struggled to get going, the first season took off. This suspenseful psychological thriller stars Julia Roberts and centers on an army rehabilitation center with dubious proprietors.
Homecoming is strong on tension and paranoia as it unveils what the facility’s actual purpose is, using a clever, mystery-building storyline that spans two timeframes. Fun fact: The series incorporates the original music from films by Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, and others.
Search Party
As Dory’s former college friend vanishes without a trace, she gathers her motley crew of 20-somethings to look into her whereabouts. When a simple search party turns into a larger conspiracy, each of the characters discovers their reasons for wanting to get involved.
The American television sitcom Search Party was developed by Sarah-Violet Blissa and Michael Showalter. The series, which is mostly set in New York City, follows a bunch of mates who get embroiled in the hunt for a missing young lady and the events that follow.
TBS aired the series Search Party on November 21, 2016. In 2018, it was declared that the show would transfer to WarnerMedia’s HBO Max streaming platform after being revived for a third season. The fourth season began on January 14, 2021, and the last season debuted on January 7, 2022.
Dead to Me
The movie Dead to Me centers on the growing relationship between Jen and Judy. Jen, a Laguna Beach, California-based real estate agent who was recently widowed, is attempting to cope with her grief via counseling, physical activity, and other means.
She expresses her loss via rage and bitterness. Jen and Judy met each other in a support group. While Jen laments the death of her husband, who a hit-and-run driver killed, Judy adds that she is grieving the loss of her fiance, who died from a heart attack.
Actually, Judy hit and ran. Whilst Jen’s ex-boyfriend dumped her. The two characters approach their problems in different ways because Judy stays upbeat while Jen finds herself in a terrible place. This distinction prompts the two to attach strongly very fast. As she solves Judy’s secrets and the mystery surrounding her husband’s murder, Jen gets increasingly deranged.
Prodigal Son
The Fox Broadcasting Company’s Prodigal Son is indeed an American procedural television drama that debuted on September 23, 2019, and ended on May 18, 2021. It was developed by Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver. In October 2019, the whole series of Progidal Son was ordered. The show received a 2nd season renewal in May 2020, and it debuted on January 12, 2021. The show was discontinued in May 2021 after two seasons.
Malcolm Bright, whose father, Martin Whitly, is a notorious serial murderer known as “the Surgeon,” is the main character of the show. When Malcolm was a young boy, he learned what his father was doing and informed the authorities, who were eventually able to apprehend him.
Malcolm hasn’t seen his father in ten years since he broke all links with Martin and changed his name to do so. Malcolm, who is now employed by the NYPD and is an FBI profiler, must confront his father after a copycat serial murderer is discovered. While battling internal conflicts, he must use Whitly’s insights to assist in solving terrible crimes. He must also contend with Malcolm’s father, who keeps attempting to reenter his life.
Veronica Mars
The American teen noir mystery drama television series Veronica Mars is written by Rob Thomas. Under the guidance of her detective father, the student Veronica Mars transitions from high school to college while moonlighting as a private eye.
While attempting to unravel a more complicated mystery, Veronica resolves a separate stand-alone case in every episode. The series’ first two seasons featured year-long mystery arcs that were established in the first episode and resolved in the season finale. A fresh structure was used for the third season, which concentrated on shorter mystery arcs that lasted several episodes.
Imposters
Con artist Maddie Jonson collaborates with Max and Sally on projects for “The Doctor” (Ray Proscia), a shadowy entity that employs con artists in several locations. Their strategy is to infiltrate their targets’ life, make them fall in love with Maddie while doing so, and then quickly marry them after robbing them of all their belongings.
Richard Evans, one of Maddie’s earlier targets, visits Ezra Bloom after he falls for their current ruse and is searching for her. They discover Maddie’s ex-husband Jules Langmore, an artist.
You
In New York City, Joe Goldberg works as a bookseller. One day Beck, a young woman, walks into the shop. She grabs Joe’s attention right away. After their brief encounter, he becomes fixated on Beck. He finds out her name and does as much online research as he can on Beck. She is a college student in New York and a wannabe writer.
Beck follows him to a club, where Joe hangs around and observes her pals. He waits in wait outside her apartment, peering through the open drapes at her. Joe grows to despise Benji as he pays a visit to her flat with her lover, Benji. When Beck comes home, Joe steals into her apartment and almost gets caught before fleeing via a window.
Stumptown
In Portland, Oregon, Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders), a sharp-witted war veteran, tries to make ends meet while caring for her younger brother Ansel (Cole Sibus). Additionally, she suffers from PTSD as a result of her time serving as a Marine in Afghanistan, where she served in intelligence services until she was injured in an explosion that also claimed the life of her high school sweetheart and former partner.
As a result of her crippling gambling debts and inability to maintain a consistent career, she turns to private investigation to find solutions to issues where the police cannot intervene. She receives troubles from Detective Miles Hoffman, while Dex’s best friend and bar owner Grey McConnell offers spiritual support and hires her brother Ansel to work at his establishment.
Roswell, New Mexico
After visiting her birthplace in Roswell, New Mexico, the daughter of illegal immigrants learns that her teenage sweetheart is an alien who has kept his extraterrestrial abilities a secret his entire life.
To get back together in touch, his daughter has to keep her identity hidden. However, when a horrific incident suggests a larger extraterrestrial influence on Earth, the dynamics of fear and hatred threaten to reveal him.
An American science fiction drama tv show with the working title Roswell, New Mexico, was created. On January 15, 2019, the show Roswell, New Mexico, was directed by Carina Adly Mackenzie on The CW.
Fargo
The brand-new “true crime” case of the latest installment of Fargo takes place in 1979 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Minnesota, Luverne, where a young State Police Officer Lou Solverson, who had just returned from Vietnam, looked into a case involving a local gang and a significant Mob organization.
Noah Hawley is the creator and main writer of the American television series Fargo, which is a black comedy crime drama. The Coen brothers’ 1996 film of the same name, which was also written and directed by them, served as the inspiration for the series and its fictional setting.
The End of the F***ing World
The 17-year-old James thinks he is a psychopath. He enjoys killing animals as a pastime, but he gets tired of it. He decides to try murdering a person. He chooses Alyssa, a mouthy, disobedient student who is 17 years old and dealing with her problems.
James accepts to look for a chance to murder her. In an effort to escape her tumultuous home life, she offers that they go off together. They set out on a road trip across England, and despite a string of misadventures, they start to get along.
Happy!
Nick Sax, a disgraced police investigator (Christopher Meloni), lives as a social pariah, spending his days abusing alcohol and drugs while working as a hitman on the side to support his multiple vices. After having a serious heart attack, Nick meets Happy, a tiny, blue, winged unicorn with Patton Oswalt’s voice that seems to be only visible to him.
Happy reveals that he is the fictional companion of little Hailey, who has been abducted by a psychotic guy masquerading as Santa Claus (“Very Bad Santa”). Happy admits that Nick’s estranged daughter Hailey approached him for help because she thought he was the heroic detective she had imagined.
Emergence
When a small kid is found close to the scene of a mysterious tragedy, the police chief in Southold, Long Island’s Peconic Bay, takes her in. However, she quickly learns that the girl has no recollection of what occurred or who she is.
When the chief begins looking into the events leading up to the tragedy and the ensuing inquiries about how and why it occurred, extending back 15 years, the mystery surrounding the kid intensifies beyond what was anticipated. The little child is connected to a number of unusual technological disturbances, unexplainable energies, and a mysterious, cryptic symbol.
Scream Queens
The Kappa Kappa Tau sorority at Wallace University, which is challenged by Dean Cathy Munsch in the first season, is led by Chanel Oberlin, played by Emma Roberts and her fellow, The reemergence of the serial murderer disguised as the Red Devil mascot, who starts targeting the sorority members, rekindles a 20-year-old murder investigation.
In season 2, Cathy Munsch is shown starting a hospital after quitting her job at the university. After the true Red Devil murderer came out, she took Chanel, Libby, and Sadie under her wing. Cathy and the Channels eventually come across a new serial murderer known as the Green Meanie while dealing with various medical problems.
Bones
The show’s concept centers on an association between FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth and forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan. The Jeffersonian Institute Medico Lab is a fictitious government organization that works with the FBI. Brennan is the main character and team leader there. This represents the past interactions between FBI agents and Smithsonian Institution researchers.
The Washington, D.C.-based program centers on resolving federal court cases by investigating the skeletal remains of potential victims of murder. Despite the fact that the bulk of their cases takes place in the Washington metropolitan region, they have been enlisted to look into incidents in other states and occasionally even other nations like Iran and Mexico.
Stranger Things
The American science fiction TV series Stranger Things was created by the Duffer Brothers. The series Stranger Things debuted on Netflix in the year 2016, on July 15. The mid-1980s setting of the program is the fictional Indiana town of Hawkins.
The first season, which takes place in November 1983, follows several character groupings as they independently look into the missing of Will Byers. The second and third seasons that followed broadened the scope of the story by examining the complicated consequences of the events of November 1983.
The fourth season of the show, which includes the first significant stories set outside of Hawkins, significantly widens the show’s focus. The series will come to an end after its next fifth season.
Dark
When two kids go missing, the horrible past of a small German village is revealed, along with the parallel lives and fragile relationships among the four families searching for the kids. The mystery drama series introduces a difficult puzzle with unanticipated twists.
It involves a network of intriguing individuals, all of whom, whether they realize it or not, are connected to the town’s terrible past. The novel’s eerie elements are related to the same place in 1986. “Dark” is the title of the first Netflix original German series.
Dahmer Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
The show investigates Jeffrey Dahmer’s motivations and how he got to be one of America’s most infamous serial killers. Between 1978 and 1991, he carried out his killings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Ohio, killing men and young boys.
The 1st season of the American real crime anthology series Monster, which was produced by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix and debuted on September 21, 2022, is titled Dahmer Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Murphy serves as an executive producer and showrunner alongside Brennan.
The season centers on Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer. Other prominent figures are Dahmer’s grandfather Catherine, grandmother Glenda, stepmother Shari, father Lionel, and suspicious next-door neighbor Glenda.
The Boys
In the world of The Boys, people with superpowers, or Supes, are revered as heroes by the general public and work for a sizable corporation called Vought International that promotes and makes money from them. Outside of their heroic personas, the majority of them are corrupt, haughty, and conceited.
The Boys, a group of vigilantes seeking to overthrow Vought and its corrupted superheroes, and the Seven, the top superhero team in the city, are the two main subjects of the series.
Russian Doll
The show’s concept centers on an association between FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth and forensic expert Temperance “Bones” Brennan. The Jeffersonian Institute Medico Lab is a fictitious government organization that works with the FBI.
Brennan is the main character and team leader there. This represents the past interactions between FBI agents and Smithsonian Institution researchers. The Washington, D.C.-based program centers on resolving federal court cases by investigating the skeletal remains of potential victims of murder.
Despite the fact that the bulk of their investigations takes place in the Washington metropolitan region, they have been enlisted to look into incidents in other states and occasionally even other nations like Iran and Mexico.
New Tricks
Squad for Open Cases and Unsolved Crimes (UCOS). Veteran detectives who accepted early retirement but then realized they missed solving cases make up the majority of UCOS. The initial team consisted of veteran police officer Gerry Standing, quirky alcoholic in recovery Brian “Memory” Lane, and calm, level-headed Jack Halford.
They may be a bit of a bother when combined, but DS Sandra Pullman is there to keep the elderly dogs under control. She has the unpleasant task of introducing kids to cutting-edge ideas like computers, DNA, and political correctness. She is a no-nonsense person.
The former investigators reexamine the case of a guy whose murder conviction from 20 years prior had recently been overturned in the first edition. Isla Blair, Keith Barron, Wilson, and Annette Crosbie are just a few of the series’ remarkable guest appearances.
James Bolam quit the program after eight series as a star. From the ninth season, Denis Lawson took up the role of retiring DI Steve McAllister. Halfway through the ninth series, Alun Armstrong left the program. As Danny Griffin, Nicholas Lyndhurst joins the cast in season 10. The immensely popular show had its BBC One debut in 2003.
Castle
Famous mystery author (Fillion). The protagonist of his popular book series, Derrick Storm, gets killed off by him out of boredom and writer’s block. When the New York Police Department brings him in to be questioned about a murder that was modeled on one of his books, he meets Kate Beckett, the detective working the case, and she piques his interest.
Castle uses his connection with the mayor to persuade the cops to allow him to watch Beckett because he is motivated to use Beckett as the model for Nikki Heat, the protagonist of his next book series. Beckett’s more restrained and professional manner contrasts sharply with Castle’s boisterous man-child nature.
However, when Beckett grows to value Castle’s assistance in aiding her in catching killers, the two inevitably turn into friends before falling in love. Their cases sometimes include killings that take place in odd subcultures or environments, like reality television shows, vampire aficionados, science-fiction conventions, or a man who believes he can travel through time.
An ongoing subplot centers on the unsolved death of Beckett’s mother years earlier; this research uncovers a vast and perilous conspiracy. Through several episodes, the series also focuses on the background stories of ancillary figures.
Psych
Shawn Spencer, a teenage crime expert for the Santa Barbara Police Department, is portrayed in the series by James Roday Rodriguez. Shawn convinces others that he has psychic talents to solve cases thanks to his “highly elevated powers of observation” and strong investigative instincts.
Burton “Gus” Guster, Shawn’s closest friend and reluctant partner, is likewise portrayed on the show by Dulé Hill, while Shawn’s captious father, Henry Spencer, is portrayed by Corbin Bernsen. Shawn frequently has disagreements with investigator Carlton Lassiter, played by Timothy Omundson, while Maggie Lawson plays Juliet O’Hara, a young detective who later develops romantic feelings for Shawn. Karen Vick, played by Kirsten Nelson, is a police chief.
What We Do in the Shadows
What We Do in the Shadows covers the life of three conventional vampires, Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja, as well as an energetic vampire named Colin Robinson and Nandor’s familiar, Guillermo, in Staten Island, Nyc, New York. The series centers on the interactions between vampires and other supernatural entities and the modern world.
Jemaine Clement developed the American mockumentary comic horror tv show What We Do in the Shadows, which debuted on FX on March 27, 2019. The second season of the show debuted on April 15, 2020, followed by the third season on September 2, 2021.
Before the third season’s launch in August 2021, the show received a fourth-season renewal. On July 12, 2022, the fourth season officially started. Before the fourth season launch in June 2022, the show was renewed for the fifth and sixth seasons.
Daybreak
Josh Wheeler, a 17-year-old Canadian high school outcast, is pursuing his hunt for his missing British lover Sam Dean in post-apocalyptic Glendale, California, as the series progresses. A motley crew of misfits, including 10-year-old pyromaniac Angelica and Wesley, the bully from Josh’s high school who is now a pacifist who wants to be samurai, join him.
Josh battles armies of Mad Max-style gangs (bad jocks, cheerleaders transformed into Amazonian warriors, etc.), adults who have transformed into zombie-like creatures known as Ghoulies, and the enigmatic Baron Triumph in an effort to live.
American Vandal
The first season deals with the fallout from a high school prank that cost a lot of money and resulted in the phallic vandalism of 27 staff automobiles. The school has named Dylan Maxwell, a senior class clown, as the suspect.
Although Dylan is dismissed, sophomore Peter Maldonado launches an inquiry into the event with the aid of his buddy Sam Ecklund in an effort to determine whether Dylan was indeed the one who committed the murder.
In season 2, Peter and Sam uncover a major crime at a Catholic private high school after someone identifying themselves as “The Turd Burglar” tainted the lemonade in their cafeteria with maltitol.
Agatha Raisin
A former PR agent who solves homicide mysteries in the Cotswolds town of Carsely is the star of the British criminal comedy-drama television series Agatha Raisin, based on the same-titled book series by M. C. Beaton.
An eight-part series that debuted on Sky One on June 7, 2016, following the 26 December 2014 pilot episode under the title Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death. Acorn TV placed a second season order on January 15, 2018. The third season of the program was ordered on February 27, 2019. In March 2021, a fourth season’s filming began.
Death in Paradise
Ben Miller plays Detective Inspector Richard Poole, who is dispatched from the London Metropolitan Police to the fictitious Caribbean island of Saint Marie to look into the killing of a British police officer.
To his dismay, once he apprehends the killer, his superiors tell him to switch out the victim and continue serving as the island’s detective inspector (DI), investigating crimes as they come up and becoming the target of several jokes about being a fish out of water.
Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television
The synopsis of Ryan Hansen Fixes Crimes on Television states that it is “set in a universe where the LAPD believes it’s a good idea to establish a task force mixing actors with homicide investigators to make use of their “acting ability” and industry contacts to assist in solving murders.”
Private Eyes
Tim Kilby and Shelley Eriksen’s Canadian comedy-drama television series Private Eyes, starring Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson as the two main private investigators resolving crimes in Toronto, was based on the G.B. Joyce book of the same title.
The ten-episode first season of the television show debuted on Global on May 26, 2016, in Canada. Every summer from 2017 through 2019, Canada broadcasts seasons two (divided into two 9 batches) and three. In November 2020, the fourth season made its debut. The show debuted on Ion Television on February 11, 2018, in the US.
Dead Still
As he becomes involved in a string of killings that seem to be connected to his line of work, Brock Blennerhasset, a well-known photographer in 1880s Ireland who specializes in memorial portraiture documenting the recently departed, is followed in Dead Still.
6-part Irish-Canadian drama series Dead Still debuted on May 18, 2020, on Acorn TV, and on May 15, 2020, on Citytv. John Morton wrote the series, which is a collaboration between Canada’s Shaftesbury Films and Ireland’s Deadpan Pictures.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
The fictitious town of Greendale serves as the setting for the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The show Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a terrifying coming-of-age story full of witchcraft, fear, and terror. While battling the evil forces that endanger her, her family, and the world in which people live in the daytime, Sabrina Spellman must come to terms with her dual existence as a half-mortal, half-witch.
Sacasa’s Adventures of Sabrina, a Netflix original supernatural horror series from the United States based on the same-named Archie comic book series, was created by Roberto Aguirre-Chilling. Warner Brothers, The production company behind The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, is called television.
