12 Greatest Thriller Series of the Last 50 Years, Ranked
Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.
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Can you believe that 1976 was 50 years ago now? Thriller shows were around before that, but the past half a century has seen the medium up its game. Whether you were around during that time or you're catching up on some of the older gems, the past five decades have seen the creation of some of the most enthralling thriller series of all time.
Over the last decade, as streaming took over, we've seen TV shows with much higher production value compared to the days of network television. That makes it even more impressive that some of the greatest thrillers of the last 50 years were pre-streaming. They had to adhere to strict standards with no profanity, nudity, or extreme violence — a testament to how good they are. They delivered deep, engaging stories on their own, while shows from the most recent decades combine storytelling brilliance with incredible visual styles and topical subject matter. Here are the best thriller shows of the past 50 years.
12 'Person of Interest' (2011–2016)
Person of Interest is a procedural crime drama, but as the show progressed through its five seasons, it became more of a sci-fi gem. The plot begins with the introduction of reclusive tech billionaire Harold Finch (Michael Emerson), who has created a powerful machine that can predict future crimes. He fakes his death and goes into hiding with The Machine, afraid of how it could be used in the wrong hands. He then enlists the help of former special forces soldier and CIA operative John Reese (Jim Caviezel) to investigate each pairing of names The Machine spits out and stop crimes before they happen.
Person of Interest delves into deep topics about surveilling society and playing god, as well as the dangers of AI and the growing reliance on it. The show was far ahead of its time. It could easily be made today, and it would still be as relevant as ever. The network show felt like something far more intense and premium than it was supposed to be, and remains one of the most underrated sci-fi shows ever — a forgotten thriller that has aged like fine wine.
11 'Hannibal' (2013–2015)
If you love deeply psychological stories, Hannibal will be right up your alley. Based on the Thomas Harris novels, the narrative follows FBI special investigator Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), who is traumatized by the types of cases and killers he witnesses and helps profile. He is sent to see the brilliant forensic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) for mental health assistance. But unbeknownst to Graham (and others), Hannibal is secretly one of the most twisted, violent serial killers and cannibals of them all.
The show even looks relatively low-budget compared to the high production value of shows today. But it's a beautiful dance as Graham grows closer to Lecter and reveals his deepest, darkest desires, while Lecter becomes intrigued by this, enjoying manipulating Graham into leaning into the darkness instead of fighting it. It's a cerebral show, but it presents like a traditional procedural. While there are elements of horror and graphic scenes, it's the subtle moments of Hannibal — the quiet conversations — that hit hardest.
10 '24' (2001–2010)
If you grew up in the 2000s, you were exposed to 24. It was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, shows on television at the time. Jack Bauer became a household name as Kiefer Sutherland portrayed the senior agent in the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) of the government. He fights bad guys out in the field, stopping terrorist attacks with help from his team in the office, namely computer genius and analyst Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub).
24 popularized the real-time format that shows like The Pitt use today, with every episode taking place in literal real time, even taking commercials into account. The moments begin with a ticking clock as you watch the incredibly intense day unfold with shocking twists and turns in one of the best political thriller shows of all time. It was one of those shows you anticipated watching each week to see what happens next, marveling at the incredible action and fight scenes, and the brilliant way Bauer and O'Brian worked together.
9 'Mr. Robot' (2015–2019)
A show about corporate greed, anarchy, and mental health, Mr. Robot was reflective of its time. The psychological techno-thriller follows brilliant but socially awkward hacker Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), who secretly seethes about the state of the world around him. He's working with a man known by the name Mr. Robot (Christian Slater), organizing a team of anarchists to reset the financial world by taking down the conglomerate E Corp. The idea is to restore an even keel for everyone and put an end to corporate greed. But not all is what it seems.
Mr. Robot has a massive plot twist that will make you want to go back to the beginning and watch it all over again. I did. The show didn't get the attention it deserved since it was on USA Network rather than a streamer, but it has since developed a cult following. It's beautifully presented, heartbreaking, and thought-provoking all at the same time.
Collider Exclusive · Action Franchise Quiz What Action Series Would You Thrive In? Wick · Fast · Mission · Die Hard
Four franchises. Four completely different ideas of what a hero is: the assassin with a code, the family that never leaves anyone behind, the man who does his own stunts, and the guy who simply refuses to die. Only one of them runs on your particular brand of trouble. Eight questions will tell you which one you would survive.
🐕Wick
🏁Fast
🧨Mission
🎄Die Hard
01
How does a room know you've walked into it? Every action hero arrives differently. Some of them arrive before they arrive.
02
It turns physical. What does your fighting actually look like? Choreography is character. Yours says something about you.
03
Who is standing beside you when it starts? Some franchises are built on a team. Others are built on one person walking in alone.
04
It has gone badly wrong. What keeps you upright? Act two exists to find out what you're actually made of.
05
There's a vehicle. What are you driving, and how? No action franchise has ever survived without a car chase. This one is yours.
06
How do you feel about the people giving the orders? There is always an institution. There is rarely a good one.
07
Underneath all of it, what are you actually doing this for? The stunts are the reason people come. This is the reason they stay.
08
When the credits roll, what do people say about you? Every franchise is really an argument about what makes someone worth watching.
Casting Has Been Completed Your Franchise Is…
Four action series. One of them is built around exactly the way you handle pressure, people, and a room that has just gone very quiet. Here is where you would survive the trilogy, and probably headline it.
John Wick
You are precision with a grudge. You don't posture, you don't escalate, and you don't warn anybody twice. That is exactly why the people who know you are so careful never to be the reason you start.
- The Wick films run on discipline: an underworld with actual etiquette, a hero who honours every rule of it, and a world that unravels the instant someone breaks one against him.
- You share that quality. You are extraordinarily reasonable right up to the line, and then completely immovable past it.
- Focus, commitment and sheer will. You'd be the one carrying grief through three sequels and turning it into technique rather than noise.
- People wouldn't call you dangerous. They'd say your name quietly and let that do the work.
Fast & Furious
You understand the thing the whole franchise is secretly about: the cars are spectacular, but the crew is the point. You collect people, you keep them, and you'd drive through a building for any one of them.
- This series went from street racing to orbit without ever changing its actual subject, because loyalty scales and plot doesn't have to.
- You have the same instinct. You build a family out of whoever turns up, and then you defend it past the point of reason.
- You'd thrive here because the franchise rewards exactly your strengths: warmth, nerve, an absolute refusal to leave anyone behind, and a relaxed relationship with physics.
- The mission can wait. The barbecue cannot.
Mission: Impossible
You over-prepare and then take the dangerous part yourself anyway. It looks like control, but it's really responsibility. You have never worked out how to ask somebody else to carry the risk.
- This is the franchise of the plan that collapses on schedule: the team, the mask, the rooftop, and the one person sprinting flat out because sprinting is all that's left.
- You share that refusal to accept an outcome. Told the odds, you treat them as an administrative error.
- You'd thrive here because these films reward competence and loyalty in equal measure. The mission matters, but nobody on the team gets left on the wrong side of a door.
- Some people delegate the cliff. You have never once been that person.
Die Hard
You are not the most trained person in the building, the best equipped, or the one anybody would have picked. You are simply the one still standing at the end, which turns out to be the only qualification that matters.
- Die Hard invented the modern action hero by making him mortal: outgunned, out-planned, bleeding, and extremely funny about it.
- You share that stubbornness. Adversity doesn't make you noble, it makes you sarcastic, and then it makes you unstoppable.
- You'd thrive here because these films reward improvisation and nerve over preparation, and you've never had the luxury of preparing anyway.
- You didn't want any of this. You just declined to be the person who let it happen.
8 'Orphan Black' (2013–2017)
A story of clones has been done before, but never like in Orphan Black. Tatiana Maslany plays more than a dozen different clones in this Canadian sci-fi thriller, and five of them are main characters. She not only appears in virtually every scene of the series, but she's also playing multiple characters in the same ones, thanks to camera tricks and body doubles. She's so convincing as each distinct one, as the story combines sci-fi thrills with humor, drama, and action. It's one of those intense thriller shows you need to watch again to fully understand because the implications of what's really going on run deep.
It begins when the rebellious Sarah Manning (Maslany) spots a woman who looks just like her in a subway station, right before the woman jumps to her death. Stealing the woman's identity to find out more, Sarah discovery leaves her questioning her entire life. It's a fascinating, fantastically acted show that will have you thinking about what it means to not only be human, but also be you.
7 'Mindhunter' (2017–2019)
One of the best psychological thrillers of this generation, and arguably of all time, Mindhunter plays into our fascination with true crime by taking us back to a pivotal moment from the past. In the late '70s, FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) became integral drivers in the formation of the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) of the FBI, which examines serial killers. They even played a role in coining this term to describe "repeat killers" with a specific compulsion.
The show draws from real life, exploring how the pair came to realize that some killers who commit murders again and again aren't just doing it because they like to kill. There's a ritualistic aspect to it, a deep-seated trauma or brain chemistry that causes them to see the world differently. Through interviews with actors playing real-life serial killers from history, like Edmund Kemper and David Berkowitz, the pair, particularly Ford, become entranced by the psyches of these deeply disturbed individuals. It's one of the most fascinating true crime shows, and fans continue to beg for another season.
6 'Twin Peaks' (1990–1991)
Twin Peaks had so much opportunity to further develop its story beyond just two seasons, and it finally got that chance with the revival in 2017. But even with the hasty original ending, the surrealist mystery horror drama remains one of the best thriller shows of the 1990s and the last 50 years. Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is at the center, an FBI agent looking into the murder of local teenager Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). The entire plot seeks to solve this mystery, which is pretty cookie-cutter in nature. But it's the tone and presentation of the story that really make Twin Peaks unique.
The show blends genres in a way we're seeing some of the most intriguing shows today do, like Widow's Bay, at a time when that wasn't really commonplace. From supernatural to campy, melodramatic to soapy, Twin Peaks is one of those shows to watch when you aren't sure what you're in the mood for and want a bit of everything.
5 'Dexter' (2006–2013)
As my personal favorite show of all time, Dexter has every element you could possibly want in a good thriller. A compelling protagonist who draws you in with his narration in the first five minutes of the series. A deep, dark secret hidden behind a sunny, though awkward, persona projected to the outside world. And a vigilante nature that makes you love Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) because his victims are so awful. Then again, you feel conflicted because he ritualistically murders, dismembers, and dumps the bodies of human beings.
Making the story even more exciting is that Morgan is a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police department, trained by his detective father to channel his murderous urges towards only bad people who "deserve" it. Think drug runners, killers, rapists, and those who harm children. Easy peasy, since his job means he's always first on a crime scene. Watching Morgan balance his dark urges with his need to pretend to be normal in everyday life and race his co-workers to find the bad guys first is such an original concept, with the iconic lead incredibly brought to life thanks to Hall. The show is a delight through all eight seasons, and the current sequel series, Dexter: Resurrection, is just as good.
4 'Severance' (2022–Present)
One of the most talked-about shows of the 2020s, Severance has brought us two seasons of cinematic brilliance so far, with a third on the way. The thought-provoking sci-fi psychological thriller leaves you questioning the concept of being you and dealing with grief and hardship. To hide from his own grief, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) undergoes a procedure to sever his memories, so he is "innie" Mark at work and "outie" Mark outside. Neither is aware of what goes on in the life of the other.
The series takes you on a wild journey exploring these dual existences, even though Mark is technically the same person. As Mark and others with whom he works begin to question if this is any way to exist, and what motives the company they work for, Lumon Industries, really has for this experiment, the plot thickens in ways you won't expect. The show had one of the best season finales I have seen in a long time for Season 1 and managed to top it with Season 2.
3 'The X-Files' (1993–2002, 2016–2018)
When you think of the best sci-fi and thriller shows of the last 50 years, The X-Files will always come to mind. The show inspired so many others that have come since, and was so popular that it returned for a few more seasons 14 years after it ended. Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) became household names — the poster people for belief in the unexplained versus belief in science.
The show tackles different cases with monsters, creatures, and paranormal entities in every episode, a long-running show that made one brilliant idea last for years. The X-Files builds a narrative and a love story throughout as these two people learn from one another and open their minds to the possibilities of the impossible.
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