Top 25 Serial Killer TV Shows, Ranked

25. Des

David Tennant delivers an unforgettable performance as Dennis Nilsen in Des, a dramatization of Britain’s most infamous serial killer. Cool, detached, and disturbingly ordinary, Tennant’s Nilsen confesses to murders with unnerving casualness. As detectives and biographers probe his motives, the show focuses less on gore and more on psychology, highlighting the chilling banality of evil. It’s a quiet, devastating character study wrapped in true-crime horror.

24. The Serpent

Based on the real-life murders of Charles “the Serpent” Sobhraj, this unnerving series drips menace from every frame. Tahar Rahim’s chilling performance captures a predator who lured backpackers to their doom in 1970s Thailand. With Billy Howle’s relentless investigator circling ever closer, The Serpent balances slow-burn tension with bursts of horror. It’s less a story of crimes, more a hypnotic portrait of a charming, soulless killer.

23. The Long Shadow

The Long Shadow revisits the chilling reign of terror of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, whose murders haunted Northern England in the 1970s. Instead of sensationalizing his crimes, the series shifts focus to the women whose lives were destroyed and the police who fumbled the case. Grim, compassionate, and unflinching, it’s less about the killer’s infamy than the scars left in his wake.

22. The Chestnut Man

From Denmark’s shadowy crime tradition comes The Chestnut Man, a chilling thriller where a woman’s brutal murder on a playground links to a missing child of a politician. Detectives Naia Thulin and Mark Hess unravel a conspiracy steeped in despair. Between blood, rain-slick windows, and eerie chestnut figurines, this series paints horror with patience and precision, leaving viewers rattled long after the credits roll.

21. Marcella

Anna Friel commands the screen in Marcella, a brooding Nordic noir about a detective battling both serial killers and her own unraveling mind. Each season introduces a new murderer, but Marcella’s personal demons linger in every frame. Balancing domestic collapse, blackouts, and brutal investigations, she embodies both vulnerability and ferocity. In essence, Marcella makes the line between hunter and haunted disturbingly thin.

20. Rellik

Killer spelled backward, Rellik rewinds its story, beginning with the shooting of a suspected murderer before unspooling the crimes in reverse. Richard Dormer plays Detective Gabriel Markham, scarred by an acid attack and obsessed with catching the perpetrator. The show’s backward structure forces viewers to piece the puzzle as motives and horrors are revealed in reverse order. Suffice it to say, Rellik is a serial killer story told inside-out.

19. The Following

Kevin Bacon faces his darkest role in The Following, where a serial killer becomes something far more terrifying—a cult leader. James Purefoy’s Joe Carroll orchestrates murders through loyal devotees, dragging Bacon’s haunted FBI agent Ryan Hardy into a psychological war. Every episode throbs with paranoia: enemies lurk not just in shadows but in crowds. Well, sometimes the most dangerous killers are never alone.

18. Whitechapel

London’s East End becomes a nightmare playground in Whitechapel, where detectives confront copycat killers mimicking Jack the Ripper’s gruesome crimes. Rupert Penry-Jones and Steve Pemberton lead the tense investigation, battling both modern horrors and echoes of Victorian terror. Each season resurrects infamous crimes with unsettling accuracy, blending history with contemporary dread. Atmospheric, and steeped in blood-soaked lore, Whitechapel reminds us why some legends never die.

17. You

Penn Badgley transforms Joe Goldberg into one of television’s most magnetic monsters—part lover, part stalker, all danger. You reinvents itself across seasons, from bookstore obsessions to twisted suburban dramas, never letting viewers catch their breath. As Joe slides deeper into delusion, the show turns into a razor-sharp satire of romance and identity. Seductive, sly, and chilling, this Netflix series makes obsession feel both alluring and terrifying.

16. Mr. Mercedes

Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes spins a deadly game of hunter and hunted. Brendan Gleeson’s haunted ex-detective Bill Hodges squares off against Harry Treadaway’s icy, unstable Brady Hartsfield. Their cat-and-mouse duel drips with psychological warfare, small-town gloom, and King’s signature darkness. What begins with a massacre spirals into obsession, paranoia, and unexpected alliances. This is no ordinary procedural, it’s a descent into torment.

15. Wire in the Blood

Robson Green electrifies as Dr. Tony Hill, a criminal psychologist with an uncanny ability to step inside the minds of killers. Partnered with Detective Inspector Carol Jordan, he hunts sadistic murderers in cases that test both their sanity and morality. Wire in the Blood is dark, unsettling, and relentlessly psychological, pushing viewers to the edge as it explores just how thin the line is between insight and obsession.

14. Prodigal Son

What if your father was a serial killer? Prodigal Son answers with Michael Sheen’s unsettling charm as “the Surgeon” and Tom Payne’s fractured profiler son, Malcolm Bright. Called to solve murders that echo his father’s crimes, Malcolm wades through trauma and twisted family ties. Equal parts procedural and psychological study, the show thrives on its father-son dynamic—proof that sometimes the scariest legacies are the ones you inherit.

13. Sharp Objects

Amy Adams gives a career-defining performance in Sharp Objects, a slow-burn descent into trauma and obsession. As an alcoholic reporter digging into child murders in her hometown, she unravels not just the case but her own fractured psyche. Adapted from Gillian Flynn’s novel, the series hides its killer until a jaw-dropping, tooth-clenched finale. This suffocating miniseries proves murder mysteries are best laced with family secrets.

12. The Alienist

Set in 1890s New York, The Alienist plunges us into a world of gaslight, corruption, and gruesome child murders. Daniel Brühl’s Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a pioneering criminal psychologist, teams with Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning to expose horrors hidden beneath Gilded Age opulence. The brutal show is equal parts mystery and social critique. Dark, cerebral, and intoxicating, The Alienist lingers like smoke.

11. Luther

Idris Elba storms the screen as DCI John Luther, a detective as brilliant as he is broken. His uneasy alliance with Ruth Wilson’s chilling Alice Morgan, a murderer too clever to cage, pushes morality to its limits. Luther thrives on this dangerous partnership, weaving obsession, loyalty, and violence into a taut police drama. Bleak yet magnetic, the crime drama proves sometimes the hero and the monster share the same shadow.

10. The Bridge

A judge’s body lies sprawled across a bridge connecting Texas and Mexico, sparking a tense partnership between two detectives divided by language, culture, and justice. Diane Kruger’s detached Sonya Cross and Demián Bichir’s weary Marco Ruiz clash as much as they collaborate. The Bridge blends border politics with the darkness of a cross-border serial killer.

9. True Detective

Season one of True Detective is modern noir at its finest. Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle and Woody Harrelson’s Marty Hart chase a ritualistic killer across Louisiana’s haunted swamps. Told across decades, their investigation becomes as much about personal decay as it is about unsolved crimes. Bleak, atmospheric, and hypnotic, True Detective doesn’t just track a murderer, it dismantles time, faith, and the human soul.

8. Ripper Street

In the aftermath of Jack the Ripper, Whitechapel still bleeds. Ripper Street follows Detective Inspector Edmund Reid and his team as they battle new killers in a city scarred by fear. Matthew Macfadyen anchors the grim tale, where progress collides with brutality in the smoke-stained streets of Victorian London. Of course, even after the Ripper, the killing never stopped.

7. Bates Motel

A modern prequel to Hitchcock’s Psycho, Bates Motel transforms Norman Bates’ descent into a slow-motion tragedy. Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga deliver electrifying performances as son and mother, locked in love, secrets, and madness. Murder, cover-ups, and fractured minds haunt White Pine Bay, where every shadow hints at Norman’s unraveling. Dark, tender, and deeply unsettling, Bates Motel makes the familiar story feel fresh, and far more personal.

6. Ripley

Andrew Scott slips into the role of Tom Ripley with unnerving brilliance, crafting a charming conman whose lies inevitably turn deadly. Seducing his way into high society, Ripley thrives on deceit, manipulation, and cold-blooded ambition. While sympathy occasionally flickers for this desperate outsider, the show never lets you forget the killer lurking beneath his polished façade. Elegant yet ruthless, Ripley is a masterclass in making evil irresistible.

5. The Fall

Set in Belfast’s gray streets, The Fall pits Gillian Anderson’s icy detective Stella Gibson against Jamie Dornan’s unnervingly normal Paul Spector. A family man by day, predator by night, Spector stalks women with chilling calculation. The series shuns gore for tension, building dread with every pause and glance. The Fall thrives on silence, suggestion, and the unbearable wait for the next strike.

4. Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

Ryan Murphy’s retelling of Jeffrey Dahmer’s reign of terror is as chilling as it is unflinching. Evan Peters inhabits Dahmer with terrifying calm, forcing viewers into the abyss of his psyche. Beyond the horror of cannibalism and murder, the series exposes police failures and societal apathy. Brutal, haunting, and award-winning, it doesn’t just recount crimes, it indicts a system that allowed the monster to thrive.

3. Dexter

Michael C. Hall’s Dexter redefined serial-killer television, daring viewers to root for a murderer bound by his twisted moral code. By day, a blood spatter analyst; by night, Miami’s most meticulous predator. The brilliance lies in his struggle—keeping his “dark passenger” hidden while serving his own brand of justice. No one can deny that Dexter slices through the genre with wicked precision.

2. Mindhunter

David Fincher’s Mindhunter crawls into the darkest corners of the human mind. Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany portray FBI agents pioneering criminal profiling by interviewing real-life killers like Manson and Rader. Every conversation is a battle of wills, every word a clue. With Fincher’s meticulous eye, the series transforms interrogation into gripping theatre. Quiet, cerebral, and haunting, Mindhunter makes psychology feel as dangerous as any crime scene.

1. Hannibal

Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal is as beautiful as it is horrifying—a macabre ballet of blood and psychology. Mads Mikkelsen’s cultured, monstrous Lecter toys with Hugh Dancy’s fragile FBI profiler, manipulating him into dangerous intimacy. Every frame drips with grotesque artistry: murder as spectacle, cannibalism as cuisine. Terrifying, mesmerizing, and relentlessly stylish, Hannibal isn’t just a show, it’s a fever dream of madness, obsession, and exquisite terror.