The thriller genre of TV shows relies on twists to draw its audience in and convince them to keep watching the series as more questions are answered. While it’s expected that many of the most mysterious series will keep their secrets close and leave the audience wondering what will happen next, some reveal an enormous plot twist from the beginning, setting the stage for a spell-binding show.
The biggest plot twists in TV history have been in projects that belong to the thriller and mystery box genres, as they rely on shock factor and surprise to create emotional and dramatic impact. In many cases, the characters are just as unsettled by the twists and events that happen onscreen because they’re in the dark, watching their lives be disrupted by the inciting incident of the story.
All of these series are thriller TV shows everyone should watch, as not only are they action-packed and intriguing, but they are also emotional, character-driven narratives that communicate universal truths about the human experience. Additionally, since it’s human nature to want to unravel the layers of a mystery, it makes sense that these works would capture our attention.
Dark (2017–2020)
As one of the best mystery box TV shows in history, Dark would be gripping even without its sci-fi elements. However, the German Netflix show is as high-concept as it gets, building a world that audiences won’t be able to get enough of until they have all the answers. Beginning with the disappearance of a teenager, it doesn’t take long for Dark to introduce the concept of time travel.
One of the series’ central characters, Jonas (Louis Hofmann), is reentering the dynamic of the small town, Winden, and learning about what’s changed since he’s been gone, as the series introduces the audience to the main players. As the viewer gets deeper into the first episode, it’s shown that the missing child didn’t disappear to another place, but another time, which is just the beginning of Dark’s secrets.
Orphan Black (2013–2017)
Out of all the best sci-fi thriller TV shows on Netflix, Orphan Black is one of the most shocking, beginning with an intense plot twist and only growing more complex as the episodes progress. Tatiana Maslany leads the series as Sarah Manning, a struggling young woman who learns that not only does she have a doppleganger, but this person was driven to the brink.
Sarah witnesses her take her own life in the pilot. Though it’s disturbing and upsetting, Sarah is a consummate survivor, and it doesn’t take her long to figure out a way to use this as an opportunity. Slipping into the life of her mysterious twin, Sarah realizes that this woman’s identity and secrets are just the tip of the iceberg, and that her very existence is a danger to herself and those she holds close.
Dead To Me (2019–2022)
The chemistry between Linda Cardellini and Christina Applegate is more than enough reason to watch Dead to Me, Netflix’s dark comedy that might only have run for three seasons, but it made its mark. When the series begins, it seems that Jen (Applegate) and Judy (Cardellini) are in the same position, as they meet in grief counseling and appear to be suffering from similar losses, forming a bond over this.
However, at the start of the series, their newfound friendship begins to unravel when the audience discovers that it was Judy who killed Jen’s husband, whom she’s been mourning since the beginning of the episode. This creates inherent tension between the two women, though Jen is left in the dark for much longer, making Dead to Me a much more layered story than it might initially appear.
Dark Matter (2024–Present)
Dark Matter is one of the sci-fi TV shows on Apple TV+ that’s helping to establish the streamer as one of the services changing the game in the science fiction field. Between the powerhouse story based on the novel by Blake Crouch and the gripping lead performance by Joel Edgerton, the nature of physics, choices, and our humanity is called into question throughout Dark Matter season 1.
While there are plenty of unbelievable twists throughout the show, the pilot episode sets the tone for what’s to come with many subtle hints and foreshadowing. Dark Matter quickly plunges Jason (Edgerton) and the viewer into the tangled web of multiple time streams, but things are made even more complicated when Jason is kidnapped by a masked stranger who turns out to be him, but a very different, desperate version of him.
How To Get Away With Murder (2014–2020)
Executive produced by Shonda Rhimes and created by Peter Nowalk, How to Get Away With Murder is one of the best-acted thriller series to come out in recent years. Anchored by the incomparable Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder follows her character, Annalise Keating, as she uses her skills as a defense lawyer and law professor to untangle the web of a shocking murder alongside her students.
Though audiences will stay for Davis’s performance, the central group of law students is just as compelling, and it’s through their eyes that some of the most shocking twists unfold. By using flashbacks and juxtaposing the murder the viewer knows has been committed with the events leading up to it, the reveal of who has been killed throws everything into sharp relief, setting the stage for the season.
Wayward Pines (2015–2016)
Though there’s a sense of eerie foreboding from the start of Wayward Pines, the secrets at the heart of the series remain a mystery for a long time. Based on the spellbinding novel by Blake Crouch, Wayward Pines stars Matt Dillon as Ethan Burke, a Secret Service agent sent to the titular town to investigate the disappearances of two other agents, but the surreal community isn’t what it seems, and threatens to suck Burke in as well.
As the events of the pilot become more otherworldly, and it begins to dawn on Burke that he might not be able to leave Wayward Pines, he finally encounters Kate (Carla Gugino), one of the people he’s been searching for. However, she’s very different from the woman he remembered, and Wayward Pines demonstrates that though she seems happy, she’s not there willingly, and that no one in town is.
Yellowjackets (2021–Present)
There are many great survival thriller TV shows airing right now, but Yellowjackets might be one of the most jaw-dropping, as the show has raised the stakes in every season, unafraid to let its body count rise. In the pilot, Yellowjackets has to cover a lot of ground, showing the audience who the characters were as teens before the plane crash, and who they are as adults many years later.
Instantly, the viewer is plagued by questions about what really happened and what the present-day characters are hiding, but Yellowjackets quickly proves it has more tricks up its sleeve. This escalates until the end, which reveals that the secret the Yellowjackets have been hiding all these years is that they turned to cannibalism in the woods, but the show leaves the victim of the violence a mystery.
Paradise (2025–Present)
One of the most intriguing recent additions to the thriller genre, Paradise, stars Sterling K. Brown in one of his most intense roles yet. As Xavier Collins, the protagonist of the series, Brown investigates the death of the President of the United States, becoming caught up in a conspiracy that intends to frame him as the President’s killer.