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MINDHUNTER poster

Shows that feel likeMINDHUNTER (2017–2019)

An agent in the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit develops profiling techniques as he pursues notorious serial killers and rapists.

If you loved MINDHUNTER, the closest series we have are Black Bird (2022), Surviving Escobar - Alias JJ (2017) and Dexter: New Blood (2021). All three share MINDHUNTER's contemplative and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Unbelievable (2019).

★ 8.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗2 seasons · Netflixcreated by Joe Penhallcontemplativegritty
11 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Hulu
Stream it:Netflix ↗

If MINDHUNTER hit the spot, these will too

Black Bird poster
Black Bird
2022 · 1 season · Apple TV
★ 8.1drama · crimeApple TV+

Coaxing a confession from a killer, with all the tension in the talk

The difference: Shorter and hotter, with the interviewer personally in danger

As Jimmy Keene begins a 10-year prison sentence, he gets an incredible offer: If he can elicit a confession from suspected killer Larry Hall, Jimmy will be freed. Completing this mission becomes the challenge of a lifetime.

Surviving Escobar - Alias JJ poster
Surviving Escobar - Alias JJ
2017 · 1 season · Caracol TV
★ 7.8drama · crime

Long prison conversations where survival means reading the other man

The difference: Telenovela heat and cartel violence instead of clinical restraint

As the Medellín Cartel crumbles, Pablo Escobar's No. 1 hit man struggles to stay alive and gain respect in the prison hierarchy.

Dexter: New Blood poster
Dexter: New Blood
2021–2022 · 1 season · Showtime
★ 8drama · crimeParamount+

The calm surface a killer keeps, studied at close range

The difference: Written from the killer's side, and it wants plot more than study

10 years after Dexter went missing in the eye of Hurricane Laura, we find him living under an assumed name in the small town of Iron Lake, New York. Dexter may be embracing his new life, but in the wake of unexpected events in this close-knit community, his Dark Passenger beckons.

Unbelievable poster
Unbelievable
2019 · 1 season · Netflix
★ 8.3drama · crimeNetflix

Careful, unglamorous investigative work and the toll it takes

The difference: Centred on the survivor, and it ends somewhere considerably warmer

After a young woman is accused of lying about a rape, two female detectives investigate a spate of eerily similar attacks.

Locked Up poster
Locked Up
2015–2019 · 4 seasons · FOX España
★ 7.8drama · crimeNetflix

The psychology of people forced together inside an institution

The difference: Pulpy and propulsive, driven by escapes and alliances, not analysis

Set up to take the blame for corporate fraud, young Macarena Ferreiro is locked up in a high-security women's prison surrounded by tough, ruthless criminals in this tense, provocative Spanish thriller.

The Americans poster
The Americans
2013–2018 · 6 seasons · FX
★ 8.4crime · dramaHulu

Tradecraft and a marriage strained by work you cannot discuss

The difference: Cold War spycraft with disguises, violence and real personal risk

Set during the Cold War period in the 1980s, The Americans is the story of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American married couple in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and their neighbor, Stan Beeman, an FBI Counterintelligence agent.

When They See Us poster
When They See Us
2019 · 1 season · Netflix
★ 8.8dramaNetflix

Both are built on the same subject: true crime

Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park.

The Act poster
The Act
2019 · 1 season · Hulu
★ 7.8drama · crimeHulu

True crime told slowly enough that you sit in the discomfort

The difference: Domestic and intimate, told from inside the family rather than outside

Gypsy Blanchard struggles to deal with the toxic relationship with her overprotective mother, but her attempts to free herself lead to murder.

Ozark poster
Ozark
2017–2022 · 4 seasons · Netflix
★ 8.4crime · dramaNetflix

Muted palette, clipped talk, dread built without raising a voice

The difference: A family in escalating jeopardy, so the plot keeps grabbing you

A financial adviser drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder $500 million in five years to appease a drug boss.

American Crime Story poster
American Crime Story
2016–2021 · 3 seasons · FX
★ 8.4crime · dramaHulu

Real cases rebuilt with an eye on the systems surrounding them

The difference: Anthology drama built around big performances and courtrooms

An anthology series centered around some of history's most famous criminal investigations.

Big Little Lies poster
Big Little Lies
2017–2019 · 2 seasons · HBO
★ 8.4dramaMax

Both land stillness and grit at once

The tale of three mothers of first graders whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.

Narcos: Mexico poster
Narcos: Mexico
2018–2021 · 3 seasons · Netflix
★ 8.3drama · crimeNetflix

Agents boxed in by their own side as much as by the men they chase

The difference: A cartel epic with shootouts and scope, and far less quiet in it

See the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel as an American DEA agent learns the danger of targeting narcos in 1980s Mexico.

In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed series that share MINDHUNTER’s defining feeling.