Mr. Mercedes

Series Similar to Mr. Mercedes

If you enjoyed Mr. Mercedes, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. Dept. Q

   2025 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · returning

   Recommended for similar Crime / Thriller profile, highly rated (8.1).

   DCI Carl Morck is a brilliant cop but a terrible colleague. His razor-sharp sarcasm has made him no friends in Edinburgh police. After a shooting that leaves a young PC dead, and his partner paralysed, he finds himself exiled to the basement and the sole member of Department Q; a newly formed cold case unit. The department is a PR stunt, there to distract the public from the failures of an under-resourced, failing police force that is glad to see the back of him. But more by accident than design, Carl starts to build a gang of waifs and strays who have everything to prove. So, when the stone-cold trail of a prominent civil servant who disappeared several years ago starts to heat up, Carl is back doing what he does best - rattling cages and refusing to take no for an answer. 

2. Luther

   2010 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · returning

   Recommended for similar Crime / Thriller profile, highly rated (8.4).

   A dark psychological crime drama starring Idris Elba as Luther, a man struggling with his own terrible demons, who might be as dangerous as the depraved murderers he hunts.

3. Cardinal

   2017 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime / Thriller profile, hidden gem.

   Adapted from author Giles Blunt's award-winning "John Cardinal Mysteries" series, Cardinal is a six-episode dramatic thriller that follows Detective John Cardinal on a chilling hunt for a brutal killer in a small Northern Ontario town.Demoted for a hunch about a case that he wouldn't let go, Cardinal is brought back to the Homicide Unit when the body of missing 13-year-old Katie Pine is discovered, proving his instincts correct. Back on the case, his search for her murderer soon becomes an all-consuming race to stay ahead of a serial killer.Meanwhile, Cardinal must manage his own precarious family issues and secrets, and keep a watchful eye on his new partner, Detective Lise Delorme, who he believes may have her own secret agenda.

4. True Detective

   2014 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · returning

   Recommended for similar Crime / Thriller profile, highly rated (8.1).

   Touch darkness and darkness touches you back. True Detective centers on troubled cops and the investigations that drive them to the edge. Each season features a new cast and a new case.True Detective is an American anthology crime drama television series created and written by Nic Pizzolatto. 

5. The Missing

   2014 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime / Thriller profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem.

   Thriller series exploring the emotional fallout of a child's abduction not only on the family but on the wider community.

6. MINDHUNTER

   2017 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime / Thriller profile, highly rated (8.4).

   MINDHUNTER is based on the 1996 book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit, by former special agent John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. For years, Douglas pursued some of the most notorious serial killers and rapists, developing profiling techniques to catch them. The book goes behind the scenes of some of his highest-profile cases, including the man who hunted prostitutes in Alaska, the Atlanta child murderer, and Seattle's Green River killer. To hone in his profiling methods Douglas interviewed and studied a skew of serial killers. Several book and TV characters have been based in part on him, including Jack Crawford in Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs, Will Graham on Hannibal and Jason Gideon on Criminal Minds.

7. The Following

   2013 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime / Thriller profile.

   The FBI estimates there are currently over 300 active serial killers in the United States. What would happen if these killers had a way of communicating and connecting with each other? What if they were able to work together and form alliances across the country? What if one brilliant psychotic serial killer was able to bring them all together and activate a following? Welcome to The Following, a terrifying new thriller.

8. The Widower

   2014 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime / Thriller profile, highly rated (8).

   The Widower is a three-part drama from ITV Studios based on the crimes of convicted murderer, Malcolm Webster, played by Reece Shearsmith (Psychoville, The League of Gentlemen, A Field in England).The Widower tells how, over a 13 year period Malcolm Webster set about poisoning and murdering his first wife, attempting to do the same to his second wife and moving on to a further scheme to deceive his third fiancée.

9. Bodyguard

   2018 · Drama, Crime, Thriller · ended

   Recommended for similar Crime / Thriller profile, highly rated (8.2).

   Set in and around the corridors of power, Bodyguard tells the fictional story of David Budd, a heroic but volatile war veteran now working as a Specialist Protection Officer for the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch (RaSP) of London's Metropolitan Police Service.When he is assigned to protect the ambitious and powerful Home Secretary Julia Montague, whose politics stand for everything he despises, Budd finds himself torn between his duty and his beliefs. Responsible for her safety, is he actually her biggest threat?

10. Wallander

    2008 · Drama, Crime · ended

    Recommended for similar Crime profile.

    This drama follows Inspector Kurt Wallander – a middle-aged everyman – as he struggles against a rising tide of violence in the apparently sleepy backwaters in and around Ystad in Skane, southern Sweden. Based on the international best-selling books by Henning Mankell.