Netflix has plenty of big shows, but, with the possible exception of Stranger Things, few have a fanbase as devoted as the twisted, dark-as-midnight drama You.
Based on Caroline Kepnes' bestselling novel of the same name, You follows Joe Goldberg, played by one-time Gossip Girl heartthrob Penn Badgeley. Goldberg is a handsome, charming, intense and very, very dangerous young man. When he sees something, or someone, that he wants, he will do anything to get it. And, when that someone is a romantic obsession, using the internet and social media to gather the most intimate of details, he quietly and strategically removes every obstacle - and person - in his way.
Such is the popularity of You, Netflix confirmed the show would be getting a fourth season before the third had even aired, but it looks like we’re going to be waiting a while to watch it.
While showrunner Sera Gamble and her writing team have been hard at work, it doesn’t look like the show will enter production until mid-March, meaning it’ll be the end of 2022 at the earliest before we see Goldberg’s new twisted adventure.
So, while we wait for the next instalment of this black-hearted, murderous drama, here’s five other dark dramas to fill the void.
Sharp Objects
Before striking literary gold with Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn’s debut novel Sharp Objects won plaudits for its gripping, dark storytelling. After the success of Gone Girl, Flynn’s earlier works were picked up and HBO turned Sharp Objects into an eight-part series.
The adaptation stars Amy Adams as Camille Preaker, a reporter who is going through a serious rough patch. Struggling with alcoholism and recently discharged from a psychiatric hospital after years of self-harming, she seizes a chance to escape her life in St. Louis. She returns to her hometown of Wind Gap in rural Missouri when the opportunity to report on an investigation into the murders of two young girls comes up. Her return to the town brings her back in conflict with her overbearing mother and deep-seated childhood trauma.
Stylishly shot by the late, great Jean-Marc Vallée, the series is unrelentingly bleak, but also insanely gripping, and, much like You, it’ll keep you guessing until the final frame.
Where To Watch: HBO Max, NOW (UK)
The Fall
We've made an effort to stay away from detective dramas on this guide, but we have made an exception for The Fall because it isn’t a detective drama in any easy sense of the description.
On the face of it, we’re following Gillian Anderson’s Metropolitan Police Superintendent Stella Gibson, who is seconded to the Police Service of Northern Ireland to assess the progress of the investigation into a series of murders of young women in Belfast.
This is no whodunnit. We meet the killer in the show’s opening five minutes, it’s Jamie Dornan’s Paul Spector. The show then follows both Gibson, as she tries to track down the killer, and Spector, as he tries to avoid detection and continue his killing spree. It’s gripping, it’s very dark and it’s sometimes incredibly graphic, but, as a series, it remains unmissable.
Where To Watch: Netflix, BBC iPlayer (UK)
Behind Her Eyes
Netflix’s glossy adaptation of Sarah Pinborough’s bestselling thriller certainly got people talking when it was released in February 2021, with the show’s ending proving particularly controversial.
A three-hander between Simona Brown, Tom Bateman and Eve Hewson, we largely follow Brown's Louise, who finds herself drawn into the toxic marriage of Bateman's David and Hewson's Adele.
Louise begins an affair with David, a successful psychologist, but then finds herself drawn into a strange friendship with Adele. As the show progresses and Louise learns more about each of them, she finds herself increasingly entangled in their deeply troubled world.
Its slight fantastical leanings mean it won’t be for everyone, but for a twisty, turny, gripping drama, it’s well worth your time.
Where To Watch: Netflix (Worldwide)
Chloe
It’s not long finished airing on BBC One and got slightly lost in the noise of the return of Peaky Blinders, but this psychological thriller is not to be skipped.
Erin Doherty, who you’ll know best for her turn as Princess Anne in the third and fourth seasons of The Crown, plays Becky Green, a young woman struggling in her career and living at home with her mum who has early-onset dementia.
Unhappy with her life, Becky spends her evenings pouring over picture-perfect lives on Instagram, in particular one account, that of Chloe Fairbourne, the wife of a local councillor, whose life is seemingly flawless.
When Chloe dies suddenly, Becky discovers she had two missed calls from her minutes before her death and vows to find out what happened to her. To do this, she assumes a new identity and weaves her way into the life Chloe left behind.
With a supporting cast that includes Billy Howle, Pippa Bennett-Warner and Jack Farthing, and a great soundtrack from British alt-poppers Goldfrapp, this six-parter shares You’s breathless tone and creepy sense of dread as Becky goes further and further into a life that is not hers.
The series will be available worldwide on Prime Video later in the year, but, for now, if you’re not in the UK get a VPN and check the series out.
Where To Watch: BBC iPlayer, Prime Video (later this year)
The Stranger
Prolific thriller writer Harlan Coben’s partnership with Netflix has so far yielded five adaptations of his work and The Stranger is the best of them.
A starry British cast that includes Richard Armitage, Siobhan Finneran, Jennifer Saunders, Paul Kaye, Dervla Kirwan, Anthony Head, and Ant-Man and the Wasp breakout star Hannah John-Kamen, came together for this eight-parter taken from Coben’s 2015 novel.
We follow Armitage’s Adam Price, a middle-aged man with a very happy life, two children and a steady marriage, right up until the moment a stranger approaches him at a bar and reveals a shocking secret about his wife.
From there, his life begins to fall apart, and it’s not only him that the stranger has in her sights…
Dark, brooding and full of sudden about-turns, this show should scratch a You-based itch.
Where To Watch: Netflix (Worldwide)
