30 Shows Like You That Are Worth Your Time

"You" tells the story of bookstore manager Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), who, at first glance, appears to be a true catch. He's charm personified, well-read in every sense of the word, and just wants to find "the one" to experience life with. The only catch: He has something of a murder habit, and he just can't seem to kick it. "You" showcases his infatuation (read: obsession) with three different women over the course of three seasons: Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), whom he kills soon after she learns he murdered her friends; Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), who turns out to be a killer just like him; and Marienne Bellamy (Tati Gabrielle), who is neither a murderer nor Joe's victim ... yet.

Viewers who love the twisted melodrama of "You" might not think there are any other shows out there that bring its signature blend of emotional intensity and high-octane thrills. But in fact, any of the 30 shows on this list are worth any "You" fan's time. From British mysteries to campy thrillers, these are the shows viewers hungry for more "You"-style mayhem should check out.

Even the most shocking scenes in "You" show more than a few traces of dark humor. Remember Joe confidently declaring Peach Salinger (Shay Mitchell) to be the crazy, unhinged stalker in Beck's life right before he attempts to murder her? This unique alchemy of shock and comedy is also found in the Emmy Award-winning "Barry," which follows an apathetic hitman who has a sudden change of heart.

On an assassination mission, Barry (Bill Hader) finds himself part of a theatre troupe. In the process, he discovers that acting allows him an emotional release far better than murdering people in cold blood. Soon, he's introducing himself as an actor and running lines with his eccentric-but-lovable co-stars. But Barry still has to outrun his chaotic past and become someone else — not only on stage, but in real life too.

While Joe is what one could call an "established" psychopath, James (Alex Lawther), the teenage protagonist of "The End of the F***ing World," is more of a wannabe. To complete his rite of passage into full-fledged cruelty, James befriends his seemingly naïve classmate Alyssa (Jessica Barden) and plots to murder her. But his plan starts to go awry when Alyssa's arrival triggers an outpouring of emotions.

This show uses villainy as a metaphor for the teenage experience: One goes from living a relatively bland, apathetic life to suddenly experiencing a full spectrum of emotions. That's not to say that "The End of the F***ing World" doesn't contain actual murder, though — it has more than its fair share of it. As James and Alyssa embark on a Bonnie and Clyde-style adventure across the country, they experience everything from crashing their car in a lust-fueled daze to perpetrating blackmail, and, finally, committing murder.

Real-life stories of grifters often make for delicious popcorn entertainment. Netflix has practically carved out an entire programming wing for such tales, including "The Tinder Swindler," "Inventing Anna," and "Bad Vegan." But like "You," "Dirty John" was well ahead of this curve. Released all the way back in 2018, Season 1 of this anthology show is based on a popular true crime podcast of the same name. Season 2 tells the real-life story of Betty Broderick and her nightmare of a marriage to John Broderick. The fact that both stories are adapted from very real sources makes them that much more terrifying

"Think Joe from 'You,' but older": That's how Netflix describes the titular John Meehan (Eric Bana) from Season 1 of "Dirty John." They're not wrong. With his dapper looks, witty repartee, and endless supply of charm, John could woo a stone statue. It's hardly surprising, then, that the well-to-do Debra Newell (Connie Britton) falls for him so quickly and vigorously, despite protests from her children. She's soon in for a rude awakening.

"You" takes you inside the mind of a psychopath, providing insight into Joe's flawed moral logic. "Mindhunter" shows you all of that, times a hundred. Serial killers aren't vestiges of the past just yet, but the period between 1970 to 2000 has been called their heyday by outlets like Rolling Stone. But as serial killing took flight, so did the field of criminal psychology. "Mindhunter" begins right in the throes of this era, when FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) resolve to probe the psychological makeup of the most notorious serial killers in existence. 

Holden and Bill embark on a tour of the country's most dangerous (captured) murderers and relentlessly pick their devious brains. Bear in mind, the very idea of the serial killer was next to non-existent at the time. This is the story of how that concept emerged — and the ensuing process to understand and define it.

Joe may look the part of the average Joe (pun intended), but he's quite the expert at leading a double life. He expertly plays the role of the perfect boyfriend while simultaneously murdering anyone who dares to get in the way of it. In "The Fall," all the way across the pond in Belfast, everyman Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) is in much the same situation. At home, he's a doting father and loving husband. Elsewhere, he hunts and murders women for sport. Hot on his trail is detective Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson), who engages him in an elaborate game of cat and mouse. 

Despite being a serial killer thriller, "The Fall" cleverly subverts the typical tropes of the whodunit. Instead, it derives most of its thrills from Stella examining Paul's twisted, two-faced psyche and attempting to reconcile his mundane life with his disturbing activities.

Season 2 of "You" achieves the pinnacle of irony when it depicts a serial killer like Joe finally meting out justice to a serial sexual offender like Joshua "Henderson" Bunter (Chris D'Elia), whose penchant for young girls is an open secret. The Netflix miniseries "Unbelievable" has similar layers of irony to it. The truly unbelievable part of the show is just how little belief the justice system places in survivors of sexual assault who take the painful step of coming forward.

When Marie Adler (Kaitlyn Dever) is raped by an unknown assailant, she goes to her local police precinct, only to be gaslighted by male officers into retracting her allegations. Some years later, a pair of female detectives investigate a string of similar assaults that could prove Marie was telling the truth. "Unbelievable" could have easily veered off track — such is the sensitive nature of the subject — but the nuance and thought it applies to depicting its complex and painful story won it immense praise.

Only a brutal mind like Joe's is capable of terrorizing a small town into near collapse. This is precisely what transpires in "Sharp Objects," which makes the small, moody town of Wind Gap into the object of our horror and fascination. Journalist Camille Preaker (Amy Adams), a prodigal daughter of Wind Gap, moves back to town to cover a series of child killings. She immediately finds herself nursing old wounds and, often as a result, a glass (or two) of liquor. Meanwhile, Amma Crellin (Eliza Scanlen), Camille's teenage half-sister, is the very picture of grace and poise (at home, anyway), which Camille's domineering mother Adora (Patricia Clarkson) won't let her forget. 

In a way, "Sharp Objects" could be called a family drama as much as it is a murder mystery. But as the series goes on, those lines become more and more blurred. Wind Gap's sorrows are complex and bloody — and a whole lot closer to home than most of the populace would like to admit.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

While Season 2 didn't earn the same praise, Season 1 of "True Detective" boasts a self-contained mystery that truly merits its enormous acclaim. Between ruminations on the nature of existence and the meaning of being, detectives Rustin "Rust" Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Martin "Marty" Hart (Woody Harrelson) probe a series of chilling murders in Louisana's backwaters. The series jumps between different time periods, etching out a comprehensive timeline of this bloody mystery from the moment it begins to when it finally concludes, decades later. 

As the case evolves over the years, so do the two detectives. Rust in particular goes from being a pessimist to ... being an even bigger pessimist. Rust and Joe might be on opposite sides of the justice system, but they share a common nihilism about the state of the world, which they convey in hyperliterate and cynical monologues. These are major highlights of both shows.

Modeling a whole series after one of the most well-known and beloved Coen brothers movies could have ended in disaster. But the creators of TV's "Fargo" boast such mastery of technique and reserves of sheer ingenuity, what results is absolutely exceptional.

Much like "You" begins every season in a new town, then molds its characters and storylines to suit the milieu, so too does "Fargo." An anthology series, "Fargo" centers each season around a different crime committed somewhere in the Midwest.  Though the plots and characters vary by season, the show's main motifs recur in each: Gullible main characters, money-making schemes destined to go horribly wrong, and slightly underestimated but morally sound cops are omnipresent. All these elements blend together to become a TV show completely worthy of the praise its film received.

"Cruel Summer" might appear to be another soapy show about high school cliques and teenage rivalries. But that's just scratching the surface of a much more intricate story. For one thing, it may or may not contain a teenager who stands alongside the most terrifying maniacs on this  list.

The teen in question, mild-mannered Jeanette Turner (Chiara Aurelia), is accused of a strange crime: doing nothing. This crime is said to have taken place sometime after the queen bee of Skylin, Texas, Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt), was abducted. Overnight, Jeanette takes her place as the most popular teen in town. Her popularity is short-lived, though, because Kate is found and released from captivity just as suddenly as she disappeared. Soon after, Kate publicly accuses Jeanette of knowing her whereabouts, yet doing nothing to alert the police. Is a supposedly meek teenager such as Jeanette capable of such malice? And if so — why?

Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan) of "Mr. Inbetween" is a hitman forced to attend anger management sessions, because being an ice-cold murderer has left him prone to flying off the handle. It doesn't take much for him to blow a fuse, and anyone at the receiving end of his temper — intended victim or otherwise — is not a happy camper.

As we discover, anger is the only feeling Ray seems to know how to emote. When this is established, his therapy sessions begin to provide us with comedy gold, as well as enable necessary insight into his mind. Ray and Joe are both proponents of the same inane philosophy towards violence: It can be a force for good when dealing with society's most meddlesome participants. While this may cause Joe to go off the deep end, there may yet be time for Ray to change.

Viewers spend a good portion of "You" attempting to deduce how a seemingly harmless infatuation snowballs into murder. "Mare of Easttown" also does this, but in reverse order. In quiet Easttown, Pennsylvania, where teen pregnancy could be considered an epidemic, teen mom Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny) is found dead. One detective sets out to untangle a messy web of fixations and obsessions in order to find the culprit.

The detective in question, Marianne "Mare" Sheehan (Kate Winslet), has endured tragedies of her own. She funnels her unresolved grief into investigating and avenging Erin's murder, even as she raises her grandson and attempts to guide her teenage daughter. In many ways, the show follows Mare as she performs an exorcism of her personal demons. But it's also about the hunt for those evils that terrorize her beloved town — evils that turn out to be a lot more complex than Mare ever could have guessed.

Mega-star Olivia Colman may have been a British treasure for years, but "Broadchurch," which stands out as one of the best British TV shows of the last few decades, put her on the global map. The quaint Dorset town of Broadchurch has its own share of Joe Goldbergs, and even more secrets concealed beneath its beautiful beaches. Colman's Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller and her world-weary partner, Detective Inspector Alec Hardy (David Tennant), bring them to justice. 

Season 1 and 2 of "Broadchuch" deal with the gruesome murder of a young boy named Danny, while Season 3 deals with a serial rapist on the loose. This series is as much about these criminals and their gory crimes as it is about the ripple effects they have on a tight-knit community. In this small town, the grief of losing a loved one or enduring a traumatic experience is a communal one. But this intimacy also has its downsides: Suspicion and doubt spread like wildfire, and soon, everyone starts to become a suspect.

Any list of crime and detective shows needs to include at least one representative of Scandinavian noir. Ours is "The Chestnut Man." Perhaps what makes this Danish series so deliciously twisty is that it bears all the signature elements of its subgenre: hauntingly striking landscapes, an ambiance of palpable dread, and jarring realism. The chilling precision with which the show's serial killer, the Chestnut Man, identifies, stalks, hunts, and attacks his victims makes even Joe seem like an amateur murderer.

Childhood plays a heavy role in this murder mystery. The titular serial killer uses a relic of youth, a tiny figurine made from chestnuts, as his calling card. Moreover, his method of selecting victims hearkens back to his own childhood. The killings also seem to tie into the abduction of a politician's young daughter, but this common denominator is all that inspectors Naia Thulin (Danica Curcic) and Mark Hess (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) have to go on. Yet go on it they must, if they want to stop the Chestnut Man before he strikes again.

"You" doesn't only entertain its viewers — it also offers some incisive social commentary. Joe's rampage is only possible because he leads a life of immense privilege. This gives him the benefit of the doubt and a wealth of second chances, which enables him to kill again and again and again. As Penn Badgley himself mused on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," "You" critically examines the patience we extend to men like Joe, whether or not they deserve it.

This double standard is also explored in "The Night Of," in which Pakistani-American college student Nasir "Naz" Khan (Riz Ahmed) is assumed to be guilty of a brutal murder. On the titular night of, Naz awakens to find his date, Andrea Cornish (Sofia Black-D'Elia), stabbed to death. He flees the scene, only to wind up behind bars because of a minor traffic violation. Naz's cynical lawyer John Stone (John Turturro) becomes his only hope of beating the charges and a flawed justice system — but can anything truly overcome the automatic bad faith Naz faces?