If you liked Baby Reindeer, stream these dark and…

The true story of a comic whose life is stricken by a stalker, Child Reindeer has had viewers captivated.

So what different darkish, compelling exhibits are on the market?

In the event you beloved Child Reindeer, you may even be gripped by these decisions – from a psychological thriller a few social media-obsessed fraudster to the story of a author who begins having flashbacks after an evening out and realises that her drink was spiked.

Our critics have trawled by lots of of choices to carry you probably the most compelling – and disturbing – exhibits to stream proper now.

Chloe

Psychological thriller a few social media obsessed fraudster

Yr: 2022

Certificates: 15

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

‘I prefer to determine how individuals see me,’ says Becky, the protagonist of this six-part psychological thriller – a sentiment little doubt shared by many on social media. 

After we first meet Becky (Erin Doherty, who first made a splash because the younger Princess Anne in collection 3 and 4 of The Crown), she’s main a reasonably gray life, residing along with her sick mum and dealing as a temp. However Becky provides color to her days by pretending to be different individuals and enjoying cuckoo within the nest. 

Fascinated by a fantastic lady known as Chloe (Poppy Gilbert), whom she follows avidly, Becky is blindsided when Chloe dies out of the blue, and takes the daring and reckless step of going deeper into her make-believe world by inserting herself into Chloe’s inside circle. (One collection)

Am I Being Unreasonable?

BAFTA-nominated comedy a few mum with a darkish secret

Yr: 2022

Certificates: 15

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

Nic is unhappily married and her life revolves round actuality TV, hiding from the cleaner and moaning about stuck-up faculty mums. Solely her hilariously mature youngster, Ollie (Lenny Rush), retains her sane, till new mum on the town Jen arrives on the scene. This wickedly humorous thriller is written by and stars real-life greatest pals Daisy Might Cooper (This Nation) and Selin Hizli as Nic and Jen, who chortle by life’s lows – helped alongside by gin and Love Island jokes. 

That is no conventional sitcom although – it usually sweeps the rug from beneath our ft as we come to grasp that Nic and Jen aren’t fairly the individuals we first thought they have been. Cooper and Rush acquired well-deserved BAFTA nominations for his or her good performances as mom and son. (Six episodes)

I Might Destroy You

Michaela Coel writes and stars on this extraordinary exploration of sexual consent

Yr: 2020

Certificates: 18

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

The multi-talented Michaela Coel (Black Earth Rising) created, wrote, produced, co-directed and starred on this gorgeous Bafta-nominated drama. She performs Arabella, a social media star turned author who begins having flashbacks after an evening out and realises that her drink was spiked in a bar and that she was raped. Over the course of 12 half-hour episodes, we see the affect this has on Arabella’s life as she struggles to return to phrases with what occurred to her. 

The tone switches between harrowing and hilarious as Coel explores an entire vary of advanced and tough points together with sexual trauma, social media, race and disgrace. Look out for The Lazarus Undertaking’s Paapa Essiedu as Arabella’s pal Kwame, whose heartbreaking subplot scrutinises the totally different types of consent. Do not count on any neat conclusions right here.  (12 episodes) 

Lover, Stalker, Killer

On-line relationship turns into deceit and homicide on this documentary

Yr: 2024

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Netflix

When newly single man Dave Kroupa determined to dip his toe into the murky waters of on-line relationship, he thought he’d made it clear to the ladies he met that he wasn’t on the lookout for something critical. However then two of the ladies he’d been seeing unintentionally meet, and shortly Kroupa is getting an more and more scary and threatening string of textual content messages from one in every of them that accuse him of ruining her life… 

The gripping story of obsession and vengeance that follows is kind of terrifying. And that is earlier than a twist midway by proceedings throws the whole lot you suppose concerning the case the wrong way up. (90 minutes)

Ripley

Andrew Scott stars in an eight-part tackle the Nineteen Sixties-set con artist story

Yr: 2024

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Netflix

The 1999 film of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, The Gifted Mr Ripley, left you wanting extra of the con artist character at its centre. Andrew Scott provides you simply that in Netflix’s eight-part tackle the identical supply materials, following Ripley from New York to Italy as he insinuates himself into the lifetime of clueless American playboy Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) and his justly suspicious fiancée, Marge (Dakota Fanning). 

Set in sunny Italy however filmed in black and white, the collection has rather more area to provide us a rounded portrait of Ripley, to the extent that you could be even end up sympathising with him early on: he is ripped off by an Italian taxi driver and trudges across the nation, unable to talk the language, desperately on the lookout for his ticket to a greater life. 

You see plenty of his battle, briefly – maybe a little bit an excessive amount of for some tastes. Nonetheless, it scarcely issues as Scott is, in fact, good within the lead. The character of Ripley is a mimic and Scott, as an actor, is incredible at that – when he begins to repeat Dickie it is genuinely unsettling and weirdly correct, although Scott appears nothing like Flynn. And that efficiency is allowed to face largely by itself, with no fancy cuts and barely any background music. Flynn and Fanning are each wonderful too, and Fanning specifically does lots with a glance. However that is Scott’s present, and justly so. (Eight episodes) 

The Ex-Spouse

Thriller a few lady’s seek for her lacking husband and youngster

Yr: 2022

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Paramount+

Watch now on My5

This high-concept, four-part thriller asks simply how a lot you may belief your companion’s ex, as a chilling story of disappearances and deception performs out. Tasha (Celine Buckens, so good within the BBC drama Showtrial) appears like she has the proper life with a loving, good-looking husband and a fantastic youngster. However she additionally has her husband Jack’s ex-wife, Jen, to cope with, a lingering presence who appears unable to let her former companion out of her life.

When Jack and their child mysteriously vanish, although, Tasha has no selection however to show to Jen for assist.  Stuffed with twists and turns, this can be a teasing, chilling story that unsettles at each alternative, leaving you always questioning who to consider and who to belief. (4 elements)

The Catch

Jason Watkins performs a fisherman drowning in disasters in a psychological thriller

Yr: 2023

Certificates: pg

Watch now on My5

In the event you loved the Channel 5 drama The Vacation with Jill Halfpenny, tune into this four-part psychological thriller, which is tailored from a novel by the identical author, TM Logan. It is set on the south-west coast, the place we meet a person on rocky straits, performed by the quite good Jason Watkins – an actor who can seem misplaced and defiant in a single look. 

He performs fisherman Ed Collier, and the drama does not dangle about, portray an image of Ed as a person on the sting, underneath stress from a number of fronts. Not solely is his enterprise struggling, however Ed can be haunted by the harrowing dying of his son 15 years beforehand. His daughter, Abbie, has a brand new boyfriend, Ryan, and the wildly overprotective Ed is immediately suspicious of this wealthy and good-looking stranger. It is clear that Ed is simply moments away from nicely and really dropping the plot – however what’s he hiding? And certainly Ryan is just too good to be true? 

The forged is spectacular all spherical, with Oscar winner Brenda Fricker as Ed’s mother-in-law, and rising stars Poppy Gilbert (from the BBC drama Chloe) and Aneurin Barnard (Dunkirk and Netflix’s 1899) as Ryan. (One collection)

You

Creepy serial killer thriller that grew to become a smash hit

Yr: 2018-

Certificates: 18

Watch now on Netflix

You is one in every of Netflix’s greatest hits, though it truly began out on the Lifetime channel within the US earlier than the streamer snapped it up, and reworked the serial killer thriller into a worldwide smash. Gossip Lady’s Penn Badgley units the pores and skin crawling as our star, New York bookstore supervisor Joe, who appears OK at first – if a bit sleazy and happy with himself – however reveals a darker aspect when he turns into obsessive about a buyer. Joe narrates the collection and pulls at our sympathies as his crimes mount over the course of the present. He is sensible and humorous, really easy to hearken to and even begin to perceive or probably root for – however he’s, undoubtedly, a monster.

Collection two finds Joe shifting to Los Angeles and discovering a brand new obsession, whereas the third heads to the Californian suburbs and offers us a darkish love story that is harking back to Dexter. The fourth goes worldwide, taking Joe to London and (briefly) Paris. The present actually does pressure credulity at instances, however you do not watch this for kitchen sink drama. You is a really addictive present that veers from unbearably tense to gasp-out-loud audacious, with flashes of humour to lighten the darkish temper. (4 collection) 

Beef

Two individuals’s lives are consumed by a road-rage incident

Yr: 2023

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Netflix

Everybody who drives can relate to a way of irritation at different individuals on the street. Who’re all these egocentric individuals? Why are they making our lives tough by driving like idiots? Have they by no means heard of indicating? 

A road-rage incident is the set off for Netflix’s drama from studio-of-the second A24, the corporate behind Every little thing In all places All At As soon as. The 2 individuals concerned (performed by The Strolling Lifeless’s Steven Yeun and the comic Ali Wong) are each on the ends of their tether with their very own lives, and the rage-fuelled second steadily consumes each of them because it escalates nicely past the street right into a comically vicious tit-for-tat. The query you’ve gotten whereas watching is, will the expression of all this rage result in a superb place? Whilst you wait to search out out, the exploration of each their lives introduces us to some fascinating characters, and be careful specifically for the close-ups on Wong’s face. She conveys lots with a little bit. (Ten episodes)

The Home Throughout The Avenue

Unsettling psychological thriller concerning the disappearance of a younger woman

Certificates: pg

Watch now on My5

Life has not been treating Claudia nicely. A divorced single mom, recovering from most cancers, she shares custody of her 12-year-old son Rhys along with her ex-husband, and works as a nurse at a main faculty. 

Claudia is lonely, feeling her life is devoid of that means as she struggles to make a reference to Rhys or her colleagues on the faculty. When a five-year-old woman, Emily, goes lacking from the native playground, Claudia finds herself drawn to the woman’s mother and father, and turns into ever extra obsessive about the case. In the meantime, she’s slowly rising nearer to George, a mysterious new instructor on the faculty, who’s lately moved to the world. 

Shirley Henderson stars as Claudia, with Line Of Responsibility’s Craig Parkinson as George, on this unsettling four-part psychological thriller. The case then takes a darker flip and Claudia begins to return underneath suspicion – however is she merely searching for a way of belonging in the neighborhood, or does she know extra concerning the kid’s disappearance than she is ready to confess? (One collection)

Cheat

A row between a college lecturer and one in every of her college students fatally escalates

Yr: 2019

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Acorn TV

After the success of the 2017 drama Liar, these Williams brothers (additionally behind The Lacking and Baptiste) are as much as their outdated tips once more. This time you must determine who’s the harmless celebration between college lecturer Dr Leah Dale (Katherine Kelly) and her pupil Rose (Molly Windsor). 

After Leah accuses Rose of dishonest in one in every of her essays, issues begin to escalate to deranged ranges as the 2 ladies grow to be engaged in a battle of wills that may have deadly penalties. It is a tense thriller that may preserve you guessing till the top. (4 episodes)

Liar

Joanne Froggatt’s instructor accuses Ioan Gruffudd’s smarmy surgeon of date-rape

Yr: 2017-2020

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Acorn TV

Within the first collection of this thriller, instructor Laura Nielson (Joanne Froggatt) goes on a date with a good-looking surgeon Andrew Earlham (Ioan Gruffudd). They return to her place and drink extra wine. She says the night resulted in rape. He says it was consensual intercourse. One in every of them is mendacity, and the police show lower than useful. 

There have been loads of twists and turns and Froggatt’s and Gruffudd’s performances have been ok to maintain audiences guessing. It was actual watercooler TV. The second collection – one too many for some – strained credibility to breaking level and past. Nonetheless, the ending was satisfying if unlikely. (Two collection)

Sweet

Jessica Biel stars as a churchgoer – and suspected axe-murderer

Yr: 2022

Certificates: 18

Watch now on Disney+

Nearly unrecognisable underneath a curly wig and a set of false tooth, Jessica Biel is icily arduous to learn as Sweet Montgomery, a seemingly excellent church-going spouse and mom in Nineteen Eighties Texas. Seemingly excellent? Effectively, sure, as a result of after her greatest pal Betty’s brutal homicide with an axe, the police uncover that Sweet had been having an affair with the useless lady’s husband. Certainly Sweet cannot even have been the one who wielded the axe that killed Betty – can she? 

This engrossing thriller primarily based on actual occasions performs out over 5 elements shot by with excellent interval element and a few nice performances. Aside from the incredible Biel, there is a fantastically understated passive-aggressive flip from Yellowjackets’ Melanie Lynskey because the ill-fated Betty. (One collection)

Can I Inform You A Secret?

Terrifying documentary concerning the hunt for an internet stalker

Yr: 2024

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Netflix

A message containing the phrases ‘Can I let you know a secret?’ dropping into their mailboxes was simply the beginning of a nightmare for various British ladies. The person behind the message went on to infiltrate not simply their lives however these of their household and pals, spreading discord and distress and threatening to destroy the whole lot they held pricey. 

This powerful, intimate and greater than a little bit scary two-part documentary, produced by Louis Theroux, makes use of testimony from the ladies focused to form an account of the hunt for the person behind the net assaults, a hunt which finally ended up with a British decide handing down one of many hardest sentences ever seen for on-line stalking. (Two episodes) 

Swarm

An obsession with a pop star turns bloody on this creepy seven-parter

Yr: 2023

Certificates: 18

Watch now on Prime Video

Brace your self for the expertise of this US collection, as a younger lady named Dre’s fascination with a Beyonce-esque pop star takes her – and us – on a journey into some very darkish locations certainly. Donald Glover of Atlanta fame turns his consideration to one thing a lot much less gently humorous and rather more horror-based for this TV challenge, penning a bizarre, unsettling and bloody seven-part story of contemporary obsession that is assured to fascinate and disturb. 

It is from only a horror present, too – there’s an actual social message underneath the story about what occurs when individuals get left behind in society. One markedly totally different episode, late on within the run (no spoilers right here), actually does an amazing job of pointing that out with out spelling it out.

Rising star Dominique Fishback (from Judas And The Black Messiah) stars in a present that oozes tense psychological menace all through, and contains a function for Paris Jackson – daughter of Michael – as Hailey. (Seven episodes) 

The Stranger

Richard Armitage stars in a twisty British thriller primarily based on Harlan Coben’s novel

Yr: 2020

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Netflix

A younger lady in a baseball hat wreaks havoc as she reveals long-buried secrets and techniques to these they are going to hurt probably the most. Violence, blackmail and even dying appear to comply with in her wake. When she crosses the trail of household man Adam Worth (Obsession’s Richard Armitage), she tells him one thing that he by no means even suspected about his spouse Corinne (Smother’s Dervla Kirwan). When Corinne then goes lacking, Adam begins a determined hunt to search out her and unravel the identification of the stranger. 

A robust and intriguing  mini-series with a wonderful forged (Anthony Head, Stephen Rea, Siobhan Finneran, Paul Kaye and Jennifer Saunders all additionally seem), this can be a darkish, tense thriller that hides its secrets and techniques nicely. It is also typical of the exhibits which can be primarily based on Harlan Coben’s page-turner novels so, in the event you prefer it, hunt down Secure, Maintain Tight and Keep Shut – all of that are on Netflix as nicely. (Eight episodes) 

Watcher

A younger lady fears she’s being stalked on this tense psycho thriller

Yr: 2022

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Sky

Watch now on NOW

After shifting to Bucharest along with her boyfriend, younger American Julia (The Visitor’s Maika Monroe) notices a person watching her from the window of an condominium throughout the road. Is she being paranoid or is he actually spying on her? Certainly he cannot be related to The Spider, the serial killer terrorising the town by abducting after which beheading younger ladies? 

Jumpy and efficient, this can be a neat and tense psychological thriller with some correct thrills. Monroe makes a convincingly non-wimpy lead, whereas the presence of Brit Burn Gorman (The Supply, Jamestown) within the forged provides some high quality creepiness to proceedings. (96 minutes) 

The Tinder Swindler

How a con man wooed ladies on-line and swindled them out of tens of millions

Yr: 2022

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Netflix

The dimensions of the con revealed on this documentary is breathtaking. We begin small, with the relationship app romance between Cecilie Fjellhoy and a person she believes to be diamond billionaire who swept her up right into a luxurious life of personal jets that wasn’t in any respect what it appeared. It ended up costing her, and the opposite ladies who have been unknowingly financing that way of life between them, very dearly certainly. 

One of many worst issues about all of it is you could so simply see the way it occurred, due to the heartbreakingly open means through which Cecilie – who is kind of the romantic – describes her pleasure on the first flush of their relationship. (114mins)

Clip incorporates swearing.

The Secrets and techniques She Retains

Downton Abbey’s Laura Carmichael stars on this darkish thriller about two pregnant ladies

Yr: 2020

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

On the floor, this six-part Australian drama is about two very totally different ladies – however they’re each pregnant, each alone in numerous methods, and each have a secret. One of many ladies is Agatha, performed by Downton’s Laura Carmichael, with light eyes and a shy smile as if she have been probably the most defenceless creature alive. The opposite is the attractive influencer Meghan (The Couple Subsequent Door’s Jessica De Gouw), who appears to have all of it, however her husband’s cash troubles and lack of curiosity in her have created an environment ripe for deception. 

When the 2 ladies meet by probability and a horrible crime takes place, they each combat to hide the reality. Belief us, when you begin watching, you will not be capable to cease. (Two collection)

Wilderness

Jenna Coleman stars in an exhilarating revenge thriller

Yr: 2023

Certificates: 15

Watch now on Prime Video

What number of dramas have you ever watched that begin with a pair who appear to have all of it, however do not? Fairly a couple of, we would wager, however do not let the familiarity of the set-up put you off this exhilarating story of revenge between husband and spouse Will (The Haunting Of Hill Home’s Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and Liv (Jenna Coleman), a lady who has sacrificed her independence to affix his high-flying life in New York.   

For sure, he has an affair – and the best way Coleman conveys Liv’s rage, harm and willpower by the twists of what follows is one thing very particular, and deserves awards recognition. There’s extra right here that defies expectation and retains you guessing, however we can’t go into that for apparent causes. What we are going to say is that this drama additionally appears absolutely the enterprise, from its plush indoor places to some gorgeous outside filming (the Grand Canyon is one cease on the couple’s street journey) and, in probably its most costly transfer, the opening credit boast a re-recorded model of Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do. 

So, what precisely did he make her do? You will have to look at to search out out. (Six episodes)