5 Best Serial Killer Shows Like Furious, Ranked

Furious has earned its place in the serial killer conversation by refusing to give viewers a comfortable side to stand on. Hulu’s eight-episode thriller follows FBI agent Alice Black, played by Emmy Rossum, as she hunts Catherine Grace, Lola Petticrew’s calculating killer whose pursuit of justice becomes entangled with Alice’s own history. Hulu describes their paths as increasingly blurred between right and wrong, which is precisely the ingredient that makes the series so addictive.

If Catherine made you uncomfortable because you sometimes understood her, and Alice kept testing how far law enforcement can bend before it breaks, there are several older crime dramas worth opening next. I ranked these five by their resemblance to Furious season 1, psychological tension, killer-investigator dynamics, critical reception, and how readily they muddy the moral water.

5 You Makes the Killer Disturbingly Persuasive

Credit: Netflix

Penn Badgley’s Joe Goldberg has committed enough atrocities to make any defense of him absurd, yet You spends five seasons letting viewers hear the excuses running through his head. Joe begins as a bookstore manager whose infatuation with Guinevere Beck escalates into surveillance, manipulation, and murder. Rotten Tomatoes gives the completed series an 89% average Tomatometer score, with Season 1 sitting considerably higher at 94%.

The connection to Furious lies in perspective. Catherine also believes violence can become justice under the right circumstances, although her motives emerge from very different trauma. Both series understand how dangerous it becomes when a killer starts writing the moral rulebook. You ranks fifth because its satire, romance, and black comedy make it less procedurally similar to Furious, but anyone fascinated by a murderer rationalizing the indefensible should have a field day.

4 Mindhunter Turns Profiling Into an Obsession

Jonathan Groff as Holden Ford in Mindhunter | Credits: Netflix

If Alice’s FBI investigation interested you more than Catherine’s killings, Mindhunter should be near the top of your queue. Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany play FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench, who interview convicted killers while developing modern criminal profiling methods. Anna Torv plays psychologist Wendy Carr. 

The series carries an exceptional 97% average Tomatometer and 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, while Season 2 reaches a staggering 99%. David Fincher’s influence gives conversations the tension other shows need a body count to achieve. Furious is angrier and more emotionally volatile, while Mindhunter approaches serial murder like a locked cabinet someone has finally decided to open.

Fourth place comes down to similarity rather than quality. It may be the best-crafted series here, but its killers remain subjects of investigation instead of becoming one half of a morally entangled partnership.

3 Dexter Lets Justice Become an Excuse

Credit: Showtime

Dexter and Furious share one particularly uncomfortable question: what happens when viewers start rooting for somebody who kills the ‘right’ people? Michael C. Hall plays Dexter Morgan, a Miami blood-spatter analyst who murders criminals he believes escaped justice. His police colleagues have no idea that the person helping examine murders is also committing them. The original series holds a 71% average critics’ score and 81% on Popcornmeter, although its reception varied wildly by season. Season 2 reached 96%, while Season 4 earned 88%.

Catherine and Dexter would probably have a fascinating argument about who deserves to die. More importantly, both dramas force the audience to confront how easily punishment can masquerade as justice once the legal system fails. That resemblance earns Dexter third place.

2 Hannibal Corrupts the Person Hunting the Killer

Hannibal | Credits: NBC

Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal gets frighteningly close to Furious territory, where the investigator-killer relationship becomes more dangerous than the cases themselves. Hugh Dancy plays profiler Will Graham, whose empathy for murderers takes a psychological toll. He turns to psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter, played by Mads Mikkelsen, unaware that his new confidant is far closer to the killers than the FBI suspects. 

With a 93% average Tomatometer and 94% audience score, Hannibal also has the critical credentials to back up its reputation. Seasons 2 and 3 both reached 98% with critics. What puts it above Dexter is the contamination between hunter and hunted. Alice and Catherine increasingly alter each other on Furious, and Will’s relationship with Hannibal takes that same dangerous intimacy much further.

1 The Fall is Furious’ Closest Relative

Credit: BBC Two

If I had to recommend one show after Furious, it would be The Fall. Gillian Anderson stars as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson, brought to Belfast to hunt Paul Spector, Jamie Dornan’s serial killer hiding behind the facade of a husband and father. Since viewers know his identity early, the suspense comes from watching two intelligent people close in on each other rather than solving a conventional whodunit.

Season 1 earned 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Season 2 followed with 94%. The resemblance to Furious is almost tailor-made. Both shows divide their attention between a formidable female investigator and the killer she is pursuing, making the psychological collision between the two women or, in The Fall, between Gibson and Spector- more important than a conventional whodunit.

The Fall lacks Catherine’s vigilante edge, but its cat-and-mouse tension best scratches the itch Furious leaves behind. Gibson versus Spector is the first stop for anyone craving a crime drama where knowing the killer doesn’t make you feel safe. Which one are you watching after Furious? Drop your pick below, and follow FandomWire for more crime-thriller recommendations.

All eight episodes of Furious Season 1 are now streaming on Hulu, and the series has already been renewed for a second season.