Best Thriller Series 2016 - Suspense, Mystery and Goosebumps

What were the best series of 2016? Get the answer to this question in this two-part best-of of the best new series released last year! Here is part 2 with the best thriller series 2016 from the genres of crime, science fiction and horror.

We live in the golden age of quality series and also last year a lot of gripping series with addictive factor started, which captivate us for evenings and tempt us to binge-watch. In Part 1 with the best drama series 2016 we have already presented our highlights of the best series in the genres of drama, comedy and action.

The Best Thriller Series 2016 – Part 2: Crime, SciFi, Mystery and Horror Series

This 2nd part is about series in which mysterious things happen and are gradually revealed: i.e. the genres crime / thriller, science fiction, mystery and horror, with many genres overlapping in some series. Many of these best thriller series 2016 are not yet shown on television in Germany. Wherever possible, we have linked where you can watch the series!

The Best Thriller Series 2016: Crime Series

American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson – Anatomy of a Trial of the Century

The first season of this spin-off of the hit anthology series American Horror Story* looks at the murder trial of American football star O.J. Simpson. His case captivated the entire American public in 1995 and led to heated discussions about racism as well as the American justice system. Instead of just sticking to the known facts, American Crime Story takes a credible look behind the scenes: the focus is on the lawyers on both sides, especially prosecutor Marcia Clark (played by AHS-regular Sarah Paulson) and Robert Shapiro, one of the four lawyers who represented O. J. Simpson.

Shapiro is played by none other than John Travolta and he shines. Eine sehr spannende Serie – auch für Zuschauer, denen der Ausgang des Prozesses bekannt ist.

You can watch American Crime Story on Netflix or Sky Atlantic.

Chance – A Psychiatrist in the Vortex of Crime

Chance means both chance and opportunity in English – and it’s also the telling name of the main character in this new, extremely suspenseful and dark series. Dr. Eldon Chance is a neuropsychiatrist in San Francisco and himself scarred by life. He is in the middle of his divorce when he is visited by a patient who is afraid of her violent husband. Chance decides to help her and step by step gets deeper and deeper into a morass of corruption, crime and abuse, because his patient’s husband is a policeman….

Goliath – A Down-And-Out Lawyer Battles the Most Powerful Law Firm in the US

David versus Goliath, dwarf versus giant. The dwarf is here, the once respected but now down-and-out lawyer with a drinking problem Billy McBride. He is competing in a negligent homicide trial against the top law firm Cooperman & McBride, which he himself once co-founded and with whose head, his former partner, he has unfinished business. With a small team of lawyers, McBride uncovers a huge conspiracy in the corruption swamp of L.A. and at the same time delivers a final battle with his former partner Donald Cooper and his ex-wife, who works for him.

Starring Billy Bob Thornton and William Hurt!

Goliath can be watched in German via Amazon Prime Video, which you can try for free for 30 days.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Fantastic, British, loopy!

Of course, this twisted crime series comes from the UK! Loosely based on the two-part novel of the same name by Douglas Addams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy*), it revolves around detective Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett), who specialises in cases involving the supernatural. To solve these cases, he uses very unconventional methods and his reluctant assistant and sidekick (Elijah “Frodo” Wood).

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, with its many eccentric characters, dialogue sparkling with wit, supernatural enemies, time travel, chaotic entanglements and plenty of action, is the ideal diversion for crime fiction fans looking for nothing gritty.

The BBC series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is now available to watch on Netflix.

StartUp – When the Right Idea Falls into the Wrong Hands

Miami: A corrupt and highly unsympathetic FBI man (Martin Freeman, of Hobbit and Dr Watson fame) is hunting a money launderer. His son, a banker, helps his daddy hide the money and invests it in the unassuming start-up of young programmer Izzy Morales, who has invented a new digital currency. But part of the investment comes from violent drug gangster Dacey, who wants his money….
From this mesh of storylines emerges an exciting and complex series in which the good guys are not likeable and the bad guys are not repulsive. The differences between legal financial deals and brutal street crimes become increasingly blurred….

In Germany, you can watch Startup at Amazon Prime Video that you can try for free for 30 days.

The Best Thriller Series 2016: Science Fiction and Mystery Series

11.22.63 – Time Traveller on Historical Mission

J.J. Abrams (Lost & Star Wars Episode VIII) and Stephen King have brought King’s bestseller(in German “Der Anschlag”) to the screen in 8 episodes: High school teacher Jake Eppin (starring James Franco) travels back to 1960. His mission: to prevent nothing less than the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963. But we already know this from countless films and series: Time travel is tricky and turning the wheel of time often comes at a bitter price…..

The series 11.22.63 is already available on DVD, BluRay or at amazon Prime Video.

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Braindead – Help, Our Politicians Are Aliens!

What reads like a serialisation of Peter Jackson’s legendary zombie splatter comedy is in truth a variation on the theme of body snatchers. Malignant, insect-like aliens have nested in the heads of leading politicians, eaten their brains (if any) and now control them as puppets. Their diabolical plan: to subjugate humanity. Only the smart government employee Laurel figures it out. With the help of some friends and allies, she takes up the fight against the secret invasion from outer space.

Extremely funny and entertaining and a biting satire on American politics!

The OA – A Disturbing Wonder

For seven years, Prairie Johnson had disappeared without a trace. The police have long since shelved the case and her family and friends have given up all hope of seeing her alive again. Then she appears out of nowhere. She can’t or won’t say where she has been all this time. But the most unbelievable thing is: the formerly blind woman can suddenly see. What has happened to her? Is she hiding a dark secret?
Mystery at its best!

In Germany, you can watch The OA on Netflix.

Ajin Demi-Human – Immortal as Enemy of the State #1

In the near future, a few people have developed the ability to come back to life again and again, however often they die. These immortals, called Ajin, are considered a threat by the governments of all nations and are largely captured to conduct experiments on them. To justify the experiments, they are officially denied humanity. Everything changes for 17-year-old loner Kei Nagai when he is run over by a truck one day, dies and is resurrected shortly afterwards in front of his classmates. A life on the run begins…

The Japanese are at the forefront of great animated films and series! The film Ghost in the Shell and series like Full Metal Alchemist are among the best this genre has to offer. This new sci-fi series will delight anime and manga fans and all lovers of exciting, dystopian science fiction.

At Netflix, Ajin is already available – as of 27.12.2016, the 2nd season will even be available there!

Westworld – “You are not real!”

Matrix meets Western: this is perhaps the best way to describe the basic idea of Westworld. In a dystopian future, unscrupulous scientists have created a kind of gigantic amusement park: a huge western world with artificially created people and robots. These androids have no idea that they are not human and that there is a whole other world out there. But that changes one day…

The HBO series is based on the bestseller by Michael Crichton, who was later to write another novel about an amusement park out of control: Jurassic Park!

Already Westworld has a fan community and you can watch it on Sky:

Best Thriller Series 2016: Horror Series

Outcast – A Life Haunted by Demons

Kyle Barnes has been haunted by demons his whole life. He is a young man who lives alone and secluded in his parents’ home. As a child, he was abused by his demon-possessed mother. Terrible things also happen to other people around him – and Barnes blames himself for it. Therefore, he keeps away from his fellow human beings. But then a 10-year-old boy shows signs of demonic possession and the little boy is just the beginning…. Can Kyle save the boy and his town?

Developed by Robert Kirkman, the comic book writer and mastermind behind The Walking Dead, Outcast tells an extremely dark and gripping horror story about demons, where none of the characters is safe from harm.

The series Outcast is already available on DVD and BluRay at Amazon Prime Video.

The Exorcist – It’s Not Easy to Get Rid of the Devil…

Tough Angela Rance, played by Geena Davis (Thelma from Thelma and Louise), notices strange happenings in her home. Her eldest daughter also seems strangely changed since returning from college. When Angela expresses her suspicions to her priest that her house is haunted by a demon, he is initially sceptical. Until another priest appears to him in his dreams, an exorcist….
The Exorcist is also – as the title suggests – about demon possession. As with the series Fargo and Bates Motel, The Exorcist picks up the narrative thread of a great classic film. The Exorcist cleverly draws on motifs and characters from the original novel by William Peter Blatty.

You can already watch the series The Exorcist in German at Amazon Prime Video.

Slasher – The Killer Always Returns

A young woman named Katie returns with her husband to the town of her birth, where her parents were gruesomely murdered. Shortly after their arrival, a gruesome series of murders shakes the town. Everything suggests that the killer has returned and soon Katie can trust no one.

The slasher is a sub-genre of horror film whose basic principle every horror fan knows: a psychopathic killer chases after young pretty women (or men), whom he slaughters one by one with sharp cutting and stabbing weapons. Classically, these killers are themselves very hard to get dead and return again and again. This is also the case in the series Slasher, which is a homage to this genre.

Channel Zero: Candle Cove – A mysterious children’s show brings the horror…

The first season is about Candle Cove, a fictional children’s show with dolls that was only visible to a few children and resulted in the mysterious disappearance of quite a few children in the 1980s. Child psychologist Mike Painter, whose brother also disappeared at the time, wants to investigate what really happened back then. But there is no evidence for the existence of the series Candle Cove except for the memories of the now grown-up children from back then who survived….

Creepypasta are modern-day horror stories, supposedly true stories that actually happened to “a friend of a friend of a friend”. In the past, these stories were told by teenagers around the campfire, but today they are mainly spread on the internet. Channel Zero is dedicated to just such a creepypasta in every season.

On Amazon Prime Video the series Slasher is available.

Stranger Things – It Lurks on the Other Side…

November 1983: in a small town in the US state of Indiana, a 10-year-old boy disappears under mysterious circumstances. Almost at the same time, a shaven-headed little girl in hospital clothes turns up. She has psychic abilities and is being hunted by unscrupulous researchers working for the government…
Stranger Things is a small miracle – for me the series discovery 2016. Motifs from horror, mystery, science fiction and adventure films of the 80s flow together in Stranger Things to form an ingenious series cosmos, which was inspired in equal parts by Stephen King and Steven Spielberg. A masterpiece in terms of atmosphere and acting, a homage to the films of the 80s and a magnificent comeback for Winona Ryder – highly recommended!

You can watch this great series at Netflix.

What do you think? What were the most exciting and best thriller series 2016 for you? Here we go to part 1 of our recommendation list with the best tips for new drama, comedy and action series. In addition, you can find many more tips for indoor activities and generally for activities for two, with friends or with the family.

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Image source Cover image: © Netflix / Netflix / Crackle

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