Credit: Netflix

Is it funny, or is it ironic, how we condemn someone else for doing something awful, then find every excuse when we are the ones doing it, especially if our pride’s been hurt? If you find that relatable, then these five Netflix limited series are right up your alley.

You see, darker limited series on the platform usually do a brilliant job at showing how ugly that double standard can get… Like how often has it been that someone really respectable has come out to be morally the ugliest?

And if you sprinkle obsession on it, oh, the way it makes things worse, because once someone is convinced they have been wronged, it is child’s play for them to go from wanting answers to being downright cruel.

So get ready to be uneasy this week, as you understand why someone feels hurt, even sympathise with them, then watch them do the worst thing while insisting they are in the right. These five limited series specialise in that.

Five best limited series to watch on Netflix this weekend

Run Away (2026)

Let’s start with the breadwinner of Netflix thrillers, Harlan Coben, and one of his 2026 hits, Run Away. The man has made a living out of wrecking respectable families, and we enjoy them shamelessly because, hey, that’s not our problem.

Run Away starts with James Nesbitt’s Simon, a successful family man whose teenage daughter, Paige, develops a drug addiction and disappears. He then finds her in a city park, which should be a sigh of relief for everyone, including himself, but only if things were not as easy in a Coben classic. Simon gets into a violent altercation with her boyfriend Aaron, and Paige runs off once more.

And then occurs the last thing you need: Aaron turns up dead. Obviously, Simon is dragged into a murder investigation while the poor guy is still trying to find his daughter, and his search starts pulling him towards a criminal world he knew nothing about.

Killer Soup (2024)

Nope, don’t get distracted by the title, as it’s not some Ramsay food docuseries. This ambitious Netflix thriller tells you how just dreaming about wanting your own restaurant can end up in the death of people. It starts with Swathi, an aspiring chef whose food is… let’s say the restaurant dream has a few obstacles. Her husband, Prabhakar, won’t back the idea either, which would not just be a dream-breaker but a heartbreaker.

Swathi, though? She is having an affair with Umesh, who happens to look uncannily like her husband. Yes, as crazy as it sounds, and it still gets worse. Then a death occurs, and Swathi decides Umesh can pass himself off as Prabhakar. Sounds like a solid plan so far, eh?

And this woman doesn’t stop even when the police start poking their nose. A suspicious inspector gets involved, and as if that wasn’t a massive twist, they have a blackmailer too. If you love yourself an evening full of twists and turns, then Killer Soup should be in your bowl.

The Gardener (2025)

Now, The Gardener has one hell of a family business going on, because Elmer and his mother are not just running a garden centre… They are using the place as cover for contract killings. Álvaro Rico plays Elmer, who lost the ability to feel emotions after a childhood accident, and his mother, La China Jurado, takes full advantage of that disability. Hey, yo, some Mother of the Year stuff is going on here.

So the plan is quite smooth: Elmer does the killing, and she keeps the operation moving. Then along comes Violeta, a nursery school teacher Elmer has been hired to kill, and man, romance has always been the death of such deadly plans. Soon he develops feelings for her (which is ironic given he couldn’t feel anything), and, naturally, his mom is unhappy. Six episodes of murder and manipulation, and this Spanish thriller will keep you on the hook

My Name (2021)

Off to Korea we go with My Name and we enter revenge territory. Yoon Ji-woo watches her father get shot dead outside their home on her birthday, and from that point she is done waiting around for answers. She goes straight to Choi Mu-jin, a drug lord who knew her father, and he takes her in as he trains her to fight and gives her a way into the criminal world she thinks will lead to the killer.

Then Mu-jin sends her into the police under the name Oh Hye-jin, because apparently revenge was not enough already. She joins the narcotics unit as she works alongside detective Jeon Pil-do and starts finding evidence that does not sit with the story she has been fed. Soon she is stuck between the people who trained her and the truth she has been chasing from the start. How does Yoon Ji-woo deal with this dilemma… Then the answer is yours to find out.

Anthracite (2024)

The last star of the list is Anthracite, which is associated with a religious cult and a mass suicide in the French Alps, and if that wasn’t enough, add the murder of a teenage girl back in 1994. Thirty years pass, and then journalist Solal Heilman disappears while investigating the case. His daughter Ida goes to the mountain village of Lévionna to find him, and because she is an amateur internet sleuth with no intention of leaving things as they are, every door she opens seems to uncover another reason the locals would prefer she packed her bags.

Then she runs into Jaro Gatsi, a young man with a criminal past and a connection to the old cult that is… well, awkward. New disappearances start dredging up fears that whatever happened in 1994 never went away, and village people are not happy. Who is behind all of it, and what happened 30 years ago? It’s crazy how all the answers are provided in a limited series while some shows take years to solve just one mystery.