Five Netflix mysteries where you’ll never guess the killer
You think you are good at guessing. You think you have watched enough true crime on Netflix to know who is lying. You are one of those people who spot the weird neighbour in the first scene. You pause to clock who was missing from the group shot.
But the real treat isn’t when you are right… It’s when the show exceeds the expectations and proves you wrong. Not because they trick you, but because they let you believe you are right, then slowly destroy that confidence by the end of episode six.
That is the kind of mystery Netflix is holding onto right now. Sure, there are some shows designed specifically for doom scrolling, but these five, these are no cheap shockers. You don’t see dramatic reveals for drama’s sake. These are shows that build their tension slowly and then land the final twist like it was always there, and somehow, you still missed it.
If you are up for something that will ruin your detective ego and leave you sitting in silence, these are the five that will absolutely mess with your instincts.
Five Netflix mysteries where you’ll never guess the killer
Broadchurch (2013-2017)
When you play Broadchurch, you might think you are watching a simple case. A kid is found on the beach of a small town. Naturally, you get grieving parents, but you also get two cops who clearly do not want to work together. And then one conversation happens, followed by another, and before you know it, it stops being about solving anything. Instead, it starts being about how many people are hiding something. It gets uncomfortable really fast.
People you trusted ten minutes ago suddenly say one sentence, and everything changes. You start getting mad at the show for making you doubt everyone, but you can’t help but watch. And when the mystery is revealed, all of a sudden, it does not feel like a twist but a betrayal. Not because it comes out of nowhere, but because it doesn’t. You keep telling yourself that you could have known. You should have. Because once you know the truth, you see every scene differently.
The Sinner (2017-2021)
Ah, for this show, you will need to brace yourself because this isn’t one of your limited-episode series. It starts with the murder in daylight without any mask or running. There is not even a mystery about who did it; they just do it. You do not spend this show guessing who the killer is. You already know. They are standing there, covered in blood, fully responsible. Because the real question is not what they did, it is why. And that “why” will take you places you are absolutely not ready for.
And Detective Ambrose? He is the only person who sees it all clearly and still keeps digging. The beauty of The Sinner is that it does not hand you one clear explanation or one terrible secret. It keeps revealing things in pieces, pulling you deeper into something way more disturbing than you expected.
Marcella (2016-2020)
Marcella makes you think you are watching a detective solve crimes, but half an hour in, you realise you are actually watching someone lose her grip on reality. Marcella blacks out for hours, and when she wakes up, there is blood. Sometimes bruises. Sometimes, some things cannot be explained. And the case she’s working on starts to mirror her past, which feels like someone is playing with her. Or maybe it’s her. You never really know.
Marcella will make you feel completely unsteady. You are constantly jumping between empathy and suspicion. You want to believe her, but then something happens, and you freeze. Because if she doesn’t remember what she has done, then how do you? The killer is hiding somewhere inside this story, and there is a moment where you wonder if they have been on screen the entire time, and you just weren’t ready to see it.
Clickbait (2021)
It’s very rare these days that you get a show that truly hides the gist in its name. Clickbait belongs to the same category. It starts when a man is kidnapped and a viral video surfaces. He is holding a sign that says if the video reaches five million views, he dies. And then it gets worse. More signs. More confessions. Things that don’t make sense unless he is not the person his family thought he was. You start looking at everyone, including his brother and wife. Not just them, but the coworkers are suspects too. Every episode shifts the spotlight, and every time things start to make sense, the next episode pulls the rug out from under you.
And it’s not just about what happened. It’s about how fast the internet decides what the truth is. And how wrong that truth can be. You will keep thinking the story is about revenge or secrets or exposure, but by the end, the real question hits you out of nowhere. How far can someone go before people stop seeing them as a person? If you are a Black Mirror fan, this one will fit like a glove.
The Stranger (2020)
To finish the list, we have a Netflix show that feels completely harmless at first. A stranger walks up, says something impossible, and walks away. And as he leaves, he leaves behind a crumbling marriage, a crumbling family and a broken friendship. One secret becomes five. Five becomes twenty. And you start realising the entire town is held together by lies so thin it only takes one nudge to bring the whole place down. Every time you think you have found the thread, the show switches direction, and you have no option but to start over.
But what makes it truly evil is that on the surface, it all looks silent. The streets look extraordinarily clean with regular houses and normal people. But behind every door, there is something awful waiting, and none of it is random. By the time you meet the killer, you have already trusted them, believed them, and even defended them in your head. Without revealing much, we will let you figure this one out on your own.