Who doesn’t love a good plot twist? Plot twists might not be absolutely necessary to keep audiences invested in the shows that they’re watching, but they certainly do help. Plot twists, when done right, have the potential to really spice things up, slamming open a whole bunch of doors in all different directions for the story, and answering the audiences' questions in a way that will leave their jaws on the floor.
Thriller shows, in particular, are prone to using this narrative device, since the purpose of the thriller genre is to either creep people out or keep them on the edge of their seats, often with the use of mystery or ambiguity. It’s pretty natural for these mysteries to end in an abrupt, yet fulfilling plot twist, but some TV shows use this trope so often that it’s nearly impossible to determine what could happen next.These are the most unpredictable thriller shows, which are perfect for audiences who like being kept on their toes.
10’True Detective' (2014–)
Created by Issa López and Nic Pizzolatto
True Detectiveis a mystery series, so plot twists kind of come with the territory. Each season revolves around a different mystery with a new set of characters, involving serial killers sinister cults, political conspiracies, and disappearances. Plot twists are an absolute necessity for any mystery movie or television series, especially for neo-noirs likeTrue Detective. This really helps set it apart from traditional police procedurals or standard mystery shows.
In ten years, there have only been four seasons, but that’s okay, because the showrunners keep things lively with the twists they bring to the table. Pretty much every mystery involved in the series is so much more than it seems to be at surface level, and often devolves into something much darker and more serious. So, nothing is ever as simple as a murder or a kidnapping—there is always something more behind it.What those somethings are, though, are really hard to guess for first-time viewers, often because the secrets are uncomfortable and beyond the darkest parts of human imagination.
True Detective
9’Prison Break' (2005–2017)
Created by Paul Scheuring
Prison Break, as the name implies, is about a prison break, specifically, one involving two brothers, who are separated after one of them is accused of murdering the US Vice-President’s brother. To rescue his sibling, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), Michael Schofield (Wentworth Miller) orchestrates an elaborate escape plan, and gets himself sent to prison to enact it. While the two siblings take steps to ensure their escape, they must also unravel the political conspiracy that saw Burrows put behind bars in the first place.
Truth be told,Prison Breakkind of overstayed its welcome andjumped the shark a bittowards the end, but as for its earlier seasons, there’s so much more to it than just a simple prison escape. It isn’t just a crime thriller, but a political thriller too, one with a weaving mystery at its heart. This mysteryprovides the opportunity for lots of reveals and twists, making the early episodes very hard to predict.
Prison Break
8’Money Heist' (2017–2021)
Created by Álex Pina
Believe it or not, the Spanish TV seriesMoney Heistisabout a money heist, only this robbery is way more than meets the eye. The heist in question involves eight individuals who are recruited by an unknown leader to rob the Royal Mint of Spain, taking hostages and remaining inside the mint for nearly two weeks while one of their team prints off as much money as they can carry. Let’s be real, who doesn’t love a good heist story? Especially one with an elaborate plan that comes together beautifully.
The team is selected for a reason, mainly due to the fact that they can improvise and adapt on the fly when things go wrong. And make no mistake: things do inevitably start going wrong, as no plan is foolproof. It’s not just the flaws in the plan that keep things interesting, but there are alsoa lot of unexpected developments behind the mystery of who’s pulling the strings and for what purpose, with the shadow of the anonymous leader hanging over the show like a cloud.
Money Heist
7’You' (2018–)
Created by Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble
Youis set in New York City, withPenn Badgleystarring as Joe, a jaded bookstore manager who happens across a young woman named Guinevere (Elizabeth Lail). Guinevere is an aspiring writer, and like many writers, spends much of her spare time at bookstores looking for new adventures or potential sources of inspiration. Unfortunately for her, Joe isn’t exactly stable, and he becomes obsessed with her, devoting all of his time to stalking her.
Using the power of technology and social media, Joe is able to pull the strings behind the scenes to remove things and people that he perceives as being in the way of their love, destroying her relationships with close friends and former lovers from afar, all so he can prey upon her when the time is right. But this is only the first season—the following season follows Joe’s various “love” pursuits, each more unhealthy than the last. Because this is a thriller largely about creeping people out rather than keeping the heart rate up, lots ofthe things Joe does are absolutely despicable, and are actions that constantly keep people guessing. Each time viewers think Joe can’t out-creep himself, he does.
6'12 Monkeys' (2015–2018)
Developed by Travis Fickett and Terry Matalas
12 Monkeystakes place in the year 2043, in a bleak version of the near future. As things get worse and worse, a group of scientists utilizes time travel to head back to 2015 and prevent a mysterious organization known as the Army of the 12 Monkeys from releasing a deadly virus, contributing to the deaths of billions of people, and thus, society’s downfall. While uncovering the conspiracy, the scientists set their sights on one goal: just who is leading the Army of the 12 Monkeys, and what is their end goal?
The first season of the show was pretty mediocre, but everything after that was so much better. Obviously, with its plot involving time travel, things can get pretty convoluted, asmany time travel-themed showsand movies do. Andwith this complex web of intersecting plotlines comes numerous plot twists, many of which are highly unpredictable due to the weaving nature of the narrative.
12 Monkeys
5’Mr. Robot' (2015–2019)
Created by Sam Esmail
Mr. RobotstarsRami Malekas Elliot a cybersecurity engineer with mental health conditions and drug addiction, who is currently living in New York and spends much of his spare time working for a black hat hacktivism group called “fsociety.” The motives of the group are to cancel all consumer debt by encrypting the data of some of the largest corporations in the world, including the one that Elliot works for. Over the shadow of anything is the unknown online persona known as Mr. Robot, the anarchist leader of fsociety.
This techno-thriller has some twists that are easily foreseeable, but for the most part,plot twists are a constant presence, and often can’t be seen coming until they’re right on top of the audience. It’s a series that is kept consistently entertaining because of all the numerous turns the narrative takes, made better by one of Rami Malek’s greatest performances of his career as the cynical and jaded Elliot, who often makes a lot of really good points about the flaws in our modern world.
4’Baby Reindeer' (2024)
Created by Richard Gadd
Baby Reindeeris a recently-released Netflix miniseries that really made waves in the world of television, winning six Emmy Awards with only seven episodes. Half dark comedy and half psychological thriller,Baby Reindeeris loosely based on true eventsexperienced by the show’s creator, Scottish comedianRichard Gadd. The miniseries stars Gadd himself as Donny, an aspiring comedian working as a bartender in a London pub who happens across a woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning) at work.
Martha develops an unhealthy obsession with Donny, and over the course of several years, begins to stalk him, both online and in person. All this comes at a very bad time, as Donny is also dealing with trauma as a result of an abusive mentor, who was supposed to tutor him in comedy.Baby Reindeerisn’t a thriller in the sense that it is intense, but in the sense that it easily creeps people out, and is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.Reality is often stranger than fiction, and the numerous events that happen in the series often come out of the blue, because not many people in their worst nightmares could ever foresee the terrible things that happen to Donny.
Baby Reindeer
3'24' (2001–2014)
Created by Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow
The spy thriller24has a really unique gimmick: every hour-long episode happens in real-time, with 24 episodes making up each season, meaning each season is exactly one day or 24 hours in length. The story starsKiefer Sutherlandin what is arguably his most iconic role, Jack Bauer, a member of the fictional government agency known as the CTU, or the Counter-Terrorism Unit, performing a variety of missions across the United States, mostly in California.
The series boasts eight whole seasons over a 13-year run, and with 24 episodes per seasons, there’s a lot of room for a whole heck of a lot to happen.Given that it’s largely about espionage, political intrigue, and counter-terrorism, it really does become hard to tellwhat’s going to happen next. On top of that, its real time format makes it so much more tense, as each and every minute feels like valuable time.
2’Severance' (2022–)
Created by Dan Erickson
Severancehas been one of the most popular andsuccessful original series on Apple TV, and this is largely due to how often it leaves its audience absolutely gobsmacked. There are so many huge twists in this show, none of which can even be dreamt of by most viewers, making their impact that much more substantial. Yet,every answered question only begets a new set of questions, each of which is sure to be answered by an even more shocking turn of events.
Story-wise,Severancefollows a few employees at a fictional biotech corporation, working on various top-secret projects within the shadowy organization. All employees must forcefully undergo the process of severance, an experimental operation that splits their consciousness into two distinct halves: one for their lives inside of work, and one for their lives outside of work. The catch is that they cannot be used in tandem, and while one half is in use, the individual forgets everything from the other half that isn’t in use. It’s a unique concept that paved the way for a lot of plot twists, which is probably why it’s become so successful.
1’Black Mirror' (2016–)
Created by Charlie Brooker
Black Mirroris asci-fi thriller anthology series, meaning each episode follows new characters, and new self-contained plotlines, though they are all loosely connected. Much of the content in the series is about an overreliance on technology or AI takeovers, which often lead to disastrous consequences in the near and distant future. Because it’s presented in an anthology format, each episode ofBlack Mirroris its own story, with a definitive conclusion.
This means that pretty much every single episode has some sort of plot twist. Honestly, audiences will eventually become accustomed to having a plot twist every episode, so the idea of an impending revelation is predictable, but what is far from predictable is what that revelation will be. Each and every episode,Black Mirrornever fails to disappoint, delivering bombshell after bombshell, which doesn’t just work for the single episode in which they appear, but in the overall universe of the show. For this reason,it’s easy to say thatBlack Mirroris the single most unpredictable thriller show ever made.
