Television series
Blackout
- Political drama
- Crime
- Mystery
- Very dark
A three-part thriller where a corrupt council official wakes from a blackout with no memory of the night before—and a murder to explain. Eccleston anchors a taut, morally murky story that treats mystery less as puzzle than as character crisis. It's lean British drama that trusts you to sit with uncomfortable questions.
If you liked this
Bodyguard2018
A taut six-part thriller about secrets, corruption, and a man caught between duty and survival. Jed Mercurio's breakneck plotting and Richard Madden's intensity will grip you the same way.
But It's a procedural that occasionally favours shock twists over believable human motivation. Some plot threads feel engineered rather than lived.
Luther2010
Idris Elba as a detective spiralling under the weight of unsolved cases and moral compromise. Like Blackout, it's about smart men whose flaws become their undoing.
But It gets increasingly gothic and melodramatic as it goes on. The later seasons lean hard into operatic darkness at the expense of restraint.
The Fall2013
A slow-burn cat-and-mouse between a detective and a killer, both intelligent and damaged. It shares Blackout's interest in what happens when ordinary people commit terrible things.
But Pacing can feel glacial. If you need plot momentum and clear answers, this will frustrate you.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Blackout
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Mystic River2003
Both are stories where a man wakes into a world he may have broken, unsure what he's capable of. The real mystery is always internal—what have I become, and did I choose it?
Clint Eastwood's masterpiece about three men haunted by a childhood trauma and the violence it begets. A meditation on guilt, memory, and whether the truth matters anymore. The emotional weight and moral ambiguity will stay with you.
But At two and a half hours, it's unhurried. It demands patience and rewards it, but not everyone wants to sit with sadness for that long.
More like this (8)
The Witness for the Prosecution2016
A perfectly constructed three-part mystery from the BBC that plays similar games with unreliable memory and hidden guilt. Agatha Christie's plot is machinery, but it's immaculate machinery.
But It's stagebound and a touch theatrical. If you want grit and modern texture, this won't provide it.
In the Dark2019
A Scandinavian noir about a morally compromised investigator in a provincial town. Shares the atmosphere of small-town rot and the sense that everyone has something to hide.
But It's slow and deliberately bleak. Some viewers find the protagonist too unlikeable to root for.
Fortitude2015
A strange, unsettling Arctic noir with an exceptional cast and a real sense of moral vertigo. Christopher Eccleston is even in it, playing a different kind of damaged authority figure.
But The mythology gets tangled and overstuffed. It bites off more than it can chew in later seasons.
Casualties of War1989
Brian De Palma's brutal film about complicity and how good men do terrible things. Michael J. Fox as a soldier watching crimes unfold is a study in helpless moral collapse.
But It's genuinely difficult to watch in places. De Palma doesn't flinch from the horror he's depicting, and neither will you.
Gone Girl2014
A thriller about hidden selves and the gap between who we appear to be and who we actually are. Fincher's control and the twists keep you constantly off-balance.
But Some find it cynical rather than insightful. The intelligence can feel cold, or even smug.
In the Loop2009
A dark comedy about bumbling politicians and the chaos of power. Like Blackout, it's interested in corrupt officials and what they do when things spiral.
But The satire is broad and the dialogue is thick with improv. If you want something serious, this tonal shift will jar.
Stalker1979
Both explore the idea of waking up—Blackout literally, Stalker spiritually—and discovering you might not like the person you find. Both ask whether self-knowledge is a gift or a curse.
Andrei Tarkovsky's science-fiction meditation on desire, faith, and what we're willing to do to get what we want. Utterly unlike anything mainstream, but hypnotic if it catches you. A philosophical slow-burn about a man leading others toward a truth he may not want to find.
But It's almost three hours long and deliberately paced. There's no plot in any conventional sense. Most people find it either transcendent or interminable.
The Night Of2016
Both centre on a protagonist trying to reconstruct a night he can't remember while the world assumes the worst. But where Blackout is a three-hour sprint, The Night Of is a patient excavation of doubt—his own, the police's, the viewer's.
An eight-part HBO miniseries about a man arrested for murder and the slow machinery of justice grinding him down. Riz Ahmed gives a performance of devastating ordinariness, and John Turturro is extraordinary. Less about solving a crime than about what the system does to innocent flesh.
But The pacing is deliberately languid. Justice moves slowly, and so does this show. If you want answers and momentum, you'll be frustrated for most of it.
