Television series
The Smile Has Left Your Eyes
A Korean thriller about a jaded detective drawn into the orbit of a charming sous chef when his girlfriend's death looks like murder. Tense, baroque, and thoroughly committed to the idea that beautiful people can be rotten—it's a show that trusts you to sit with moral ambiguity and doesn't look away from cruelty.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love slow-burn psychological crime, where the pleasure is in reading a suspect's charm and lies, and you don't mind a romance tangled up in the investigation.
Skip it if you want a tidy whodunit with clear clues, since this one leans on mood, moral murk and a suspect whose appeal is the point, and that can feel frustrating.
What it asks of you: Sixteen hour-long episodes that take their time, building dread through conversation and lingering looks rather than quick reveals, so it asks for patience across a long stretch.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Killing Eve2018
A show about the intoxicating dynamic between hunter and hunted, where the villain is magnetic and the detective's obsession becomes its own kind of sickness. Brilliantly plotted, darkly funny, utterly gripping.
But The pacing can feel scattered across episodes, and some viewers find the tone shifts—from thriller to comedy to psychological horror—unsettling rather than clever.
Flower of Evil2020
Another Korean thriller about buried secrets and a marriage built on lies, where the real mystery isn't whodunit but what someone is capable of. Patient, gorgeous cinematography, genuinely devastating.
But It demands genuine attention—no scrolling—and moves slower than Western thrillers. Some twists are signposted if you're paying close enough.
The Fall2013
A detective hunts a serial killer through Belfast with the same obsessive intensity. Stella Gibson is ice and steel; Jamie Dornan's killer is ordinary and terrifying. Cat-and-mouse at its finest.
But It's genuinely upsetting—the violence against women is neither sanitised nor sensationalised, which can be harder to watch than spectacle. Slow-burn second season loses some momentum.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Smile Has Left Your Eyes
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Handmaiden2016
Both explore how attraction and seduction are weapons, and how the detective/pursuer can become as corrupted as the hunted. Both ask: who is really deceiving whom?
Park Chan-wook's greatest film: a con game, a gothic romance, and a psychological spiral all at once. Intricate, sensual, shocking—it's about manipulation and how desire makes you stupid.
But It's sexually explicit, and the structure demands you watch it twice to understand what's actually happened. Some find the graphic content exploitative rather than purposeful.
More like this (8)
MINDHUNTER2017
The birth of criminal psychology, told through the obsessions of FBI profilers learning to think like killers. Meticulous, intelligent, and deeply unsettling for the right reasons.
But It was cancelled on a cliffhanger after two seasons. Also: bureaucracy and process aren't everyone's idea of gripping—some find it academic rather than thrilling.
Bodyguard2018
A British political thriller where paranoia and trauma make a man dangerous to himself and others. Six episodes, absolutely relentless, every episode ends on a gut-punch.
But The final twist divides people sharply—some find it inspired, others feel it undermines everything that came before. Also brutally bleak.
Mystic River2003
Three childhood friends, a murder, and the way trauma warps how people see each other. Clint Eastwood's masterpiece about guilt, paranoia, and the stories we tell ourselves.
But It's deliberately ambiguous in ways that frustrate viewers who want clear answers. Pacing is methodical; some find it drags.
Gone Girl2014
A marriage is a minefield, and a missing wife thriller that pivots to ask what happens when the victim is also the villain. Darkly funny, perfectly constructed, Ben Affleck in peak humiliation.
But The second half shifts tone dramatically—some find it betrays the first half's tone rather than deepens it. Also: it's become a bit of a cultural shorthand, so the shock has dulled.
Bad Genius2017
A Thai thriller about a honour student who runs an exam cheating ring. Tense, ingenious plotting, and a protagonist who's neither hero nor villain but something more complicated.
But If you don't engage with the characters early, the elaborate con sequences won't land. Some find the moral framework too alien to Western crime storytelling.
Sick Nurses2007
A Thai horror-thriller about nurses and murder, visually stylish and genuinely upsetting. If you want something nasty that doesn't apologise, this delivers.
But It's trashy by design—plot holds together loosely, the logic sometimes bends for spectacle. Also quite graphic. Not for everyone even as a guilty pleasure.
Memories of Murder2003
Both are Korean crime stories that refuse to make the detective heroic and suggest that proximity to evil corrupts everyone. Both care more about psychology than plot.
A South Korean serial killer investigation where the system fails and obsession curdles into something darker. Bong Joon-ho's masterpiece: procedural on the surface, philosophical underneath.
But It's slow and deliberately unglamorous. The ending is deliberately unsatisfying if you're looking for resolution. Heavy, not cathartic.
Le Samouraï1967
Both centre on a beautiful, charming man defined by his emotional blankness, and the detective's inability to predict his next move. Both suggest that some people are simply other—not reachable, not fixable.
Melville's ice-cold meditation on a contract killer and his obsessive focus. No dialogue for long stretches, exquisite control, the cinematic equivalent of watching someone dismantle their own life.
But It moves at its own glacial pace. If you're looking for action or emotional catharsis, this will feel like watching paint dry. Deliberately alienating.
