10 Thriller Sleeper Hits That Got So Much Better After Season 1

Image via FX Published Sep 5, 2026, 1:04 PM EDT Liam Gaughan is a film and TV writer at Collider. He has been writing film reviews and news coverage for ten years. Between relentlessly adding new titles to his watchlist and attending as many screenings as he can, Liam is always watching new movies and television shows. In addition to reviewing, writing, and commentating on both new and old releases, Liam has interviewed talent such as Mark Wahlberg, Jesse Plemons, Sam Mendes, Billy Eichner, Dylan O'Brien, Luke Wilson, and B.J. Novak. Liam aims to get his spec scripts produced and currently writes short films and stage plays. He lives in Allentown, PA. Sign in to your Collider account Choosing a series to commit to is an ever-evolving task within the streaming era because of the sheer amount of great content that exists. There are plenty of shows that started out strong before petering out in quality and reaching conclusions that weren’t entirely satisfying. There are also shows that suffered from having massive gaps in between seasons, resulting in momentum that is lost; although the streaming model has become dominant within the industry, it is easy to forget that television used to exist on a more regular schedule where viewers could expect to see a new season of their favorite show every year. It often takes a show a bit of time to find its groove and determine that tone that is most appropriate for the rest of its run, and they benefited from evolving after their first seasons were concluded. This is especially true for these thriller TV shows, each being a sleeper hit that only got better after its first season. 10 'Tokyo Vice' (2022–2024) Image via Warner Bros. Discovery Tokyo Vice is based on the acclaimed non-fiction novel by the journalist Jake Adelstein, who is played in the series by Ansel Elgort. It tells the incredible true story of Adelstein’s time as a reporter at the most powerful newspaper in Japan, where he investigated cases related to the yakuza and mafia. Tokyo Vice has a specific visual style that is reminiscent of the films of Michael Mann, who served as a producer and directed the pilot. Although the first season established a unique atmosphere and explained the specifics of how the Japanese criminal underworld worked, the second season got richer, deeper, and more emotional in examining the degree to which conspiracies had infected all levels of the nation’s institutions and infrastructure. Although the show was sadly cancelled too soon, the second season is among the most underrated television masterpieces of the decade. 9 'The Leftovers' (2014–2017) Image via HBO The Leftovers is a fascinating adaptation because the first season is a very faithful recreation of the novel, which offers a dark and remorseless look at grief in the aftermath of a cataclysm, an inexplicable event in which a percentage of the entire world’s population disappeared. While it was certainly compelling television, The Leftovers was so hopeless that it became a struggle to watch. The Leftovers actually improved when it moved beyond the source material and allowed showrunner Damon Lindelof to trek into much weirder science fiction territory, introducing a larger cast of characters and asking more existential questions. It is a very unique series because it opened a ton of potential mystery boxes and satisfyingly resolved them all. The series finale, “The Book of Nora,” is not only the best episode of the show, but one of the greatest finales of the 21st century. 8 'Boardwalk Empire' (2010–2014) Image via HBO Boardwalk Empire was HBO’s solution for the end of The Sopranos, as writer Terrence Winter was tasked with making another mafia show, and it was based on real events within the 1920s in which prohibition had turned gangsters into public heroes. Although the first season is quite strong, it does go to painstaking lengths to establish all of the characters and at times becomes too nasty for its own good. Boardwalk Empire evolved over time when it expanded its cast, adding great historical figures into the mix, such as Stephen Graham’s terrific take on Al Capone. Although Steve Buscemi’s iconic performance as the corrupt City Treasurer Nucky Thompson had been great from the start, the later seasons of the show painted him as a more complex character who does take his responsibilities seriously, despite being affiliated with a cohort in the mob. 7 'Patriot' (2015–2018) Image via Prime Video Patriot is a very unusual cult show that takes a very different approach to the spy genre than the slick, procedural espionage thrillers that every streamer seems to produce en masse. The series strikes a very unusual tone of being funny and tragic at the same time, and it is admittedly a bit of a challenge to get on its wavelength at the beginning because of how many intentionally subversive choices are being made. Patriot evolves significantly in its second season because it focuses more on the fractured family dynamic at the heart of the show, with Terry O’Quinn in particular giving one of the greatest performances of his career as an enigmatic spymaster. If Patriot at first felt like it was occasionally at odds with itself, it transformed into an earnest, thoughtful, and painfully truthful series about the lies people tell themselves in order to sleep at night. 6 'Halt and Catch Fire' (2014–2017) Image via AMC Halt and Catch Fire is the single most underrated television show of the 2010s, and should have vaulted to the same degree of success as Mad Men, given that they are both exciting period thrillers about evolving industries that radically reshaped society and culture. Halt and Catch Fire is initially a tough sell because it goes in-depth in exploring the rise of tech startups, and can be somewhat confusing for those who don’t have any background in engineering or business. Halt and Catch Fire quickly becomes more entertaining because the show offers viewers a blueprint of how to watch it that does not necessitate vast knowledge of technology. It’s not necessary to keep track of all of the processing terms that are being used, as Halt and Catch Fire holds emotional value through the perspectives of its characters and the impact that they have upon the world. Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would BeYour Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. 🎖️Rambo 🍸James Bond 🏺Indiana Jones 🔧John McClane 🎭Ethan Hunt FIND YOUR PARTNER → 01 You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you. ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged. NEXT QUESTION → 02 You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission. AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of. ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead. NEXT QUESTION → 04 The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are. AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability. APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership. AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters. ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had. ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up. NEXT QUESTION → 09 Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together. AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked. NEXT QUESTION → 10 It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one. AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been. REVEAL MY PARTNER → Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse. RamboYour partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know. James BondYour partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing. Indiana JonesYour partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them. John McClaneYour partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay. Ethan HuntYour partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 'Damages' (2007–2012) Image via FX Damages is a show that was ahead of its time because it elevated what a legal procedural could be and showed that there was an opportunity for award-winning movie stars to do some of their best work on television. The series examines the complex relationship between the law school graduate Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) and her new employer, the brilliant attorney Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), who becomes both a dark mentor and an antagonist. Damages gets even better after its first season because Ellen gains more power and becomes closer to an equal to Patty, making it fascinating to see the cat-and-mouse game that they play throughout the legal system in New York City. The show also continued to add compelling guest stars within its later seasons, including a rare dramatic turn from Martin Short playing against type in Season 3. 4 'Luther' (2010–2018) Image via the BBC Luther is among the most defining crime thrillers of the 2010s because it offered Idris Elba one of the most iconic roles of his career, as he created an onscreen detective unlike television had ever seen. Even though Elba had first gained praise for his amazing performance as Stringer Bell on The Wire, Luther was proof that he could be the definitive lead of a series. Luther gets better as it goes along because of the way that it distances itself from other British crime shows with its morbid, ambiguous atmosphere and sadistic villains; it occasionally crosses the line from crime thriller into outright horror with its serial killers. The series also benefited from the continued presence of Ruth Wilson, whose performance as a femme fatale anti-hero was perhaps the only time on the show in which Elba was upstaged. 3 'Industry' (2020–Present) Image via HBO Industry is the most exciting show on HBO right now because it is very impressive how a seemingly small-scale story about young employees at a British investment bank has become a sprawling odyssey that explores the global tech market and corporate conspiracies. Industry is often compared to Succession because they are set within a highly complex world of finance and power, and both force the audience to reckon with characters who are despicable and at times completely unlikeable. Although this is a hurdle that some viewers might struggle to get past in the first season because of how caustic it can be, Industry is worth sticking with because of how much grander the scope gets and the increasingly dark humor that distinguishes it from other HBO dramas. There’s frankly nothing like it on television, and the stage is set for an exciting final season. 2 'The Old Man' (2022–2024) Image via FX The Old Man is an old-fashioned spy thriller based on a popular novel that gives Jeff Bridges one of the best roles of his career. Bridges is an all-time great actor who has been doing terrific work ever since his breakout role in The Last Picture Show, but The Old Man is the most engaged he has been in a project since appearing in the remake of True Grit that was directed by the Coen brothers. The first season of The Old Man was a breath of fresh air within the spy thriller genre, and it only got better from then on out when it was able to expand beyond the story of the book and get into even more personal territory. While it was sadly cancelled, the second season is so satisfying that it is still worthwhile to finish it off. 1 'Primal' (2019–Present) Image via Adult Swim Primal is unlike any other animated show, and it could have only ever been made by Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of cartoon classics like Samurai Jack. Although Tartakovsky is responsible for making many excellent shows on Cartoon Network, being able to work within the expanded content guidelines of Adult Swim gave him the chance to make one of the most brutal, eye-popping, and ambitious animated series of all time. The first season of Primal is a fascinating thought experiment that takes interesting narrative risks with its fantasy components and wordless style, but the series turns into an epic saga of friendship and futility as it expands. Although Season 2 seemingly closed off the show on a definitive note, Season 3 from early 2026 took a radical fantasy approach to rebooting the premise, making it even more captivating than it has ever been. Primal Release Date October 8, 2019 Network Adult Swim Cast Laëtitia Eïdo Mira (voice) Aaron LaPlante Spear (voice) Showrunner Genndy Tartakovsky