There are few crime dramas as beloved as HBO’s True Detective. The anthology series, which premiered in 2014, is still going strong with four seasons of excellent episodes. The show has already attracted tons of A-list stars, including Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Colin Farrell, Mahershala Ali, and Jodie Foster, and has racked up an astounding 41 Emmy nominations and six wins. With a new fascinating mystery to solve each season, it’s easy to see why True Detective has earned so many devoted fans. But its fourth season aired in 2024, and a brand-new season won’t premiere until 2027. That means that viewers obsessed with the show’s creepy vibes and compelling characters need another show to fill the void. Luckily, an older series with the same elements is now streaming on Netflix.
What Is ‘The Sinner’ About?
The Sinner originally aired on the USA Network from 2017 to 2021. The series is definitely similar to True Detective, and the dark, twisty show is sure to have you glued to your screen for all 32 episodes. The anthology series presents a new case to solve in each of its four seasons, and the throughline is a police detective named Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman). Like all good protagonists, Harry is dealing with his own demons that influence how he goes about solving his cases.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
Season 1 will instantly draw you in when Cora Tannetti (Jessica Biel), who seems like your average housewife and mother, brutally stabs a man partying with his friends on the beach in broad daylight. Cora, appearing to be in some sort of trance, calmly walks up to him and carries out this horrific act. Harry is pulled onto the case, and becomes obsessed with trying to figure out Cora’s motive (especially because Cora seems a bit stumped by her actions as well). His investigation into her past, and the disturbing flashbacks to Cora’s life, create a gripping plot that sings with morbid themes of deceit, repressed trauma, and plenty of psychological mayhem. The Sinner was originally intended as a stand-alone eight-episode miniseries, but the success of the show led to it morphing into an anthology series with a brand-new supporting cast and an intriguing mystery for Harry to solve in each installation.
‘The Sinner’s Anthology Twist Makes It an Addictive Must-Watch Series
The Sinner utilizes many unique elements to fully draw you into Harry’s world. The cinematography and production design both work together to form an eerie tone that perfectly matches Cora’s layered story. When the timeline switches to the past, it’s easy to see the change in perspective, and how Cora’s dark background influences the events in the current narrative. This thread of the creepy setting serving as part of the storytelling carries through in each season of The Sinner. By creating plot points that are heart-racing in their intensity, the anthology format for the show makes it instantly worthy of a binge watch. The introduction of a new case in each season also helps avoid the dreaded boredom that can come with a premise that gets tired quickly. With The Sinner, there’s never a chance for viewers to sit back and relax, since the storytelling always pushes forward with a tense and suspenseful pace.
The 10 Best Anthology Series on Netflix, Ranked
“Show us something real and free and beautiful.”
The main reason to tune into The Sinner has to be the masterful performance offered by Pullman. His grounded, yet subtly damaged portrayal of Harry allows the series to move through future seasons with ease. Biel, who nabbed an Emmy nomination for her work, also gives one of the best performances of her career as the fractured Cora. Her scenes sparkle with an electric energy that often feels dangerous. Later seasons of the show feature impressive performances by Carrie Coon, Matt Bomer, Chris Messina, and Frances Fisher. Each of these incredible actors help to bring a fresh aura to the show. As soon as you dive into the series, it’s easy to see why it’s earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92%.
Because we don’t have an exact date when True Detective will appear back on our screens, The Sinner is the perfect substitute for a binge-watch. With eerie and mysterious plotlines and deliciously enigmatic characters, The Sinner consistently matches True Detective‘s brilliant, chilling narratives. With a similar, slightly supernatural thread of darkness and evil, The Sinner will never fail to keep your attention.
