4 dark mystery shows to watch after Bodies on Netflix (and 2 to skip)

After finishing your binge-watch of Netflix’s latest mystery series Bodies, you’re probably fiending for more shows just like it. Luckily for you, these short dark thriller shows are kind of Netflix’s bread and butter, especially if you’re open to watching series from other countries. Germany, in particular, has several and once you enter the world of Nordic noir and Scandinavian thrillers, you’ll never turn back.

But for those interested in specific recommendations of what to watch after finishing all eight episodes of the time-traveling saga based on the comic book series of the same name, we’ve curated a list of four other shows on Netflix worth checking out (and a couple that are skips, but see more below).

Dark

The German series Dark is not only one of the best Netflix Originals of all time, but one of the best and most rewarding shows about time travel you’ll probably ever watch. If you really enjoyed Bodies but felt it was a little too simple at times, you’ll really appreciate Dark’s complexity. It’s a series that also rewards multiple viewings and got the chance to tell a complete story. It begins with the disappearance of two children and the unraveling of a small town’s secret past.

Freud

Another German series, Freud is super underrated and perfect for anyone looking for an ominous mystery series, especially if you enjoyed the Bodies storylines set in the past. Sadly, this is another show that was canceled after one season (or seems to be anyway, given there has been no update), but it still tells a full story and can be viewed like a miniseries for the most part.

Like the title suggests, it follows famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud as he investigates a series of murders and finds himself wrapped up in an occult conspiracy. Penny Dreadful fans, in particular, should check this one out, just don’t go into it expecting historical accuracy.

Dear Child

Apparently the Germans are just really good at making short dark mystery shows because this is another one! I didn’t even realize how many I’d put on here until I started writing it, but they’re good shows, so whatever. Dear Child is one of the newest additions to Netflix, as it just released earlier this year. Based on a popular book, it centers on a confounding and highly disturbing investigation into the disappearance of a young woman and a man who kept her in captivity for years.

Inside Man

Stanley Tucci, Lydia West, and David Tennant star in this English thriller about a death row inmate who crosses paths in a surprising way with a woman trapped in a cellar beneath a vicarage. It’s a short and addictive binge at just four episodes and if you missed out when it blew up on Netflix, now is the perfect time to catch up.

The following shows are skips, but ONLY because they end on cliffhangers and were canceled before getting the chance to let their entire stories/mysteries play out. I happen to have loved both of the series listed below and still mourn their early cancellations.

If you’re okay with watching something that doesn’t fully resolve its mysteries (or does and then opens a new can of worms), then by all means give them a shot, these two will fill the Bodies-shaped hole in your heart—but leave you with a new one.

Archive 81

I’m still so sad that Archive 81 was canceled because it was one of my favorite debut seasons of a Netflix show maybe ever. I watched it soon after the films Broadcast Signal Intrusion and Censor, which made it feel particularly timely to me.

Based on the podcast of the same name, Archive 81 follows an archivist (Mamoudou Athie) hired to restore old videotapes from a grad student’s (Dina Shihabi) investigation into a mysterious apartment building that burned down. As the story unravels, the archivist finds himself increasingly obsessed with finding out what happened to the missing woman and uncovers a secret cult connected to the building.

1899

Dark creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar re-teamed for this multilingual mystery series about a group of European emigrants on a ship bound for New York. But the passengers soon find themselves facing a perplexing riddle as strange events start occurring onboard related to a missing vessel called the Kerberos. Again, 1899 is great and engrossing, but it got canceled after just one season, leaving a lot of unresolved mysteries behind.