What's the best genre of foreign TV series?
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Honestly, I’d always be on the edge too—those breath‑holding moments after a pulsating track, when you have no idea what’s coming next, I’d be glued to the screen. I was watching “The Night Of” the other day, and that cell scene with the show’s quiet lawyer Richard and Lance Reddick—man, I was practically off the screen! I was seriously biting my nails; the excitement in those moments is indescribable, bro.
But lately I’ve been drifting into sci‑fi, especially dystopian stuff like “Black Mirror.” For example, the “San Junipero” episode was so moving that I started getting a runny nose while watching it. You know how you bite your nails in a thriller? Here, your heart aches. So, in my opinion, the best genre is the thriller you choose because it can completely mess with your emotions!
When you say thriller, the first thing that pops into my head is honestly “True Detective” (season 1). It’s a thriller that eats you alive with emotional depth—shitty characters and the struggle to chase the unknown. While you’re watching, you end up leaning closer to the screen, nails digging right in.
In my opinion, a thriller doesn’t work unless you get that “what the hell is happening?” feeling. For example, the hardest thriller I’ve seen in the past two years was “The Night Of”—it handles crime and punishment so ruthlessly that you lose hope in justice. It’s basically in the same category as yours.
If it’s sci‑fi, it has to be character‑driven, otherwise it’s just a paper‑thin crowd. “The Leftovers” actually veers a bit into sci‑fi, but the human drama is so dominant that you watch it without shifting to another dimension. Even “Severance” nails that balance, using technology not with brute force but by grinding the characters.
In drama, if you have cut‑throat family dynamics like in “Succession,” it automatically slides into the thriller category. I sometimes find myself watching pieces as harsh as the ones where my mom used to beat me. That’s the sweet spot, where all genres bleed into each other.
Tension is undeniably the toughest opponent out there. As someone who’s watched Hitchcock‑style movies, I can say that TV shows have that same tension element too—keeping the adrenaline constantly high. You watch it, bro, and it both gives you a nervous itch and gnaws at you from the inside. For example, the *You* series helped Netflix blow up the dark‑tourism trend; the obsessive psychology of Joe Goldberg mixes with the suspense, pushing your adrenaline beyond the point of scratching your nails. Technically, the constant close‑ups that lock the gaze and the rising sound effects in quiet moments (you know, that “whistle” sound or footsteps) are the classic ways to crank up the tension. Add in writers who drive characters into psychological chaos, and you get a real pull‑in.
But I think we also need to give a special spot to the *sci‑fi thriller* genre that sits on the border between suspense and sci‑fi. Take *Black Mirror*, which wraps up a concept in a single episode, or *Stranger Things*, which buries ’80s nostalgia deep into pop culture and becomes one of the strongest examples of supernatural tension. If this is the kind of show that makes you bite your nails, you’re already in the heart of the tension. Using a static camera in dramatic moments, focusing on how a character’s inner conflict spills outward, is the writer’s extra touch. In the end, the main goal of tension is to make the viewer forget even to breathe.
Drama, of course! But not just any drama—the kind that rips into the characters' psychology and shreds your insides. In the US or the UK, drama series usually go for stories whose ending is a hundred percent known, and I think those are a bit lazy. My favorite style is what you see in BBC productions: in shows like *Years and Years* the future is portrayed so fragile and unpredictable that I literally chewed my nails while watching. The characters are so real that getting stressed with them and fumbling for solutions is incredibly satisfying.
But hey, as a thriller‑loving person I agree: in chase‑after stories like *The Night Of* and *True Detective*, you have to crank up the tension in the background while the characters deepen, and still leave the audience breathless—it takes skill. I think you should try a drama too, man—starting with *The Crown* was something I loved. It presents the queen’s secrets so calmly that you end up taking deep breaths even in those stressful moments. Which one do you prefer?
From the nail‑biting tension, I can tell I’m at the most basic level, honestly 😅 But because of that, I’d probably pull out the seven most dramatic ones—at least I can guess how many nails I’d sacrifice. I’m an emoji 😂