Shows Like
Shows Like Killing Eve: Cat-and-Mouse Thrillers
By Jordan A. · · 7 min read
Killing Eve is addictive in a way that most shows can't even attempt. The chemistry between Jodie Comer's Villanelle and Sandra Oh's Eve is magnetic, electrifying, dangerous, and weirdly intimate. It's that cat-and-mouse dynamic where the line between hunter and hunted keeps shifting, where the antagonist is charismatic and funny and capable of genuine darkness, and where the obsession becomes mutual. If you're looking for shows like Killing Eve, you're hunting for that same intoxicating combination of psychological tension, dark humor, and leads with impossible chemistry doing terrible things while we watch with rapt attention.
The best shows in this vein understand that the thriller element works best when you're actually invested in the characters, when you care about what happens to them even (or especially) when they're morally compromised. We're looking for twisted relationships, shocking character moments, and that delicious tension of not knowing what someone will do next.
Electric Lead Chemistry
Mindhunter with Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany is FBI profiler work in the 1970s, building the behavioral analysis unit. The tension is more methodical than Killing Eve - it's less about action and more about conversation, psychology, and the slow creeping dread of understanding how serial killers think. But the relationship between the two leads develops with genuine complexity, and the show respects your intelligence enough to let scenes breathe.
Fleabag (yes, again, but for different reasons) has that dysfunctional relationship energy. The Fox - played by Bill Nighy - appears late in season two, and the dynamic between him and Fleabag crackles with tension, danger, and attraction. It's not a cat-and-mouse thriller, but it has similar DNA in terms of two people locked in an intimate dance that's both attraction and repulsion.
The Fall with Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) and serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) is arguably what Killing Eve owes the most to. A detective and a killer in psychological games, beautiful cinematography, and Gillian Anderson's performance is absolutely magnetic. The pacing is slow and methodical, and by season two when Stella's obsession with the case parallels Paul's obsession with her, it becomes a genuinely twisted love story. Fair warning: it's dark and gets darker.
You is maybe too on-the-nose (it's a thriller told from the stalker's perspective), but if you haven't seen it, Penn Badgley plays Joe Goldberg, and his narration directly draws you into complicity with a deeply disturbed person. The relationships in the show - with Beck, with Love, with anyone really - have that same quality of obsession and control. The show is less about subtlety than Killing Eve, but the psychological games are there.
Dark Humor and Morally Gray Characters
Barry with Bill Hader is about a hitman trying to become an actor, and it's funny in a way that requires you to laugh at absolutely horrible people doing horrible things. The dark comedy works because Bill Hader's deadpan delivery and the characters' genuine emotional moments make them more than caricatures. You're rooting for a murderer, and somehow the show makes you care.
Hannibal is the dark, beautiful, deeply weird predecessor to everything we're talking about. Hugh Dancy as FBI profiler Will Graham and Mads Mikkelsen as the elegant cannibal Hannibal Lecter have a relationship that's almost romantic in its twisted intensity. It's visually gorgeous, psychologically complex, and genuinely disturbing. The show gets cancelled before it overstays its welcome, which is actually a gift.
Dexter (early seasons, specifically one through four) is about a serial killer who works for the Miami police department. Michael C. Hall is phenomenal, and the premise is inherently dark and twisted. Watch it for the early seasons when the writing is tight and the psychological games actually matter. After season four, the quality drops significantly, but what comes before is genuinely excellent.
Better Call Saul is less a thriller than a character study of a lawyer becoming a criminal, but the psychological complexity, the way Jimmy McGill's obsession with Kim Wexler drives both of their descents, and the patient, methodical storytelling all echo Killing Eve's best qualities. The moral ambiguity is constant, and by season four you're watching people you care about make increasingly terrible choices and can't look away.
Obsession and Psychological Games
Bodyguard is a British thriller about a police officer assigned to protect a politician he despises, and the tension that builds between them is absolutely electric. It's six episodes, it moves like a freight train, and it has genuine plot twists that land. Tom Hiddleston-adjacent charisma from the lead, and the psychological games between protection and danger are central.
Line of Duty is British police procedural about a task force investigating corrupt officers, and it's absolutely addictive. The cat-and-mouse games between the detectives and the bent cops, the psychological warfare across interrogation rooms, the reveals that make you reassess everything - it's compulsively watchable. The interrogation scenes are masterclass in tension.
The Woman in Cabin 10 is BBC adaptation of Ruth Ware's thriller about a journalist on a cruise ship where someone goes overboard. It's shorter (four episodes) but it builds genuine dread and has an ending that genuinely shocks. The obsession with finding the truth and the twisted relationships between the passengers drive it forward.
Villains (if you can find it) or Villanelle: Origins gives you more of what you wanted - deeper dives into how killers become who they are. The companion content to Killing Eve is essential if you want to understand the character work that makes Villanelle so compelling.
Twisted Relationships and Darkness
The Americans with Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell is about Soviet KGB officers living as American married couple during the Cold War. Their relationship is based on a lie, their children don't know who they are, and the obsession with their handlers and their missions parallels the obsession in Killing Eve. It's slower burn than Killing Eve but the emotional payoffs are devastating.
Villanelle (the prequel series showing her origins) is a gift if you were obsessed with that character. It explains how she became who she is without explaining away her darkness. The episodes about her early life are darker and more tragic than the main series.
Bodyguard (worth mentioning again because the tension is really that good) has that same quality of two people locked in a psychological game where you're not sure who's manipulating whom. The obsession between them is the entire point.
Killing Eve: Villanelle - if you finished the series and need more content, the various supplementary materials and interviews dig into the psychology that made the show work. The character study of a psychopath who's also weirdly vulnerable is what makes the whole thing sing.
Cat-and-Mouse Thrillers
Mindhunter (mentioned above but worth emphasizing) builds to a scene where a serial killer they interviewed commits a murder they could have prevented. The guilt, the obsession, the psychological toll - it's all there.
Sherlock (BBC's modern version) between Sherlock and Moriarty has that same electric tension. Andrew Scott as Moriarty steals every scene, and the psychological games between the detective and the criminal are central to why the show works.
The Fall really can't be overstated for fans of Killing Eve. The obsession builds episode by episode, and the third season pays off years of psychological gamesmanship between pursuer and pursued.
Mindhunter season two particularly focuses on the hunt for the BTK killer, and the obsession that develops in trying to catch someone who's genuinely brilliant at not getting caught has real tension.
And finally, Psycho-Pass (if you're open to anime) is a Japanese thriller about a detective system that can predict criminals before they commit crimes. The lead investigator begins to question the morality of punishing someone for crimes they haven't committed yet, and her obsession with understanding the system she serves becomes dangerous. It has that same psychological darkness.
Your Next Obsession Awaits
If you're hungry for that addictive mix of psychological tension, complicated characters, and obsessive relationships, BingeNext's comprehensive TV recommendations can help you navigate toward your next binge. Tell it you want psychological thrillers with lead chemistry, and it'll surface shows that understand the appeal of complicated, twisted relationships where nobody's actually safe.
The real appeal of Killing Eve isn't just that it's well-made (though it is). It's that it understands that thrillers work best when you're emotionally invested in people doing terrible things. The best shows in this list all get that formula - they make you care about characters who probably shouldn't be cared for, and they don't apologize for it. They let you sit in the darkness and question your own judgment, and that's where the real tension lives.
Topics covered: thriller, psychological, crime, dark, cat-and-mouse, bbc
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About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and writes every guide on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu, and he still tests every pick the hard way: by watching it.