“Murder” seems to be a common theme on the Netflix top 10 charts these days, with Dahmer becoming one of the service’s most popular series ever, and The Watcher in the #1 spot currently. We also have Unsolved Mysteries, The Midnight Club and The Sinner rounding out the top 5.

I’m going to go ahead and recommend the only show here that is not a Netflix original, The Sinner, which just came out with its fourth season on Netflix.

The Sinner was originally on USA Network, and it was supposed to be a one-off, even landing a few Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in the “Limited Series” category. But as tends to happen with many limited series, because of the success it found, it became a seasonal show. Four seasons total, and no more are coming. The series has run its course, so you can now watch it start to finish.

The common thread across all seasons is Bill Pullman as the beleaguered detective Harry Ambrose, who keeps coming across increasingly bizarre crimes and getting way too intimately involved in them. The series has produced four pretty stellar seasons, scoring 90%, 97%, 85% and 88% respectively from seasons 1 to 4 on Rotten Tomatoes. Season 1 and 3 were probably my favorite, I didn’t actually finish all of two yet for some reason, but I heard it was good. And I quite liked season 4, which is what has just come to Netflix.

I get a lot of True Detective season 1 vibes from The Sinner, which is about the highest praise you can give in the crime genre. The cases are deeply weird and the show has an artistry to it that escapes most other series, especially the ones I’m comparing it to here like The Watcher and Dahmer. Dahmer may have been an okay series in the end from a production and performances standpoint, but The Sinner is not based on any real killings or real killers, so there are no moral qualms about investing in it.

You don’t have to watch all the seasons in order. I didn’t feel like I missed that much skipping season 2. Though season 4 does make some specific references to season 3, at least. The first season may be the most memorable because of the involvement of Jessica Biel, who has remained a producer on the show the whole time even though she doesn’t appear past season 1. Matt Bomer gives a particularly unsettling performance in season 3 as well. And Pullman himself is always great.

Netflix’s various most popular lists are almost exclusively Netflix originals half the time now, because the owners of most other series have taken their content to their respective home platforms at this point. But The Sinner is a rare case of an old deal that’s still in effect, surfacing a show that you may have totally missed because let’s be honest, who is watching USA Network in 2022?

So yeah, give The Sinner a chance. A lot of good mysteries and content there to tide you over for quite a while.

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