5 Dark Foreign Shows On Netflix That Are Worth The Binge

Are you feeling the urge to travel to a foreign land? Due to the pandemic, many are feeling restless due to the many restrictions we are currently facing. Netflix
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has the cure for that with a plethora of gripping foreign series that will take you all over the world.

There are the series everyone is already talking about but there are also a handful that are very good yet no one really knows about them. When looking for a new binge, time investment is often a concern so this list is comprised of series that are between one and three seasons and are easy to binge.

Netflix has had huge success with its foreign slate of shows with mega-hits such as the German series Dark, which revolves around the mystery of a missing child that sets four families on a desperate hunt for answers and unveils a mystery that spans three generations. The three-season (26 episode) series has been a fan favorite and has consistently received rave reviews from critics and fans alike.

Another huge hit for the streamer is the Spanish crime drama Money Heist (La Casa de Papel), which was originally intended to be a limited series told in two parts but its four-season run was so successful and made this show one of the most-watched series on Netflix that a fifth season is expected mid-2021.

Now that subscribers have more time to binge they are discovering some gems in the Netflix vault. Here are five mysteries that you’ll want to solve and you will get to travel to Finland, Britain and Belgium.

Deadwind – The Finnish crime drama and Nordic noir series premiered in Finland in March 2018 and landed on Netflix August of that same year. The story follows Sofia Karppi (Pihla Viitala), a recently-widowed homicide detective with the Helsinki Police Department. The single mother of two children returns to police work and is immediately embroiled in the murder investigation of a social affairs consultant. This is an easy binge with just two seasons thus far (a third is rumored to be on the horizon). Season one consisted of 12 episodes and season two, which premiered in July, followed with eight episodes.

Safe – This is the perfect binge if you’re looking for a twisting plot that will leave you with no choice but to stave off sleep and binge just one more episode. What’s great about this French-British drama is it’s just eight hour-long episodes so you can get through this thriller starring Michael C. Hall (Dexter) in a weekend. This is one of three series listed here that comes from crime author Harlan Coben. Safe is Coben’s first series to land on Netflix, premiering May 2018. This one, however, isn’t based on a novel and was created for television. In this tale, Hall portrays surgeon Tom Delaney who faces multiple tragedies. First, the father of two daughters deals with the death of his wife and then his eldest teenage daughter disappears. He will stop at nothing to find her and along the way, discovers horrific secrets about his neighbors and friends.

The Stranger – This eight-episode British drama stars Hannah John-Kamen as The Stranger, a mysterious woman who seems to know everyone’s deepest, darkest secrets and uses them to get what she needs no matter the cost. When a man’s wife goes missing soon after she approaches him, an investigation is launched into who this woman really is. Of course, as one question is answered, many more come to the surface. This series is based on Coben’s novel of the same name.

The Five – The 10-episode British mystery thriller, also created by Coben and written primarily by Danny Brocklehurst, revolves around the disappearance of a five-year-old boy named Jesse. Lives are turned upside down when 20 years later, his DNA is found at a murder scene. This series stars O.T. Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale) alongside Tom Cullen, Lee Ingleby and Sarah Solemani as childhood friends whose lives are forever intertwined by this mystery.

The Break – This two-season (20 episode) French-language Belgian crime drama, also known as La Trêve, takes place in a small village with a lot of secrets. Soon after a police detective and his daughter move back to his hometown, he becomes involved in a murder investigation when the body of a football player is pulled from the river. Immediately his death is thought to be a suicide but this detective knows it is murder. He soon learns the locals are entangled in crime and corruption and there is so much more to the story.