20 Shows To Watch If You Like Prodigal Son

If fans love Prodigal Son, it probably means they’re into dark, twisted crime dramas. The series, which premiered in late 2019 and is still currently airing its first season, is about a man named Malcolm Bright, a skilled profiler who works in consultation with the local police force.

But Malcolm not only knows how to think like a killer — he had one as a father. In fact, his father is a notorious serial killer nicknamed “The Surgeon “who is now incarcerated yet still has a hold over Malcolm. As a child, Malcolm turned him in, and he continues to repress memories about things he might have seen (or even done) alongside his father. To deal with this, Michael is trying his best to be the guy who catches killers like his dad. If fans have found themselves anticipating every new episode of the riveting show, here are other shows they might also want to check out.

Updated on March 15th, 2021, by Kristen Palamara: Prodigal Son continues to be an engaging show that has a premise similar to the Hannibal Lecter franchise. The series is full of action found in typical police procedurals, but it goes further into the psychology of serial killers, which is an alluring factor for fans. There are several unique and intriguing police procedurals that are full of drama and action but also delve into the psychology of serial killers, like Netflix’s Mindhunter and YOU, just like Prodigal Son does. We’ve added some further recommendations here to better help fans of the show find more of the same intense psychological drama and dark thrills elsewhere.

20 Clarice (2021-)

Clarice is based on the FBI agent Clarice Starling as she goes back to work after the events of The Silence of the Lambs. The series also delves into her difficult past, similar to how Prodigal Son delves into Malcolm’s childhood.

Although it isn’t the highest-ranked series in the Hannibal Lecter franchise, it’s still an engaging watch that any fan of Prodigal Son would enjoy.

19 The Alienist (2018-2020)

The Alienist follows the investigation into a ritualistic serial killer in late 1800s New York and centers on three people from different backgrounds who are tasked with solving the case.

Criminal psychologist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, newspaper illustrator John Moore and police department secretary Sara Howard try to find the killer with their unique set of skills. The creative approach to solving serial killer cases beyond only following detectives is similar to Prodigal Son Dr. Kreizler is a similar protagonist to Malcolm Bright.

18 Elementary (2012-2019)

Elementary was a new take on the Sherlock Holmes story that showed Holmes trying to run away from his past by moving to New York and begins work as a police consultant with his former surgeon Dr. Joan Watson.

The series’ modern take on the Holmes and Watson story was successful and their consulting the police is similar to Malcolm Bright consulting the police in Prodigal Son and Holmes running away from his past is similar to Bright as well.

17 Top Of The Lake (2013-2017)

Top of the Lake is a miniseries about a new detective who is tasked with finding a missing 12-year-old girl, who is pregnant, in a small remote and mountainous town in New Zealand. Detective Griffin (Elisabeth Moss) is on the outside, like Malcolm Bright, and people are hesitant to trust her with the case.

Griffin is reckoning with her past as she recently went through her own traumatic events in the same town as Bright also has to reckon with his own past while trying to solve murders and catch killers.

16 The Night Of (2016)

The Night Of is a miniseries about a complex murder case that follows both the man accused of killing a woman and his lawyer while also telling the overarching story of the case that involved political and cultural complications.

Although the series doesn’t look at serial killers and only focuses on one case, it’s still an in-depth look at the criminal justice system that any fan of Prodigal Son would enjoy.

15 Lie to Me (2009-2011)

Prodigal Son’s Malcolm knows serial killers because his father is one. Cal Lightman knows when people aren’t telling the truth from the smallest shift in their facial features. He and his team weed out the falsifiers in Lie to Me.

In the show, those within The Lightman Group are asked to assist in interrogations by local and federal law enforcement. Through the use of micro-expression interpretation, Lightman can determine if someone is telling the whole truth, a partial truth, or are outright lying. Inspired by the real-life work of Paul Ekman, Lie to Me applied real-life science to this crime procedural.

14 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000-2015)

The crime investigators of the Las Vegas Police Department know about serial killers. They also know about murderers, predators, and every other low-life that commits a crime in Sin City. Through years of experience and teamwork, they learned how to determine who perpetrated a crime and how they did it.

This was the concept of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and its franchises. Though the team of the original show changed, they still worked seamlessly from the initial investigation to questioning the alleged criminal.

13 Law & Order: SVU (1999-)

When you’ve spent over two decades dealing with all sorts of deviance, you’re bound to have a sixth sense about crimes that involve sex, abuse, drugs, murder, or all the above. Though it might not be shown on Law & Order: SVU, the hardness of the crimes must affect them on some psychological level.

Yet, they continue to make New York City’s streets safe. That’s a good thing because there are long-time fans of the show who’d be lost if the longest-running member of the Law & Order franchise left the air. Where Prodigal Son deals with family matters, SVU is family to many viewers.

12 Bates Motel (2013-2017)

Where Prodigal Son describes how someone can become a serial killer, Bates Motel illustrates it in chilling detail. A prequel to the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho, Bates Motel shows events that lead up to the movie.

After the death of her husband, Norma Bates takes her son to Oregon to start a new life. As the show progresses, we see Norman’s slow descent into mental illness. As a result, Norma gets desperate to save her son’s life.

11 Broadchurch (2013-2017)

This critically acclaimed British crime-drama is on the list because it reveals that murderers can come from all walks of life. It also shows how a small town and its citizens can be rocked by the death of one of their own.

Broadchurch stars David Tennant and Oliva Colman as two police detectives in search of the murderer of a young boy. The twists and turns point to various citizens who had a reason to kill the teenager. In the end, the suspect isn’t someone anyone expects, including one of the police detectives.

10 YOU (2018-)

Like Dexter, YOU tells the story of Joe Goldberg, a young bookstore manager who falls hard for a girl who visits his shop. And while it seems like an innocent crush, we soon discover that Joe is a stalker who often convinces himself the things he’s doing are rational — even though they most certainly are not.

He even resorts to kidnapping and murder, imprisoning those he has captured in a custom-built glass while telling himself it had to be done. Telling the story from the perspective of the killer himself is morbid, dark, and thrilling.

9 Killing Eve (2018-)

With a female killer at its core, this British spy thriller is about a British intelligence investigator who is tasked with tracking down the psychopathic assassin. But they both end up getting tangled with one another, each equally obsessed with the other and forgetting their missions.

Just like Malcolm in Prodigal Son, Eve works “off the books,” hired because of her deep obsession with assassins (with Malcolm, his obsession is serial killers). While Malcolm once worked for the FBI, that didn’t end well and he’s typically called upon by the local police department for help since they know he can crack a case by just examining the crime scene and getting into the mind of the killer.

8 Mindhunter (2017-2019)

If you’ve ever watched an interview with a real serial killer, you’ll know that Michael Sheen does a wonderful job playing Malcolm’s father, Dr. Martin Whitly, on Prodigal Son. He has a charming yet creepy persona, is clearly narcissistic, and dead in the eyes behind his fake smile.

Mindhunter is loosely based on the true story of the beginning of the FBI unit that started to investigate serial killings. But many of the killers featured in the series are based on real, with conversations taken from ones that actually happened.

7 The Fall (2013-2016)

View this series as if it were about a young Dr. Whitly and his wife Jessica, minus the lavish life and loads of wealth. In this series, the protagonist, played by Jamie Dornan, is a seemingly normal family man who sneaks out in the middle of the night to harm women. He tortures, kills, sometimes poses them, and steals items to keep as souvenirs.

Meanwhile, his wife is none the wiser. We often watch Prodigal Son, and wonder how could Jessica not have known what her husband was up to? The Fall provides a fascinating glimpse into how as we see a serial killer flawlessly lives two lives.

6 The Following (2013-2015)

Just as Malcolm is haunted by memories of his childhood, what his father did, and things he might have seen but repressed, former FBI agent Ryan Hardy is also haunted by a charismatic serial killer named Joe Carroll, who he put away years ago, in The Following.

Just like Dr. Whitly was a respected and skilled surgeon on Prodigal Son, Carroll was a distinguished professor who managed to create his own cult and following, controlling them even while he was in prison. Now having escaped, Hardy must watch his back at every turn, and try to recapture the monster.

5 The Mentalist (2008-2015)

Similar to how Malcolm is able to flawlessly understand how a serial killer thinks, The Mentalist is about CBI consultant Patrick Jane who once worked as a psychic. And while he can’t actually read peoples’ minds, he does possess useful observational skills that give him insight into what people are thinking.

Both protagonists have a unique skill that makes them invaluable assets to police. And both series focus on criminal cases, including, in this one, the tracking down of a serial killer who just so happened to murder Patrick’s own wife and daughter.

4 Hannibal (2013-2015)

Like Dr. Whitly, Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a terrifying serial killer who hides his secret life. In this series, based on Thomas Harris’ novels, we see the relationship between Dr. Lecter and FBI special investigator Will Graham.

Dr. Lecter is a forensic psychiatrist who helps Graham by trying to solve the case of a serial killer in Minnesota. Meanwhile, Graham is none the wiser that the very doctor who has been hired to help him is secretly the sadistic killer he’s hunting. And like Dr. Whitly, as Lecter begins to see how Graham sympathizes with psychopathic killers, he works to manipulate and turn him into a killer, too.

3 Dexter (2006-2013)

Arguably the best series centered around a serial killer, Dexter tells the story of Dexter Morgan, a seemingly normal blood spatter analyst for Miami Metro PD, who has a secret double life as a serial killer. Dexter lives by a code his late father taught him to help him control his urges: he only kills those who are guilty of heinous crimes. And given his job, he’s able to verify their guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt before resorting to murder.

Both series touch on serial killing and a complicated relationship between a father and son. Though in Dexter, it’s the reverse with Dexter as the killer and his father as the man who discovers his secret and tries to train him to use it for “good” instead of turning him in.

2 Criminal Minds (2005-2020)

This police procedural crime drama that aired from 2005 to 2020 is about a group of criminal profilers as opposed to just one. But, like Malcolm, they use behavioral analysis to investigate all kinds of crimes, not just serial killers.

Criminal Minds was highly lauded, and with similar stories following law enforcement, killers, and emotionally troubling storylines, it’s a perfect fit if you like Prodigal Son. With 15 seasons under its belt, though, it’ll take a while to get through the entire series.

1 Blindspot (2015-2020)

With plots that are as seemingly unbelievable as you find in Prodigal Son, along with a team that seems to constantly find themselves at the end of a barrel of a gun, face-to-face with a killer, or in a room that’s about to explode at every turn, Blindspot has similar elements that you’ll love.

There are four seasons of the series to date, which debuted in 2015, with the fifth and final season containing 13 episodes set to air in 2020.

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