Free spooky-season thrills? These are the Tubi shows to binge
Free spooky-season thrills? These are the Tubi shows to binge
These four thrillers cover everything from serial killers and legal mysteries to vampires and werewolves, with plenty of episodes to burn through.
Tubi has plenty of great free shows and movies (you can find my weekly free streaming picks here) but with spooky season officially here, I say we get into some thrills. If it’s a supernatural thriller you want, check. If it’s a serial killer binge, bingo. There’s even a twisty legal thriller (full of murder — it’s even in the title!) for those who like a great courtroom scene. I chose these shows because they have multiple seasons, plenty of episodes, and enough thrills to carry you to Halloween and beyond. Here are my picks for the best binge-worthy thrillers to stream on Tubi.
Best binge-worthy thriller shows streaming on Tubi
Best legal thriller binge: ‘How to Get Away with Murder’
If you’re a fan of legal thrillers, watching Viola Davis is an absolute treat in “How to Get Away with Murder.” She plays Annalise Keating, a defense attorney and law professor who recruits five students to work with her. Things get dark, though, when her husband is murdered… and the students could be involved. Could his death be connected to the murder of another student at the school, Lila?
Yeah, it’s twisty. There are six seasons’ worth of story here, each one revolving around a big mystery just like Season 1. The fun of it is that you get to see different pieces of the aftermath, and then there’s always a big reveal that shows you how everyone got there. And from season to season, the crimes just keep stacking. You get regular cliffhangers, secret relationships, and good people in seriously morally compromising positions. Plus, watching Viola Davis command a room never gets old.
How to Get Away with Murder
A sexy, suspense-driven legal thriller about a group of ambitious law students and their brilliant, mysterious criminal defense professor. They become entangled in a murder plot and will shake the entire university and change the course of their lives.
Best supernatural horror binge: ‘Hemlock Grove’
For a thriller with a supernatural twist, “Hemlock Grove” delivers big time. It follows Peter Rumancek (Landon Liboiron), who becomes a suspect in a string of brutal murders in Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania. Twist alert: Peter is also a werewolf, but he’s not the killer. He meets Roman Godfrey (Bill Skarsgård), a rich teenager, and together they try to figure out who (or what) is killing people.
This one starts like a traditional murder mystery, and then gets progressively weirder and more supernatural as it goes. Roman isn’t everything he seems to be. And his family history becomes a big part of the story. Plus, Peter and Roman’s friendship gives us the heart, even as the mythology expands into werewolves, Upirs (vampires basically), strange experiments, supernatural enemies, and Roman struggling with what he eventually becomes. It’s just three seasons, 33 eps total, so if you want a shorter binge, hit play for free.
Hemlock Grove
One cannot quench his all-consuming thirst. The other cannot tame the beast clawing its way out. In the sleepy Pennsylvania village of Hemlock Grove, two young men struggle to accept painful truths: about family, themselves, the mystery of the White Tower - and a terrifying new threat so powerful it will turn them from predators into prey.
Best vampire binge: ‘Angel’
Ah, one of the defining heartthrobs of millennial women: “Angel” — the vampire cursed with a soul. A spinoff of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Angel (David Boreanaz) moves to Los Angeles and tries to make up for all the people he’s killed. So, he starts Angel Investigations to help normal people deal with demons, vampires, curses, and other things that go bump in the night.
This one starts as a monster-of-the-week show, but over the course of its run becomes more serialized and character-driven. Angel eventually becomes a father, and it’s his relationship with his son, Connor, that carries the emotional drive it needs to sustain five seasons. It’s a lot of eps, over 100, but you get enough of an arc that it never gets repetitive.
Angel
The vampire Angel, cursed with a soul, moves to Los Angeles and aids people with supernatural-related problems while questing for his own redemption. A spin-off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Best serial killer binge: ‘The Following’
Kevin Bacon had his TV era in “The Following” — a gritty serial killer cat-and-mouse game between former FBI agent Ryan Hardy and the serial killer he once captured, Joe Carroll (James Purefoy). Carroll escapes prison, and Hardy finds out he’s been recruiting followers willing to murder for him.
What’s fun (is that the right word for a serial killer show?) about this one is that you’re never quite sure who’s secretly part of Carroll’s network. There are plenty of ordinary people who you’ll be suspicious of, especially as new killers and cults join the fray across seasons. And like many FBI protagonists before and after him, Hardy starts to become obsessed with Carroll, making you wonder what lines he’ll cross to catch him.
The Following
Notorious serial killer Joe Carroll, after being found guilty of murdering 14 female students on the Virginia college campus where he taught literature, escapes from death row. The FBI calls former agent Ryan Hardy to consult on the case, as he was the one responsible for Carroll’s capture in 2003. Ryan, working closely with an FBI team, including Mike Weston and FBI Specialist Debra Parker, piece together the ever-growing web of murders orchestrated by the devious Carroll.
More thriller TV shows to binge on Tubi:
‘Hostages’
Hostages
A high-octane suspense drama that centers on Dr. Ellen Sanders, a premier surgeon thrust into a chilling political conspiracy when she and her family are held captive in their home by rogue FBI Agent Duncan Carlisle, a desperate man doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, who orders Dr. Sanders to assassinate the President when she operates on him.
‘Rosemary’s Baby’
Rosemary’s Baby
Young Rosemary Woodhouse and her husband Guy move in with a rich couple, who soon take an unusual interest in the Woodhouses’ attempts to have a second baby after Rosemary miscarried the first one. Guy soon has unusual success and Rosemary becomes pregnant, but it becomes clear that the two are connected and that the pregnancy may not be all that Rosemary hoped for…
‘The Fall’
The Fall
When the Police Service of Northern Ireland are unable to close a case after 28 days, Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson of the Metropolitan Police Service is called in to review the case. Under her new leadership, the local detectives must track down and stop a serial killer who is terrorising the city of Belfast.
‘The Killing’
The Killing
The Killing is an American crime drama television series based upon the Danish television series Forbrydelsen. Set in Seattle, Washington, the series follows the various murder investigations by homicide detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder.