Favourite TV Shows Recommended by Stephen King // Full List

The Mantis

Jeanne Deber, known as "La Mante", the famous serial murderer who terrorized France more than 20 years ago, is forced by the police to come out of isolation to track down her copycat. She agrees to collaborate on one condition: to have only one interlocutor, Damien Carrot, her son, who became a cop because of the crimes of his mother, and who refuses all contact with her since her arrest.

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

I'm enjoying LA MANTE (Netflix). It is surveying previously unexplored realms of gruesomeness. I don't believe I've ever seen a man slowly drowning in an industrial washer before. Not even in a Rob Zombie picture.

Body Cam

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

Loved CAM, on Netflix. Great lead performance by Madeline Brewer.

Pine Gap

A team of talented Australian and American intelligence analysts work together to ensure global stability in one of the world's most important and secretive joint intelligence facilities... Pine Gap. But the relationship between the Australian and American intelligence analysts working at Pine Gap isn’t always rosy.

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

PINE GAP (Netflix) is a good one. No explosions, no fights (a little pushing around in the final episode--there are 6), lots of geek-speak. It ramps up the tension, though, and the whodunit aspect is beautifully handled. Hoping for Season 2.

Black Summer

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

BLACK SUMMER (Netflix): Just when you think there's no more scare left in zombies, THIS comes along. Existential hell in the suburbs, stripped to the bone.

Emergence

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

The first 2 episodes of EMERGENCE are really good, and Alison Tolman is terrific. You should give it a shot.

Borgen

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

It doesn’t take long to realize that Danish politics are no different from the American brand. Sidse Babett Knudsen plays Birgitte Nyborg Christensen, who becomes Denmark’s first female prime minister, due to what amounts to a political hiccup. On American TV, when family and ambition come into conflict, family all too often (and unrealistically) triumphs. You won’t find any such sugarcoating here…although you may if the series comes to NBC. For now, though, just know this: Borgen is top-flight drama in any language.

Breaking Bad

When Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting desire to secure his family's financial future at any cost as he enters the dangerous world of drugs and crime.

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

Walter White’s transformation into an amoral monster is almost complete. I finished the first half of the final season with one thought: Imagine all of the broken lives that would have been saved if Mr. White had been eligible for Obamacare!

Sons of Anarchy

An adrenalized drama with darkly comedic undertones that explores a notorious outlaw motorcycle club’s (MC) desire to protect its livelihood while ensuring that their simple, sheltered town of Charming, California remains exactly that, charming. The MC must confront threats from drug dealers, corporate developers, and overzealous law officers. Behind the MC’s familial lifestyle and legally thriving automotive shop is a ruthless and illegal arms business driven by the seduction of money, power, and blood.

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

The story is simpler this year, the stakes higher, the blood deeper. I come away from each episode more convinced that these are real people, living on the seedy underside of the American dream.

The Bridge

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

It starts with the discovery of a dead woman on a bridge between Denmark and Sweden…only it’s actually two women, the bodies cut in half and then put back together. A quirky detective pairing (she seems to be a high-functioning autistic; he’s a family man with a wandering eye) and a bad guy whose villainy equals that of the Joker round out the ensemble. FX is planning an American version.

Game of Thrones

Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros. Friction between the houses leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the farthest north. Amidst the war, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night's Watch, is all that stands between the realms of men and icy horrors beyond.

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

Mystery, magic, and dragons, all rendered with eye-popping special effects. Add to this a wheels-within-wheels story line and the best ensemble cast on television. I’ve been particularly charmed by Maisie Williams as Arya Stark.

The Killing

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

The second season of this series (on which AMC’s The Killing was based) isn’t as good as the first, but Sofie Grabol shines as obsessed detective Sarah Lund.

The X-Files

The exploits of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries that debunk Mulder's work and thus return him to mainstream cases.

Stephen King

Writer, Screenwriter

I’m halfway through this remarkable show’s nine seasons, and guess what? Mulder and Scully are as fresh as ever. The 1990s cell phones are hilarious, but the stories remain sinister and engrossing.