10 Best Single Horror TV Seasons Ever
The greatest single seasons slices of small screen terror.
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00:00 There is so much horror TV out there that it can be pretty overwhelming knowing where
00:04 to start.
00:05 Decades and decades of different styles and trends and focuses and monsters and baddies
00:10 and heroes.
00:11 When you look at them all, how are you meant to know what's good and what's not?
00:15 You don't want to waste a bunch of time watching things that are just no good and not going
00:19 anywhere, and that includes sitting through 14 seasons of a show when really it stops
00:23 being good after one.
00:24 So let's keep things short, and we'll tell you where to look for the good stuff.
00:27 I'm Amy from WhatCulture, and here are the 10 best single horror TV seasons ever.
00:33 10.
00:34 Midnight Mass
00:35 A limited series with actually only one season to offer, I thought Midnight Mass was a great
00:40 place to start here.
00:41 Not necessarily because I think this should be lowest on your list of priorities, but
00:44 more because I'm saying it first, I'm hoping you'll watch it first.
00:48 Released in 2021, this Mike Flanagan offering made a fantastic addition to his already highly
00:53 regarded list of horror TV shows.
00:55 Set on a remote fishing island plagued by a host of issues following a past oil spill,
01:00 this supernatural horror series has more scares to offer than you initially think.
01:04 Managing to work on a psychological level, looking at the residents' isolation, complex
01:08 relationships and their fear of the future in an unstable world, it uses its supernatural
01:12 vampiric baddies as a vehicle for the horror.
01:15 It's not all flying Draculas and sucking blood out of virgins.
01:18 Instead, it's cleverly framed against a backdrop of fanatical religion, emphasizing society's
01:23 flaws as a whole in supporting our people and on leaning on religion when maybe we should
01:28 be leaning on each other sometimes.
01:29 There's gore and guts, but there's also discussions of life and consciousness itself,
01:34 and moments so perfectly pitched in emotion that they will make you weep.
01:38 Also there's Rahul Kohli as a brooding sheriff with a troubled past.
01:41 At this point, need I say more?
01:43 9.
01:44 Lovecraft Country Season 1
01:46 Blending horror and drama, fiction and fact, HBO's Lovecraft Country seems destined to
01:51 become one of the modern greats of TV.
01:53 Claudettes from critics and viewers led to showrunner Misha Green starting to map out
01:57 a second season, when it was surprisingly announced by HBO that they would not be pushing
02:01 forward with this.
02:02 Added to that, ratings for Lovecraft Country were decent and the series was nominated for
02:06 a massive 18 Emmy Awards, picking up two Emmy wins for its one season.
02:11 Lovecraft Country was dripping with quality all across production.
02:14 Dropping many of H.P.
02:15 Lovecraft's creations into the landscape of segregated 1950s America, the tale itself
02:20 initially focused on Atticus Freeman traveling across Jim Crow USA in search of his father.
02:25 And it's a story where Jonathan Major's Atticus faces racism that's just as troubling
02:29 as any one of the Lovecraftian monsters.
02:32 The show looks glorious, the performances are mesmerizing, and the series brings far
02:37 more than simply classic scares.
02:39 It's a crying shame that for whatever reason, Lovecraft Country only got the one season
02:43 to wow us.
02:45 8.
02:46 American Horror Story - Murder House
02:48 This one could be controversial, saying that Murder House was the best of all the series
02:51 of American Horror Story, because I know everyone has a very different opinion on that.
02:55 But still, with the insane amount of seasons it now has under its belt, you'd be hard
02:59 pressed to find anyone that disagreed that the first few seasons were the best.
03:03 And its very first season, Murder House, was certainly the most memorable.
03:07 One of the great things about this first American Horror Story offering is that none of us knew
03:11 what to expect.
03:12 This was a fresh, sleek show that wasn't afraid to shock in twisted and at times tragic
03:17 ways, with the Harmon family moving into the titular house and slowly falling apart in
03:22 their new surroundings.
03:23 Throw in a subplot centred around a school shooting and the sobering imagery of the act,
03:27 and Murder House genuinely had most of us in awe.
03:30 And that is for reasons both good and bad.
03:32 Regardless of the varying quality of subsequent seasons, American Horror Story is famed for
03:36 its fantastic ensemble, casts, and stellar performances.
03:40 And frankly, since Murder House, that ensemble and those performances have simply never been
03:44 bested.
03:45 Of course, there has to be special praise here for the marvelous Jessica Lange as a
03:48 sniping sinister neighbor.
03:50 Ever since she left the series, things have not been the same.
03:54 7.
03:55 Stranger Things - Season 1
03:56 I myself was a huge fan of Stranger Things Season 2, but I know that I might be quite
04:01 alone on that.
04:02 And now, with the fourth season creeping ever closer, the show has a hell of a lot to live
04:06 up to.
04:07 All three prior seasons of this behemoth of a show have been incredibly strong, but nothing
04:11 has yet to quite eclipse the debut year of the Duffer Brothers series.
04:15 Part horror, part sci-fi, part kid-friendly, and part bringing the sort of scores that'll
04:19 unsettle any adults in the room, Stranger Things ticks so many boxes and appeals to so
04:24 many.
04:25 Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, in 1983, this show started off hot by introducing
04:30 mysterious monsters and the Upside Down.
04:32 It threw in the disappearance of young Will Byers and gave us the unique, all-powerful
04:36 figure of the ego-devouring Eleven.
04:38 And that's just in the very first episode.
04:41 Stranger Things is a mainstream pop culture phenomenon these days, and the show was positioned
04:45 in that spot thanks to how immediately it struck a chord and became water cooler and
04:48 schoolyard chatter as soon as it debuted on Netflix back in 2016.
04:52 Few series have managed to become as instantly popular, and then sustain that popularity,
04:57 as Stranger Things.
04:58 And that's testament to just how fantastic that debut season was.
05:02 6.
05:03 Hannibal Season 2
05:04 It feels like barely a month goes by where there's not some speculation that Hannibal
05:08 could be back for a fourth season.
05:10 With star Mads Mikkelsen only recently talking about the chances of just such a return.
05:15 Of course, the reason that there's still hope of Season 4 is because the passionate fans
05:19 of Hannibal are forever keeping the show in the public eye.
05:21 Such was the quality of the series, it's so disappointing that it was just curbed at three
05:25 13-episode seasons.
05:28 Still though, what a three-season run it was.
05:30 Very much a game of cat and mouse by this point.
05:32 The first half of the season has Hugh Dancy's FBI agent, Will Graham, locked up and desperately
05:37 trying to prove his innocence.
05:38 All whilst Mikkelsen's Hannibal Lecter manipulates the situation to gleefully keep Will imprisoned.
05:44 Once freed, Dancy's character would get closer and closer to Lecter.
05:47 That is, until the spectacular season finale left audiences reeling as Will joined Jack
05:52 and Alana in being left to bleed to death as Hannibal strolls free.
05:56 Hannibal, and in particular its second season, show that you can do smart, thoughtful horror
06:01 and still make it delightfully gory and twisted when called for.
06:05 5.
06:06 The Walking Dead Season 4
06:07 Few TV shows have once been so hot, then gradually become so cold as The Walking Dead.
06:13 When it's been good, The Walking Dead has been the absolute best horror show on TV.
06:18 But the problem is that when the series has been bad, it's been utterly dire.
06:22 In terms of the best season from the series so far, that honor goes to one of them in
06:26 the first few, but the debate is very hot as to which.
06:30 For argument's sake, we're gonna say Season 4, because that seemed to be the opposite
06:33 consensus.
06:34 With Frank Darabond at the helm, The Walking Dead's debut season was brilliant and very
06:38 much in the conversation for the show's greatest run.
06:41 However, it's the fourth year of shuffling undead action that edges that out there, and
06:45 in fact a large part of what made Season 4 so special is its use of the series' first
06:50 great villain.
06:51 We'd seen Shane framed as a no-good rogue previously, but in David Morrissey's Governor
06:55 we had a thorough bastard at the highest order.
06:58 Having been introduced in the year prior, the fourth season of The Walking Dead had
07:02 the Governor truly cement his spot amongst the great modern day villains of TV.
07:06 Here, there's the introduction of Abraham, Rosita, Eugene and Tara.
07:10 There's the shocking beheading of beloved Herschel by the Governor.
07:13 Remember we also get those really poignant flashbacks to Michonne's life as a mother,
07:17 and the heartbreaking "look at the flowers" moment which haunts everyone still?
07:21 Honestly, I could sit here all day and just list great moments.
07:25 Regardless of whether you agree that Season 4 was the absolute best, you have to admit
07:29 that it was so incredibly strong.
07:31 4.
07:32 All of Us are Dead
07:33 A fairly recent addition to my mental library of horror TV, All of Us are Dead offers something
07:39 a bit different from everything else on this list in that it's the only one not from
07:42 the good old US of A, or at least anywhere in the West.
07:46 Most of us are guilty of failing to really enjoy international TV and cinema, but as
07:51 many of us found when this started being pushed on Netflix, we have been really missing out
07:55 if we're not looking into it.
07:57 This Korean limited series follows a group of teens who find themselves trapped at school
08:01 as a zombie outbreak begins.
08:03 All with a new take on the zombie virus, a great host of lovable characters, and some
08:08 incredibly well-crafted emotional moments.
08:11 Whilst not exactly being a straight-cut horror-comedy, it does lean into a good bit of humor.
08:15 Aided by this and the romantic undertones - although they're not exactly low-key, so
08:19 maybe more romantic overtones - the show manages to keep its forward momentum even when things
08:24 are looking a bit bleak.
08:26 Visually fantastic, wonderfully acted, and directed in a way that'll have you binging
08:30 the whole damn thing without a second thought, All of Us Are Dead is an all-round delight.
08:35 And if you're looking for some horror TV on Netflix that isn't just directed by, like,
08:38 one of the same three guys, I'm sorry Mike Flanagan, but you're too damn powerful.
08:42 Search this up, and I promise you will have a good time.
08:46 3.
08:47 Twin Peaks Season 1
08:48 Whilst it also works as a drama series, or a thriller, Twin Peaks is undoubtedly a prime
08:53 piece of horror television.
08:54 Well, at least the first and third seasons are.
08:57 The less we say about the second season, the better.
08:59 In 2017's Twin Peaks, the return was phenomenal.
09:03 Yet it's hard to look past the show's debut year when looking at the all-time great seasons
09:07 of horror TV.
09:08 The basic premise of that first season was the question of who killed Laura Palmer.
09:12 Yet in reality, Twin Peaks was so, so much more.
09:15 Whilst some of the seasons featured elsewhere on this list revolve around jump scares, terrifying
09:20 creatures, or supernatural shenanigans, Twin Peaks was a meticulous slice of psychological
09:25 horror.
09:26 The mystery of Laura's death was the driving force of this first season.
09:29 But it was the journey, not the destination, that really counted in the search for her
09:33 truth, as the wiggling, windy unraveling of this puzzle really had audiences hooked.
09:38 The tension and fear are crafted expertly, as all the dread is amped up through trippy
09:43 dream sequences, chilling visuals, and an exquisite use of sound.
09:47 For all the amazing stuff they did for the story arc in Season 1, it's a shame that
09:51 they scuppered it all within seven episodes of Season 2.
09:54 2.
09:55 The Haunting of Hill House
09:57 In terms of single-season stories, few slices of horror television have ever been as consistently
10:02 brilliant - and obviously terrifying - as The Haunting of Hill House.
10:06 Sure, it was followed up by Bly Manor, which was really good and I genuinely did enjoy
10:10 it, but despite featuring many of the same cast, Bly Manor was an entirely different
10:14 story with different characters and a very different vibe.
10:18 It was well-made, the story was good, and of course the actors were phenomenal, but
10:21 it just couldn't quite live up to the standard that Hill House set.
10:25 Set across two different timelines, The Haunting of Hill House revolved around the Crane family,
10:29 their time having previously been spent living in the titular abode.
10:33 The show explores the terrors they experienced during this time, and the long-lasting impact
10:37 Hill House still has on them 26 years later.
10:40 This Mike Flanagan-crafted show - you know, I told you it was already too powerful - is
10:43 loosely adapted from Shirley Jackson's novel of the same name, and truthfully, it's everything
10:48 you want from a horror series.
10:50 There is no lag here at all, with each of the ten episodes bringing new information,
10:54 new twists, and new scares.
10:56 And trust me when I say, my good God, it does bring those scares.
10:59 Thoughtful, stylish, and delicate, this really is horror TV at its best.
11:04 1.
11:05 Bates Motel Season 5
11:07 Across all five of its seasons, this A&E offering managed to maintain the sort of consistently
11:12 high quality we rarely see.
11:14 To pinpoint one season as being the series' high point is quite a tough task, but it's
11:19 fair to say that Bates Motel has the unique honor of saving its finest season until last.
11:24 By the time we reach Season 5, the action has jumped ahead two years from the conclusion
11:28 of the previous season.
11:29 Here, Norma Bates is dead, Detective Romero is locked up in prison, Marion Crane is introduced,
11:34 Norman was in full mother mode, and audiences were more than ready to see what the show
11:39 was going to bring in terms of its own version of what was originally seen in Alfred Hitchcock's
11:43 Psycho way back in 1960.
11:45 Bates Motel is the ideal example of taking an existing IP and reworking it for a new
11:49 audience, whilst also staying somewhat faithful to what has come before.
11:53 In that final season, the audience had a fear of how this might all end, but there was no
11:57 need to fear at all.
11:59 Because when it does end, it does so in the most heartbreaking, inevitable way.
12:04 And with that, we've actually reached the end of this list of the 10 Best Single Horror
12:07 TV Seasons Ever.
12:09 When you call anything the "best" list, you're gonna get some pushback, so let me
12:12 know in the comments below what your actual favorite seasons are.
12:16 Are any of these on there?
12:17 And tell me what seasons you would have put on this list instead.
12:20 At the same time, remember to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this every
12:25 single day.
12:26 As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.