Dakota Fanning's Must-Binge 6-Part Netflix Psychological Thriller Series Is 'Knives Out Meets Succession'
This Netflix psychological thriller series stars Dakota Fanning and a great cast, with the murder mystery presenting some elements of recent hit projects like Knives Out and Succession. Netflix's library of TV shows is filled with excellent thriller series. This year alone, many of them have come back with new seasons, leading them to trend worldwide on Netflix's charts.
This includes Netflix thriller shows that are immensely popular, like the Gabriel Basso spy thriller series The Night Agent. That said, Netflix is also the home of many underrated genre shows. Among them is The Chestnut Man, an excellent thriller that features a new murder investigation in every season, with all of them being incredibly dark, dangerous, and mysterious in the best ways.
That said, for the Netflix subscribers looking for thriller series with well-known actors, there are many exciting options on the streamer. However, not all of them are able to say that their plot is the perfect mix of a recent movie and a show of different contexts. It might be confusing, but I swear it works, and the result is Fanning's thriller.
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Squid Game shattered records on launch in 2021, becoming Netflix’s biggest-ever series debut. Hwang Dong-hyuk’s South Korean thriller centres on a desperate gambler named Seong Gi-hun. What is his player number?
✓ Correct! Gi-hun is Player 456 — the last number drawn. Kang Sae-byeok (the North Korean defector) is 067, Cho Sang-woo (the Stanford-educated finance crook) is 218, and the mysterious elderly Oh Il-nam is 001. Squid Game became Netflix’s first show to hit #1 in every country it launched in, amassing over 1.6 billion hours watched in its first month alone.
✗ Eliminated! The answer is 456. Gi-hun’s number is the very last of the 456 players. 067 is Sae-byeok the defector, 218 is Sang-woo the Stanford grad, and 001 is the mysterious old man Oh Il-nam whose identity becomes the series’ biggest reveal. Squid Game became Netflix’s most-watched launch ever, hitting #1 in 94 countries.
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The Tim Burton-directed Addams Family spin-off set at Nevermore Academy became Netflix’s second-biggest English-language debut in 2022 and launched a TikTok dance craze. Which young actress plays the deadpan title character?
✓ Correct! Jenna Ortega — a Disney Channel graduate and indie-horror favourite (X, Scream VI) — took the role Christina Ricci made iconic in the 1990s films and made it entirely her own. Her now-famous cello-accompanied dance scene became an overnight TikTok phenomenon, and her performance earned Wednesday two Emmy nominations despite airing mid-season.
✗ Eliminated! The answer is Jenna Ortega. Millie Bobby Brown is Eleven on Stranger Things, Sadie Sink plays Max Mayfield (also Stranger Things), and Maya Hawke plays Robin. Ortega’s deadpan Wednesday Addams — and her viral cello-dance scene — turned the show into a global phenomenon in late 2022.
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In 2013, Netflix released a dark political thriller starring Kevin Spacey as a ruthless congressman breaking the fourth wall. It became the first major streaming original to land a Primetime Emmy nomination and effectively invented prestige streaming TV. Which show was it?
✓ Correct! House of Cards — adapted by Beau Willimon from the 1990 BBC series — became Netflix’s first prestige original and proved a streaming service could go toe-to-toe with HBO. Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood and his asides to camera defined early streaming TV. Orange Is the New Black followed months later in July 2013 and became Netflix’s longest-running original at the time.
✗ Eliminated! The answer is House of Cards (February 2013). Orange Is the New Black launched five months later (July 2013), Arrested Development’s Netflix revival came in May 2013, and Hemlock Grove was a horror effort the same spring. House of Cards was the flagship — the first streaming original to earn a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series.
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Peter Morgan’s The Crown famously recast its entire ensemble every two seasons to age the royal family. After Claire Foy played Queen Elizabeth II in seasons 1-2, which Oscar-winning actress took the crown for seasons 3-4?
✓ Correct! Olivia Colman — fresh off her Best Actress Oscar for The Favourite — played the Queen across seasons 3 and 4, covering the late 1960s through the early Thatcher years. Imelda Staunton took over for seasons 5-6, Helena Bonham Carter played Princess Margaret in seasons 3-4, and Gillian Anderson stole the show as Margaret Thatcher in season 4.
✗ Eliminated! The answer is Olivia Colman. Imelda Staunton took over for the final two seasons (5-6). Helena Bonham Carter played the chain-smoking Princess Margaret during seasons 3-4 alongside Colman. Gillian Anderson delivered an Emmy-winning Margaret Thatcher in season 4. Colman anchored the show’s middle era fresh off her 2019 Oscar win.
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The Duffer Brothers’ 1980s nostalgia juggernaut sees Eleven and the gang battle inter-dimensional horrors from a portal beneath the town’s Hawkins National Laboratory. In which fictional US town and state is the series set?
✓ Correct! Hawkins, Indiana — a fictional Midwestern small town that became one of TV’s most iconic settings. The Duffer Brothers chose Indiana for its unassuming, ordinary-America vibe, making the supernatural chaos feel more jarring. Derry is Stephen King’s It setting, Hill Valley is from Back to the Future, and Twin Peaks is David Lynch’s famous town.
✗ Eliminated! The answer is Hawkins, Indiana. Derry, Maine is the fictional town from Stephen King’s It. Hill Valley is Marty McFly’s home in Back to the Future. Twin Peaks, Washington is David Lynch’s famous fictional town. Hawkins is The Duffer Brothers’ deliberately ordinary Midwestern setting — the flat, unassuming backdrop that makes Vecna’s horrors hit harder.
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Netflix’s Regency romance juggernaut — based on Julia Quinn’s novels and famous for its colour-blind casting, string-quartet pop covers, and narrated gossip column — is produced by which prolific showrunner’s production banner?
✓ Correct! Shonda Rhimes — the creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal — produces Bridgerton through her Shondaland banner as the first major fruit of her massive 2017 Netflix deal. Chris Van Dusen created the show, but Shondaland’s signature ensemble-romance DNA is all over it. Julian Fellowes did Downton Abbey, Ryan Murphy did Monster/Dahmer, and Jenji Kohan did Orange Is the New Black.
✗ Eliminated! The answer is Shonda Rhimes (Shondaland). Ryan Murphy produces true-crime anthologies like Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Julian Fellowes is the Downton Abbey/Gilded Age creator — a different period drama entirely. Jenji Kohan is behind Orange Is the New Black and Weeds. Bridgerton was the first big payoff of Rhimes’ nine-figure Netflix deal.
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La Casa de Papel (Money Heist) became a global phenomenon on Netflix after a modest Spanish TV debut — partly thanks to its gang’s instantly recognisable red jumpsuits paired with a mask of which famous figure?
✓ Correct! The Salvador Dalí mask — with its upturned moustache — became the show’s defining visual alongside the red jumpsuits, a nod to Spanish artistic rebellion and surrealist individuality. It inspired protest iconography worldwide, from Lebanon to France. The original Antena 3 version underperformed; Netflix acquired it in 2017, re-edited it, and turned it into a global sensation.
✗ Eliminated! The answer is Salvador Dalí. Guy Fawkes is the V for Vendetta mask that Anonymous adopted. Che Guevara is a common revolutionary image but not the heist crew’s mask. Picasso is a frequent wrong answer given he’s the more globally-known Spanish artist — but the Dalí mask, with its iconic moustache, is the one fused forever with Money Heist’s red jumpsuits.
08
Netflix’s 2020 limited series about a Cold War-era chess prodigy named Beth Harmon caused a global surge in chess-set sales and was one of the streamer’s most-watched shows that year. Who played Beth?
✓ Correct! Anya Taylor-Joy — already a cult favourite from The Witch and Emma — broke out globally as Beth Harmon, winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Queen’s Gambit pulled 62 million households in its first 28 days and caused such a chess-boom that Chess.com and retailers ran out of sets. It also made Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel a surprise bestseller almost 40 years later.
✗ Eliminated! The answer is Anya Taylor-Joy. Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Oppenheimer), Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird), and Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People, Where the Crawdads Sing) are all frequent competitors in similar roles. Taylor-Joy’s Beth Harmon earned her a Golden Globe, a SAG Award, and turned Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel into a sudden bestseller.
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That show is The Perfect Couple, which was released on Netflix on September 5, 2024. The series became so successful that it could come back for season 2 as an anthology, adapting another book penned by author Elin Hilderbrand. As it stands, Fanning's The Perfect Couple is Netflix's perfect mix of Knives Out and HBO's Succession.
How Netflix's The Perfect Couple Is Knives Out Meets Succession
The biggest connection The Perfect Couple has to those two hit projects is how the Netflix thriller series uses Knives Out's whodunit structure that follows an eccentric rich family, where everyone has a hidden motive that could make them the perfect suspect for the murder in question, with the concept of a successful, popular family leader who is obsessed with optics like Succession's Logan Roy, and whose children are all eyeing their inheritances and would lie, cheat, and even kill to get them. Nicole Kidman's Greer takes over Logan's role in that dynamic, switching up the Succession formula.
Another major way in which Netflix's The Perfect Couple feels tonally similar to Knives Out is through the audience surrogate. In Fanning's thriller series, the members of the Winbury family are all playing a game with one another. However, there is a key outsider, Eve Hewson's Amelia Sacks, who is set to marry into the family as the bride of Billy Howle's Benji. That is a similar setup to director Rian Johnson's Knives Out, which saw Ana de Armas' Marta Cabrera, the nurse of the murdered Harlan Thrombey, a popular novelist, like Kidman's Greer, navigate the rich family's web of lies.
Netflix Has The Ideal Follow-Ups To The Perfect Couple
For anyone who chooses to binge The Perfect Couple on Netflix this week — the thriller series has six episodes, thus it will not take very long — the streaming service already has the perfect follow-ups heading into the weekend for subscribers. As The Perfect Couple feels like Knives Out meets HBO's Succession, what better follow-up then to watch the two Knives Out sequels available on Netflix in the United States. Subscribers have access to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which takes Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc to a tech billionaire's private island, and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, with faith as the backdrop.
The Perfect Couple's Knives Out franchise aside, if Netflix subscribers wish to continue their viewing session with another impactful series starring one of the show's main actors, then Ripley, which adapts the classic The Talented Mr. Ripley novel, is the perfect option. Fanning stars in Ripley as Marge Sherwood, one of the main obstacles on the path of Andrew Scott's Tom Ripley and his dream life. Like The Perfect Couple, Ripley is also a psychological thriller series, so viewers will feel on the same wavelength.