Six Suspenseful TV Shows to Watch While Snowed In

Hello, Persephoneers! I hope the holidays were good to you and that you had a wonderful New Year. For me and for a lot of other people, it has brought nothing but snow. Here are some good suspenseful TV shows, all available on Netflix Instant, that you can watch while snowed in.

1. Luther: This BBC series chronicles the career of tempestuous, complex police detective John Luther, who does the best he can to keep his personal and private lives separate as he tackles homicide cases in his jurisdiction. This series stars Idris Elba as Luther and Ruth Wilson as Alice Morgan, a murder suspect who keeps evading arrest and prosecution but who Luther knows is bad news bears.
2. The Fall: Gillian Anderson stars as brilliant, no-nonsense police detective Stella Gibson, who is called in to aid the Belfast police when an elusive serial killer strikes again. Gibson’s complicated personal life makes the investigation difficult for her, and the obstacles are only aids to the killer as time runs out.
3. Arrow: After everyone thought he had died in a shipwreck five years ago, young millionaire Oliver Queen returns to Starling City with a mission to clean up corruption and greed. Joined by former police officer John Diggle and IT genius Felicity Smoak, Queen takes on the disguise of the hood and battles supervillains and common criminals alike. This is one of my favorites. The writing on this show is excellent; the tiniest detail can lead to a larger part of the story, and the writers are careful to keep everything tightly plotted.
4. North and South (2004) This BBC production is based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel and stars Daniela Denby-Ashe as Margaret Hale, a young woman who has been uprooted by her father to move to an industrial town. Life in the town is difficult for many of its natives, and Margaret, as the parson’s daughter, tries to make a difference where she can. Her efforts, though, are met with cynicism, particularly by mill manager John Thornton, played by Richard Armitage in all of his broody goodness.
5. Spooks: This fictional series, also from the BBC, details the fictional adventures of the UK’s elite MI-5 squad as they battle terror and threats to national security. In the U.S. it is broadcast under the title MI-5. The cast changes every few series, but it has boasted Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, Rupert Penry-Jones, and Richard Armitage, among others. And of course, there are also the guest stars.
6. Waking the Dead: Another BBC ensemble series that stars Trevor Eve as the head of a group of London-based investigators who use modern methods to crack cold cases. It’s a mix between Cold Case and Criminal Minds with a little bit of Prime Suspect thrown in. It was kind like BBC’s answer to the CSI franchise, except the locations aren’t as glamorous, not everything in the police departments is all sleek and shiny, and the series is mostly made up of two-part hourlong episodes, so more time is spent in developing the cases and the characters.

Do you have any good TV series you can recommend for a marathon?