10 Best TV Shows Disclaimer

Let a true auteur like Alfonso Cuarón loose on his first major TV project, and it’s no surprise audiences are devouring his Apple TV+ series Disclaimer. A slow-paced series that combines mystery, psychological thrills and a complicated narrative, the five-time Oscar-winning director continues to ramp up the secrets and lies from beginning to end. DisclaimerThe all-star cast includes Cate Blanchett as journalist Catherine Ravenscroft, who discovers she is the main character in a new book that somehow exposes the darkest deed of her past.

As highlighted in the analyzes of Disclaimerthe program plays with the viewer’s expectations throughoutmixing truth and perception in a story that jumps around in time and doesn’t reveal all of its cards until the final episode. Disclaimer deftly analyzes how personal biases, dark pasts, and even the modern media landscape shape how people view their own reality. After the audience has digested everything DisclaimerWith the seven episodes and their shocking ending, they’ll be ready to dive into 10 other series that also tread the rocky terrain of true crime, trauma, fractured timelines and good old-fashioned TV drama.

10

Mrs. America (2020)

Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly is another golden performance from one of the best in the world

Similar to Disclaimer, Blanchett’s incredible talent was the centerpiece of FX Mrs. Americaa 2020 limited series featuring how political conservatives went to war against the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. However, while Disclaimer uses narrative fireworks and structural tricks, Mrs. America takes a more moderate approach. It offers another look at what Blanchett is capable of as an actress in an incredibly difficult role.

As activist, author and staunch anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly, Blanchett goes far beyond mimicry or caricatureimbuing Schlafly with enough humanity and conviction in her cause that you can occasionally forget what a political monster she has become. If your only exposure to Blanchett is through titanic performances in films like Tar and Blue Jasminethen Mrs. America should shine as yet another unquestionable measure of her remarkable abilities as an actress.

9

Dark Matter (2024-present)

Time travel and happy family lives don’t mix

As evidenced by Disclaimer, Complicated thrillers are in Apple TV+’s wheelhouse these days — but when are they as complicated and delicious as Dark Matterthe average viewer can’t always keep up. As some may have missed last May, Dark Matter follows professor Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), who discovers that his work has opened the door to multidimensional travel. However, it’s not really your job. In fact, it was a Dessen from another timeline – and now, versions of Dessen from a number of different dimensions are being released. all hopping around the multiverse, each with their own agenda.

While “our” Dessen is just trying to get back to “his” universe to save his wife and child, he crosses paths with Dessens from prosperous and devastated Earths, each shaped by their own multiversal experience and spurred to action across time and space. , even when it puts them at odds with each other. For viewers who are okay with scribbling notes and even building flowcharts to keep all the story timelines straight, Dark Matter could be the perfect series.

8

Warranty (2018)

Can’t we just get along?

Although it’s easy to confuse with the Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx film of the same name, this Guarantee is a 2018 BBC miniseries written by David Hare that doesn’t just tell a gripping detective story. Also takes a deep dive into complex social issues like immigration, political corruption, and how “the system” rarely works as efficiently as it needs to.

Investigating the murder of a pizza delivery driver, Detective Inspector Kip Glaspie (Carey Mulligan) pursues this juicy mystery through a complicated web of interconnected characters that show how people from diverse backgrounds and walks of life create diverse perspectives – but neither they always add up to justice. Combining a thought-provoking story about multiculturalism with the thrill of a chilling crime thriller, led by another Oscar-nominated powerhouse in Mulligan, Guarantee it is likely that provoke questions that you will have difficulty answering even after the series ends, not unlike Disclaimer.

7

Big Lies (2017-present)

Murder and boredom never looked so beautiful

For viewers who love mysteries and personal traumas headlined by A-list actors, there’s nothing better than HBO’s prestigious series. Big little lies. Featuring star-worthy performances from Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley and Laura DernThis 2017 series focuses on a group of housewives at the center of a mysterious murder investigation in the sleepy coastal town of Monterey, California.

While the star’s wattage and the investigation’s slow revelations make for a steamy story (viewers don’t even know who was murdered until the final episode of Season 1), the real star of Big little lies and the beautiful photography by the series’ director and executive producer Jean-Marc Vallée. While themes of domestic violence, motherhood, and bullying abound, it’s the slow, creeping, almost voyeuristic movement of Vallée’s camera in the first season that sharpens each character’s feelings of isolation and loneliness. Audiences will never see beautiful coastal homes and waves crashing in the Pacific Ocean in the same way again.

6

The Undoing (2020)

Come for Nicole Kidman… Stay for Hugh Grant

It could be argued that the 2020 HBO miniseries The Undo is even more attractive than Big little liesat least when it comes to Nicole Kidman’s projects. This time, Kidman is jumping from the charm, intelligence and underlying darkness of her on-screen husband, Hugh Grant. Created by David E. Kelley and based on a novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, this taut thriller crackles thanks to Grant, who effortlessly switches between his natural air of charisma and malevolence as pediatric oncologist Jonathan Fraser, accused of murdering his lover.

While Jonathan’s wife, Grace, struggles with the question of her husband’s innocence or guilt, it is Grant’s inscrutability that brings this story of opulent New York City elitists to life. The Undo is a pretty straightforward cop compared to Disclaimerbut with Grant and Kidman delivering the most of their acting powerseveryone’s game rises.

5

Sharp Objects (2018)

Sometimes work can come too close to home

Those whose taste for mystery and deep-rooted family pain teeter toward nihilism and a real sense that the dark, evil world will never, ever change may be the perfect audience for Sharp objects. This adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel follows journalist Camille Preaker (Amy Adams) as she returns to his small hometown in Missouri to cover the murder of two girls.

The case unwittingly unearths years of repressed wounds for Preaker, who begins to re-examine his own history of family secrets and mental illness in the process. Although the murders themselves unearth long-sealed traumas and painful memories, it is all heightened by the dual combination of eerie southern-based visuals and a sad, disconcerting soundtrack by composer Alexandra Stréliski. These two elements add to the unearthly discomfort and isolation that envelops Preaker as his mental state collapses, with Adams delivering a stunning performance similar to Blanchett’s in Disclaimer.

4

Shiny Girls (2022)

A murder investigation with an unreliable narrator

Based on the novel by Lauren Beukes, 2022 Apple TV+ series Bright girls revolves around a time-traveling serial killer and the tough journalist who aims to put an end to his murder spree. This in itself is not an original and revolutionary idea. However, everything changes when journalist Kirby Mazrachi, played by the always magnetic Elisabeth Moss, can’t even trust their own version of reality as true.

This unique series mixes science fiction and crime into a confusing narrative, as Kirby tries to solve his own assassination attempt four years earlier, even as everything around him, including his home, his job, and even his closest friends and relationships, all start. changing under your feet. Although time travel is real in Bright girlsactually serves more as a metaphor for Kirby’s inability to put his life back together and process what’s happening in your world. For murder mystery fans, it’s a thrilling watch. However, for those willing to follow the concepts of time travel, the story moves into a higher and even more satisfying gear.

3

Dark (2017-2020)

Time travel, doppelgangers, generational angst – all in a German forest

Alternate timelines and excruciating personal traumas intersect in Netflix’s mind-bending German sci-fi import Dark. Debuting in 2017, Dark challenged the audience to follow the Mystery and mind-bending secrets found in the small forest community of Windenmaking a similar level of narrative leaps as Disclaimer in the process.

Time travel eventually sends many of the DarkThe film’s characters move forward into their own pasts and futures, creating enough paradoxes and multiversal doppelgangers that even Dr. Strange would use out of sheer exasperation. But it is the complex narrative and moving family dynamics that fuel all those mischief they do Dark absolutely unmissable, regardless of whether viewers are able to figure out what’s actually going on or not. Dark Matter may have made a fractured narrative weirdness more recently, but Dark I did it first – and possibly even better.

2

I Can Destroy You (2020)

Michaela Coel’s triumphant series tackles sexual assault like never before

TV has not produced a more moving, more disconcerting and less comforting depiction of the consequences of trauma than this landmark 2020 HBO miniseries, anchored by star, writer, director, executive producer and series creator Michaela Coel. As young writer Arabella Essiedu struggles to overcome sexual assault, Coel shares the horrors of that recovery with sardonic dark humor this is deeply personal, messy, and human, and altogether understandable to anyone who has worked to regain their bearings after a life-changing trauma.

Arabella doesn’t remember her attack, so flashbacks and non-linear narratives help viewers fill in the pieces for the 12-episode series, an approach reminiscent of how Disclaimer deals with the passage of time. Arabella’s recovery is not without repeated setbacks and mistakes, and the show is more realistic for it. However, It’s the honesty of her story that is both captivating and unflinchingly thought-provoking..

1

Easttown Mare (2021)

Kate Winslet is convincing in this gritty part

For those looking for standout work in the fast-growing subgenre of Oscar-nominated actresses striving to play a straightforward detective, Kate Winslet is the current belt holder. As holder Easttown mare, Winslet owns every inch of this stellar 2021 HBO series.

As small-town detective Mare Sheehan, Winslet leads the investigation into the murder of a local girl, a death that disturbingly evokes one of Mare’s unsolved cases. Meanwhile, she is still grappling with her son’s recent suicide, unearthing miles of unresolved pain. Brit Winslet wears Delco’s suburban Philly accent like a well-worn glove in one of her best performances, supported by a killer supporting cast including Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Evan Peters, Guy Pearce and Cailee Spaeny. It’s an engaging narrative that will resonate with those who appreciate Disclaimerobscure narrative depth.