The greatest single seasons slices of small screen terror.
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00:00There is so much horror TV out there that it can be pretty overwhelming knowing where to start.
00:05Decades and decades of different styles and trends and focuses and monsters and baddies
00:11and heroes. When you look at them all, how are you meant to know what's good and what's not?
00:15You don't want to waste a bunch of time watching things that are just no good and
00:18not going anywhere, and that includes sitting through 14 seasons of a show when really it
00:23stops being good after one. So let's keep things short, and we'll tell you where to
00:27look for the good stuff. I'm Amy from WhatCulture, and here are the 10 best single horror TV seasons
00:32ever. 10. Midnight Mass
00:35A limited series with actually only one season to offer, I thought Midnight Mass was a great
00:40place to start here. Not necessarily because I think this should be lowest on your list of
00:44priorities, but more because I'm saying it first, I'm hoping you'll watch it first.
00:48Released in 2021, this Mike Flanagan offering made a fantastic addition to his already highly
00:53regarded list of horror TV shows. Set on a remote fishing island plagued by a host of issues
00:58following a past oil spill, this supernatural horror series has more scares to offer than
01:03you initially think.
01:04Managing to work on a psychological level, looking at the residents' isolation, complex
01:08relationships, and their fear of the future in an unstable world, it uses its supernatural
01:13vampiric baddies as a vehicle for the horror. It's not all flying Draculas and sucking blood
01:18out of virgins. Instead, it's cleverly framed against a backdrop of fanatical religion,
01:22emphasising society's flaws as a whole in supporting our people and on leaning on religion
01:27when maybe we should be leaning on each other sometimes. There's gore and guts, but there's
01:31also discussions of life and consciousness itself, and moments so perfectly pitched in
01:36emotion that they will make you weep. Also, there's Raoul Coley as a brooding sheriff with
01:40a troubled past. At this point, need I say more?
01:449. Lovecraft Country Season 1
01:46Blending horror and drama, fiction and fact, HBO's Lovecraft Country seemed destined to
01:51become one of the modern greats of TV. Claudettes from critics and viewers led to showrunner
01:56Misha Green starting to map out a second season, when it was surprisingly announced by HBO that
02:01they would not be pushing forward with this. Added to that, ratings for Lovecraft Country were
02:05decent and the series was nominated for a massive 18 Emmy Awards, picking up two Emmy wins for
02:10its one season, Lovecraft Country was dripping with quality all across production. Dropping
02:14many of H.P. Lovecraft's creations into the landscape of segregated 1950s America,
02:19the tale itself initially focused on Atticus Freeman travelling across Jim Crow, USA in search of
02:24his father. And it's a story where Jonathan Major's Atticus faces racism that's just as troubling as
02:30any one of the Lovecraftian monsters. The show looks glorious, the performances are mesmerising,
02:36and the series brings far more than simply classic scares. It's a crying shame that for whatever
02:41reason, Lovecraft Country only got the one season to wow us. 8. American Horror Story Murder House
02:48This one could be controversial, saying that Murder House was the best of all the series of
02:51American Horror Story, because I know everyone has a very different opinion on that. But still,
02:56with the insane amount of seasons it now has under its belt, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone
03:00that disagreed that the first few seasons were the best. And its very first season,
03:04Murder House was certainly the most memorable. One of the great things about this first American
03:09Horror Story offering is that none of us knew what to expect. This was a fresh,
03:13sleek show that wasn't afraid to shock in twisted and at times tragic ways, with the Harmon family
03:19moving into the titular house and slowly falling apart in their new surroundings. Throw in a subplot
03:24centred around a school shooting and the sobering imagery of the act, and Murder House
03:28genuinely had most of us in awe, and that is for reasons both good and bad.
03:32Regardless of the varying quality of subsequent seasons, American Horror Story is famed for its
03:37fantastic ensemble casts and stellar performances. And frankly, since Murder House, that ensemble and
03:42those performances have simply never been bested. Of course, there has to be special praise here for
03:47the marvellous Jessica Lange as a sniping, sinister neighbour. Ever since she left the series, things have
03:52not been the same. 7. Stranger Things Season 1
03:56I myself was a huge fan of Stranger Things Season 2, but I know that I might be quite alone on that.
04:02And now, with the fourth season creeping ever closer, the show has a hell of a lot to live up to.
04:07All three prior seasons of this behemoth of a show have been incredibly strong,
04:11but nothing has yet to quite eclipse the debut year of the Duffer Brothers series.
04:15Part horror, part sci-fi, part kid-friendly, and part bringing the sort of scores that'll
04:19unsettle any adults in the room, Stranger Things ticks so many boxes and appeals to so many.
04:25Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana in 1983, this show started off hot by introducing
04:30mysterious monsters and the Upside Down. It threw in the disappearance of young Will Byers and gave
04:35us the unique, all-powerful figure of the ego-devouring Eleven. And that's just in the very first
04:40episode. Stranger Things is a mainstream pop culture phenomenon these days, and the show was
04:44positioned in that spot thanks to how immediately it struck a chord and became water cooler and
04:49schoolyard chatter as soon as it debuted on Netflix back in 2016. Few series have managed
04:53to become as instantly popular, and then sustain that popularity as Stranger Things. And that's
04:58testament to just how fantastic that debut season was. 6. Hannibal Season 2
05:04It feels like barely a month goes by where there's not some speculation that Hannibal could be back
05:09for a fourth season, with star Mads Mikkelsen only recently talking about the chances of just such a
05:14return. Of course, the reason that there's still hope of Season 4 is because the passionate fans
05:19of Hannibal are forever keeping the show in the public eye. Such was the quality of the series,
05:23it's so disappointing that it was just curbed at three 13-episode seasons. Still, though,
05:28what a three-season run it was. Very much a game of cat and mouse by this point. The first half of
05:33the season has Hugh Dancy's FBI agent, Will Graham, locked up and desperately trying to prove his
05:38innocence. All whilst Mikkelsen's Hannibal Lecter manipulates the situation to gleefully keep Will
05:43imprisoned. Once freed, Dancy's character would get closer and closer to Lecter. That is,
05:48until the spectacular season finale left audiences reeling as Will joined Jack and Alana in being
05:53left to bleed to death as Hannibal strolls free. Hannibal, and in particular its second season,
05:58show that you can do smart, thoughtful horror and still make it delightfully gory and twisted when
06:04called for. 5. The Walking Dead Season 4
06:07Few TV shows have once been so hot, then gradually become so cold as The Walking
06:12Dead. When it's been good, The Walking Dead has been the absolute best horror show on TV,
06:18but the problem is that when the series has been bad, it's been utterly dire. In terms of the best
06:23season from the series so far, that honour goes to one of them in the first few, but the debate is
06:28very hot as to which. For argument's sake, we're going to say season four, because that seemed to be
06:33the office consensus. With Frank Darabond at the helm, The Walking Dead's debut season was brilliant and
06:38very much in the conversation for the show's greatest run. However, it's the fourth year of
06:43shuffling undead action that edges that out there, and in fact, a large part of what made season four
06:47so special is its use of the series' first great villain. We'd seen Shane framed as a no-good rogue
06:53previously, but in David Morrissey's Governor, we had a thorough bastard at the highest order.
06:58Having been introduced in the year prior, the fourth season of The Walking Dead had the Governor
07:03truly cement his spot amongst the great modern-day villains of TV. Here, there's the introduction
07:07of Abraham, Rosita, Eugene and Tara. There's the shocking beheading of beloved Herschel by the
07:13Governor. Remember we also get those really poignant flashbacks to Michonne's life as a mother,
07:17and the heartbreaking look at the flowers moment which haunts everyone still? Honestly, I could sit
07:22here all day and just list great moments. Regardless of whether you agree that season four was the
07:27absolute best, you have to admit that it was so incredibly strong.
07:324. All of Us Are Dead
07:34A fairly recent addition to my mental library of horror TV, All of Us Are Dead offers something
07:39a bit different from everything else on this list in that it's the only one not from the good old
07:43US of A, or at least anywhere in the West. Most of us are guilty of failing to really enjoy
07:49international TV and cinema, but as many of us found when this started being pushed on Netflix,
07:54we have been really missing out if we're not looking into it. This Korean limited series
07:59follows a group of teens who find themselves trapped at school as a zombie outbreak begins,
08:03all with a new take on the zombie virus, a great host of lovable characters,
08:08and some incredibly well-crafted emotional moments. Whilst not exactly being a straight-cut horror
08:13comedy, it does lean into a good bit of humour. Aided by this and the romantic undertones, although
08:18they're not exactly low-key, so maybe more romantic overtones, the show manages to keep its forward
08:23momentum even when things are looking a bit bleak. Visually fantastic, wonderfully acted and directed
08:28in a way that'll have you binging the whole damn thing without a second thought, All of Us Are Dead
08:33is an all-round delight. And if you're looking for some horror TV on Netflix that isn't just directed
08:38by, like, one of the same three guys, I'm sorry Mike Flanagan but you're too damn powerful,
08:42search this up and I promise you will have a good time.
08:463. Twin Peaks Season 1
08:48Whilst it also works as a drama series or a thriller, Twin Peaks is undoubtedly a prime piece
08:53of horror television. Well, at least the first and third seasons are. The less we say about the
08:58second season, the better. 2017's Twin Peaks The Return was phenomenal, yet it's hard to look past
09:04the show's debut year when looking at the all-time great seasons of horror TV. The basic premise of
09:09that first season was the question of who killed Laura Palmer, yet in reality, Twin Peaks was so,
09:14so much more. Whilst some of the seasons featured elsewhere on this list revolve around jump scares,
09:19terrifying creatures or supernatural shenanigans, Twin Peaks was a meticulous slice of psychological
09:25horror. The mystery of Laura's death was the driving force of this first season, but it was
09:30the journey, not the destination, that really counted in the search for her truth, as the wiggling,
09:35windy unravelling of this puzzle really had audiences hooked. The tension and fear are crafted
09:40expertly, as all the dread is amped up through trippy dream sequences, chilling visuals and an
09:45exquisite use of sound. For all the amazing stuff they did for the story arc in Season 1,
09:50it's a shame that they scuppered it all within seven episodes of Season 2.
09:542. The Haunting of Hill House In terms of single-season stories,
09:59few slices of horror television have ever been as consistently brilliant, and obviously terrifying,
10:04as The Haunting of Hill House. Sure, it was followed up by Bly Manor, which was really good and I
10:09genuinely did enjoy it, but despite featuring many of the same cast, Bly Manor was an entirely
10:14different story, with different characters and a very different vibe. It was well made,
10:19the story was good and of course the actors were phenomenal, but it just couldn't quite live up to
10:23the standard that Hill House set. Set across two different timelines, The Haunting of Hill House
10:28revolved around the Crane family, their time having previously been spent living in the titular abode.
10:33The show explores the terrors they experienced during this time, and the long-lasting impact
10:37Hill House still has on them 26 years later. This Mike Flanagan-crafted show, you know,
10:42I told you it was already too powerful, is loosely adapted from Shirley Jackson's novel of the same
10:46name, and truthfully, it's everything you want from a horror series. There is no lag here at all,
10:51with each of the ten episodes bringing new information, new twists and new scares. And trust me when I say,
10:57my good god, it does bring those scares. Thoughtful, stylish and delicate, this really is
11:02horror TV at its best. 1. Bates Motel Season 5
11:07Across all five of its seasons, this A&E offering managed to maintain the sort of consistently high
11:13quality we rarely see. To pinpoint one season as being the series' high point is quite a tough task,
11:19but it's fair to say that Bates Motel has the unique honour of saving its finest season until last.
11:24By the time we reach Season 5, the action has jumped ahead two years from the conclusion of the previous
11:29season. Here, Norma Bates is dead, Detective Romero is locked up in prison, Marion Crane is introduced,
11:34Norman was in full mother mode, and audiences were more than ready to see what the show was going to
11:39bring in terms of its own version of what was originally seen in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho way
11:44back in 1960. Bates Motel is the ideal example of taking an existing IP and reworking it for a new
11:50audience, whilst also staying somewhat faithful to what has come before. In that final season, the audience had
11:55a fear of how this might all end, but there was no need to fear at all, because when it does end,
12:00it does so in the most heartbreaking, inevitable way. And with that, we've actually reached the
12:05end of this list of the 10 Best Single Horror TV Seasons Ever. When you call anything the best list,
12:11you're gonna get some pushback, so let me know in the comments below what your actual favourite
12:15seasons are. Are any of these on there? And tell me what seasons you would have put on this list
12:20instead. At the same time, remember to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this
12:24every single day. As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture and I'll catch you next time.