Landscapers is the new miniseries created by Will Sharpe that finds the writer-director reuniting with his Flowers lead Olivia Colman. The black comedy also stars David Thewlis, who plays Colman's husband. Inspired by true incidents, Landscapers deals with two characters who murder the husband's parents and bury them in their garden. The chaos that ensues in the cover-up is what forms the rest of the premise.
The show is bound to impress aficionados of crime shows that incorporate themes of family, violence, and redemption. At the same time, Landscapers would also encourage fans to check out Colman and Thewlis' previous miniseries work.
Mare Of Easttown - Available On HBO Max
Mare of Easttown deals with its titular police detective investigating a murder case that rocks the entirety of her small Pennsylvania town. As Mare's own family gets dragged into the case, she must go through some unexpected suspects.
The emphasis on familial themes along with the double motives of Mare of Easttown's fantastic characters makes this HBO original a perfect fit for fans of Landscapers. And if the constant twists and turns in the story weren't enough, Kate Winslet and Jean Smart's performances make it all the more worth watching.
The Undoing - Available On HBO Max
The Undoing is centered upon an acclaimed therapist whose perfect life is turned upside down following a murder case. As the mystery deepens, not only her, but her family is also put in jeopardy. With satisfying third-act twists, the series is undoubtedly one of Nicole Kidman's best TV roles.
Even though The Undoing and Landscapers are thematically different in their approach, the focus on a family sticking together in the face of disaster is a shared element. With recent thriller miniseries like this and Mare of Easttown, HBO Max has turned into a profitable venture for murder mysteries with a high-profile cast.
The Sinner - Available On Netflix
While The Sinner includes four seasons, the anthology series opens with a new cast and premise in every new season that serves as a miniseries on its own. The one recurring theme in each segment is murder and how the act can be committed by unlikely suspects.
Instead of resorting to familiar genre tropes, the police procedural show takes a more introspective approach to understanding crimes and criminals. The murderers in Landscapers are also quite contrary in nature to the conventional stereotype, and the main characters on The Sinner also go beyond the usual cliches of cops and criminals.
Guilt - Available On PBS Masterpiece Amazon Channel
When two brothers accidentally drive over an older man, they try to cover their tracks instantly. However, when the deceased's friends and family grow suspicious, the siblings must figure out an escape plan before their own guilt catches upon them.
With enough dialogue-driven dark comedy, Guilt is an underrated British miniseries that deserves more recognition by fans of Will Sharpe's comedies like Flowers and Landscapers. A parallel can be drawn between Landscapers' kind couple turning into unexpected killers and the Edinburgh duo of the bumbling brothers in Guilt.
The Night Manager - Available On Amazon Prime
The Night Manager is a geopolitical thriller that finds a Cairo hotel's manager turning into an informant for the British government as he investigates illegal arms sales. Typical of other thrillers based on John le Carre's novels, The Night Manager delves into international affairs, political corruption, and moral conflicts between its characters.
While it is far removed from the localized premise of Landscapers, the miniseries is a must-watch for fans of Olivia Colman's movie and TV roles. The actress playing Susan Edwards dons the Golden Globe-winning role of Angela Burr in the show. She plays the head honcho of a Foreign and Commonwealth Office task force who draws the protagonist into his mission.
The Act - Available On Hulu
The Act is a true crime miniseries that dramatizes the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard at the hands of her daughter Gypsy Rose Blanchard. It turns out that the former had kept her daughter in captivity and faked her illness and disability in the process. The show is a detailed case study of Munchausen By Proxy, showing how Dee Dee manipulated Gypsy with her overprotective sense of motherhood.
Often, such cases make it to true crime documentaries, but a semi-realistic miniseries like this helps in explaining the case in a more palatable manner. Similarly, Landscapers provides further context (with a few dramatic elements) on the real-life murders of two Nottinghamshire residents in 1998.
Sharp Objects - Available On HBO Max
Based on the book by Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects revolves around a trauma-struck reporter returning to her sleepy hometown. As she investigates the murder of two young girls, she ends up revisiting her own past and the secrets that come along the way.
The dark atmosphere and emotional performances make the show one of the best HBO miniseries in recent times. As the network continues investing in dark murder mysteries like Landscapers, it only makes sense to revisit this Amy Adams-starrer.
Tiger King - Available On Netflix
With its larger-than-life premise and eccentric real-life characters, Tiger King makes for a quick and addictive binge. The titular character aside, the 2020 Netflix original docuseries opens up a Pandora's box of suspects and criminals within the American animal conservationist circles.
One infamous personality that sprung out of the show is Carole Baskin, an avid tiger-lover who is also suspected to have killed her own husband. Other members of the ensemble even floated online theories suggesting she buried him in a septic tank in her sanctuary. Whatever be the truth, the guesswork around the disappearance and murder of Baskin's husband is thrillingly comparable enough to the main murder in Landscapers.
Fargo - Available On Hulu
The third chapter of the anthology show Fargo delves into a conflict between two twin brothers in a sleepy town and how their contrasting lives lead to chaos and violence. Thrown in the mix are shoddy business deals, gangsters, and some darkly funny deaths (and their cover-ups).
For those who enjoy Landscapers, Fargo is a must-watch, not just for the thematic similarities, but also David Thewlis' Emmy-nominated performance. The mild-mannered Christopher Edwards from Landscapers transforms into the scheming and notorious British businessman V.M. Varga.
The Jinx: The Life And Deaths Of Robert Durst - Available On HBO Max
In a span of four decades, real-estate magnate Robert Durst's name has been thrown around involving three murders. The victim in the first case was his wife, while a writer and his neighbor were killed in the latter two.
Durst even confessed to the last murder, but his connections and intentions with the other murders are what keep viewers guessing till the very end in this docu-miniseries. The Jinx, much like Landscapers, shows that murders are incidents that can strike anyone unexpectedly, especially if one's own family is the target.