Come along with your sleuthing friends and dive into mysteries and mind-blowing quests with these supernatural mystery series.
I love a good mystery, a problem to be solved, adventures lying ahead, questions that when answered create even bigger questions. Likable characters mostly a group of kids or young adults combined with a lot of supernatural things, ghosts, curses, time travel and much more. All of these elements results in very entertaining series that keep you guessing and on your toes.
Here are some great supernatural mystery series you don’t want to miss out on.
I have put together a list of Supernatural Mystery TV Series that I have watched and personally recommend. It’s not a list with all the supernatural mystery tv series out there or the best ones, but this is a selection of tv series that I enjoyed watching.
The list is set up by decade and by year. Starting with the most recent tv series. Each time I have found a new tv series within this genre that I highly recommend it will be added to the list.
So save this post for more recommendations.
The list consists of 6 tv series at the moment.
The Hardy Boys (2020-2023)
Think: Sleuthing, group of friends, the eighties, science fiction, powerful objects, secret organizations.
Plot
After their mother Laura dies in a car crash Frank and Joe Hardy and their father Fenton go back to their hometown Bridgeport to live with Fenton’s sister Trudy. It’s also the town where Laura’s mother a very wealthy woman with a lot of secrets lives. Frank and Joe stumble upon a conspiracy that has to do with magical powerful objects, their family and the death of their mother. Together with their new friends, Callie, Chet, Phil, Biff and professional thief JB they are determined to solve the mysteries that are hidden deep within family secrets and secret organizations, but not without danger.
Short Review
The dynamics between the group of friends that becomes larger as the series progresses are very fun to watch. The characters are all likable, but still realistic and each of them has their own life problems. But together they can do anything, even the impossible.
The sleuthing is also very fun to watch. Especially Joe is a master at figuring things out and a master in getting himself into trouble for wanting to know everything. It’s inventive and creative, all the more that it’s set in the eighties and they didn’t have internet or cell phones to rely on to help them solve mysteries and to communicate. That creates a retro vibe and makes things more difficult and complicated, but also more exciting and fun.
The whole series has one big story arc. Each season revolves around a magical powerful object. These objects together can create the ultimate weapon, knowledge or power. Each season they uncover more, but that also raises more questions. Luckily this series has a real ending and an epic ending at that. It’s powerful, and moving and in the end, although they love sleuthing, they love it even more doing it together. This series revolves around friendship, love and family, secrets and secret organizations. It proves that friendship and family is the most powerful tool in the world.
Although it’s a series for young adults, those who crave for some nostalgia and coming-of-age this series is an absolute must-see and highly recommend.
This series is based on The Hardy Boys book series created by Edward Stratemeyer back in 1927 until 1973. After that a new book series was launched and also tv-series and cartoons. These characters have a long history and have evolved in time, and imagine that almost 100 years ago they were created. The choice to set it in the eighties honors that legacy and also tunes into the retro vibe.
Consists of 3 seasons, 31 episodes. Finished.
Nancy Drew (2019-2023)
Think: Sleuthing, urban legends, curses, ghosts, a strong group of friends and a lot more.
Plot
Nancy Drew just turned eighteen and is taking a leap year before going to college. She works in her hometown Horseshoe Bay at The Claw as a waitress, together with Bess, Ace and manger George and she has a fling with mechanic Nick.
When Nancy was young she solved a couple of mysteries in her town, but is now retired from all the sleuthing. That changes when at the parking lot the body of Tiffany Hudson is found, wife of Ryan Hudson son of the wealthiest family in Horseshoe Bay. Nancy gathers her new crew from the restaurant to solve this murder. But the more she discovers, the more personal it gets. Not only the wealthiest family in Horseshoe Bay is keeping secrets, also the town itself and even her new friends have secrets to hide.
Short Review
Nancy is a go-getter, a strong female character that knows what she wants and knows how to solve mysteries even when it comes rather close to home. Her friends are a motley crew of young people who have secrets, struggle with life and themselves. But when they get it all in the open, they form a great group of friends and their bond only grows stronger, making them a team that is hard to defeat.
And they get it rough. They have to deal with ghosts, curses, the dark history of Horseshoe Bay that still affects the present and much more. The farther the series goes, the more supernatural it gets and the bigger every story arc becomes and more intense. As an extra bonus, the series has a proper ending and wasn’t cancelled before everything could be cleared up.
Every episode has its own mystery to solve, while the big story arc continues and also the individual problems and lives of the main characters keep going forward. It combines the monter-of-the-week set-up with a soapy feel by making each season a continuous story, and all seasons together in their turn form a big continuous story arc.
This series of Nancy Drew isn’t the first one. It started out as a book series in 1930, with the Nancy Drew Mystery Series, which lasted until 2003 and consists of 175 novels. Then came tv-series and movies. Of course you don’t need to read or watch it to like the modern Nancy Drew that takes place in the present time.
While sleuthing the old fashioned way without cell phones and internet, was far more harder, and more enjoyable to watch, because they had to use their brains, the supernatural mysteries Nancy and her friends are up against aren’t easier to solve with phones and internet. So it still has the feel of sleuthing the old fashioned way, with the help of books and passed-on knowledge. Also fun to know is that the original book series was created as a counterpart to the Hardy Boys series. So in a way they were rather modern for that time, embracing not only boy detectives, but also a girl detective.
Consists of 4 seasons, 62 episodes. Finished.
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Dead Boy Detectives (2024)
Think: Solving cases, ghosts, witches, afterlife and all sorts of magical beings with quirky characters and colorful settings.
Plot
Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne are ghosts who died in 1989 and 1916 respectively. They both escaped Death and now roam the earthy plane in London and help other ghosts solve mysteries and their unfinished business to help them cross over. But that means they have to hide for those who hunt them to take them back to hell.
When a case brings them to Port Townsend in Washington they stumble upon an ancient witch, a Cat King, and make new friends with Crystal and Niko. They have to take it up with their new fiends against an ancient evil witch who steals children. This is the start of a supernatural adventure full of magical beings, ghosts, dangers and much more.
Short Review
Although it has only one season and was cancelled after that, this one season has already built a very rich universe with lore and folklore and magical mythical beings. All the characters are very quirky, fun, interesting and original. We learn more about each character and uncover their stories, that can be heartbreaking and sad, but also full of hope.
The setting is very colorful and creative and the storylines are little wonders and magical mysteries waiting to be unraveled. It’s quick, it’s quirky, it’s original, imaginative and fun and the world that was created just asked to be more explored. Unfortunately the series has been cancelled and that leaves us with some unfinished business. I think a great new series that could have grown larger and larger is now lost on us. The show is being wronged but so is the audience.
Still, this series that has a connection with The Sandman tv-series, is very much worth a watch. It’s a joy to watch and I highly recommend it.
Consists of 1 season, 8 episodes. Cancelled.
School Spirits (2023-)
Think: The Breakfast Club wit murder, mysteries and ghosts
Plot
Maddie goes to Split River High School with her boyfriend Xavier, her best friend Simon and her other best friend Nicole. But suddenly she finds herself in the basement and she is dead. All the other ghosts who had died in the school during different decades are there to help her adjust.
There’s Rhonda who died in the sixties who was murdered by her guidance counselor. Wally who died in the eighties at the field during a football match. Charley who died in the nineties from anaphylactic shock. Dawn who died in the seventies and keeps rather to herself. And Mr. Martin who was a teacher at school and who died in the fifties during a fire. He now leads their group sessions to help them with their unfinished business and hopefully finally cross over.
Maddie can’t remember what happened and how she ended up dead. The biggest mystery is that her body isn’t found. So the whole town is looking for her, dead or alive. With the help of Simon who amazingly can see her, her new ghost friends and her other living friends Xavier, Nicole and Claire, she tries to figure out what happened to her.
Meanwhile there is a great mystery to be solved in the ghost world. Maddie is torn between the ghost world and the living world, feeling helpless that she can’t help her alcoholic mother who is grieving and searching for her. Things take an even more sinister turn if an alive Maddie is spot by Xavier, Nicole and Claire, while Simon knows Maddie is dead.
Short Review
Although this might come across as a very emotional series, and by times it is, it’s also a series full of mysteries that need to be unraveled, that put the ghosts in danger and it has a lot of fun moments too. Especially when Simon is talking to Maddie and no-one can see her and nobody believes him if he tells them.
The characters are likable and have their own quirks, their problems and issues, but they all form a great bond, despite not all being the best of friends, especially the living friends. Maddie is the glue that holds them all together. While she can be a bit serious, she is also very committed to all of her friends, living and dead, she’s determined and doesn’t give up on herself or anybody else.
The story is very well-balanced between the coming-of-age themes like self discovery, accepting their faith and dealing with their deaths and what they did or didn’t or couldn’t accomplish in life and the mystery part. Where the first season revolves around what happened before Maddie died, and where her body is, and how everybody deals with the situation, the second season takes a very surprising turn, that not only puts the ghost’s perspectives upside down, but also the living have to deal with a new twist they didn’t see coming, accept for Simon. It’s a great continuous story that bit by bit answers some questions, but also more questions arise. The more you know, the more you know that you don’t know much. And that’s what keeps life and death interesting.
Consists of 2 seasons, 16 episodes. Still running.
The Resort (2022)
Think: tropical resort, where past and present collide in a dark comedy mystery.
Plot
Noah and Emma are on vacation in the Mayan Riviera for their 10th anniversary. But the couple isn’t as happy as they could be. While Noah is content and settled, Emma longs for more. But be careful what you wish for.
When Emma goes on an ATV trip through the jungle she crashes and falls right next to an old cell phone. She’s immediately intrigued and goes looking for more information on the phone, whom it belonged to and why it is lying there all those years. She discovers it belonged to Sam who was there in 2007 and who went missing during a storm. That sets a mystery in motion, as she convinces Noah to investigate with her. It reignites their relationship and Emma’s lust for life.
Short Review
While we follow Emma and Noah on their sleuthing trip, we also follow Sam and his family and Violet who also stays there with her father. The series has two story arcs that take place in 2007 and in 2022 and the storyline jumps between them. Together with Emma and Noah we get closer to the truth of what happened to Sam and Violet.
But this journey of discovery is also a dangerous one, as it gets stranger by the day when Emma and Noah find themselves painted on a very old mural in an old room at the hotel. They are set on a dangerous path full of red herrings and mysteries unimaginable.
It’s a series about young blooming love and old love that has to be rekindled again. All they needed to do was a go on a quest to find each other.
The less you know the better. It’s a ride full of amateur sleuthing and funny moments. But it hides a real mystery and an ancient secret that has consequences for all of them. The ending is phenomenal and epic and you would probably have not expected it. So prepare to feel euphoric and joyful. While a second season could have easily been made, it’s better to leave it as a mini-series. To leave some mysteries unsolved and be at peace with what great story they have accomplished.
Consists of 1 season, 8 episodes. Presumed cancelled or mini-series.
Secrets of Sulphur Springs (2021-2023)
Think: time travel for the young adventurers
Plot
12-year-old Griffin Campbell moves with his family to Sulpher Springs where his father bought a dilapidated old hotel called the Tremont Hotel. It is supposedly haunted by a girl named Savannah who disappeared 30 years ago while at camp. Griffin befriends Harper a girl from school and together they discover a gateway that takes them 30 years back in time just before Savannah vanished. They try to unravel the mystery of her disappearance on order to save her, but stumble upon more secrets surrounding the hotel and both Griffin’s as Harper’s families.
Short Review
It’s a great series for kids, that takes kids seriously. The story isn’t too scary but exciting and thrilling at times and they find themselves in danger while solving the mysteries of the hotel and it’s history. Griffin has two siblings, the twins Zoey and Wyatt who are younger and are cause for some comic relief but also for more trouble. Harper also has a younger brother Topher who has to cover for her adventures.
The more the story evolves the more mysteries come to light and the further back we go into the history of the hotel. That means themes like racism and equality are addressed but are woven with great care into the story.
Each season the kids unravel more secrets that tie up nicely all together into one great story and the series has a proper ending that feels just. It’s a great show for kids but also for adults who like these coming-of-age stories about friends discovering the world, themselves and solve some mysteries.
Consists of 3 seasons, 28 episodes. Finished.
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