7 Years Later, Netflix's Violent 'Bosch' Replacement Is a Global Streaming Smash

3 days ago 4

Harry Treadaway in a white hat and uniform looking intently outside of his ice cream truck.

Published Jan 31, 2026, 11:00 AM EST

Chris is a Senior News Writer for Collider. He can be found in an IMAX screen, with his eyes watering and his ears bleeding for his own pleasure. He joined the news team in 2022 and accidentally fell upwards into a senior position despite his best efforts.

For reasons unknown, he enjoys analyzing box office receipts, giant sharks, and has become known as the go-to man for all things Bosch, Mission: Impossible and Christopher Nolan in Collider's news division. Recently, he found himself yeehawing along to the Dutton saga on the Yellowstone Ranch.

He is proficient in sarcasm, wit, Photoshop and working unfeasibly long hours. Amongst his passions sit the likes of the history of the Walt Disney Company, the construction of theme parks, steam trains and binge-watching Gilmore Girls with a coffee that is just hot enough to scald him.

His obsession with the Apple TV+ series Silo is the subject of mockery within the Senior News channel, where his feelings about Taylor Sheridan's work are enough to make his fellow writers roll their eyes.

Mr. Mercedes, the gritty crime thriller based on Stephen King's Bill Hodges trilogy, is suddenly blowing up on streaming — and seven years after it premiered, it finally feels like people are catching up. Originally airing from 2017 to 2019, Mr. Mercedes ran for three seasons and 30 episodes. The catch? It lived on the now-defunct Audience Network (seriously, has anyone actually heard of that?), which meant most viewers had no idea where to even find it. If you didn’t have DirecTV, you were basically locked out. Now, with the series readily available to stream, it’s getting the second life it always deserved.

The show comes from TV heavyweight David E. Kelley, the mind behind series like The Practice, Ally McBeal, and Big Little Lies. Instead of leaning into King’s usual supernatural horror lane, Kelley steers Mr. Mercedes into the territory of a moody, character-driven crime saga — more neo-noir than nightmare fuel.

Brendan Gleeson leads the series as Bill Hodges, a retired detective who can’t let go of an unsolved case (sound familiar, Harry Bosch?) involving a mass killer who plowed a stolen Mercedes into a crowd, killing 16 people. The man responsible, Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway), is a seemingly unremarkable electronics store employee hiding deeply disturbing tendencies. What unfolds is a long, psychologically intense cat-and-mouse game between a weary ex-cop and a sociopath who thrives on manipulation.

How Good Is 'Mr. Mercedes'?

Collider’s review stated that Mr. Mercedes delivered a chilling, character-driven crime thriller that proved Stephen King didn’t need the supernatural to get under viewers’ skin. The series leaned into dread rather than shock value, grounding its horror in painfully human behavior. Gleeson brought weary grit and moral volatility to Hodges, while Treadaway crafted a disturbingly nuanced portrait of a deeply broken man. Strong supporting performances further enriched the world, giving even minor characters emotional weight. Though the show’s deliberate pacing occasionally bordered on slow, the tension steadily simmered, rewarding patient viewers with a gripping, unconventional cat-and-mouse story. Less about body counts and more about psychology, Mr. Mercedes stood out as a smart, unsettling exploration of how ordinary people become monsters.

Mr. Mercedes makes interesting sidesteps that set it apart from that genre. Brady is importantly not a serial killer. He may be a premeditative murderer, but the tension is not borne out of watching an expert, law-evading criminal toy with a top-shelf sheriff as he picks off all his friends and family one by one. To the contrary, Brady fucks up. He knows what he wants to do and how to do it, but he doesn’t always do it right. And while he’s able to conceal his hideous nature well enough, there are those around him who suspect his oddity. Bill is, likewise, a bit of a fuck up himself. Dogged and determined to solve the case, he’s also an unreliable drunk, prone to angry outbursts. That makes for a much more interesting push-pull between the characters.

Mr. Mercedes is streaming now on Netflix.