Netflix Has Officially Found Its New Favourite Genre

With the renewal of a cult favorite and the upcoming live-action return of an iconic franchise, it is clear that Netflix has found its new favorite genre for the time being. Netflix’s Stranger Things success briefly led the streaming service to commission a string of shows that replicated various elements of the small-town sci-fi mystery show’s appeal. For viewers who specifically wanted more nostalgic small-town teen drama, there was the underrated early Sydney Sweeney vehicle Everything Sucks.

For viewers who enjoyed the Twin Peaks-style trippy mystery elements of Stranger Things, the bleaker German sci-fi series Dark was a fittingly murky replacement that also centered on a seemingly ordinary mall town with a dark secret. Meanwhile, anyone who specifically wanted a fusion of teen dramedy that also starred a young girl protagonist who was beginning to discover her psychokinetic powers could watch the graphic novel adaptation I Am Not Okay With This. Somehow, despite all its apparent similarities with Stranger Things, this series was a fun, entirely original adventure in its own right.

In the years since, Netflix’s attempts to replicate the success of Stranger Things have branched out into other genres. The Jenna Ortega vehicle Wednesday is a fantasy show from Tim Burton, but the mega-hit does share the mystery and teen drama plot elements of Stranger Things. Meanwhile, the recent hit A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder holds onto the small-town mystery angle and the teen drama but jettisons any supernatural story elements, while the upcoming reboot Scooby-Doo: Origins proves that Netflix’s new favorite subgenre isn’t up for debate.

Scooby-Doo: Origins Will Be Netflix’s Next Big Teen Murder Mystery

Between Scooby-Doo: Origins and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder's season 3 renewal, live-action teen murder mysteries are clearly in vogue on the streaming service. Based on the novel series of the same name by author Holly Jackson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season 1 debuted in 2024. Starring Wednesday’s Emma Myers as its plucky heroine Pip, the murder mystery sees this studious British pupil start a true-crime podcast to investigate the disappearance of a local girl, only to uncover an unexpectedly dark web of secrets and lies in the process.

The season 3 renewal of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder proves that the show is a big hit with Netflix viewers, and this will likely come as a relief to fans of the source novels. Season 3 will adapt 2021’s Jackson book As Good As Dead, the final chapter of Pip’s story and the darkest in the series. However, before that third outing arrives, Netflix has another, even bigger live-action teen drama/mystery series that hopes to become another breakout hit for the streaming service.

Penned by Josh Applebaum and Scott Rosenberg, the creators of Netflix’s aforementioned underrated one-season wonder Everything Sucks, Scooby-Doo: Origins will be the first live-action show in the cartoon franchise’s long history. The show’s plot follows the formation of the Mystery Inc. gang as Daphne, Velma, Fred, Shaggy, and their eponymous canine mascot meet on the last day of summer camp and team up to solve a mystery together.

With a buzzy young cast that includes Scream 7’s breakout star McKenna Grace and Are You There God? It's Me's Margaret's Abby Ryder Fortson, Scooby-Doo: Origins promises to be a wholesale reinvention for the franchise. The decision to cast a real dog as Scooby, rather than utilizing CGI like the earlier live-action movies, changes the Netflix show’s tone and seemingly proves the upcoming series will be a lot less cartoony, outlandish, and over-the-top than even the franchise’s most grounded show to date, 2010’s Mystery Incorporated.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’s Netflix Success Proves This Formula Works

With an impressive teen cast and a blend of mystery thriller and teen drama plotting with horror elements, Scooby-Doo: Origins is clearly aiming to replace Stranger Things in the hearts of Netflix viewers. However, although the upcoming show is aimed at the Stranger Things demographic of both young viewers and older fans of ‘80s nostalgia, Scooby-Doo: Origins is still right to change up the well-worn franchise formula, and the success of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder proves this.

A darker YA reinvention of Scooby-Doo sounds more like Riverdale than recent reboots of the series, but Riverdale’s unique mix of teen drama and murder mystery did last seven seasons. In contrast, both 2020’s Scoob and HBOMax’s Velma proved that comedic reinventions of Scooby-Doo don’t work, whether they are mature or aimed at small children. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’s three-season run confirmed for Netflix that teen dramas with dark mystery storylines are a hit with viewers, as does star Emma Myers’ even bigger earlier show, Wednesday.

Netflix Finally Nailed Teen Murder Mysteries After A Full Decade

Netflix has been quietly working on cracking the teen drama/murder mystery mix for a decade at this stage, and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder proves this effort has paid off. 13 Reasons Why was initially a big hit, but later seasons of the show became far too dark and serious for their own good, often resorting to shock value and convoluted plotting to justify their overlong story.

In contrast, Riverdale was way too campy and silly, never capturing the effective blend of self-aware soapy teen drama and heightened mystery plotting that made the Pretty Little Liars franchise spawn four separate TV shows. Fortunately, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder proves that Scooby-Doo: Origins could be a reinvention of the familiar franchise that is both grounded enough to work as a straightforward thriller, and fun enough to feel engaging as a teen drama.

From His & Hers to The Beast In Me to The Chestnut Man, Netflix has plenty of great murder mystery shows included in its recent releases. However, all of these shows are dark, grim psychological thrillers, meaning there is a gap in the market for a more playful take on the genre. Both A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and, with any luck, the upcoming Scooby-Doo: Origins can fulfill this role, acting simultaneously as fun teen dramas while also remaining dark and believable enough to function as gripping mysteries.