Stephen King’s Creepy 3-Season Crime Thriller Is Finally Free To Stream, but There’s a Catch

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Carolyn Jenkins is a voracious consumer of film and television. She graduated from Long Island University with an MFA in Screenwriting and Producing where she learned the art of character, plot, and structure. The best teacher is absorbing media and she spends her time reading about different worlds from teen angst to the universe of Stephen King.

Stephen King’s wide array of creepy stories has been popular subject material for adaptation, but Mr. Mercedes is one of the most underrated. The series takes its name from the first book in the Bill Hodges trilogy, following the retired detective who is consumed by an unsolved case. The series premiered on the Audience Network and did not get the exposure that it perhaps deserved.

Brendan Gleeson stars as Bill, a haunted former detective who has continued to spiral downward following his inability to solve a terrible crime. In 2009, a masked killer drove a Mercedes through a crowd of unsuspecting innocents early in the morning. The entire crowd was decimated, including a young mother and her two-month-old baby. Developed by Big Little Lies creative, David E. Kelley, the show combines the classic tropes of a grizzled detective story with the truly unsettling nature of a King book. Now fans can experience the three-season mystery, free to watch with Apple TV+’s seven-day trial.

‘Mr. Mercedes’ Hammers Home How Disturbing Horror Can Be

Mr. Mercedes was a later addition to Stephen King’s work, but it was still an appreciated piece of fiction. Instead of the author’s usual bag of supernatural horror, the books and subsequent series explored why this wasn’t necessary. The horror of real people was disturbing enough in this story about a visceral killer. Two years after the massacre at the job fair, Bill is still tormented by the case he can never solve. At the same time, the series also follows the perspective of the titular character, Mr. Mercedes (Harry Treadaway).

Bill gets drawn back into the case when he receives a horrifying video sent by the killer. Mr. Mercedes taunts the former detective with the animated faces of the victims. Details are what make this series so visceral and disturbing, as the killer hints at the sexual pathology that drives him. Showing the perspective of the killer clarifies exactly what makes him tick, whether the audience wants to experience it or not. Mr. Mercedes also introduces fan favorite private detective, Holly Gibney (Justine Lupe), who was given her own trilogy of books. Holly was also portrayed by Cynthia Erivo in the equally haunting HBO limited series, The Outsider.

Mr. Mercedes lasted only three seasons, tragically cut short by the Audience Network dying on the vine. Before its demise, the series delivered a captivating story that could have done extremely well on a premium network. Brendan Gleeson is perfect in the role of Bill Hodges, a tortured soul whose self-worth is tied up in the resolution of this case. Treadaway has also proven his penchant for creepy characters, such as in Penny Dreadful, and goes the extra mile in this series. Mr. Mercedes is horrifyingly gleeful in his methodical torture of Bill. He continually sends him videos to toy with him, using his expertise as an electronic store worker to erase them from Bill’s hard drive. In classic killer fashion, he stalks Bill, ensuring that his torture of the man has the desired effect. Mr. Mercedes is one of the many series that could have gone a lot further had it been given the chance. After almost a decade of relative obscurity, fans can experience the underrated series in a more accessible way on Apple TV+ — if only for a short time.