A great crime show has a twisted and charming reliability: Who doesn’t love the intrigue of a heinous fictional crime, with the promise that it will be neatly resolved within an hour?
The best crime shows add a little more nuance. The Wire isn’t a series about choosing sides — jaded lawmen vs. strategic gangsters — but about seeing how everyone’s soul is compromised in the rat race toward a phony American dream. The Night Of follows a similar pattern to its predecessors: There isn’t just one experience when it comes to cops and crime — perspectives vary drastically based on where you are and what you look like.
The real criminal justice system seems closer to a horror-thriller these days, so the shows ahead might even be a little inspiring, too. In these series, dutiful, hardworking people try to make an inherently biased system work for everyone. The charm of all 450-plus episodes of Law & Order comes from its dependable formula. These are good cops working toward a fair conviction. That’s not always true in real life.
You (2018-present)
Netflix’s hit You stars Gossip Girl alum Penn Badgley as a bookstore manager who becomes obsessed with a female writer and uses social media to manipulate her into dating him. This Netflix delight is full of dark humour and packs some surprisingly biting social commentary on the culture of toxic masculinity. One things for certain, you won’t be able to resist passively aggressively calling guys named Joe ‘Joseph’ after watching.
Killing Eve (2018-present)
This BBC drama rewrote the script on psychopath crime dramas by subverting every sexist cliche in the book. The cat-and-mouse plot swept audiences along but it’s the subtle details that audiences fell in love with. Jodie Comer is a revelation as assassin-for-hire Villanelle who is equal parts chilling and spellbinding.
Bodyguard (2018)
Ex-Game Of Thrones bae Richard Madden brings his gritty Scottish charm to this steamy new BBC drama. PC Budd is assigned to protect the home secretary (played exquisitely by Keeley Hawes) but their professional relationship soon develops into something more. This is a truly classy outing for the BBC and without a doubt the unmissable TV event of the autumn.
Happy Valley (2014-present)
Starring: Sarah Lancashire, Siobhan Finneran
This British show may be called Happy Valley but it is not a happy show. Lancashire plays Catherine Cawood, a police sergeant in a Northern town in England. The problems she deals with are the bleak, all too common crimes: Drug addiction, abuse, conspiracy. But one hits close to home. The first season deals with Catherine’s pursuit of the man who assaulted her late daughter.
Midsomer Murders (1997-present)
You saw that right: this mystery show has been running for twenty years. While the countryside is quaint and picturesque, the crime-fighting Barnaby family knows about its seedy, murder-prone underbelly. Each episode of this sinister crime show focuses on a different incident, so you can fit it flexibly in your schedule.
American Crime (2015-present)
Each season of this acclaimed anthology series peers into a different trial, providing a fascinating, multi-faceted perspective on all the lives impacted in a crime. The most recent season focuses on a group of migrant workers in Alamance County, North Carolina, who are pulled into a world of forced labor, sex trafficking, and drug addiction.
Hannibal (2013-2015)
Starring: Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen
You think Dexter‘s scenes of blood gratuitously spewing on white sheets was bad? Then you haven’t seen Hannibal, a show so imaginative in its violence that some scenes couldn’t be aired on TV. Hannibal is about the professional relationship that develops between F.B.I. profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and sharply intelligent psychologist Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen). Hannibal is so skilled at helping Will catch serial killers because he’s a serial killer himself.
Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
Starring: Kyle MacLachlan
The question haunting this eerie show is, “Who killed Laura Palmer?” FBI Agent Dale Cooper arrives to the quiet, rainy town of Twin Peaks, Washington to find out just that. Definitely the most aesthetically conscious crime show of all time, Twin Peaks was the first, and perhaps the only, of its kind.Lynch-Frost/Ciby 2000/REX/Shutterstock
Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn
This is a crime show, only it’s on the side of the criminal. Watch as Walter White evolves from timid chemistry teacher with terminal cancer to a kingpin of the meth trade.
Since Breaking Bad is widely recognised as the greatest TV show of all time, you don’t need us to tell you to watch it. You already know you should watch it.
Dexter (2002 – 2012)
Starring: Michael C Hall, Jennifer Carpenter
When this show about a do-gooder serial killer premiered on Showtime, it toppled conventions on what — and who — a protagonist should be. Dexter’s adopted father Harry recognised his son would be unable to rise above his insatiable thirst for, well, murder. Harry, a police officer, knew just how a criminal could get around the cops. As a gift from father to son, Harry teaches Dexter how to kill without getting caught, and how to choose victims who are already guilty of other crimes.
The twist? In addition to being a murderer himself, Dexter is an indispensable Forensics Expert of the Miami police department. Throughout its eight seasons, Dexter redefined what a crime show was, and who a criminal is.Photo: Courtesy of Showtime
Quantico (2016 – )
The show that sent Priyanka Chopra to America saw major success after the first season, which aired just last year. Chopra plays Alex Parrish, an FBI agent who becomes the prime suspect in a terrorist attack on Grand Central. After successfully clearing her name, Alex begins the second season of the series, which is currently airing on ABC, as a newly hired CIA operative.Photo: Courtesy of ABC.
Sherlock (2010 – )
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman
Benedict Cumberbatch is the emotionless detective Sherlock Holmes in this BBC adaptation of the character. What makes this iteration rise above all others — Luther excluded — is Cumberbatch’s robotic performance as our socially inept hero. His chemistry with straight man Watson, played by Martin Freeman, keeps us interested. At face value, Sherlock is a campy procedural, but beneath the tongues in cheeks, the show is an elegant depiction of reluctant male friendship.Photo: Rex/Shutterstock.
Search Party (2016 – Present)
Starring: Alia Shawkat, John Early, John Reynolds, Meredith Hagner
Though it be but young, Search Party is powerful. The genre-bending show combines quirky New York comedy with crime procedural, and it wins at both. Four young Brooklyn folk (think characters from HBO’s Girls) become entangled in a crime when a friend from college disappears without a trace. Suddenly, they have to grapple with real life and — gasp! — something other than themselves. Search Party will please your crime show cravings without tasting stale.Photo: Courtesy of CBS.
Bones (2005 – 2017)
Starring: David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, T.J. Thyne, Michaela Conlin, Tamara Taylor
Say what you will about Fox’s will-they-or-won’t-they procedural — Bones is just plain addictive. The series follows a forensic anthropologist, Dr. “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel), and FBI agent Booth (David Boreanaz) as they solve crimes and try not to fall in love. The banter between the two recalls our faves Scully and Mulder of the X-Files. Plus, there’s rotting corpses, scientific jargon, and sexual tension. What more can you ask from a crime show?Photo: 20th Century Fox Television/REX/Shutterstock
Boardwalk Empire (2010 – 2014)
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Michael K. Williams, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Shannon, Vincent Piazza, Jack Huston, Michael Pitt
“You can’t be half a gangster,” this Martin Scorsese-produced HBO show proclaimed in its third season. That’s the biggest and best theme of the show, which follows Atlantic City bootlegger Enoch “Nucky” Thompson. He tries being half a gangster and half a politician, but it never works out.
The show frequently sputters, and is sometimes slow. But visually it’s still pretty astonishing. If you’re not in it for the long haul, stream the second season, when Michael Pitt puts in good work.
Broadchurch (2013 – Present)
Starring: David Tennant, Olivia Colman, Jodie Whittaker
This British import stars David Tennant of Jessica Jones and Dr. Who fame and Olivia Colman as detectives in the small town of Dorset, UK. The first season (or series, if you will excuse the British-ism), begins when the body of an 11-year-old boy appears on a nearby beach. The following episodes detail the fallout from the death, which, incidentally, looks an awful lot like murder. Broadchurch has the ingredients of a been-there-done-that procedural, but the setting, in combination with superb performances from the two leads, makes for a haunting drama that lasts far beyond your average crime show.
A warning for beginners: the accents in this show are pretty thick, so you may want to watch with subtitles.
Narcos (2015 – Present)
Starring: Wagner Moura, Pedro Pascal, Boyd Holbrook, Paulina Gaitán
This gritty and addictive Netflix drama isn’t for the faint of heart. The show follows Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar, who’s feeling the pinch of the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Even though we know how this ends — the “King of Cocaine” was eventually shot and killed by the Columbian National Police in 1993 — the series is exciting and bloody.
Luther (2010-2016)
Starring: Idris Elba, Ruth Wilson
DCI John Luther is a brilliant but tormented British police detective. His dedication to catching killers borders on an obsession that tends to consume him. For much of the series he chases the beautiful but cunning serial killer Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson).
The searing crime drama has been called Elba’s best work since The Wire. He won a Golden Globe for the show in 2012.
The Fall (2013-2016)
Starring: Gillian Anderson, Jamie Dornan
Jamie Dornan is, objectively, an attractive man. The Fifty Shades of Grey franchise does not make good on his appeal. The Fall, however, does.
But Gillian Anderson is The Fall’s true star. As high ranking detective Stella Gibson, Anderson is hot on the trail of a serial killer targeting white, brunette women. That serial killer is — shocker — Dornan’s character. These two face off in this slow burning BBC series.Photo: Courtesy of BBC.
The Killing (2011-2014)
Starring: Mireille Enos, Joel Kinnaman
Detectives Sarah Linden (Enos) and Stephen Holder (Kinnaman) star in this moody, intense drama about Seattle crime. The duo occasionally butt heads — she’s stern, he’s unfettered — but they have to work together to solve four seasons worth of grisly murders.
The Killing‘s greatness was spectacular, but ultimately uneven: “Every year, fans rolled that rock up the hill of fine acting, great dialogue and stunning visuals,” wrote Joel Keller for Indiewire, “only to be crushed as it rolled back down, thanks to the end of the season making no sense, or executed so poorly that you found yourself yelling at the screen.”Photo: Courtesy of AMC.
True Detective (2014-Present)
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Monaghan
Ok, we know the second season of this HBO show was flaming hot garbage fire. But the first season of True Detective — for all of the “time is a flat circle” goofiness — was pretty compelling.
True Detective‘s central crime unfolded beautifully, with bold camera work and precise commentary on religion, politics, and the American south. A pair of grizzled Louisiana detectives tried to track down the man who murdered a prostitute in two timelines. The past and present converged to make for a really great whodunit.
That first season also did right by its women: At Grantland, Molly Lambert made a good case this. “But I don’t think the women on True Detective are mere virgins and whores. Far from it. I think that it’s through them we are made to see the very obvious problems with Marty’s view of women as virgins and whores,” she wrote. “The show is also equally weighted toward Rust’s POV, which questions much of that worldview.”Photo: Courtesy of HBO.
Cold Case (2003-2010)
Starring: Kathryn Morris, Danny Pino, John Finn
Vintage unsolved mysteries got a second look in this CBS series. Detective Lilly Rush was an expert at closing cases whose files were weathered with decades of age and buried evidence.
The Cold Case crew took on old missing persons cases and unsolved murders. They always seemed like the underdog against ageing witnesses, and the limitations of technology when the cases were first opened. That, plus Detective Rush’s struggle as her squad’s only woman investigator, made this a compelling crime drama.Photo: Courtesy of CBS.
Law & Order: SVU (1999-Present)
Starring: Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni, Ice-T, Richard Belzer, B.D. Wong
SVU is the best of the franchise, and the one readily available on Netflix. Olivia Benson and Elliott Stabler were the most reliable partners, a perfect balance of friendship, cynicism, truth, and toughness. All the conventions of the original series were carried over into this spin-off, which dealt primarily with sex crimes. To the credit of the producers, the show confronted sex shaming and victim-blaming for women other shows considered high risk targets.
To date, SVU is known for timely takes on the news. Recent episodes have taken on GamerGate, Robert Durst, and sexual assault on college campuses.Photo: Courtesy of NBC.
Law & Order (1990-2010)
Starring: Sam Waterston, S. Epatha Merkerson, Jerry Orbach, Anthony Anderson
The OG Law & Order exemplifies the franchise’s signature mix of compelling, timely cases and interesting cops and attorneys. Over 20 years and 450 episodes, the show became a benchmark for great serialised crime dramas.
In its final seasons, Law & Order was up against cable heavyweights like Lost and 24. It’s better than both, wrote Mike Hale for The New York Times at the time of the show’s cancellation, and will likely age better, too: “Through 20 seasons, the message of Law & Order was always about living to fight another day.”Photo: Courtesy of NBC.
The Wire (2002-2008)
Starring: Wendell Pierce, Michael Kenneth Williams, Sonja Sohn
No show deals with the intersection of crime, the judicial system, race, power, and the cynicism that pervades each as well as The Wire. The show launched a host of impressively textured careers — including those of Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan, Michael K. Williams, and Dominic West — and established creator and showrunner David Simon as one of the smartest and most influential figures in TV. The Wire shines because of its moral ambiguity: In a city beset by inequality, the lines between the good and bad guys aren’t easy to draw.Photo: Courtesy of HBO.
Starring: Regina King, Ben McKenzie, Michael Cudlitz
Southland‘s vision of the LAPD is dark and conflicted. The character-driven drama sees LA crime on a granular level, through the eyes of the detectives who patrol the streets daily. The show’s run was short, but it presented a grittier take on police life on a major network. Also, who wouldn’t support a show that kept The O.C.’s Ben McKenzie employed?Photo: Courtesy of TNT.
How to Get Away With Murder (2014-Present)
Starring: Viola Davis, Liza Weil, Alfred Enoch, Matt McGorry
Shonda Rhimes’ reign continues with HTGAWM, anchored by Viola Davis. The show’s characters are always escaping their own murder charges or defending clients against a conviction, but its standout strength is the compelling character of Annalise Keating (Davis). “I wanted to play a fully realised, dark-skinned woman, and just doing that alone could be revolutionary,” Davis told The New York Times. The show’s realistic, assertive look at sexuality and power has earned it high praise.Photo: Courtesy of ABC.
Starring: Kyra Sedgwick, J.K. Simmons
Kyra Sedgwick plays Brenda Johnson, an Atlanta police detective with a particular talent: getting confessions. Johnson is kind of an oddball character to her peers — her bright, confident outfits stick out in a sea of police blue and grey — but she is a titan interrogator. “Women are not successful because they act like men…femininity is a power,” executive producer James Duff told The Christian Science Monitor at the time of the show’s end. “It is not a weakness or something that needs to be compensated for. So I was very concentrated on making sure that Brenda remained a woman in this world.”Photo: Courtesy of TNT.
Mindhunter (2017)
Starring: Anna Torv, Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany
Based on the book Mindhunter, written by one of the FBI’s first criminal profilers, this dark Netflix thriller gives a glimpse into the study of serial killers. The show focuses on the F.B.I.’s budding Behavioral Analysis Unit, manned by two agents and a psychologist. Holden Ford (Groff) is an enthusiastic 29-year-old with the revolutionary idea of interviewing convicted serial killers, and use their insights to solve more crimes. The more traditional Trench (McCallany) goes along with it. Everything coalesces once Wendy Carr (Torv) is on board.
Criminal Minds (2005-present)
After you’re finished with Mindhunter, the Netflix drama about the nascent stages of the F.B.I.’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, you can delve into Criminal Minds‘ tremendous backlog. The show focuses on members of the same elite unit, who spend their days tracking and catching serial killers, and attempting to understand their psychology.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-present)
Starring: Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Chelsea Peretti
Most of the shows on this list take their crime seriously — extremely seriously. Brooklyn Nine-Nine doesn’t follow that same pattern as it follows a dysfunctional group of New York City cops trying to to catch the bad guys.
Although the FOX sitcom tends to be a silly office comedy at times, it does spend a lot of time focusing on actual crimes too. The entire Nine-Nine crew is actually great at their jobs and Andy Samberg’s Jake Peralta is so obsessed with his career, he has his own criminal nemesis, The Pontiac Bandit (Craig Robinson).
The Night Of (2005-2012)
Starring: Riz Ahmed, John Turturro
This eight-episode HBO miniseries starts with a crime, but turns into a long, bleak meditation on the American criminal justice system. A woman is found brutally murdered in her Upper West Side apartment, and authorities are quick to frame Nasir Khan, the young taxi driver who slept with her that night. But nothing in this show, which looks at the crime from every possible angle, is cut and dry.
Top of the Lake (2013-present)
Starring: Elisabeth Moss
In a remote town in New Zealand, Robin Griffin (Moss) investigates the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant girl named Tui. In addition to leading the high-profile investigation, Robin must exhume ghosts of her own trauma, which occurred in the very town in which Tui vanished.
Medium (2005-2011)
Starring: Patricia Arquette
Some psychics advertise on street corners. Others host Long Island Medium. But housewife Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette) uses her ability to commune with the dead to help her local Arizona District Attorney’s office with their investigations. Throughout the show, she struggles to balance her criminal investigations with her home life — a husband and three psychic daughters.
Blue Bloods (2010-present)
Starring: Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg
It’s like Parenthood, but with cops. Tom Selleck plays Frank Reagan, the New York Police Commissioner, and head to a boisterous and complicated family of policemen and women. It’s cheesy, but like all multi-generational shows, it’s also impossible to resist getting attached over the episodes.
Justified (2010-2015)
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Nick Searcy
The real crime of Justified? That is was criminally overlooked by the American TV-watching public. In this show, cowboy hat-wearing U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) angers the wrong people with his old-fashioned, stubborn conception of right and wrong. When the action begins, Raylan has just been reassigned to his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, a place to which he’d never intended to return, because he killed a fugitive.
Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014)
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Maggie Siff, Ron Perelman
When it comes to crime shows, either you’re watching law enforcement solve crimes and hunt down “bad guys,” or you’re learning the motivations behind said “bad guys.” Sons of Anarchy is the latter. Jackson “Jax” Teller (Charlie Hunnam) plays a high-ranking member of an outlaw motorcycle club who begins to question the group’s lawless ways. Since Jax’s mother (Gemma Teller Morrow) and stepfather (Ron Perelman) are the ringleaders of the Sons of Anarchy club, it doesn’t look like Jax could extract himself even if he wanted to. For now, Jax is ensconced in his town of Charming, California, and the doings of his motorcycle gang.
Law and Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders (2017)
Starring: Edie Falco
Law and Order jumped on the true crime train, because hey — it’s a popular train to be on. For seven years and three trials, Erik and Lyle Menendez’ fascinating and horrifying crime transfixed public attention. On August 20, 1989, the boys murdered their parents in their Calabasas mansion, and proceeded to spent $700,000 in their insurance payout.
American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson (2017-present)
Starring: Sterling K. Brown, David Schwimmer, Sarah Paulson, Cuba Gooding Jr.
Ryan Murphy’s tour-de-force recreated the events of the O.J. Simpson trial of 1994. Forthcoming seasons will look at different events in American history, like the assassination of Gianni Versace and Hurricane Katrina.
Babylon Berlin (2007-present)
Starring: Volker Bruch, Lisa Liv Fries
Babylon Berlin combines the suspense of a crime drama with a fascinating historical period. Essentially, it’s perfect escapist fare. In Weimar Republic Berlin, parties rage till dawn, cocaine is sold in coffee shops, and Communist workers clash with police on the regs. It’s a era of massive upheaval for Germany. Within this chaos, Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) arrives to Berlin from Cologne to try to get to the bottom of a porn ring. Why aren’t you watching it yet?
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