Bryan Cranston in an episode of Breaking Bad
At its very best, crime television is addictive. It uses the innate tension and moral complexity of its stories to deliver ceaselessly compelling series loaded with intriguing, confronting, and nuanced characters while offering relentless high-stakes suspense.
This is as true of macabre murder mysteries that delve into the turmoil of crime investigation as it is of gangland dramas that revel in the life-and-death intensity of organized crime while exploring the ethical codes and dilemmas of those embroiled in it. Thankfully for television lovers, there has been no shortage of great crime shows that have captured the full potential of the genre throughout the entirety of their tenures on the small screen.
Be they older classics of network television or modern sensations of streaming, each of these ten series presents absorbing drama from their opening scenes right through to the final minutes of their finales. 10 'Ozark' One of the definitive highlights of Netflix’s forays into producing its own television series, Ozark strikes a smart balance between leaning on what has worked for past crime series while incorporating new ideas and dynamics into the fold. Jason Bateman stars as Marty Byrde, a financial planner who relocates his family to the Ozarks to oversee a money laundering and drug smuggling operation when he finds himself indebted to a Mexican drug lord.
As he struggles to maintain a sense of normality for his kids, Marty and his wife, Wendy , also form agreements and feuds with local criminals. Rather than being a fly-on-the-wall exploration of established criminals, Ozark immerses viewers in the lives of the Byrdes, an ordinary family thrust into extraordinary circumstances, in a manner that is both ferociously relatable and maniacally suspenseful.
Bolstered by its atmospheric intensity and smart writing that sees the resolution of one issue seamlessly cascade into another life-threatening catastrophe, Ozark delivers four seasons of relentless thrills that epitomize crime television at its hypnotic, binge-worthy best. 9 'The Shield' Opening with one of the greatest pilot episodes in the history of television, The Shield serves as a confronting yet addictive descent into the depths of police corruption that is realized with astounding moral complexity and a visceral sense of realistic tension. It follows the Strike Team, a small police unit headed by Vic Mackey operating in a crime-riddled region of L.A.
, who use illegal methods to uphold law and order while finding ways to profit from street crime and stay one step ahead of those on the force who would hold them to account. Mackey himself is one of television’s greatest and most underrated anti-heroes, but the balance all the main characters try to find between employing their unethical practices and justifying their horrific actions is handled with sublime nuance and depth.
Fast-paced and often chaotic, The Shield is truly arresting from start to finish, progressing with an air of unpredictability that manages to offer ceaseless suspense while taking the time to develop and analyze the characters. Not only did it excel throughout its entire run, but its seventh and final season is also considered to be one of the best endings to a show in television history. 8 'Line of Duty' A masterclass in immersive writing from Jed Mercurio, Line of Duty excels at finding the drama in the details, conjuring an intense and morally complex descent into the world of police corruption.
Everything from the jargon-heavy dialogue to the intricate, slow-burning nature of the cases investigated contributes to this, crafting a meticulous viewing experience of profound suspense and pressing realism, particularly in the awe-inspiring interrogation scenes that thrive as psychological cat-and-mouse games between investigators and suspects, many of which run for up to 20 minutes and are achieved in just one take. The series strikes a brilliant balance between the long and winding effort to identify “H”, a senior member of the police force with disturbing connections to organized crime, and tackling the more immediate cases handled by AC-12, an anti-corruption unit working in the Central Police.
Line of Duty has excelled with its gripping realism and meticulous intensity throughout its six-season run thus far, and with a seventh season scheduled to release in 2027, it is easy to argue that the British cop show is the best crime series still running. 7 'Mr. Inbetween' Confronting, complex, and oddly charming, Mr. Inbetween presents a striking balance between crime carnage and comedic punch to be one of the most wickedly enjoyable series of the past decade. Defined by Scott Ryan’s exceptional lead performance, it follows Australian hitman Ray Shoesmith as he struggles to balance the violent nature of his work with his desire to be a present and attentive father, brother, and friend.
Despite being a gangland mercenary, Ray emerges as one of television’s most enticing and strangely endearing anti-heroes, a ruthless and calculated killer who stands assured in his own moral code. The series is wise to play with its unique tone, finding the absurd comedy in Ray agreeing to murder someone in one scene only to pick up his daughter from school and display his dedication to being a father in the very next one.
However, Mr. Inbetween never feels cartoonish or goofy; instead thriving as a gritty crime drama steeped in dry Australian humor that presents one of the medium’s most confounding and captivating characters with commanding confidence. 6 'Twin Peaks' Enrapturing with its style and tonal dare as much as it is with its bleak central mystery, Twin Peaks excels as an atmospheric and distinctly eerie series that thrives on the back of David Lynch’s captivating vision and the lingering, unnerving presence of the supernatural.
It follows FBI agent Dale Cooper as he travels to the titular town to investigate the murder of a local teenager, with its serialized focus on one case throughout its entirety, making it a revolutionary series for its time. Blending together elements of absurd dark comedy, social commentary, ‘50s melodrama, and even horror, Twin Peaks is a rich concoction of moods and ideas that immediately hits viewers with its surreal mystique.
While it does prioritize this sense of spectacle and style, it still invests heavily in exploring the psychological depths of its characters, creating a vibrant mosaic of morality, grief, and trauma as it grapples with the idea of human evil lurking beneath the picturesque quaintness of small-town America. COLLIDER. Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown Four worlds.
All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for. 🤠Yellowstone 🛢️Landman 👑Tulsa King ⚖️Mayor of Kingstown FIND YOUR WORLD → QUESTION 1 / 10POWER 01 Where does your power come from?
In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind. ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first.
CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10LOYALTY 02 Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly. AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me.
BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything.
DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10CONFLICT 03 Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line.
What matters is what happens after it's crossed. AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly.
Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10SETTING 04 Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people. AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away.
BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10MORALITY 05 How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt. AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine.
I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it.
DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10AMBITION 06 What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending. AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase.
BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10LEADERSHIP 07 How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested. ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't.
BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10OUTSIDERS 08 Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast.
CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10COST 09 What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal. AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence.
The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears.
Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10LEGACY 10 When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind. AThat I held the line.
That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it.
REVEAL MY SHOW → Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In… The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes. 🤠 Yellowstone 🛢️ Landman 👑 Tulsa King ⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown YELLOWSTONE You are a Dutton — or you might as well be.
You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute.
In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it. LANDMAN You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything.
You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.
TULSA KING You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive.
Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target.
You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 'Mindhunter' Another of Netflix’s most beloved series, one that was effectively axed after just two seasons despite universal fanfare and acclaim, Mindhunter marks a brilliant evolution of modern cop drama.
Rather than using its slow-burn allure and deep psychological focus to examine a case, it pries into the mindset and the making of a murderer, following two FBI agents and a psychologist as they travel to prisons around America to interview detained serial killers. As they gather information about their past experiences and what motivated them to kill, they pioneer a new age of criminal profiling that is used in active cases.
With David Fincher’s involvement in the creative process, Mindhunter exudes a rich atmospheric allure, a heavy, dread-filled suspense that draws disturbing intensity from the psyche of its killers rather than graphic or gory depictions of their crimes. Its cerebral aspects are what make it so enthralling.
Combining them with the aesthetic of 1970s America and a deep emphasis on the mentality of the two agents, Mindhunter delivers 19 episodes of engrossing drama. 4 'Sherlock' Crime television has rarely been so inviting as it was in Sherlock, with the BBC series brilliantly modernizing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ tales in a manner that is refreshing and exuberant while staying true to the characters presented in the original works. From episode one, it thrives off the chemistry of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, with the duo starring as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson respectively.
Living as friends, flatmates, and colleagues, they investigate elaborate crimes that leave the Metropolitan Police baffled and even catch the attention of several criminal masterminds in the process. Fun, frenetic, and fast-paced, the series is as joyous as a murder mystery gets, flaunting a delightful wit and comedic appetite that accents the crimes being investigated with propulsive energy.
While its first two seasons are by far the strongest, all 13 episodes of Sherlock present enrapturing intrigue and energy as they marry rapid-fire storytelling with charm and depth. 3 'Breaking Bad' Combining intricate and meticulously plotted storytelling with one of the most complete and harrowing character transformations television has ever seen, Breaking Bad is a defining triumph of modern crime drama that many understandably herald as being the greatest series of all time. Powered by Bryan Cranston’s ensnaring lead performance, it follows high-school science teacher Walter White as starts cooking methamphetamine to make quick money for his family after being diagnosed with cancer.
While his intentions are initially honorable, the allure of the power of being a drug lord soon seduces him, seeing him go from a meek suburban family man to a ruthless and cruel criminal. Subscribe to the newsletter for smarter crime-TV insight Get deeper context through the newsletter: curated picks and expert analysis of crime television - thematic breakdowns, standout show recommendations, and perspectives that make your next watch more insightful.
Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. The arc of Walter White is utterly transfixing, but Breaking Bad also finds defining strengths in its relentless sense of tension, its note-perfect narrative pacing and storytelling precision, and its litany of great characters and performances that revolve around Cranston’s portrayal of Walter.
Starting off strong and only getting better, darker, and more addictive as it evolves, Breaking Bad is exceptional from its captivating start right through to its unforgettable finale. An honorable mention should also be extended to its similarly brilliant spin-off Better Call Saul, which also thrives from beginning to end. 2 'The Sopranos' A pioneering masterpiece that has aged magnificently over the past 20 years, The Sopranos is the emblematic spearhead of the current era of prestige television that has been at large since the very start of the 21st century.
A perfect combination of great performances, absorbing gangland tension, and razor-sharp writing that balances piercing serialized drama with an authenticity that is often as hilarious as it is harrowing, the series ran for six incredible seasons and only got better as it went on. It revolves around Tony Soprano , a New Jersey mobster who begins seeing a psychiatrist to help manage a series of panic attacks he has experienced as the complex nature of his work-life balance intensifies.
True to crime drama, The Sopranos is violent, confronting, and steeped in questions of morality, but it is often poignant and deeply resonant as well, especially as Tony grapples with the rigid traditionalism of his culture and the emerging new-age attitudes of the modern day. Its pilot episode is masterful, its finale one of the most iconic moments in television history, and everything in between is nothing short of astonishing as well. 1 'The Wire' Epic in scope, tragic in nature, and utterly transfixing from beginning to end, The Wire isn’t just among the greatest crime series ever made; it is arguably the finest piece of television drama of all time.
Its five-season run isn’t just a sprawling mosaic of morality on both sides of the law; it is a stunning and often devastating showpiece on how the inefficiency of social institutions fails a city’s most vulnerable residents. The gist of the series revolves around the cutthroat nature of Baltimore’s drug trade and the obstacles police have to navigate in order to bring the criminals behind it to justice, but it probes into questions of corruption, public image manipulation, and political interference with cynical realism.
Between the experience of co-writers David Simon, a veteran crime reporter, and Ed Burns, a former police officer in Baltimore, The Wire is defined by its pressing authenticity. Every character feels real and raw, a feat that is a testament to the writing, performances, and execution of the series, and a feat that underlines its timelessness.
Like Follow Followed The Wire TV-MA Crime Drama Release Date 2002 - 2008-00-00 Network HBO Showrunner David Simon Directors Ernest R. Dickerson, Ed Bianchi, Steve Shill, Clark Johnson, Daniel Attias, Agnieszka Holland, Tim Van Patten, Alex Zakrzewski, Anthony Hemingway, Brad Anderson, Clement Virgo, Elodie Keene, Peter Medak, Rob Bailey, Seith Mann, Christine Moore, David Platt, Dominic West, Gloria Muzio, Jim McKay, Leslie Libman, Milcho Manchevski, Robert F. Colesberry, Thomas J. Wright Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse
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