Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as John Creasy in Man on Fire (2026).
2026 has already been an incredible year of television, with instant must-watch classics like The Pitt Season 2. But with so many dramas and comedies, some fans like to spice up their daily routine with something that hits a darker, grittier, and more realistic tone with crime shows.
This genre is always a treat, whether based on reality or focusing on new stories, and 2026 is already home to a few standouts, such as Young Sherlock and Detective Hole. However, if these crime series aren't up fans' alley, or they have already watched these shows and are feeling a bit greedy, 2026 still has more in store. That is why this list will highlight the upcoming crime shows this year that fans should not miss based on potential, critical acclaim, anticipation, names attached, general quality, and popularity. Crime comes in many shapes and sizes, and this list will remind viewers of new seasons or inform them on the best original concepts. 'Cape Fear' Sometimes remakes and reimaginings are absolutely needed, but other times they come out of left field, including Cape Fear, which will reimagine the iconic thriller from the 1960s. Two married attorneys, Tom and Anna , face their dark past when a serial killer they put away gets out of jail and plans to dismantle their lives one step at a time. Realistically, Cape Fear doesn't need to be remade for a third time, fourth if fans count The Simpsons adaptation. However, the weirdness and potential that this series presents are too much to leave it off this list. The biggest draws are the names attached, including producers Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, and actors Wilson, Adams, and Javier Bardem, making this a must-watch major crime series. 'The Gentlemen' Season 2 Guy Ritchie has already given fans one of the best crime shows of the year in Young Sherlock, but he isn't done yet, as he is also releasing The Gentlemen Season 2 this year. Set a year after the events of the first season, Eddie and Susie are in full control of their empire, but in the midst of expanding their operation, they face a global war on crime. The first season of The Gentlemen was spectacular and full of style, meaning fans can't wait to dive back into this universe and explore what is in store for them now. This style of posh crime is never overbearing and presents an elegant and witty atmosphere not seen in most crime shows. Plus, with Ritchie's snappy dialogue, fashionable suits, and brutal violence, The Gentlemen is a delightful treat this year. 'Big Mistakes' Dan Levy is mostly known for Schitt's Creek, but his new crime-comedy, Big Mistakes, might be the next big thing. When two siblings try to help their grandmother by doing a heist, they fail miserably and stumble into the world of organized crime. After being blackmailed into increasingly dangerous missions, the two fail upwards into the ranks of the criminal elite. This premise alone is enough to hook comedy and crime fans, but everyone should check out this original concept that could be the funniest TV show of the year. With the humor of Schitt's Creek blended with a Breaking Bad crime twist, Big Mistakes has great potential with a hilarious cast. For those loving crime, but not wanting anything too gritty, this should be at the top of their watchlist. 'Lupin' Part 4 After a long wait, the gentleman thief finally makes his return to Netflix in a fourth season, with Lupin Part 4 set to come out later this year. After the titular character's noble sacrifice at the end of last season, this new story will follow him and his inevitable escape. However, his father's dark past looms heavily as Lupin tries to protect his family. Lupin has consistently been one of the best crime series of the past decade, and fans are eager to see Sy reprise his role as the most charismatic character on TV after a long hiatus. No show captures the same mix of high-stakes crime drama with emotional family themes and impact as well as Lupin does, making this next part one of the most anticipated new seasons of 2026.Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one. 🪜Parasite 🌀Everything Everywhere ☢️Oppenheimer 🐦Birdman 🪙No Country for Old Men FIND YOUR FILM → QUESTION 1 / 10TONE 01 What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind. ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching. DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10THEME 02 Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours? AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity. BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10STRUCTURE 03 How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means. AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different. BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10VILLAIN 04 What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you? AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face. BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10ENDING 05 What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like? AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it. BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10WORLD 06 Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible. AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person. CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10CRAFT 07 What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable. AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience. CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10PROTAGONIST 08 What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you. ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure. BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10PACE 09 How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately. AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal. BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10AFTERMATH 10 What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want? AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about. BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days. REVEAL MY FILM → The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is… Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works. BEST PICTURE 2020 Parasite You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image. BEST PICTURE 2023 Everything Everywhere All at Once You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about. BEST PICTURE 2024 Oppenheimer You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort. BEST PICTURE 2015 Birdman You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all. BEST PICTURE 2008 No Country for Old Men You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 'The Ghost in the Shell' This next entry may be a bit of a detour from what fans are usually accustomed to, but anime has been taking over the world recently, so maybe it is time to get on board. Ghost in the Shell is a critically acclaimed anime film from the 1980s, but The Ghost in the Shell is a modern adaptation that will stick more faithfully to the manga. Set in a cyberpunk world, Motoko and her squad chase down a mysterious criminal hacker who erases his victims' memories, taking on the world of cyber-terrorism. Anime isn't for everyone, but The Ghost in the Shell is a magnificently philosophical and psychological story that balances its complexity with nostalgic goofiness from the manga. Science Saru, the animation studio, is known for being one of the best, and the recent trailer proves that they are doing justice to this sci-fi world. With dazzling animation and stunning art, The Ghost in the Shell could be a game-changing anime and the definitive sci-fi crime show of 2026. 'Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story' This list mainly contains fictional crime stories, but true crime is just as, if not more, riveting as it details real-life events. Ryan Murphy's Monster anthology series follows a new serial killer in each season, and the next installment is Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. Shifting back in time to 1892, this season will dramatize the events when the titular character murdered her father and stepmother. The Monster anthology series is one of the most popular on Netflix, and while it may be polarizing for many reasons, fans can't deny that it is thrilling and popular. This anticipation makes Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story a must-watch for crime fans, especially because its new focus on an older time period is bound to have much more potential. This psychological crime show featuring Ella Beatty and Charlie Hunnam covering the trial of the century might just be the best crime show of the century. 'Only Murders in the Building' Season 6 Out of all the established franchises and series, Only Murders in the Building is arguably the most popular, and the next season is just around the corner. After being set in New York City for the past five seasons, Season 6 takes this trio across the pond and into London. They are now investigating a new mystery set up to be the origin point of the story, relating to classic detective novels. Subscribe to the newsletter for top 2026 crime picks Join our newsletter to get curated crime-show picks, in-depth context, and smart takes that help you decide what to watch next. You'll also get broader entertainment highlights so crime fans can place 2026 series in the wider TV landscape. 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. Only Murders in the Building is one of the best modern crime shows and arguably the greatest comfort crime comedy. The cast of Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short is a joy to watch on television, having a spectacular dynamic. With fresh scenery, new eccentric cast members, and the origin of mystery and crime stories, nobody should miss out on this next season. 'I Will Find You' Harlan Coben is a prolific crime writer with some of the most riveting novels in the genre, and many of these receive spectacular adaptations, including one this year, Run Away. However, his next most anticipated story is I Will Find You, which follows David Burroughs , a father in jail for the murder of his son. However, when evidence arises of a similar-looking boy, he is convinced that his son is still alive, even escaping prison to prove it and learn the truth. Every adaptation of Coben's novels becomes a must-watch crime drama, and I Will Find You is no different. This is the first of his stories to fully take place in the United States of America and features a standout cast, including Britt Lower and Milo Ventimiglia. Coben's one more episode cliffhangers will make a return, and with a daring and thrilling plot such as this, I Will Find You is the crime show no one should miss out on in 2026. 'Man on Fire' 2026 seems to be the year of TV remakes of iconic crime movies, as the next entry on this list is Man on Fire. This new adaptation of A.J. Quinnell's novel follows Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as John Creasy, a former special forces mercenary battling his severe PTSD. Despite bonding with the daughter of the family he is protecting, John is thrust back into a world full of violence and murder. Simply put, Abdul-Mateen II will have a tough task trying to live up to Denzel Washington in the original, but based on the initial trailer, it might just live up to its name. The movie was fun, but this will be a full adaptation, meaning it can explore the characters and story more deeply, including Creasy's tactical brilliance and dark past, meaning Man on Fire will be an action-packed must-watch. Like Man on Fire TV-MA Action Drama Thriller Release Date April 30, 2026 Network Netflix Showrunner Kyle Killen Directors Steven Caple Jr., Vicente Amorim, Clare Kilner, Michael Cuesta Cast See All Writers Kyle Killen Main Genre Action Seasons 1 Producers Arnon Milchan, Edward McDonnell, Jenno Topping, Michael Polaire, Peter Chernin, Stacy Perskie, Kyle Killen, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Scott Pennington, Yariv Milchan, Natalie Lehmann Creator Kyle Killen Executive Producer Kyle Killen, Steven Caple Jr., Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan, Natalie Lehmann, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Tracey Cook, Scott Pennington, Ed McDonnell, Michael Polaire, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Stacy Perskie Powered by Expand Collapse
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