What makes a TV crime thriller perfect? Asking that question is almost like plotting out an Agatha Christie-esque novel and realizing halfway through that there’s no such thing as a single valid answer, a sole culprit, or a final piece of the puzzle. But in all honesty, that’s a good thing. It means that many different kinds of mysteries can scratch that narrative itch. It also means that there are as many ways to tell those narratives as there are stories.
Lucky for us, several TV shows will satisfy your craving for a good police procedural. So if you’re looking for that perfect crime thriller to binge, you’ve come to the right place. Below are eight shows that are nearly perfect in their own right, each with something different to offer the average viewer. Despite their differences, they have one thing in common: They’ll satiate your inner detective until the final credits roll.
‘Perry Mason’ (2020 — 2023)
The HBO Old School Noir That Was Quashed Too Soon
Why I Included It: Though it only lasted two seasons, HBO’s Perry Mason is an absolute must-watch. Our only consolation for a show gone too soon is that the seasons Perry Mason gave us were pitch-perfect in its noir-laden scope. Starring Matthew Rhys as the titular Perry Mason, a Depression-era Los Angeles private investigator who will one day become a famous defense attorney, the series is a prequel reboot to the groundbreaking IP of the same name.
Why It’s Great: While each season grounds itself in a specific case, the show’s focus plays on a grander scale, exposing police corruption within L.A.’s law enforcement and justice systems, which still feels pertinent to contemporary audiences. If you’re even a smidge familiar with Rhys’ work on The Americans, it’s no surprise that the Welsh actor gives yet another career-defining performance that’s nearly impossible to tear your eyes away from.
‘Sugar’ (2024 — Present)
The Rare Detective Thriller That’s Also a Sweet Love Letter to Hollywood
Why I Included It: Most might associate Colin Farrell with his prosthetics-heavy (yet undeniably engrossing and Emmy-nominated) turn as Oz Cobb in HBO’s The Penguin, but there’s another Farrell-led show that you definitely shouldn’t sleep on. The name of that Apple TV show is Sugar, and with a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score for its recently premiered second season, all signs point to this detective thriller gaining momentum at each season premiere rather than losing steam.
Why It’s Great: A neo-noir that takes the genre to its very limit, Sugar follows the eponymous John Sugar, a private investigator who takes a case from a Hollywood industry legend, one whose work Sugar absolutely loves. Sugar is a lonely but sweet soul, as Farrell himself told MovieWeb in 2024, a person who uses movies to “[make] him feel less outside of [himself and] the human experience and more a part of it, because he doesn’t have any interpersonal relationships.” If you’re a movie buff with an affinity for character-driven, genre-bending fare, Sugar will definitely hit your sweet spot.
‘Unforgotten’ (2015 — Present)
The Victim-Centric Thriller You Didn’t Know You Needed
Why I Included It: One of the biggest criticisms of the true crime and crime thriller genre is how it romanticizes perpetrators and renders victims little more than props. The ITV series Unforgotten tackles this criticism head-on; in fact, it appears to have made its primary objective to remedy it, even if its characters are fictional. Each season (or “series,” for those who live across the pond) meditates on one cold case, overseen by the emotionally distant but empathetic DCI Cassie Stuart (played by British icon Nicola Walker, who left the show after Season 4), and later the tough but eager DCI Jessica “Jessie” James (Irish powerhouse Sinéad Keenan). And don’t forget their shared professional partner DI Sunny Khan (a quietly vulnerable Sanjeev Bhaskar).
Why It’s Great: This team of detectives pieces together the story of their victim in a way that always places the decedent front and center, all the while weaving different strands of seemingly unrelated plotlines into a strong, braided whole. If you’re looking for a show that balances grit with vulnerability and gives a refreshingly ethical take on the thriller genre without hitting you over the head with polemics, Unforgotten is the perfect watch.
‘The White Lotus’ (2021 — Present)
“I’m Not a Bad Person. I’m Just a Person Who Does Bad Things.”
Why I Included It: What happens when you bring the components of a twisted upstairs-downstairs black comedy with a murder plot filled with gravitas and set it at a resort chain for the wealthiest jet-setters among us? You get The White Lotus, the HBO dramedy thriller that has become not only an instant masterpiece, but an embodiment of the zeitgeist. Set against the lush backdrops of places as far-flung as Hawai’i, Italy, and Thailand — a new locale for every season — White Lotus catapults viewers right in the middle of a murder from minute one, and from there, insanity ensues.
Why It’s Great: Although it’s technically a whodunit, White Lotus is more interested in the “why.” It zeroes in on how the forces of class, race, social mobility, privilege, and identity intersect in different ways to produce not only the murder that preoccupies each season’s opening scene, but the fates of every character, no matter how tenuously related they are to that scene. In lesser hands, a show like this could be a slog. But creator, writer, and director Mike White infuses each season with the right amount of levity and satire to keep us watching and waiting with bated breath for every subsequent season.
‘Luther’ (2010 — 2019)
A Show That Isn’t Afraid to Examine Moral Morass
Why I Included It: If a detective haunted by the nature of his work exists, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one more so than Idris Elba’s anti-hero DCI John Luther, the titular main character in a show fittingly named, well, Luther, the character that made the British actor a household name.
Why It’s Great: Self-sabotaging to a fault and the layperson’s ever-questioning, compulsively pessimistic philosopher, Elba’s Luther is drawn to the liminal reaches of morality. That quality is epitomized by his complicated relationship with Alice Morgan (the fantastic Ruth Wilson), an obvious murderer and Luther’s own devil’s advocate. Their strange tango serves as the nexus for much of the show, drawing us into the madness that Luther navigates from day to day as he delves into each of his cases. You won’t be able to stop watching.
‘American Crime Story’ (2016 — Present)
A Show That Lives Up to Its Name
Why I Included It: A Ryan Murphy TV series is usually a wild hit or an obvious miss, so it’s a delightful treat that his anthology series American Crime Story falls into the former camp. While the show follows a different structure than most of the candidates on this list — each season is a standalone story about a different real-life true crime straight out of recent American history — it always has something to say. Much like White Lotus, Murphy’s American Crime Story homes in on how race, sexuality, the patriarchy, and other branches of identity politics shape the way crime narratives play out (for the best example, check out The People v. O.J. Simpson Season 1), but does so in a deeply American way.
Why It’s Great: Even though there are only three seasons of the show at the time of this writing, the last of which debuted in 2021, there might be more on the horizon. Details are scant, but the fourth season of American Crime Story is rumored to focus on the infamous nightclub Studio 54, even though it seems unlikely. Even if that’s the case, maybe it’s for the best, and the series has ended on a high note.
‘Mindhunter’ (2017 — 2019)
The Dearly Departed Gold Standard For True Crime-Based Thrillers
Why I Included It: For many (including myself), David Fincher’s Mindhunter is the gold standard for prestige TV crime thrillers. Based on the book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John C. Douglas, one of the storied founders of the FBI’s real-life Behavioral Science Unit (now known by a different name), the TV series adaptation centers on Douglas’ fictive alter ego, Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and the department’s genesis.
The foundation of the BSU, however, is anything but sturdy, at least in its early days in the 1970s. Its formation is a byproduct of incidental research conducted by Ford and his partner, the gruff Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), and later on, the academically trained de facto psychopathy expert Dr. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) as all three interview infamous serial killers and lesser-known criminals in order to figure out what makes them tick.
Why It’s Great: While this description could be the basis for any run-of-the-mill police procedural, Fincher elevates it to a work of art, filled with long takes, a distinctive moody color palette combined with an eye for precise historical detail, and stellar performances. In particular, Cameron Britton is great as the infamous Edmund Kemper.
‘Twin Peaks’ (1990 — 2017)
The Godfather of All Great Modern Crime Thrillers
Why I Included It: I’ve included at least one or two genre-bending or groundbreaking TV shows in this list. But compared to Twin Peaks, they’re all practically peanuts. David Lynch’s surrealist take on the crime thriller genre is as miasmic and atmospheric as a Pacific Northwestern mist, and there hasn’t been anything quite like it before or since it premiered on ABC in 1990, before its third and final season aired on Showtime more than 25 years later in 2017.
Based on a real-life crime that haunted Lynch since his childhood, Twin Peaks took pieces of each of the entries listed above and utilized the best bits, all before those aforementioned shows were twinkles in their creators’ eyes. Some have hailed the story of the murder of Laura Palmer, a girl who is also an enigma (which is commentary unto itself), as the greatest mystery series of all time.
Why It’s Great: Mixing Lynchian near-absurdism with hard-boiled noir and performances of a lifetime delivered by a talented cast, it’s difficult to give anything else away without spoiling key points for a first-time viewer. Let’s just say there’s a reason that the long-overdue third season of Twin Peaks, which came over 25 years since its 1990 debut, was just as well-received as its first. Even the once-maligned spin-off movie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, has since been reevaluated as a bona fide classic. If you’re into crime thrillers, nothing beats the perfection of David Lynch’s vision.
Is there an argument to be made that if Twin Peaks were never released, the shows included on this list wouldn’t either? Perhaps. If you’d like to argue for or against — or if you think this list has a glaring omission — post in the comments section below.
