Best Crime Shows of All Time, According to Data

“Barry” is a dark comedy from SNL alum Bill Hader. The show centers on a trained hitman with PTSD who tries to leave his violent past behind by becoming an actor. The show has scored nine Primetime Emmy wins, including two for Hader as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

Idris Elba plays the titular “Luther,” a detective chief inspector who is one of the best criminal investigators, but who does not always play by the rules and is haunted by his tragic past. Though the series was canceled, a follow-up movie, “Luther: The Fallen Sun,” has just been released in theaters and on Netflix.

“Twin Peaks” co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost returned for a 2017 season, which consisted of 18 episodes. The reboot’s plot was set 25 years after the events of the original show. There are multiple storylines, all leading back to FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper and his investigation of Laura Palmer’s murder back in 1989.

William Shatner and Candace Bergen broke free of their famous television personas, respectively, the Captain of the Starship Enterprise and Murphy Brown, television anchor, to convincingly play attorneys in a high-end Boston law firm. Shatner won two Emmys for his efforts.

Set before the events that take place in the 1991 movie “Silence of the Lambs,” the show “Hannibal” is the story of a young Hannibal Lecter and his relationship with an FBI criminal profiler.

“Big Little Lies” tells the story of three women who find themselves wrapped up in a murder investigation. The show won four Golden Globes and eight Primetime Emmys in its first season alone.

Jon Bernthal plays ex-Marine Frank Castle who seeks revenge after his family is murdered. Later he tries to thwart a vast underworld conspiracy in New York City.

In “Person of Interest,” a former CIA agent and a programmer team up to use surveillance and artificial intelligence to prevent crimes before they happen.

Rami Malek played a cyber-security engineer and vigilante hacker who tries to take down the corrupt corporation that employs him. Malek won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, one of three garnered by the show.

In “Bosch,” an LAPD detective works to solve complicated cases while struggling with the stress of the job.

“Ozark” is about a financial planner from Chicago who takes his family to the Missouri Ozarks to launder money for a Mexican cartel. He buys various businesses to launder the cash and in the process pulls members of his family into the scheme.

“Happy Valley” is a British crime drama that revolves around the strong-willed police sergeant Catherine Wood, who lives with her recovering alcoholic and heroin addict sister.

“The Bridge” is one of the top foreign detective shows ever. After a body is found on the border of Sweden and Denmark, detectives from both countries must work together to solve the murder.

The Western drama “Deadwood” was set in the real-life town of Deadwood, South Dakota, as it grew in the 1870s. Famous characters like Wild Bill Hickock,Wyatt Earp, and Calamity Jane figure in various episodes. While the series ended abruptly without resolving a number of plot points, a two-hour movie revival was released in 2019.

This British show is one of the most popular and successful on-screen depictions of Agatha Christie’s great fictional detective Hercule Poirot as he solves various crimes.

Though this may not be a traditional detective show, “Daredevil” does feature people doggedly pursuing criminals. Matt Murdock is a lawyer by day and a superhero vigilante by night.

The crime drama series looks at how FBI agents get inside a criminal’s head to solve crimes. The series holds a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 97% and 95% of audiences liked the series.

With a cast lead by Timothy Olyphant, Nick Searcy, and Joelle Carter, FX Network’s “Justified” won two Primetime Emmy awards and was a critical hit throughout its six seasons. The show, about U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Olyphant) who is relocated to his rural Kentucky hometown, is slick and highly binge-worthy.

Set in Atlantic City during the 1920s,”Boardwalk Empire” is the story of how Prohibition accelerated the blood-soaked rise of criminal empires in America. Steve Buscemi plays “Nucky” Thompson, the city’s treasurer and a gangster in his own right.

The show is a violent crime drama about an outlaw biker gang in California. The title character, Jax, struggles to fulfill his late father’s legacy as the gang’s former leader while also being a good father. His role as the protagonist in “Sons of Anarchy” paints him as an anti-hero. Despite his disturbing actions, many audience members still root for his success.

The series that coined the phrase “The truth is out there” starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents investigating unexplained phenomena. The show built a strong fan following and ran for 11 seasons on Fox and over that time hauled in 15 Emmy Awards and five Golden Globes.

Set in Naples, Italy, in the 2010s, “Gomorrah” is an Italian crime thriller centered on Ciro Di Marzio, a member of the Savastano family, who is trying to make it in the world of the Camorra.

A gritty portrayal of a corrupt police officer in Los Angeles, “The Shield” was an incredibly popular show for its seven-season run. Michael Chiklis won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Vic Mackey.

“Oz” was hailed by critics for its envelope-pushing depiction about the grim life in an experimental correctional facility. The show was the first hour-long drama TV series produced by HBO.

“Line of Duty” is a series about AC-12, a police anti-corruption unit. The British series broadcast its sixth season in 2021. Late last year, it was announced that the series would return for a final three episodes at Christmastime 2023.

“Dark” is a critically acclaimed plot-twisting series about how the disappearance of two young children in a German town reveals the tenuous and tense relationships among multiple families.

In “Dexter,” a serial killer channels his dark urges for good, pledging to only kill other murderers – all while hiding in plain sight as a member of the Miami Police Department. The show was rebooted for 2021, picking up 10 years after where the original show ended.

Based on a comic book of the same name, the show follows a group of vigilantes trying to catch rogue superheroes who abuse their powers.

“Twin Peaks” is a much-loved but short-lived detective show from David Lynch that lasted just two seasons in the early 1990s. It tells the story of an FBI agent who investigates a murder in a very strange town.

“Narcos” traces the rise of the drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and the Colombian drug cartels, their ability to corrupt society’s institutions, and the inability of law enforcement to stop them.

“Peaky Blinders” is a crime drama about a powerful gangster family based in Birmingham, England. The series shows how the Peaky Blinders make their way from a street gang to an international criminal organization.

“Fargo” is a dark anthology series in the same vein as the Coen Brothers film of the same name. It follows Midwestern crooks, cops, and the civilians who get caught in the middle of their schemes.

“True Detective” is an anthology series that follows different heinous crimes and the police departments that investigate them. Over its run, it has featured A-list stars like Mahershala Ali, Matthew McConaughey, Rachel McAdams, and more.

Before he was Saul Goodman, counselor to Walter White, he was James McGill, known as Slippin’ Jimmy for his love of con games. This prequel to “Breaking Bad” traces Jimmy’s trajectory from fun-loving, unconventional lawyer seeking justice for the underdog, to hard boiled legal representative for drug lords and brutal gangs.

“Batman: The Animated Series” ran for four seasons between 1992 and 1995. It won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 1993 and earned consistently high marks from critics during its run. In 2015, TV Guide ranked the show number seven on its list of the 60 best animated series of all time.

“Death Note” is one of the most popular anime series of all time. It follows a high school student who finds a notebook that allows the user to kill anyone whose name is written in the book. The student then decides to use the notebook to take out criminals.

“Sherlock” is the BBC’s modern adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective series. It follows an eccentric but brilliant sleuth and his partner as they seek to solve the most difficult cases.

For six seasons between 1999 and 2007, audiences were riveted by one of the most highly praised and groundbreaking TV dramas, “The Sopranos.” Each week they tuned in as Tony Soprano dealt with both his dysfunctional New Jersey crime family and his real family, which sometimes intersected.

With an IMDb user rating of 9.3/10, “The Wire” ranks as the best detective show in TV history. The HBO drama follows Baltimore detectives as well as the drug dealers they pursue.

“Breaking Bad” is about a high school chemistry teacher who produces and sells methamphetamine to help his family financially after learning he has cancer, while keeping his side job secret from his family, and evading law enforcement and drug gangs. The series is one of the most critically acclaimed television series of all time. It won 16 Emmys over its five seasons.