10 Best Crime-Mystery Shows of All Time, Ranked

The best crime-mystery series tell stories where every little clue matters, and every character contributes to the payoff. The most important part, however, is that a good crime story really commits to building its tension and sense of paranoia till the very last moment. Because if that breaks early, the hook just isn't there anymore. Here are the best crime-mystery TV shows that get all of this right and hook viewers in from their very first episode till the end.

10 'Murder, She Wrote' (1984–1996)

Murder, She Wrote actually makes the crime genre feel welcoming, rather than unsettling. The show, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson, and William Link, stars Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher, a widowed former English teacher from the seaside town of Cabot Cove, Maine, who unexpectedly becomes a bestselling mystery novelist. Not just that, but this also leads her down the path of taking on murder investigations as an amateur detective who is way more perceptive than one might think. The show had an impressive 12-season run and followed Jessica as she traveled across the world solving crimes.

The premise sounds almost absurd in theory, given how the protagonist somehow manages to stumble upon a murder everywhere she goes. However, Murder, She Wrote has to be accepted for the escapist TV that it is. This is a show that’s not meant to be taken too seriously. Instead, it’s a cozy whodunit that the whole family can enjoy. Many agree that the later seasons of the show lacked its original spark, but despite that, Murder, She Wrote still stands the test of time as a total entertainer.

9 'Deadloch' (2023–Present)

Deadloch is a clever, dark, and hilarious crime mystery series that has no interest in playing by the genre’s rules. The Australian series is set in the fictional coastal Tasmanian town of Deadloch, where a seemingly peaceful community is rocked after a local man’s body turns up on the beach. This murder coincides with the town’s annual “Winter Feastival,” with Senior Sergeant Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) and Detective Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) assigned to solve the case. Now, the key to enjoying Deadloch is patience. A lot of viewers admit that the first couple of episodes are difficult to watch, especially because of Eddie’s obnoxious personality.

However, once the series finds its rhythm, the payoff is more than worth it. By episodes 4 and 5, the show becomes borderline addictive, and the characters start feeling less like caricatures and more like sharply written exaggerations of real people. Once the mystery picks up, viewers realize that the writers have been hiding clues everywhere. Deadloch combines the grim tone of a serial-killer mystery with dark comedy, an unlikely pairing that manages to land perfectly. The humor in the show is aggressive and sharp, and the mystery is complex and borderline suffocating at times. All in all, this is a show that just can’t be missed.

8 'The Night Of' (2016)

The Night Of isn’t a typical crime mystery. Instead, it’s a psychological exploration of how damaging broken justice systems can really be. The show follows Riz Ahmed as Naz Khan, a Pakistani-American college student who meets a mysterious woman at a party whom he spends the night with, only to find her stabbed to death in her bedroom the next morning. From there, Naz becomes the prime suspect almost immediately. However, this isn’t just a story about uncovering the truth. The Night Of aims to explore what happens when the system decides one looks guilty, and how quickly people’s lives can collapse under that assumption. Naz’s descent from an ordinary, ambitious student into someone who is hardened by his brutal incarceration is the most heartbreaking part of the story.

The Night Of takes place in police stations, courtrooms, and Rikers Island, and all of that makes the narrative feel disturbingly real. John Turturro as defense attorney John Stone is also essential to the story, and his determination to fight for Naz is what gives the show its fleeting sense of hope. The Night Of is one of the hardest-hitting crime-mystery shows of all time because of how human it is in its storytelling. This is the kind of series that stays with the audience long after the credits roll.

7 'Broadchurch' (2013–2017)

Broadchurch is a crime show with a heart. The series begins with the death of an 11-year-old boy, and the case brings together Detective Inspector Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman), who couldn’t be more different from each other. What’s interesting about the show is that it explores what happens to a community in the wake of a tragedy like this. How friendships collapse, families break down, and the media turns it all into a spectacle. Instead of relying on fast-paced action or flashy twists, Broadchurch creates suspense through the paranoia that spreads through a place that people once believed to be safe.

Tenant and Colman’s performances are the heart of the series as they play two people who clash constantly, but also know that they have to work together to get to the bottom of it all. The setting of the show’s quiet coastal community is a character in itself and feels just as cold as the murder itself. Broadchurch evolves across its three seasons but remains consistent in its sensitive and thoughtful portrayal of crime as something that permanently reshapes the people it touches.

6 'Sharp Objects' (2018)

Sharp Objects is a brilliant adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name. The show stars Amy Adams as Camille Preaker, a journalist who returns to her small Missouri hometown of Wind Gap to report on the murders of two preteen girls. However, her assignment quickly becomes a personal exploration of her trauma and dysfunctional family. Sharp Objects doesn’t portray Camille as the hero. Instead, she is shown to be a broken, self-loathing reporter fresh out of psychiatric treatment for self-harm and addiction. Patricia Clarkson plays Adora Crellin, Camille’s overbearing mother, while Eliza Scanlen plays Amma Crellin, Camille’s half-sister.

As the antagonist finds herself working to uncover the killer, she is forced to confront the parts of herself that she has spent years trying to bury. The show eventually does reveal the identity of the murderer, but its impact becomes almost an afterthought next to the absolute tragedy of Camille’s relationships with her mother and sister. Unlike other procedural dramas that follow a predictable formula of presenting clues and then solving them, Sharp Objects thrives in its ambiguity and constant sense of discomfort.

5 'Mare of Easttown' (2021)

Mare of Easttown might seem like a familiar crime mystery, but in execution, it becomes so much more emotionally complex. The series stars Kate Winslet as Marianne “Mare” Sheehan, a worn-down detective in Easttown, Pennsylvania, who is trying to hold her life together as she works on two cases at once. One is the murder of young mother Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny) and the year-long disappearance of another girl, Katie Bailey (Caitlin Houlahan). Now, Mare was once a local legend, but in the present day, she faces extreme scrutiny; people doubt her instincts, and she is constantly working under pressure to prove herself. At the same time, her private life comes crashing down as she gets divorced, grieves her son’s suicide, raises her grandson, and deals with a custody battle against her son’s recovering addict ex-girlfriend.

All of this sounds like a lot, but the great thing about Mare of Easttown is its commitment to realism. The show feels almost like a documentary, especially thanks to Winslet’s gritty and deliberately unglamorous performance. Easttown actually feels like a lived-in town where every character feels like someone the viewers might know in their real life. The audience slowly realizes that the show goes beyond its central mysteries, and the real rot lies in the town’s buried secrets. Mare of Easttown is definitely a slow burn, but that’s exactly what makes the final twist land so hard.

4 'Big Little Lies' (2017–2026)

Big Little Lies is an experience like no other. The show doesn’t even feel like a crime mystery at first, which is exactly why it works so well. The HBO adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s novel drops the audience into the perfect world of Monterey, California. However, the illusion comes crashing down pretty fast after a murder takes place at the school fundraiser. Instead of rushing toward the victim reveal, though, the show works backward to reveal how its five leading ladies become tangled in a violent event that changes their lives forever. The core cast features Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz, and their performances are essential to the show’s success.

Big Little Lies is a sharp satire of the privileged suburban life and invites you to judge its characters and the superficial drama they are surrounded by before revealing the emotional wreckage underneath. The editing is fast, fragmented, and constantly slipping between the present and the past, which is the perfect buildup to the murder. This structure gives weight to every little scene and dialogue. This is the kind of show one has to watch with their undivided attention, but patience is definitely rewarded in the end.

3 'The Outsider' (2020)

The Outsider blurs the line between horror and crime-mystery in the most immersive way possible. The miniseries is based on Stephen King’s 2018 novel of the same name and follows Detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) as he investigates the brutal killing of a young boy in Georgia. The evidence is overwhelming, and it points directly to Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman), a beloved teacher, husband, and Little League coach. However, the catch is that he has an airtight alibi. This is where the case transforms from a traditional whodunit into something far stranger. Eventually, Ralph and the community are forced to confront that reality might not operate by the rules they have trusted their entire lives.

The Outsider doesn’t treat its supernatural elements as gimmicks. It’s fascinating how the more Ralph digs, the more the evidence keeps contradicting itself. When Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo) enters the story, it feels like she is the only person capable of seeing the bigger picture, and she shifts the narrative from a grounded procedural into a full existential nightmare. Even then, though, the series never lets go of its crime roots. It only works to expand it through the impossible.

2 'Dept. Q' (2025–Present)

Dept. Q introduces a refreshing spin on the classic crime-mystery formula and grounds it in intense character work. The show follows Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck (Matthew Goode), a top-rated cop who’s returned to duty after a near-fatal shooting that left his partner paralyzed and another officer dead. Instead of being celebrated, Morck is begrudgingly assigned to Department Q, a newly established cold-case unit meant to get him out of everyone’s hair. However, it eventually becomes the catalyst for Morck’s redemption as he leads a team of misfits in reopening Edinburgh’s seemingly unsolvable cases.

These investigations revisit the trauma that communities have tried to bury and expose the institutional failures that lie underneath. Through it all, Morck isn’t presented as some savior or a likable hero. Instead, the show leans into the idea that the best detectives are often the ones most damaged by their careers. His chemistry with the Department Q team becomes the heart of the show, even when every case doesn’t come with tidy answers. Dept. Q balances its grim subject matter with flashes of dark humor, and that’s what keeps the viewers coming back for more.

1 'Mindhunter' (2017–2019)

Mindhunter is TV at its finest. The show is arguably one of the most chilling psychological thrillers ever made. The story follows Jonathan Groff as Holden Ford and Holt McCallany as Bill Tench, two FBI agents who help establish the Bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit in the late 1970s. Alongside them is Anna Torv’s Wendy Carr, a brilliant academic psychologist who brings structure to their controversial project that involves interviewing imprisoned serial killers to understand how they think, and ultimately using that knowledge to catch future offenders. The series is a fascinating exploration of the psychology of serial killers.

As the show goes on, it features eerily accurate portrayals of infamous criminals like Edmund Kemper, Jerry Brudos, Richard Speck, David Berkowitz, and Charles Manson to give the show a layer of realism. What makes Mindhunter stand out in the crime genre is that it dissects the thrill of it all. Most crime shows treat killers as monsters to be caught, but this one treats them as case studies, and that’s what makes it so unsettling. At the same time, the series also looks at the toll of studying these serial criminals and how it eventually starts to affect Holden and Bill’s own personalities. It’s a real shame that the show ended after two seasons because it definitely had the potential to do so much more with its unique premise.