Image via AMC
Published May 17, 2026, 9:21 PM EDT
Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.
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Crime thrillers are among the most gripping shows on television, keeping you invested all the way through, from start to finish. The best ones involve intense action, menacing characters, and an intriguing story. Plenty of them of late have delivered in spades in all three departments.
Whether you're in the mood to watch a detective hunting a creepy serial killer living a double life, an underestimated potential mob boss reaching his violent potential, or an FBI agent kick butt and take names, the crime thrillers that are perfect from start to finish are ones you'll be clamoring to watch again and again.
'The Fall' (2013–2016)
Image via BBCTold through three seasons, The Fall is about serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) who lives a double life as a married husband, father, and ironically, a grief counselor. But when Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) begins investigating a rash of female victim killings, she quickly begins to close in on him.
A wonderful cat and mouse game, The Fall, which is set in Ireland, will keep you captivated from start to finish with its tremendous cast and compelling story. It's psychologically intriguing and narratively beautifully told. Dornan is quietly and terrifyingly convincing in the role of a troubled man with a compulsion, desperate to hide who he really is.
'The Night Agent' (2023–Present)
Image via NetflixThe Night Agent is technically still going, the action thriller ranking among the most watched shows on Netflix. But it's one of those shows that keeps getting better and better. While we don't know for sure how The Night Agent will end, we do know that the fourth season will be its last.
The series centers around FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), who eventually becomes a Night Action agent, working in the shadows to take down bad guys. It's like a popcorn action movie told through 10 episodes at a time for each story. It's a highly bingeable show with a satisfying ending each time, and an intense journey all through the middle. It's one of those rare thriller shows that's even better the second time around.
'Hannibal' (2013–2015)
Image via NBCA unique telling of the characters from Thomas Harris' novels, Hannibal follows the relationship between psychiatrist and secret serial killer and cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Madds Mikkelsen) and FBI special investigator Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), who become fast friends. On the surface, Hannibal tries to help Will through the trauma of the things he sees on the job and his own dark thoughts. But secretly, Hannibal is enjoying being able to manipulate Will, and get access to cases in the process, some of which he's involved in more ways than one.
The psychological horror thriller has an old school feel to it even though it's barely over a decade ago. Airing for just three seasons, fans were upset when Hannibal was cancelled, and the show remains one of the best serial killer series to ever grace the small screen. It has a fitting end, taking viewers through this complicated, psychological game between a doctor with a dark secret who feels no empathy and an agent who oddly believes Hannibal is the only one who truly understands him.
'The Penguin' (2024)
Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti are magic together in The Penguin based on the DC Comics villain. Farrell is Oswald "Oz" Cobb, otherwise known as The Penguin, in this crime drama, a disfigured man working a low-level job for a crime boss, but with big aspirations to move up. Milioti, meanwhile, is Sofia Gigante, the mob boss' daughter and a presumed psychopathic serial killer who crosses paths with Oz once she's released from Arkham State Hospital. As the two lobby for power, things get increasingly dangerous.
The Penguin, one of the most perfect HBO shows of the last decade, is an intense ride through all eight episodes that will leave you wanting more. The dark and ominous setting, the incredible make-up and costumes, and the clever backstory for a character we already know so well in the present, come together to make a worthy entry into the DC Comics universe. But what makes The Penguin especially fantastic is that it doesn't feel like a superhero show; it's more like The Sopranos, which means even non-comic fans will enjoy it.
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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
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.
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.
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.
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
'You' (2018–2025)
Image via NetflixThough it's in ways a lesser copycat of Dexter, You does have one leg up on that fantastic crime drama: it ended in a satisfying way. The psychological thriller stars Penn Badgley as charming bookstore employee Joe Goldberg, who worms his way into the lives of different women through the course of the series. But he tends to become obsessed, stalking them until it escalates to something worse, all in the name of protecting his love and their relationship. That's in his twisted mind, at least.
Joe becomes increasingly unhinged as the series progresses, and it culminates in an exciting final season that puts a bow on the story, giving some characters a happy ending, others not. What's so wonderful about the way You ends is that we truly get to see the extent of Joe's narcissism, his complete inability to see beyond his own flaws. It's exactly the way the show should have ended.
'The Night Manager' (2016–Present)
Image via Prime VideoThe Night Manager was so good, it returned a decade later with a new season. The British spy thriller is about Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston), the night manager of a luxury hotel who was once upon a time a military officer. Head of the Foreign Office's International Enforcement, Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), recruits him to help take down arms dealer Richard "Dickie" Onslow Roper (Hugh Laurie) and so begins his journey to infiltrate that inner circle.
Tense through each six-episode season, the show is smartly written and keeps you invested through every moment. While the second season didn't receive as high of ratings as Season 1, both are Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and the show has picked up numerous awards. Based on the John le Carré novel, The Night Manager is wonderfully acted and beautifully presented.
'The Beast in Me' (2025)
Image via NetflixClaire Danes and Matthew Rhys are a formidable pair in The Beast in Me, the story of grieving author Aggie (Danes) having trouble focusing on her next book when Nile (Rhys) moves in to her neighborhood and his actions annoy her. It doesn't help that she recognizes him as the wealthy son of a real estate magnate who was years ago accused of killing his first wife, but later deemed innocent. When she visits to air her complaints about his activity, the two get twisted up in a dangerous game. Aggie isn't convinced he's innocent, recognizing there's clearly something off about him. But he's offering her the chance to write a book on his story, which she can use to both cure her writer's block and perhaps get to the bottom of the story.
The Beast in Me is a powerful story of grief, death, and greed. Propped up by a supporting cast that includes Brittany Snow, Natalie Morales, Jonathan Banks, and David Lyons, you'll want to binge your way through the eight episodes, wondering the entire time if Nile did in fact kill his wife, or he's just sorely misunderstood. The scene as he dances in Aggie's house to a record playing "Psycho Killer" is both funny and unsettling, a testament to the leads and their chemistry. It's a Netflix thriller that gets better with every episode.
'The Night Of' (2016)
Image via HBOA powerful story of race, perception, justice, and how quickly someone's life can take a wrong turn, Nasir "Naz" Khan (Riz Ahmed) meets a young woman and has a one-night stand to kick off the story in The Night Of. But when he wakes up next to her dead body the next morning, things don't look good for him. He's logically accused of her murder, and as he goes through the trial with his lawyer, John Stone (John Turturro), we see the decline of a once promising young man who seemingly just found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The story told through eight episodes will have you saddened about the justice system and questioning the idea that some people are often considered guilty before being proven innocent versus the other way around. Most jarring is that no matter how the case turns out, and whether Naz is deemed innocent or not, his life will be forever changed by what he has endured in prison. The Night Of is a powerful commentary filled with mystery and no chance for anything but a devastating end, any way it goes.
'The Devil's Hour' (2022–Present)
Image via Prime VideoLucy Chambers (Jessica Raine) is a social worker in The Devil's Hour who keeps seeing terrifying visions every night at the exact same time: 3.33 A.M., known as the "devil's house." Her eight-year-old son claims to see people who aren't there, and her mother also seems to speak to invisible people, and Lucy is beside herself. She gets the sense that her house is haunted, and she is somehow being pushed towards finding a serial killer.
The series, one of the best Prime Video shows everyone has been sleeping on, is told through a six-episode first season and a five-episode second. It also stars Peter Capaldi as Gideon Shepherd, a criminal who seems to "remember the future." The show is disturbing and mind-bending, a haunting thriller that skews more towards the horror genre for fans who don't mind getting spooked.
'Breaking Bad' (2008–2013)
Image via AMCOne of the best crime dramas of all time, arguably the best TV shows of all time, Breaking Bad isn't quite as cerebral as some other crime thrillers. It also doesn't lean as heavily and as often into violence, carefully placing such scenes only as needed, and focusing on heightening tensions in other ways. The story begins when high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) gets a terminal cancer diagnosis and turns to cooking and selling drugs to build a quick nest egg for his family when he's gone. But slowly through the show's five seasons, Walter becomes increasingly obsessed with his power, realizing his full potential as someone to be feared, not someone to be walked over.
Breaking Bad features one of the best on-screen duos with Cranston alongside Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman, a former troubled student Walter turns to for help getting his drug business off the ground. While the show is about the dangers of the criminal underworld, it's Walter's personal journey to becoming Heisenberg that's the heart of the series. It has fantastic re-watch value along with one of the best TV series endings ever, so you get as satisfying an end as the beginning, seeing the entire story come full circle.
Breaking Bad
Release Date 2008 - 2013-00-00
Network AMC
Showrunner Vince Gilligan
Directors Vince Gilligan, Michelle Maclaren
English (US) ·