Who doesn't love a good detective TV show? They draw you in as the lead characters — whether they're actual detectives, consultants, or even amateur sleuths — do their best to uncover mysteries and solve crimes. Some of these shows run as miniseries, only a single season long. Some are anthologies, with different cases and characters in each season.
Whatever the case, the best detective shows are perfect from start to finish, from one season to the next, from the first episode to the last. They are the types of shows where you have a tough time stopping midway through, wanting to binge through an entire season over a weekend to get to the end and figure out what happened.
1 'Only Murders in the Building' (2021–Present)
Image via HuluTechnically, Only Murders in the Building isn't finished since the mystery comedy drama is confirmed to return for a sixth season. But every season that follows a different murder, coincidentally in the same building, develops the core story even more and introduces exciting new characters. Led by Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, they play Charles, Oliver, and Mabel, respectively, three true crime podcast lovers who get caught up in a murder and decide to try to solve it themselves. This leads them down a rabbit hole of murder after murder, season after season.
The near-perfect thriller show is packed with celebrity appearances to complement the compelling and creative stories. The characters draw you in so well, and the show is so unafraid to poke fun at itself that it doesn't matter that the premise becomes less believable with each passing season. From the humor to the element of mystery and the temptation to try and connect dots as the viewer as well, Only Murders in the Building is one of the best of the genre that focuses on a trio of main characters who aren't even real detectives at all.
2 'The Residence' (2025)
Image via NetflixIf you love the Knives Out movie franchise, you'll appreciate The Residence. It's a shame the mystery comedy wasn't renewed for a second season. Uzo Aduba plays Cordelia Cupp, a consultant for the police with an eccentric personality but a killer knack for solving crimes. She's the gender-swapped Benoit Blanc with methods that seem odd and purposeless until it comes into focus how much she's observing and piecing things together as she goes.
The story revolves around the death of White House Chief Usher A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito), his body found during a state dinner. No one can leave until Cordelia questions them all. As she does, each person has a different account of events from their perspective. Fingers are pointed, but little by little, the puzzle begins to come together. It's a brilliant eight episodes you'll easily gobble up in a single sitting. With the cliffhanger endings, you'll be dying to know who the killer is each time the person you thought was guilty is ruled out and suspicion points to someone else.
3 'The Afterparty' (2022–2023)
Image via Apple TVA fun and quirky take on the detective genre, Tiffany Haddish plays Detective Danner in The Afterparty, a woman looking into the murder of a pop icon and movie star at the afterparty of his high school reunion. Emotions are running high, and everyone has a motive — a bone to pick with the arrogant man who made it big. As Danner interviews suspects, their version of events is each told in a different genre style, from action movie to psychological horror and rom-com.
The Afterparty is one of the most unique mystery shows. The second season had a different cast, with Haddish returning as Danner alongside Sam Richardson and Zoë Chao. It isn't as strong as Season 1, but it's still a fun and wild ride through another unbelievable story of murder. If you're looking for a light-hearted detective show that takes you on a different journey with every episode, The Afterparty is a perfect fit since it mixes so many genres together, with comedy at the forefront.
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
4 'Dexter' (2006–2013)
Image via ShowtimeAdmittedly, Dexter is one of the best shows with one of the worst finales ever. But it still qualifies as being perfect from start to finish because it continues more than a decade after it ended with the new sequel series Dexter: Resurrection, which is currently filming its second season. The crime drama centers around everyone's favorite vigilante serial killer, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), whose father taught him how to channel his urges into only killing (and dismembering) bad people who "deserve it." The interesting angle is that Dexter also works as a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro police department, which gives him access and a unique understanding of how to clean a crime scene.
The intense show is riveting, as Dexter often goes against his own department to figure out who the killer is first and take them down himself to satiate his dark desires. Thus, it's a cat-and-mouse game between the real detectives and the lowly blood guy. In the new series, Dexter is running from people from his past, along with new detective foes who have their suspicions about him. Dexter's charm and ability to spin situations and think quickly on his feet make this show such a compelling detective series with such a weirdly likable protagonist. You'll devour all eight seasons in no time and be fully ready to sink your teeth into the new show, as well as the limited series sequel Dexter: New Blood and the short-lived prequel Dexter: Original Sin.
5 'The Wire' (2002–2008)
Image via HBOApplauded for its realness, The Wire focuses on detectives and how their jobs revolve around other institutions within the city of Baltimore, including government and bureaucracy, education and school, and the media, as well as how it all ties back to crime. The crime drama is intensified with stories that feel like they're pulled right from the headlines, largely thanks to the fact that a real-life homicide detective and public-school teacher serves as a writing partner alongside the creator.
The Wire, often credited as one of the best shows ever on television, doesn't sugarcoat any aspect of the job, nor the way it's navigated alongside all these other institutions and the complicated web they weave. It sheds light on law enforcement and the challenges they face, and how wins and losses are par for the course.
6 'True Detective' (2014–Present)
Image via HBOEvery season of True Detective, a near-perfect detective show, is a new story with a new cast, always involving detectives solving a crime. Some seasons flip back and forth in the past, covering a cold case that is bubbling to the surface. Each one is enthralling, holding your attention from beginning to end.
With an A-list cast every season and fantastic writing, it's no surprise the series has earned numerous Emmy Awards and nominations. With the latest fourth season reinvigorating the series five years after Season 3 and a fifth in the works with Nicolas Cage reportedly in talks to star, True Detective remains one of the definitive series of the genre.
7 'The Sinner' (2017–2021)
Image via USA NetworkA police procedural anthology series, Bill Pullman ties each season of The Sinner together as police detective Harry Ambrose, investigating a different case each season. The crimes are always committed by someone you'd least expect, and Harry works to not only prove who did it, but also to figure out why this person would do such a thing when it seems completely unlike them.
The show, one of the best detective shows on Netflix, was so successful after Season 1 that it went from initially being a miniseries to becoming an anthology, running for three more seasons. From Season 1, when Harry investigates a troubled woman who stabbed a man to death, to his retirement in Season 4, when he is recruited one last time, it offers brilliant writing and acting throughout.
8 'Mare of Easttown' (2021)
Image via HBOKate Winslet brings her fantastic acting to the small screen in Mare of Easttown, one of the greatest detective shows. She's Marianne "Mare" Sheehan, a detective sergeant in Pennsylvania who is trying to restore her reputation by solving the murder of a young girl and the disappearance of another. She has personal troubles to deal with at the same time, however, which impact her ability to do her job.
Mare of Easttown combines crime drama with an emotional story of a fractured family and a broken woman looking to piece her life together and bring justice to a family that has never gotten answers. The show earned 16 Emmy nominations and won four, and the seven episodes are a must-watch for any fan of detective series.
9 'The Outsider' (2020)
Image via HBOThe Outsider was such a good miniseries that even today, fans are still hoping the show might come back in some fashion to continue the story. The series, based on the Stephen King novel, is about Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman), a Little League baseball coach accused of murdering a young boy. But no one in the small town can believe he did it, even detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn). The investigation becomes less about convicting Terry than it is about figuring out what's truly going on, and it eventually leads to weird, supernatural elements.
An exciting story that combines crime and justice with a belief in the unexplained, The Outsider takes you on a journey through the 10 episodes that includes complex and mysterious turns as it goes. Reportedly, a script has been written for a second season, but HBO didn't commission it. Fans are still hopeful for a return.
10 'Mindhunter' (2017–2019)
Image via NetflixAnother show that ended but fans won't give up on is Mindhunter. The series tells the real-life story of the coining of the term serial killer by special agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), who come to work in the newly formed Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) of the FBI. It's fascinating to consider that there was a time when there wasn't a word to describe repeat killers — those who did so in ritualistic fashion because of a twisted compulsion, not just rage or a desire to kill.
Mindhunter features interviews with actors playing real-life serial killers, parts of the dialogue taken from real transcripts, which makes the show even more intriguing. Airing for just two seasons of 19 episodes, that wasn't enough. Seeing the criminal psychology aspect of detective work had viewers glued to their screens, understanding and learning alongside these two agents who couldn't believe what they were hearing, yet were as fascinated as they were horrified.
Mindhunter
Release Date 2017 - 2019
Network Netflix
Showrunner Joe Penhall
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Munro M. Bonnell
CMF Doctor
English (US) ·