Crime shows are a dime a dozen. At any given time, you can turn on the TV and find one on linear network TV during the primetime hours or via streaming. From the classics to new ones, you have your pick of the litter. This is also precisely why some of the best crime shows from decades past have been totally forgotten.
These crime shows weren't just great when they originally aired or streamed, however. They are still worth watching today. Whether it's thanks to the great acting and storytelling or the relatable premise, they are worth the investment of time throughout a single season or many.
'Terriers' (2010)
Image via FXBack at the beginning of the 2010s, FX aired a fun crime comedy drama that people loved but have since forgotten all about. Terriers follows Hank Dolworth (Donal Logue), an ex-police officer and recovering alcoholic who decides to start his own private investigation firm with his best friend Britt Pollack (Michael Raymond-James), who also happens to be a former criminal.
It's wonderfully entertaining to watch the pair do their thing with the sunny setting of Ocean Beach, San Diego as a fitting backdrop. The show maintains a 93% Rotten Tomatoes critic score, leaving fans wondering why it was cancelled so soon. Dubbed one of the best one-season wonders, Terriers was fueled by the great chemistry between the leads. The witty writing and buddy comedy story with an element of mystery kept viewers glued to the screen.
'The Following' (2013–2015)
Image via FOXYou can't go wrong with Kevin Bacon on screen in any capacity, and when you pair him with James Purefoy in a cat-and-mouse story, it's on-screen magic. The Following centers around Ryan Hardy (Bacon), a former FBI agent who took down one of the most notorious serial killers, Joe Carroll (Purefoy). Joe still has it in for Ryan, especially since he later took up with Joe's ex-wife. Joe is charming and convincing, and amassed a cult of followers, even while behind bars, who continue to do his dirty work.
The game between these two men is frightening and mysterious and filled with edge-of-your-seat tension. The acting is superb, with actors like The Boys' Valorie Curry playing Joe's most devout follower, Emma, and X-Men's Shawn Ashmore as agent Mike Weston. The Following is one of those shows that is better than it gets credit for.
'Prodigal Son' (2019–2021)
Image via FOXAnother crime show cancelled too soon, Prodigal Son explores the dynamic between Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne), an FBI profiler, and his serial killer father Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen). Martin was once a revered heart surgeon, but once his extracurricular activities caught up with him, he was arrested, tried, and sent to an asylum. The impact of what he did, however, still traumatizes Malcolm. He entered the field to study people like his father, but suffers from debilitating nightmares.
What's so interesting about Prodigal Son is the hold Martin still has over Malcolm, and Malcolm's fears that he may have the same sociopathic tendencies as his father. A cheesy procedural at times as Malcolm taps into the minds of killers, analyzes cases no one else can, and gets out of odd jams, the show was so intriguing that you couldn't help but be drawn to the story. It has a bit of a Hannibal feel to it at times.
'Defending Jacob' (2020)
Image via Apple TVArguably one of Apple TV's most forgotten shows, the miniseries Defending Jacob has an incredible cast led by Chris Evans and Michelle Dockery. They are parents to 14-year-old Jacob (Jaeden Martell), who is accused of murder. The story follows the investigation as the pair grapple with what's happening and the horrifying thought that their son could possibly be guilty.
With shows like Adolescence taking streaming and awards season by storm, Defending Jacob may not have approached the topic in the same way, but it's in the same orbit. It was criticized for its ending and slow pacing, which is why the murder mystery legal drama might have fallen off the map once it concluded its eight-episode run. But it's an interesting, different perspective to a story about the challenges of parenting and the emotional weight that responsibility carries when your worst nightmare comes true.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz
Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner?
Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
FIND YOUR PARTNER →
01
You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.
ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.
REVEAL MY PARTNER →
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
'Mr Inbetween' (2018–2021)
Image via FXHailing from Australia, Mr Inbetween quietly aired on FX for three seasons, but largely went under the radar, despite how good it was. The dark comedy/crime drama dives into the life of Raymond "Ray" Shoesmith (Scott Ryan), a hitman by night and family man by day. Navigating these two lives is a challenge, especially when his violent persona begins to impact his behavior as a loving father, boyfriend, brother, and friend.
There are a few similarities to the premise of the new show Memory of a Killer, but Mr Inbetween tackles the concept of a vicious hitman living a double life in a much more compelling way. Every episode is a masterpiece. The show builds tension and suspense while offering lighter moments to soften the mood in between. It's arguably one of the best crime dramas you haven't watched yet, earning a solid 95% Rotten Tomatoes critics score.
'Remington Steele' (1982–1987)
Image via FOXGoing all the way back to the '80s, Remington Steele was Pierce Brosnan as James Bond before he was actually James Bond. In this detective fiction series, Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) creates a fictional boss named Remington Steele to help her private investigation company get clients. It appears no one is willing to hire a woman.
The situation becomes murky, however, when an unnamed former thief and con man capitalizes on this fake persona and adopts it as his own. Once he inserts himself into her business, there's no getting rid of "Steele." The show, one of the great '80s shows you probably haven't seen, was both progressive and regressive at the same time. While it shone a spotlight on sexism, its response was also to bring in the handsome, male savior. That said, its social commentary was also bold for the time, and the character of Holt ended up serving as inspiration for many strong female detective characters who have come since.
'Cagney & Lacey' (1982–1988)
Image via CBSEven today, most buddy cop comedies, crime dramas, and procedurals that involve women still have a woman paired with a man. It's rare to have two women as the leads, and Cagney & Lacey was among the first shows to do it. Far ahead of its time, the police procedural stars Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless) and Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) as two police detectives with very different lives. Cagney is single and focused on her career while Lacey is a wife and mother.
Considering that today, more than 40 years later, we have still yet to see a crime drama with two females beyond a few outliers like Killing Eve, Unbelievable, and Rizzoli & Isles, the dynamic between Cagney and Lacey remains a benchmark to which shows continue to aspire.
'Psych' (2006–2014)
Image via USA NetworkOne of the most beloved and long-running detective comedy dramas outside of Supernatural, Psych had an interesting premise that has been followed by so many shows of its kind since. At the heart is Shawn Spencer (James Roday), a crime consultant who has an eidetic memory and heightened observational skills. He uses this to make others believe he's psychic, and it works. He enlists his best friend Burton "Gus" Guster (Dulé Hill) and his former detective father Henry (Corbin Bernsen) to help him solve cases.
With amazing chemistry between the leads and a fun angle that has been replicated to some degree with other shows like High Potential, Psych was not the first to offer a story with a detective who has special skills. But it is one of the most loved and long-running with eight seasons under its belt. Others have gotten more attention, from Monk to The Mentalist, so it's easy to forget just how good Psych is.
'JAG' (1995–2005)
Image via CBSOvershadowed by the franchise it spawned, NCIS, JAG is actually where it all started. The legal drama is a police procedural that uniquely takes place within the U.S. Navy, centering only on judge advocates handling cases involving military individuals. Unlike others that focus on traditional criminal cases, JAG exclusively covered those that pertain to military operational law.
After the first few seasons, the United States Marine Corps became more involved in helping with storylines, making the show raw, real, and believable while also entertaining. The show was cancelled by NBC but picked up by CBS to continue its run, after which it started to focus more on action than legal drama. Once NCIS blew up, however, everyone forgot about JAG.
'Bored to Death' (2009–2011)
Image via HBOSkewing more towards comedy, Bored to Death has an impressive cast led by Jason Schwartzman as Jonathan Ames, a writer who spends his nights moonlighting as a private detective. The show also stars Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis as his friends George and Ray, respectively. The cancelled comedy series worth watching leans into the idea that Ames isn't necessarily great at his job, but he has a passion for solving crime.
Lasting three seasons, there's no denying the comedic talents of the main cast members. But beyond that, Bored to Death is also a well-written show that's a charming and different entry among a sea of cookie-cutter procedurals. The show was so popular, fans petitioned to bring it back following its cancellation. There was talk of a potential movie revival but nothing ever materialized, a story itself that fits perfectly with Ames' character.
Bored to Death
Release Date 2009 - 2011-00-00
Directors Michael Lehmann, Adam Bernstein
English (US) ·