The crime genre has always been a reliable fixture of the small screen, and yet recent years have produced an especially impressive wave of shows that push beyond familiar formulas. Some have reinvented the murder mystery through inventive storytelling techniques, others by simply blending the crime with comedy. Regardless, all have focused on deeply introspective themes that leave the sitting audience (and the show's own communities) in deep thought.
Plus, what's particularly striking about this decade's best crime shows is their variety. Alongside the gritty true-crime-inspired dramas and emotionally devastating detective tales are quirky amateur sleuths, darkly funny conspiracies, and mysteries that unfold in ways viewers never see coming. Frankly, the 2020s have given us so much more than the classic procedural, proving that the crime genre remains as compelling as ever.
10 'Big Mistakes' (2026–Present)
Image via NetflixSiblings Nicky (Dan Levy) and Morgan Dardano (Taylor Ortega) find themselves suddenly dragged into organized crime after a seemingly minor theft spirals completely out of control. So, what begins as an attempt to aid their dying grandmother quickly snowballs into a life of blackmail, gangsters, and a growing web of lies that threatens to consume their already dysfunctional family.
Sometimes the best crime shows thrive on weaponized incompetence. Rather than following complete masterminds, Big Mistakes centers on those who are constantly in over their heads, creating a chaotic blend of suspense and comedy that leaves everybody excited. Levy and Ortega have electric sibling chemistry, especially when coupled with the show's sharp writing. What follows is the creation of a crime thriller viewed through the lens of a messy family sitcom, proving that even the most entertaining crime shows need not take themselves too seriously.
9 'Deadloch' (2023–Present)
Image via Prime VideoIn a small Tasmanian town, a local man's body is discovered on the beach just as the community prepares for a major festival. Local Senior Sergeant Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) hopes for a straightforward investigation, but her plans are disrupted by the arrival of abrasive Detective Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) from Darwin. Together, the mismatched pair must navigate eccentric townsfolk, mounting suspects, and a growing body count as the mystery deepens.
At first glance, Deadloch resembles your typical noir murder mystery. However, it quickly establishes its own wonderfully strange identity by brilliantly balancing thrilling detective work with razor-sharp satire, poking fun at everything from the genre's conventions to the ridiculousness of small-town politics. Dulcie and Eddie's clashing personalities provide much of the comedy, yet the central mystery remains compelling throughout. It's Australian television at its best — a series that perfectly captures our smart, dark, (and slightly vulgar) ways.
8 'A Good Girl's Guide to Murder' (2024–Present)
Image via NetflixBased on Holly Jackson’s bestselling novels, a young woman was believed to have been murdered by her boyfriend, who later died by suicide. Five years later, Pip Fitz-Amobi (Emma Myers) chooses this local case as the subject of a school project. But as Pip begins revisiting the evidence, she soon uncovers inconsistencies that suggest the town's accepted version of events may be far from the truth.
Unlike most YA mysteries, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder completely commits to the seriousness of the investigations. By steadily peeling back layers of secrets, the show exposes how rumors, prejudice, and assumptions can shape an entire community. Pip is an immensely engaging protagonist because her curiosity feels grounded in genuine empathy rather than amateur-detective wish fulfillment. And while it does embrace familiar genre tropes, its emotional investment in both the victims and those around them gives the story far greater weight than a typical thriller. Better still, Season 2 has just come out, and it's raised the bar even higher (despite flying under the radar of Netflix's watchlists).
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
7 'The Afterparty' (2022–2023)
Image via Apple TVWhen a high-school reunion after-party ends with the death of a famous pop star, every guest becomes a potential suspect. Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) arrives to investigate and begins interviewing attendees, with each episode retelling the night's events from a different character's perspective. But as conflicting accounts emerge, the truth becomes increasingly difficult to untangle.
The genius of The Afterparty lies in its structure. Every episode adopts a different genre inspired by the personality of the storyteller, transforming the same events into everything from rom-coms to action flicks to psychological thrillers. This approach could've easily become a gimmick, but the show uses it to cleverly explore the notions of perspective and perception. Of course, the mystery remains consistently engaging, but it's the inventive storytelling (and its stellar ensemble) that makes this one of the most refreshing shows of the last few years.
6 'Bad Sisters' (2022–Present)
Image via Apple TV+Following the sudden death of the deeply unpleasant John Paul Williams (Claes Bang), it's soon revealed that each of the five Garvey sisters had ample reason to want him gone. Shown through a series of flashbacks, audiences learn how John's manipulation, cruelty, and emotional abuse affected the entire family. Meanwhile, two insurance investigators become increasingly convinced that his death was anything but accidental.
While the mystery surrounding John's death keeps viewers hooked, the emotional core of Bad Sisters lies in the bond between the Garvey sisters and their desperate attempt to protect one another. The show expertly balances suspense, dark comedy, and genuine poignancy, allowing each sister to feel like a fully realized character with her own fears, flaws, and motivations. Dripped with twists and schemes, Bad Sisters is a show that has become endlessly rewatchable and yet another stellar Irish black comedy.
5 'Dept. Q' (2025–Present)
Image via NetflixBased on Jussi Adler-Olsen's acclaimed novels, DCI Carl Mørck (Matthew Goode) is left physically and emotionally scarred after being shot and left for dead. Months later, he's back on duty and relegated to a newly created cold-case department in the office's basement, where he's tasked with investigating forgotten crimes no one else wants to solve. Alongside a small team of outsiders and misfits, he sets his sights on the disappearance of a successful prosecutor.
Like many great crime shows, Dept. Q masterfully showcases a story of damaged people finding purpose through difficult work. Yes, Carl is not an easy protagonist to like. He's rude, abrasive, and incredibly short-tempered. However, beneath the bravado is clearly a man who cares and is in desperate need of help, and that's what makes him so compelling. Better still, the show's darker tone, eerie landscape, and layered mysteries make it an ideal choice for those who enjoy crime dramas that prioritize character as much as suspense. Season 2 couldn't come any quicker.
4 'Ludwig' (2024–Present)
Image via BritBoxWhen puzzle creator John "Ludwig" Taylor's (David Mitchell) identical twin brother mysteriously disappears, his sister-in-law (Anna Maxwell Martin) convinces him to assume his brother's identity in an effort to uncover what happened. The only problem? His brother is a senior police detective, and Ludwig now finds himself solving real murder cases despite having no formal investigative experience.
The premise sounds almost absurd, but Ludwig works because it fully commits to its charismatic central character. Indeed, Mitchell delivers a wonderfully understated performance, transforming Ludwig's social awkwardness and analytical mind into genuine strengths. Plus, the show even layers some procedural charm with its weekly mysteries, while also ensuring its larger throughline gives everything additional momentum. In an era filled with gritty crime drama, Ludwig feels like a welcome reminder that detective shows can be clever, cozy, and deeply satisfying without sacrificing intrigue.
3 'Mare of Easttown' (2021)
Image via HBOIn a small Pennsylvanian town where everyone knows everyone else's business, Detective Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) investigates the murder of a young mother while grappling with personal tragedies of her own. But as the case grows more complicated, Mare must navigate family tensions and long-buried secrets that threaten to expose painful truths about the community she has spent her entire life trying to protect.
Few crime dramas capture the complex texture of community as effectively as Mare of Easttown. Sure, the murder investigation remains gripping, but the show's real strength lies in its exploration of grief, addiction, and generational trauma. Winslet delivers a career-best performance, portraying Mare with all her layers of flaws and stubbornness. On top of that, every other character adds to the drama in their own unique way, making the mystery's eventual resolution all the more powerful. It's easily one of the best miniseries of all time.
2 'Black Bird' (2022)
Image via Apple TV+Inspired by true events, convicted drug dealer Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton) is offered an extraordinary deal: transfer to a maximum-security prison and befriend suspected serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) in exchange for a reduced sentence. Through this arrangement, Jimmy's mission is to obtain a confession and uncover the location of several victims before Hall's appeal potentially sets him free.
If you want a show that generates tension from conversation rather than action, then Black Bird might just be for you. Egerton and Hauser deliver exceptional performances, with Hauser creating one of the most unsettling television villains of the last decade. The psychological battle between the two criminals is something one cannot take their eyes off, especially when it explores manipulation, guilt, and the disturbing banalities of evil. It's a true highlight of AppleTV+'s catalog.
1 'Only Murders in the Building' (2021–Present)
Image via HuluThree strangers living in a luxurious Manhattan apartment building bond over their shared obsession with a true-crime podcast — a connection that proves useful after a resident is suddenly found dead. Convinced the death was actually a murder, Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) launch their own investigation while documenting the process through a new podcast. Naturally, their amateur sleuthing soon uncovers far more secrets than they bargained for.
While the crimes themselves are interesting enough, the true magic of Only Murders in the Building stems from its delightful central trio. The intergenerational clashes bring their own charm, while also showcasing how great crime stories aren't just about solving thrilling murders — they're about the people drawn together by them. Balancing heartfelt relationships, clever writing, iconic cameo appearances, and sharp comedy, this show has become one of the most defining shows of the 2020s, especially with its quick and (mostly) yearly turnovers.
Only Murders in the Building
Release Date August 31, 2021
Network Hulu
Showrunner John Hoffman
English (US) ·