Image via Netflix
Published Apr 16, 2026, 2:09 PM EDT
Lisa Nordin is an actress, writer, and fan of all things performing arts. Her favorite genres are Sci-Fi and Fantasy. She is a self-published author and enjoys exploring how fictional stories help define and qualify the human experience.
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A good detective show can bring moments of intrigue and excitement to normal weekdays. Whether they are based in comedy or have more dramatic themes, finding a way to keep viewers hooked and guessing about what will happen next makes a good mystery series a great one. Netflix has become a go-to destination for those seeking interesting plotlines and shocking twists. The streaming studio has superb original series like The Residence, and older classics from network TV like NCIS.
In trying to keep this list comprehensive, there are some lighthearted whodunit capers, moody and spooky teen shows, and some intense, nail-biting dramas. And Netflix is home to all of them, and everything in between. So no matter what mood you're in or what flavor you’re looking for, here are some of the greatest detective shows streaming on Netflix right now.
10 'The Sinner' (2017–2021)
Image via USA NetworkThings take a dark, supernatural turn in The Sinner. Bill Pullman stars as Detective Harry Ambrose, a man with inner demons and a haunted past to overcome as he attempts to uncover the truth behind mysterious cases involving seemingly ordinary individuals accused of heinous crimes. Costar Jessica Biel gave a riveting performance in the first season and was nominated for an Emmy for her performance as suspect Cora Tannetti.
The Sinner is a classic example of what happens when a TV show's plot is stretched too thin. It was originally intended to be a limited series, but the first season proved so intriguing, and it was such a hit that the show was renewed for three more seasons. The Sinner then morphed into an anthology series of sorts with a new ensemble cast joining each season. Although this brought some new direction to the material, it was not as good as the first season. However, the character of Ambrose is given nuance and empathy by Pullman, and it is an interesting series that mixes metaphysical elements with a gritty crime backdrop. The Sinner is worth a watch for fans of the genre, especially the highly acclaimed first season.
9 'A Man on the Inside' (2024–Present)
Image via NetflixNetflix original A Man on the Inside has sitcom royalty at the helm in the superbly talented Ted Danson. After his success in shows like Cheers and The Good Place, Danson takes his turn at being an undercover agent. The setting, however, is refreshingly different from most crime capers. Instead of infiltrating the FBI, the CIA, or various other government organizations, Danson's character Charles must embed himself in a local retirement community where precious items are going missing.
Hired by a private investigator (Lilah Richcreek Estrada), Charles moves out of his home and into the Pacific View Retirement Community to keep an eye on whatever foul plots are afoot. But far beyond being one-dimensional, this lighthearted comedy has poignant statements to make about senior citizen treatment, coping with illness, loss, and navigating relationships. It was one of Netflix's most popular series upon its debut. After the success of its second season, it has been renewed for a third season. Now's the time to get hooked on this delightfully genuine and charming show.
8 'The Residence' (2025)
Image via NetflixWhat happens when a body is discovered in one of the most secure locations in the country? That is what happens in the funny, eclectic, and clever series The Residence. Uzo Aduba is Cordelia Cupp, a highly intelligent and methodical detective who has a knack for solving unsolvable cases. She makes the perfect detective to investigate a murder inside the White House during a state dinner. With hundreds of suspects and several different motives, the series blends humor and suspense in a well-written script.
Although there sadly won't be a season two of The Residence, despite its huge success with audiences and critics alike, it makes a great series to binge-watch over a weekend. Perhaps avoiding the fate of shows like The Sinner, The Residence won't outrun or outwrite itself, and the singular season can remain perfect and popular as-is. Aduba is joined by the exceptional talents of Randall Park, Giancarlo Esposito, and Edwina Findley, among many others in the wonderful ensemble cast. If Clue and Knives Out had a love child, The Residence would be it. It's a highly entertaining vignette and worthy of a detective's watchlist.
7 'The Lincoln Lawyer' (2022–Present)
Image via NetflixPart lawyer, part investigator, and all entertaining to watch, The Lincoln Lawyer stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller, a lawyer with a few loyal friends and no short list of enemies. The Lincoln Lawyer is a great mix of mystery, law procedural, and courtroom drama as Haller fights for his clients both in and out of court. Fans of the 2011 movie starring Matthew McConaughey will enjoy Garcia-Rulfo's take on the character, and a series is a great way to dive deeper into the source material and spend time exploring details of the story.
Creator David E. Kelley, the same influence behind such hits as Alley McBeal and Boston Legal, adds his signature depth to the series, ensuring it is not one-dimensional or hollow. The Lincoln Lawyer doesn't shy away from complex topics and delivers storylines with intentionality and pathos. Season 4 kept the momentum going with a worthy adversary and arch-nemesis that brought excellent tension.
Collider Exclusive · TV Medicine Quiz Which Fictional Hospital Would You Work Best In? The Pitt · ER · Grey's Anatomy · House · Scrubs
Five hospitals. Five completely different ways medicine goes sideways on television — brutal, chaotic, romantic, brilliant, and ridiculous. Only one of them is the ward your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out exactly where you belong.
🚨The Pitt
🏥ER
💉Grey's
🔬House
🩺Scrubs
FIND YOUR HOSPITAL →
01
A critical patient comes through the door. What's your first instinct? Medicine under pressure reveals who you actually are.
AStay completely present — block everything else out and work through it step by step, right now. BTriage fast and delegate — get the right people on the right problems immediately. CTrust my gut and move — I work best when I stop overthinking and just act. DAsk the question everyone else is ignoring — what's the thing that doesn't fit? ETake a breath, make a joke to cut the tension, and then get to work — panic helps no one.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Why did you go into medicine in the first place? The honest answer says more about you than the one you'd give in an interview.
ABecause I wanted to be where it matters most — right at the edge, when someone's life is actually on the line. BBecause I wanted to help people — genuinely, one patient at a time, in a system that makes it hard. CBecause I was drawn to the intensity of it — the stakes, the drama, the feeling of being fully alive. DBecause medicine is the most interesting puzzle there is — and I needed a problem worth solving. EBecause I wanted to make a difference — and also, honestly, I didn't know what else to do with my life.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What do you actually want from the people you work with? Who you want beside you under pressure is who you are.
ACompetence and calm — I need people who don't fall apart when things get bad. BTrust and reliability — I want to know that when I pass something off, it's handled. CConnection — I want colleagues who become family, even if that gets complicated. DIntelligence and the willingness to be challenged — I have no interest in people who just agree with me. EFriendship — people I actually like spending twelve hours a day with, because those hours are going to happen either way.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
You lose a patient you fought hard to save. How do you carry it? Every doctor who's worked a long shift has had to answer this question.
AI carry it. All of it. I don't look for ways to put it down — that weight is part of doing this work honestly. BI process it and move — you have to, or the next patient suffers for the one you just lost. CI feel it deeply and lean on the people around me — I don't think you're supposed to handle that alone. DI go back over every decision — not to punish myself, but because I need to understand what I missed. EI grieve it genuinely, find some way to laugh about something unrelated, and try to be kind to myself — imperfectly.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How would your colleagues describe the way you work? Your reputation on the floor is usually more accurate than your self-image.
AIntense and completely present — no small talk during a shift, but exactly who you want there. BSteady and dependable — not the flashiest in the room but never the one who drops something. CPassionate and occasionally chaotic — brilliant on the hard cases, prone to drama everywhere else. DBrilliant and difficult — right more often than anyone else, and everyone knows it, including me. EWarm and self-deprecating — not the most intimidating presence, but genuinely good at this and easy to like.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
How do you feel about hospital protocol and procedure? Every institution has rules. What you do with them is a choice.
AProtocol is the floor, not the ceiling — I follow it until the patient needs something it can't provide. BI respect it — the system is broken in places, but the structure is there for a reason and I work within it. CI follow it until my instincts tell me not to — and my instincts are usually right, even when they cause problems. DRules are for people who haven't thought hard enough about when to break them. EI try to follow it and mostly do — with a few memorable exceptions that still come up in meetings.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What does this job cost you personally? Nobody works in medicine without paying a price. What's yours?
AEverything outside these walls — I've given this job my full attention and the rest of my life has gone around it. BMy idealism, mostly — I came in believing the system could be fixed and I've made a complicated peace with that. CStability — my personal life has been as chaotic as the OR, and that's not entirely a coincidence. DMy relationships — I am not easy to know, and the people who've tried to would probably agree. EMy sense of gravity — I use humour as a coping mechanism, which not everyone appreciates in a hospital.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
At the end of a long shift, what keeps you coming back? The answer to this question is the most honest thing about you.
AThe fact that it's real — that nothing else I could be doing would matter this much, right now, today. BThe patients — individual human beings who needed something and got it because I was there. CThe people I work with — I have walked through impossible things with these people and I'd do it again. DThe next unsolved case — there's always another puzzle, and I'm not done yet. EBecause despite everything — the exhaustion, the loss, the absurdity — I actually love this job.
REVEAL MY HOSPITAL →
Your Assignment Has Been Made You Belong In…
Your answers have pointed to one fictional hospital above all others. This is the ward your instincts, your temperament, and your particular brand of dysfunction were built for.
The Pitt
You are built for the most unsparing version of emergency medicine television has ever shown — one that puts you inside a single fifteen-hour shift and doesn't let you look away.
- You need your work to be real, not romanticised — meaning over drama, honesty over aesthetics.
- You find purpose inside the work itself, not in the chaos surrounding it.
- You've made peace with the fact that this job takes from you constantly, and gives back in ways that are harder to name.
- Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center demands exactly that kind of person — and you would not want to be anywhere else.
ER
You are the person who keeps the whole floor running — not the most brilliant in the room, but possibly the most essential.
- You show up, do the work, absorb the losses, and come back the next day without needing the job to be anything other than what it is.
- You care about patients as individual human beings, not as cases to solve or dramas to live through.
- You believe in the system even when it fails you — and you understand that emergency medicine is about holding the line just long enough.
- ER is television about endurance. You have it.
Grey's Anatomy
You came to medicine with your whole self — your ambition, your emotions, your relationships, your history — and you have never quite managed to leave any of it at the door.
- You feel things fully and form deep attachments to the people you work with.
- Your personal and professional lives are permanently, chaotically entangled — and that entanglement drives both your greatest disasters and your most remarkable saves.
- You understand that extraordinary medicine often happens at the intersection of clinical skill and profound human connection.
- It's messy at Grey Sloan. You would not have it any other way.
House
You are drawn to the problem above everything else — the symptom that doesn't fit, the diagnosis hiding underneath the obvious one.
- You're not primarily motivated by the patient as a person — though you are capable of caring, even if you'd deny it.
- You work best when the stakes are highest and the standard answer is wrong.
- Princeton-Plainsboro exists to house one extraordinary, impossible mind — and everyone around that mind is there because they're smart enough to keep up.
- The only way forward here is to think harder than everyone else in the room. That is exactly what you do.
Scrubs
You understand that medicine is tragic and absurd in almost equal measure — and that the only sane response is to hold both of those things at the same time.
- You are warm, self-aware, and funnier than most people in your field.
- You use humour to get through terrible moments — and at Sacred Heart, that's not a flaw, it's a survival strategy.
- You lean on the people around you and let them lean back. The laughter and the grief are genuinely inseparable here.
- Scrubs is a show about learning to become someone worthy of the job. You are still very much in the middle of that process — which is exactly right.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
6 'The Blacklist' (2013–2023)
Image via NBCIf it takes one to know one, then The Blacklist is the perfect crime-solving setup. Fugitive Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader) comes out of hiding, waltzes into the FBI, and offers to work with them. The catch? He will only speak to an unassuming, low-ranking agent, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). In a fun Silence of the Lambs-esque dynamic, the young agent must keep her wits about her as she works with the manipulative and cunning Red.
The Blacklist is a great deep dive into the world of criminal networking and organized crime. It has a panache and flair that makes it feel elegant, clean, and sharp. The series is full of great quotes, and Spader is paramount in his portrayal of the complex and cavalier Reddington. With 10 exciting seasons, it is a great title to add if you want to get stuck in and invest in the interesting characters.
5 'Missing You' (2025)
Image via NetflixIt's typically magicians that pull off disappearing and reappearing acts, but for Detective Inspector Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar), she gets the shock of her life when she finds her fiancé, who went missing without a trace 11 years ago, on a dating app. This sudden reappearance is not the only mystery that Kat will confront in the twisting-and-turning miniseries Missing You. She will reopen her father's unsolved murder, and try to help a young man find his missing mother as well.
Eleazar is joined by Richard Armitage, Ashley Walters, and Jessica Plummer in this complicated mystery with more than one surprising twist. Missing You is a great blend of old-school detective work and new technology like social media. It feels modern and fresh and makes a great thriller for a new generation of mystery fans.
4 'Wednesday' (2022–Present)
Image via NetflixSpeaking of inspiring mysteries for a whole new generation, Tim Burton's Wednesday is a smash hit that is influencing everything from the genre itself to collectibles and fashion. Jenna Ortega stars as Wednesday Addams, the iconic character from the enduring The Addams Family series and films. As she enrolls in a new school, Nevermore Academy, she endeavors to solve mysteries while avoiding the complex social climate that is adolescent school life, even if her classmates are werewolves and sirens.
Ortega is perfect in the role and brings an intensity and allure to Wednesday that has reinvented the character for contemporary audiences. Complete with an inside agent, Thing (Victor Dorobantu), murder boards that make her roommate faint, and a lot of spooky sleuthing, Wednesday is tenacious and undeterred as she tries to solve the nefarious schemes taking place around Nevermore and the sleepy town of Jericho, Vermont. From the costumes, to the characters, to the Gothic filming locations, Wednesday is a detective show like none other.
3 'The Night Agent' (2023–Present)
Image via NetflixThe Night Agent has seen passion on both sides of the argument, those who love it and those who hate it. The espionage-themed thriller has been a huge hit for Netflix, and no one can deny its impact. Based on the Matthew Quirk novel of the same name, The Night Agent follows underling FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), who is sent to do a mundane task and slowly sinks into obscurity. But the phone that is never supposed to ring does. Once Peter answers the call, everything he knows begins to unravel as a deep-seated conspiracy propels him further up the chain of command than he ever imagined.
Although some criticize the surface-level script and plotlines, The Night Agent is good at what it does, creating interesting plots you can watch every night after work. You can tune in, get invested in the characters, and just enjoy the ride. You don't have to overthink, and that level of accessibility is highly enjoyable for viewers. After all, isn't the best part about watching a detective show the feeling you get when you solve riddles or notice clues before the protagonists do?
2 'Dept Q' (2025–Present)
Image via NetflixA new British detective drama that you'll want to get in on sooner rather than later is the Matthew Goode-led Dept. Q. This intriguing series is quietly taking over the streaming charts and is showing steady momentum for massive success. Its interesting setting, moody atmosphere, and subtle humor make it a global favorite with audiences around the world.
In Dept. Q, Goode plays Carl Morck, a detective with PTSD who is assigned cold cases as he slowly gets back to work after a near-fatal accident. Morck is given two other unique crew members to work with, and the supporting cast of Alexej Manvelov as Akram Salim and Leah Byrne as DC Rose Dickson are phenomenal. It has an impressive 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes and is one you will not want to fall behind on as it continues its trajectory to become the next big thing. Season 2 begins filming this summer, so now is the perfect time to catch up.
1 'NCIS' (2003–Present)
From new and noteworthy to the OG or the GOAT, NCIS (an acronym for Naval Criminal Investigative Service) is one of the founding pillars of detective TV dramas. There is a reason this series has seen unprecedented success and boasts a rich legacy of seven franchise shows. Originally established as a spin-off of another series, JAG, it has become a beloved fan favorite and enduring dynasty on the small screen.
Fans are still as loyal to the series as they were in the beginning. Originally aired on CBS, streamers everywhere are delighted that the iconic show is available to watch on Netflix. With its solid foundation in a positive portrayal of the US military, combined with witty humor and touching moments of teamwork, NCIS is not only one of the best detective shows on Netflix, but in the history of the entertainment industry itself.
NCIS
Release Date September 23, 2003
English (US) ·