Image via HBO
Published Sep 8, 2026, 8:55 PM EDT
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Detective shows have spent decades asking some version of the same basic question: what really happened? Yet somehow, the genre keeps finding completely different ways to make the search for that answer exciting. That’s because detective fiction is surprisingly experimental. A single show can mix mystery with comedy, romance, psychological drama, family conflict, or even horror without ever losing sight of the investigation at its center.
That freedom keeps the genre from feeling repetitive, even when the setup stays the same. It also means that two great detective shows can look almost nothing alike, as long as they make the audience desperate to see where the investigation goes. These six masterpiece detective shows do exactly that, with wildly different approaches to the genre, each one being 10/10.
1 ‘True Detective’ (2014–Present)
Image via HBOTrue Detective begins with a standard murder investigation but evolves into something much more unsettling. The anthology series tells a different story each season, but Season 1 remains the benchmark. The story follows detectives Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson), who are assigned to investigate the ritualistic murder of a woman in rural Louisiana, only for the case to stretch across years and slowly reveal connections to disappearances, powerful people, and secrets that were never meant to come out. The investigation is gripping on its own, but the real tension comes from watching Rust and Marty lose their sense of self while trying to search for answers.
This personal angle is why True Detective stands out from typical procedurals. Rust and Marty’s partnership drives the story forward because their conversations, disagreements, and even failures become essential to the central mystery. The Louisiana setting only adds to the show’s identity with its empty roads and isolated communities. Later seasons of True Detective have taken the series in different directions, each with its own interpretation of what a detective story can be. Season 1, however, remains the perfect introduction to the show’s experimental approach, featuring complicated investigators and non-linear storytelling.
2 ‘Mindhunter’ (2017–2019)
Image via NetflixMindhunter is another detective show that breaks away from the genre’s conventions. The series is set in the late 1970s and follows FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), along with psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), as they begin interviewing imprisoned serial killers in an attempt to understand how violent criminals think. Through this premise, the series covers the early days of criminal profiling. Now, the hook here doesn’t come from watching detectives put puzzle pieces together to figure out a killer’s identity or adrenaline-fueled chases through dark alleys — Mindhunter builds its tension purely through conversation. Watching Holden and Bill sitting across a table from some of the most disturbing criminals imaginable and trying to understand them is the real horror of the show.
The series fictionalizes real-life serial killers including Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton) and Charles Manson (Damon Herriman), but it never turns these appearances into mere shock value. Instead, each interview becomes another piece in a much larger experiment that would go on to redefine the world forever. This historical angle makes Mindhunter feel more real and urgent than most other thriller shows. It really is a shame Mindhunter ended after just two seasons because the series still had so much room to expand its profiling work and establish itself as a true game-changer in the genre, especially with the BTK storyline. However, the fact that it still managed to leave such an impact despite its unfinished story says a lot.
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
3 ‘Dept. Q’ (2025–Present)
Image via NetflixDept. Q breathed new life into the detective genre just when things were getting a little boring. The series follows Edinburgh detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode), who returns to work after a shooting leaves one officer dead and his partner, James Hardy (Jamie Sives), seriously injured. Carl might be okay physically, but he is full of anger and guilt. Naturally, the department decides to give him charge of a newly created cold-case unit in an attempt to give him some time for things to blow over. However, Carl’s first case revolves around prosecutor Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie), who disappeared from a ferry four years earlier and was presumed dead. He initially approaches the assignment with no enthusiasm, but the little inconsistencies in Merritt’s case quickly get under his skin.
On the other hand, the audience learns that Merritt is actually alive and being held hostage, which immediately raises the stakes of this already intriguing investigation. The suspense in the show is not only about figuring out what happened. It also comes from watching Carl slowly catch up to information the viewers are already in on, which turns Dept. Q into an extremely immersive experience. At the same time, the show doesn’t shy away from showcasing Carl’s worst qualities. That messiness is exactly what gives the series so much character. The central mystery is compelling, but Carl is exactly the kind of detective viewers just can’t get enough of, especially when he gets down to work.
4 ‘Columbo’ (1971–1998)
Image via NBC/Everett CollectionColumbo was ignoring genre conventions way before modern TV made it the new cool. The series throws out the biggest rule of detective television and reveals the murderer to the audience right off the bat. Most of the show’s episodes begin by following the murderer as they carefully plan the crime, cover their tracks, and convince themselves they have gotten away with it. Then, the audience follows Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk) as he begins his seemingly harmless investigation.
The show hides Columbo's true thoughts and intentions until the very end. He quietly notices tiny inconsistencies, circles back several times, and makes the culprit believe that he is an absent-minded oldie, while being the exact opposite of that. Columbo’s inverted whodunit structure still feels fresh today. The show is definitely simpler than the darker, more complicated detective shows that have taken over TV screens today. However, its episodic structure, slower pacing, and almost theatrical acting are part of the charm.
5 ‘Broadchurch’ (2013–2017)
Image via ITVBroadchurch is hands-down one of the greatest mystery shows of all time. The series begins with 11-year-old Danny Latimer (Oskar McNamara) being found dead on a beach in the small coastal town of Broadchurch. Detective Inspector Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) are assigned to the case, but soon enough, they realize that their suspect pool is messier than they initially thought. Turns out everyone in this small town is connected in strange ways, which essentially makes everyone feel suspicious. On the other hand, the press around the case is brutal, and Danny’s family is forced to grieve while every detail of their life is publicized for the world to see. Broadchurch doesn’t work with its central mystery in isolation.
The show sheds light on what really happens in situations like these where every new clue carries real consequences for the people involved. That gives Broadchurch a level of emotional weight that most mystery shows never even aim for. Hardy and Miller also make an excellent pairing because they approach the case from completely different positions, and this dynamic becomes the heart of the show. By the time Broadchurch reaches its answers, the mystery has already done permanent damage to the town, and that’s why the payoff lands harder than ever.
6 ‘Bosch’ (2014–2021)
Image via Prime VideoBosch is proof that when a detective show gets the fundamentals right, it doesn’t really need anything else. The series, based on Michael Connelly’s novels, follows LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), who has a reputation for doing things his own way and very little patience for anyone who gets in the way of a case. Each season usually revolves around one major investigation, but Bosch is never dealing with just one problem at a time. Old cases resurface, department politics complicate his work, and his personal life keeps bleeding into the job, which makes things even harder.
Through all this, Bosch attempts to show the actual process of detective work, where there is a lot of bureaucracy, paperwork, and leads that essentially go nowhere. That sounds pretty boring, but watching the protagonist slowly build a case piece by piece is pure satisfaction, especially when all that hard work pays off.
Bosch
Release Date 2015 - 2021-00-00
Network Prime Video
Showrunner Eric Ellis Overmyer
Directors Alex Zakrzewski, Ernest R. Dickerson, Patrick Cady, Aaron Lipstadt, Adam Davidson, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Kevin Dowling, Neema Barnette, Tim Hunter, Zetna Fuentes, Christine Moore, Jim McKay, Laura Belsey, Matt Earl Beesley, Phil Abraham, Roxann Dawson, Sarah Pia Anderson, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Tara Nicole Weyr, Thomas Carter, Hagar Ben-Asher
English (US) ·