Image via HBO
Published May 13, 2026, 11:01 PM EDT
Dyah (pronounced Dee-yah) is a Senior Author at Collider, responsible for both writing and transcription duties. She joined the website in 2022 as a Resource Writer before stepping into her current role in April 2023. As a Senior Author, she writes Features and Lists covering TV, music, and movies, making her a true Jill of all trades. In addition to her writing, Dyah also serves as an interview transcriber, primarily for events such as San Diego Comic-Con, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival.
Dyah graduated from Satya Wacana Christian University in October 2019 with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature, concentrating on Creative Writing. She is currently completing her Master's degree in English Literature Studies, with a thesis on intersectionality in postcolonial-feminist studies in Asian literary works, and is expected to graduate in 2026.
Born and raised between Indonesia and Singapore, Dyah is no stranger to different cultures. She now resides in the small town of Kendal with her husband and four cats, where she spends her free time cooking or cycling.
Sign in to your Collider account
There's a world of crime that is still unsolved, at least on television. Crime shows have come a long way from being simple conflicts of good versus bad. Instead of the usual cops chasing down villains, the genre now questions whether the so-called good guys are really innocent at all, and whether the bad guys are truly evil or simply victims of an oppressive system.
While acclaimed series like The Wire and Bosch helped dismantle those ideas, there are also forgotten gems that deserve far more public attention. Some were overlooked, others arrived before audiences were ready for them, but all of them have aged remarkably well. Here are the forgotten crime shows that have aged like fine wine.
'La Femme Nikita' (1997–2001)
Image via USA NetworkLa Femme Nikita follows Nikita (Peta Wilson), a homeless young woman falsely convicted of murdering a police officer and sentenced to death. Instead of execution, she is secretly recruited into Section One, a covert anti-terrorist organization that trains her to become a deadly assassin. Forced to obey under threat of death, Nikita struggles to take on missions that clash with her innate compassion. Little does Section One realize that Nikita is a true diamond in the rough.
It's nothing new for government spy organizations to be morally complicit by nature. However, Section One in La Femme Nikita is outright corrupt. They have no qualms about using methods like abduction, assassination, and false imprisonment — essentially acts of terrorism — to ironically combat counterterrorism. But with someone like Nikita caught in the middle of it all — a woman who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time — she has no choice but to carry out ruthless missions for the sake of her own survival, all while struggling to keep her sanity intact.
'We Own This City' (2022)
Image via HBOWho do you call when the police murder? We Own This City is based on the real-life corruption scandal surrounding the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF). The unit was originally meant to be an elite plainclothes squad tasked with taking illegal firearms and violent criminals off the streets. However, Sergeant Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal) has very different plans. As the corrupt leader of the task force, he abuses his authority to carry out everything from drug dealing to falsified arrests.
We Own This City addresses the dangers of driving arrest rates up at an alarming pace. It is one thing to reduce violence, but it becomes dangerous when officers are forced to rely on quotas, pushing them to arrest as many people as possible without proper warrants. However, the series makes it clear that this is not just the fault of a few bad apples, but of a broken system that treats arrests like targets instead of opportunities for rehabilitation.
'Terriers' (2010)
Image via FXAs the saying goes, best friends and business don't always mix. But when you have guys like ex-cop Hank Dolworth (Donal Logue) and former criminal Britt Pollack (Michael Raymond-James) in your corner, your work days just got a whole lot more fun. Terriers follows the two unlikely men as they run their own private investigation business literally out of their rundown pickup truck. The only problem is that they have absolutely no authority, license, or legal right to do any of it in the first place.
In reality, Hank and Britt are probably the last two people anyone would trust with sensitive information. But what they lack in formalities, decorum, or an actual badge, they make up for with pure craftiness. The two are incredibly street-smart, and they know how to spot the little inconsistencies that are often overlooked by the police. They might not have the strongest morals and are usually motivated by money, but they always know when, how, and with whom to play their cards right.
'Bodies' (2023)
Image via NetflixFour eras, four detectives, one dead body. Based on the 2014–15 DC Vertigo graphic novel of the same name, Bodies is a time-bending, mind-twisting sci-fi thriller that explores the dangers of altering time itself. It's an ambitious premise, spanning not two, not three, but four different timelines with four different detectives: Detective Inspector Alfred Hillinghead (Kyle Soller) in 1890, Detective Inspector Charles Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) in 1941, Detective Sergeant Shahara Hasan (Amaka Okafor) in 2023, and Constable Maplewood (Shira Haas) in 2053.
The one thing that ties them together is the discovery of the same naked dead man on the fictional Longharvest Lane in London's Whitechapel district, bearing the same injuries. Despite its highbrow sci-fi concept, Bodies shows that no matter which generation these detectives come from, oppression is also a never-ending cycle. These four detectives experience different forms of oppression, which shape how they approach the case, with some striving to do good while others operate with more questionable intentions for the sake of survival.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.
AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.
AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.
REVEAL MY WORLD →
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.
- You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
- You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.
- You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
- The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.
- You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
- You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.
- You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
- In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Blade Runner
You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
- You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
- In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
- You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.
- In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
- Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.
- You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
- Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.
- In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.
- You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
- You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.
- You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.
- In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
'Hack' (2002–2004)
Image via CBSA former cop tries to right his wrongs in Hack. Ex-Philadelphia police officer Mike Olshansky (David Morse) now works as a taxi driver after being accused of corruption. While Mike was partly responsible for the actions that led to those accusations, he leaves the force not out of fear of being caught, but because of the overwhelming moral guilt that comes with them. Behind the wheel of his cab, Mike begins trying to make up for his past by helping people the police may have ignored.
Mike is far from a perfect person, and that’s exactly what makes him refreshing. Hack follows him as he struggles to figure out how to become a better man, and strangely enough, there’s no better place for that journey than from the driver’s seat of a taxi cab. With passengers from all kinds of backgrounds stepping into the backseat, Mike constantly finds himself pulled into vigilante-like situations — from saving a runaway teen from an internet predator to helping a naked man track down the sex worker who stole both his money and his clothes.
'The Night Of' (2016)
One reckless decision changes everything in The Night Of. Naive college student Nasir "Naz" Khan (Riz Ahmed) borrows his father's cab for a night out in New York, only to spend the evening with a mysterious woman named Andrea instead. After a foggy night, Naz wakes up to find her brutally stabbed to death beside him, with no memory of what happened. As the evidence stacks against him, exhausted defense attorney John Stone (John Turturro) steps in to fight a justice system already convinced Naz is guilty.
Don't expect happy endings in The Night Of. There is no real justice in the series, and even the slightest glimmer of it comes at a devastating cost. The show exposes how broken the system truly is, especially toward people who look like Naz and families who can barely afford food on the table, let alone a proper lawyer to defend them. Even when justice is finally served, the damage has already been done, and Naz is left permanently scarred by the experience.
'Counterpart' (2017–2019)
Image via StarzThe Cold War never truly ended in Counterpart. In this alternate reality, a scientific experiment in 1980s East Germany accidentally creates a parallel dimension. What begins as peaceful cooperation between the two nearly identical worlds turns into covert warfare, as each side blames the other for major global crises and political disasters. From the shadows, spies constantly cross between realities to manipulate events and gather intelligence.
Caught in the middle is Howard Silk (J. K. Simmons), a quiet office worker who discovers that his counterpart from the other world is everything he is not: confident, ruthless, and a highly trained intelligence operative. As the two Howards are forced to work together, they discover a dangerous conspiracy involving sleeper agents and a secret plan for one reality to infiltrate and overtake the other.
English (US) ·