Image via HBO
Published Jun 14, 2026, 5:33 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.
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Crime never sleeps on television, and America knows a thing or two about how broken the system can be. Traditionally, crime shows followed a simple formula: a hero chases down a villain after a crime has been committed. These days, however, it's much harder to determine who's the hero and who's the bad guy — the two can often be the same person. As morality becomes murkier, so do the crimes themselves. What was once clearly illegal can now be hidden behind technicalities and exploited loopholes.
Over the years, the best crime shows have explored just how complicated and interconnected the justice system really is. They've examined how the decisions of society's higher-ups can create ripple effects that devastate ordinary people who simply happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rather than offering black-and-white conclusions on justice, these series expose the gray areas of power and the abuse of it. From police procedurals to drug kingpins in Albuquerque, here are the greatest American crime shows of all time, ranked.
7 'Bosch' (2014–2021)
Image via Prime VideoNo case goes unsolved in Bosch, not even the cold ones. LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) is tough as nails. Unlike colleagues who chase high-profile cases for promotions and recognition, Bosch is in it for the work itself. On paper, he makes an excellent detective, often spending his evenings and weekends following paper trails and chasing down leads that others have long abandoned. But his obsession with the job is also his Achilles' heel, and it's rarely rewarded by law enforcement.
They say never idolize your heroes, and Harry is a perfect example. He's a cowboy cop prone to impulsive decisions and frequent clashes with his superiors. Yet he's also exactly the kind of person needed to expose a system with a habit of covering up its own mistakes and serving those in power. Although Bosch has ended, its legacy lives on through Bosch: Legacy, Ballard, and even The Lincoln Lawyer, proving just how influential the franchise has become within the American crime drama genre.
6 'Boardwalk Empire' (2010–2014)
Image via HBOWith a pilot episode directed by Martin Scorsese, Boardwalk Empire is the epitome of underground luxury and opulence hidden by the proper decorum of 1920s Atlantic City. At the center of this lavish underworld is Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), the most powerful treasurer in town, whose influence stretches across both politics and organized crime. Boardwalk Empire follows Nucky as he switches between two identities: the public servant who presents himself as Atlantic City's savior and the political fixer who profits from Prohibition behind the scenes.
Politicians are no strangers to bending Prohibition laws to suit their own interests. It's fascinating to watch the charismatic Nucky, a man trusted by the working class, charm his way through dealings with fellow gangsters and corrupt officials alike. But Boardwalk Empire also does its homework. Part of the show's weight comes from its roots in real history. Inspired by Enoch L. Johnson and featuring notorious figures like Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, Boardwalk Empire is a crash course in American gangster history.
5 'Mare of Easttown' (2021)
Image via HBOFor the people of Mare of Easttown, Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) was once the local basketball star whose championship-winning shot made her the pride of the small town. These days, Mare is a detective who never stops working. But no amount of police work can hide the scars she's carried over the years. Following the suicide of her eldest son, she refuses to discuss his death and rejects professional help.
It's difficult to sympathize with Mare at times, and that's precisely the point. In an ideal world, people burdened by trauma would take meaningful steps toward healing. Mare, however, is trapped in a cycle of denial, grief, and self-destruction, which inevitably affects both her personal life and her work. When another young woman is found dead in the woods, the case becomes a wake-up call. Faced with a tragedy she can no longer ignore, Mare begins the messy, imperfect process of confronting her pain while pursuing the truth.
4 'Better Call Saul' (2015–2022)
Image via AMCA good lawyer wins cases; a great lawyer knows how to win people over. Before he was Saul Goodman, he was better known as Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) in Better Call Saul, a struggling public defender working out of the back of a nail salon and desperately trying to step out of the shadow of his successful lawyer brother. Charismatic and resourceful, Jimmy has a knack for turning even the most hopeless situations to his advantage — which draws him deeper into Albuquerque's criminal underworld.
Whether it's the fast-paced nature of the proceedings or the dramatic cries of "Order in the court!", there's something incredibly addictive about watching courtroom battles — arguably even more so than the gang confrontations Saul faces later in the series. Winning a case requires a certain level of theatricality, and because Jimmy is an underdog with a mail-order law degree, there's nothing more satisfying than watching him outsmart pedigree lawyers. Much of that success comes from his sharp understanding of the law — or, more accurately, its loopholes.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz
Which Taylor Sheridan
Show Do You Belong In?
Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
FIND YOUR WORLD →
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly.
AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed.
AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending.
AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested.
ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it.
REVEAL MY SHOW →
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
3 'Breaking Bad' (2008–2013)
It's television's most famous modern-day Aristotelian tragedy — Breaking Bad. Under no circumstances should a meek chemistry teacher like Walter White (Bryan Cranston) turn to manufacturing drugs to make a living. But with his talents going unrecognized, mounting bills piling up, and a family to support, Walter can't survive on his modest teacher's salary alone. It doesn't help that he's suddenly faced with the staggering cost of treating his lung cancer, forcing him to make a desperate and life-altering choice.
While audiences initially root for Walter's rise as he finally gains a sense of control over his life, it's his eventual downfall that reveals the bitter truth behind his success. Tragedies are often driven by hubris, and Walter's greatest flaw is his pride. As his money and reputation grow, he begins to believe he can outmaneuver seasoned drug kingpins simply because he has the superior product. Instead, that arrogance sets him on a collision course with disaster, culminating in one of the most unforgettable endings in American crime drama.
2 'The Sopranos' (1999–2007)
Image via HBOThe Sopranos redefined television by creating one of the genre's earliest and most influential antiheroes. At its core, the series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) as he struggles to balance his duties as a mob boss with the demands of family life. While the show is undeniably a crime drama, it is equally concerned with marriage, parenting, and the everyday pressures that come with holding a family together.
The Sopranos strips away the glamour traditionally associated with the mafia. Unlike earlier works such as The Godfather or Goodfellas, Tony is less focused on expanding an empire than on keeping a declining criminal business afloat with RICO arrests going on. The series also spends considerable time exploring his inner life through therapy sessions that examine his panic attacks, childhood trauma, and existential doubts. The Sopranos is just as philosophical as it is pernicious, and newcomers don't necessarily have to be drawn to the guns, violence, and criminal intrigue to appreciate it. They can just as easily stay for the questions about what it means to live a life that feels predetermined, especially in organized crime.
1 'The Wire' (2002–2008)
Image via HBOCrime is never an isolated incident in The Wire. Baltimore might be one of America's liveliest cities, but it's also home to a problematic judicial system. Through the experiences of drug dealers, police officers, politicians, journalists, and everyday citizens, The Wire shows that one way or another, all of these people are interconnected — be it on a personal level or through the corrupt system. And with these folks living in a city impacted by poverty, ambition, and survival, one person's action could bear grave consequences for another.
The Wire is about as realistic as television gets. Rather than delivering a traditional, swashbuckling crime drama where everyone is constantly reaching for their guns, the series serves as a comprehensive examination of how institutions shape people into making questionable choices. Those sworn to protect the innocent often become part of the problem, while civilians who were once promised a brighter future are forced to abandon their dreams and do whatever it takes to survive. The saddest part is that realities like these continue to exist in present-day America.
The Wire
Release Date 2002 - 2008-00-00
Network HBO
English (US) ·