Image via Apple TV
Published Aug 15, 2026, 9:33 PM EDT
Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.
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Lucky is a great new show on Apple TV. But when it comes to crime series, the streamer has a diverse selection of options beyond that. If you are looking for something else to watch in the genre while waiting for new episodes of Lucky, or once you've finished, you don't have to go elsewhere: you can stick with the same service.
Some of the best crime shows on Apple TV are already several seasons in, while a few recently premiered. Each one has an incredible cast, often led by actors known for their Hollywood movie performances. You won't be disappointed with any of these exciting and gripping crime shows.
1 'Slow Horses' (2022–Present)
Image via Apple TVThe British spy thriller Slow Horses has become a massive hit for Apple TV, earning countless nominations and awards. It's already renewed through seven seasons, with the sixth scheduled to premiere in September 2026. Gary Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the grumpy lead of the Slough House department of MI5, where lackluster agents are sent to push papers instead of getting fired. When one massive case after another arises, however, they are unexpectedly given the chance to prove their worth.
The near-perfect Apple TV series is a fun flip on the traditional spy genre, praised for its fast-paced storytelling and incredible acting. The main characters are underdogs rather than typical heroes, with Lamb the antithesis of a charming James Bond type. You can't help but love him anyway, however, as he speaks for the everyman, approaching the job his own way and poking fun at the very organization that employs him. It's a wonderful story about outcasts rising up, and the short six-episode seasons make it an easy binge.
2 'Hijack' (2023–Present)
Image via Apple TV+Admittedly, Hijack's first season is much stronger than its second, and the show probably should have ended with that. Nonetheless, Season 1 will draw you in and keep you at the edge of your seat the entire time. Most of the action takes place aboard a flight from Dubai to London, where lawyer and corporate business negotiator Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) becomes the de facto leader of the passengers when they discover the plane has been hijacked.
Sam figuring out who these hijackers are, what they want, and how to navigate the situation is what drives most of the plot. There's also a parallel and connected storyline as those on the ground try to understand why communication has been lost on this plane and the best course of action to save the most lives. Seeing Sam put his negotiation skills to use in a way he never has puts Elba in the hot seat and makes him an expected hero. It's tense, gripping, and a wild ride through the first seven episodes. Even if you don't bother with Season 2, Hijack Season 1 is worth checking out.
3 'Criminal Record' (2024–Present)
Image via Apple TVIn this British crime thriller, Peter Capaldi is veteran detective DCI Daniel Hegarty, and Cush Jumbo is rookie DS/DI June Lenker when an older murder case comes back into the conversation. Daniel wants to let sleeping dogs lie, and you can't help but wonder why. But June's passion for the job and suspicions about the case mean she won't stop looking into the new evidence, presented by an anonymous phone caller.
Everything in Criminal Record comes together wonderfully, from the fantastic performances to the psychological tension and the not-so-subtle look at institutional corruption. It's the type of story that has been told many times before, but the plot doesn't fall into the usual good cop, bad cop dynamic, allowing for a much more nuanced story.
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
4 'Sugar' (2024–Present)
Image via Apple TVColin Farrell is captivating in this neo-noir mystery drama with a huge twist revealed halfway through Season 1 that will throw you for a loop if you haven't yet heard about it. He's John Sugar in Sugar, a private detective in Los Angeles who is a quiet loner with a unique personality and a deep desire to help others.
Sugar presents with a lovely throwback old Hollywood aesthetic, a plot that intrigues you, and a lead character who's so likable and magnetic that you can't help but want to follow him along on his journey. The detective show subverts typical tropes, choosing instead to beat to its own drum. The story poses deep questions about the state of humanity, too.
5 'Presumed Innocent' (2024–Present)
Image via Apple TVA remake of the 1990 film of the same name, which is also based on the Scott Turow novel, Presumed Innocent takes the story in its own unique direction with a few unexpected twists. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor who finds himself on the other side of the courtroom when he is accused of committing a heinous murder.
The story develops into a steamy tale of affairs, lies, secrets, and vendettas. With a plot that keeps you guessing and a twist you won't see coming, Presumed Innocent is a solid eight episodes of storytelling. With confirmation that a second season is coming, based on the Jo Murray book Dissection of a Murder, the legal thriller is perhaps one of Apple TV's most underrated gems.
6 'Your Friends & Neighbors' (2025–Present)
Image via Apple TVYour Friends & Neighbors is a delightfully funny dark comedy crime drama about a wealthy man who resorts to thieving from his neighbors when he loses his job. He can't work due to a non-compete and is desperate to continue keeping up with the Joneses. But in this new state of observing his so-called friends and the excess of material items they possess, Coop (Jon Hamm) develops a disdain for the very one-percent club to which he has long been a member.
The series, one of the greatest crime shows on Apple TV, is thoughtfully written, with Hamm's narration of his character giving viewers an insider look at the absurdity of wealth. As Coop becomes drawn to the adrenaline rush and ups his theft game, he gets himself into increasingly dangerous situations. Your Friends & Neighbors is a show that oddly makes you sympathize with the criminal and despise the supposed victims in a way few other shows have managed to achieve.
7 'Bad Monkey' (2024–Present)
Image via Apple TV+If you love Vince Vaughn, you'll love Bad Monkey since he plays exactly the type of character you think he would. The Bill Lawrence black comedy crime drama centers around his character Andrew Yancy, a former police detective who has been demoted. When he learns that a tourist found a severed arm in the ocean, however, he thinks investigating and solving this case could get him back in his boss's good graces.
As the gripping case unfolds, the backdrop of South Florida and Vaughn's signature comedic style draws you in. Meredith Hagner is a stand-out playing a well-to-do woman with big plans, while Jodie Turner-Smith brings an air of mystery to the plot as Gracie, an Obeah woman from the Bahamas who goes by the name of Dragon Queen. The show is the personification of breezy charm, so it's no surprise that Bad Monkey is coming back for a second season.
8 'Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed' (2026)
Image via Apple TVArguably Tatiana Maslany's best performance since Orphan Black (nothing will ever top her performance in that sci-fi series), she plays Paula Saunders in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, a recently divorced single mom trying to put her life back together. When she witnesses what she believes is a murder on camera while chatting with a webcam model, she feels compelled to look into it. He appeared to have been scamming her, but even so, a young man is possibly dead. How could she ignore that?
The plot in this comedy thriller crime takes Paula down a dangerous rabbit hole she has no business being in, especially while in a custody battle with her ex-husband Karl (Jake Johnson). Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is indeed maximum pleasure — a wild and fun ride through its 10-episode first season. The ending is satisfying but also opens the door for a potential second season should Apple TV be so inclined.
9 'Cape Fear' (2026)
Image via Apple TVThis remake of the 1962 and 1991 movies, both based on the John D. MacDonald novel The Executioners, creates a modern-day tale that has a throwback feel. Javier Bardem is intoxicating as this new version of Max Cady in Cape Fear, an ex-convict who is released after 17 years. With his newfound freedom, Max sets out to get revenge on the lawyers he blames for having him put away for a crime he claims he did not commit.
The psychological thriller is a masterclass in manipulation, a depiction of a family being torn apart at the seams, slowly and methodically. Yes, Cape Fear takes some wild turns and is even campy at times. But so was the 1991 movie starring Robert De Niro as Cady. Despite polarizing views on the finale, Cape Fear will keep you curious, invested, and drawn to the plot through all 10 episodes.
Cape Fear
Release Date 2026 - 2026-00-00
Network Apple TV
Showrunner Nick Antosca
English (US) ·