Published Apr 5, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
Detective shows have always been a staple of television, going back to classics like Dragnet and Columbo. Case-of-the-week crime dramas have continually adapted to an ever-evolving media landscape. Now, the TV detectives are spacefaring Green Lanterns and 1930s webslingers and true-crime podcasters of a certain age.
The genre has survived the shift from episodic broadcast television to bingeworthy streaming content, despite being episodic by its very nature, because audiences love a good detective story. A nice, succinct, twisty murder mystery plot that lays out all the clues for us to solve the case ourselves, and then pulls the rug out from under us at the last second, makes for gripping TV.
There are a lot of exciting new detective shows coming our way in the next few months. From a new season of True Detective to a new season of Line of Duty to a red-hot Harlan Coben adaptation, these are the upcoming detective shows that will dominate the airwaves in 2026 and beyond.
Spider-Noir
May 25 on MGM+/May 27 on Prime Video
Did you enjoy Nicolas Cage’s grizzled turn as a black-and-white P.I. version of Spider-Man in Into the Spider-Verse? Well, you’re in luck: he’s getting his own series. Not that exact multiversal variant that helped Miles Morales defeat the Kingpin, but it’s essentially a live-action TV spinoff of that particular incarnation of Spidey.
Cage is reprising his role as the webslinging sleuth in his first ever starring role in a TV show. After the miserable missteps of Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter, it looks as though Sony’s Spider-Man cinematic universe is finally getting back on track. The studio has scrapped the solo supervillain movies and started making things people actually want to see (with an actual Spider-Man).
Set to premiere on May 25 on MGM+ and Prime Video on May 27, Spider-Noir is a pulpy, hard-boiled detective drama set in 1930s New York — and the detective just happens to have spider-powers. In a revolutionary release strategy, Spider-Noir will be simultaneously released in two different color formats: lavish, Golden Age-style color, and grainy, old-school black-and-white. So, pick your poison.
Cape Fear
June 5 on Apple TV
John D. MacDonald’s 1957 novel The Executioners has a long history on the screen (but never under its original title). In 1962, J. Lee Thompson faithfully adapted the book into Cape Fear, one of the most iconic psychological thrillers ever made. Then, in 1991, Martin Scorsese helmed a much less faithful, much more violent remake, and it became arguably even more iconic.
Now, Apple TV has remade Cape Fear yet again, this time as a limited series. The tale of a released convict seeking revenge against the lawyer and family man who put him behind bars is timeless, and the TV adaptation is perfectly cast: Javier Bardem as sadistic killer Max Cady, Patrick Wilson as troubled everyman Tom Bowden, and Amy Adams as his wife Anna.
Lanterns
August 2026 on HBO
Last year, James Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe finally debuted with the fun, hopeful, colorful Superman movie we all needed. It felt like a comic book come to life: cinematic splash pages bursting with color. But the DCU’s next release looks like a complete 180, with a washed-out color palette and a gritty sense of realism.
Lanterns is a police procedural where the central police force is the Green Lantern Corps. You might be expecting a bright, colorful space opera like Thor: Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy, leaning into the absurdity of “space cops,” but it’s actually being framed as a gritty, grounded HBO murder mystery like True Detective or Mare of Easttown.
Rather than following the Green Lanterns from galaxy to galaxy, encountering bizarre aliens and interstellar forces, Lanterns will focus entirely on a murder in Nebraska, so it might never even leave Earth’s atmosphere. This approach has been divisive, for obvious reasons, but Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are great actors, Damon Lindelof and Tom King are great writers, and HBO rarely misses, so have a little faith.
Only Murders In The Building Season 6
2026 on Hulu
One of the best (and most subversive) detective shows of the 21st century is Hulu’s crowning achievement, Only Murders in the Building. It’s a sort of modern-day Murder, She Wrote for the age of true crime: ordinary people solving murders. Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are a winning lead trio whose on-screen dynamic elevates the show to greatness.
In its fifth season, Only Murders started to get a little bit repetitive and predictable. The show has a very specific, very formulaic premise, and there are only so many ways to twist it (seriously, how many people are going to get killed in this apartment building?). But the chemistry between those three leads has kept it more than watchable, so I’m still excited for season 6.
I Will Find You
TBA on Netflix
Netflix is one of the best places to see twisty crime dramas, and they’re currently cooking up another one: I Will Find You. Based on the Harlan Coben novel of the same name, I Will Find You follows a man who’s wrongly imprisoned for the murder of his son, and then discovers that his son might still be alive. Veteran TV writer Robert Hull is the showrunner, so you’ve got a great story in safe hands — it’s a guaranteed home run.
Line Of Duty Season 7
2027 on BBC One
Line of Duty is the closest thing the UK has to its own version of The Wire. It’s not quite as fiercely realistic or as profoundly prescient as David Simon’s classic HBO drama, but it does have the grit and the humanity of The Wire, showing that there are flawed but sympathetic people on both sides of the law (and broken systems keeping them at their current station).
It’s been half a decade since Line of Duty aired new episodes, but there was always talk of a seventh season. Now, Line of Duty season 7 is finally in production, and it’ll be airing sometime in 2027 (which will be six years after the last season aired in 2021).
True Detective Season 5
2027 on HBO
Back in 2014, True Detective kicked off its run with one of the greatest seasons of television ever produced. But the show has had a rough go of it since continuing its anthology format into subsequent seasons. Season 2 was rushed and shallow, season 3 was something of a return to form, and season 4 took a new creative direction entirely.
In True Detective’s fourth season, subtitled Night Country, Issa López took over as showrunner, with an entirely different vision. That supernatural, Lynchian vibe ended up being just the thing True Detective needed to feel fresh and exciting again. Details are being kept under wraps, but True Detective season 5 is expected to air in 2027 — and, with López returning as showrunner, I can’t wait to see it.
Berlin Noir
TBA on Apple TV
Apple is currently hard at work turning Philip Kerr’s Berlin Noir books into a TV series. The first season, specifically based on the book Metropolis, is currently in production in — you guessed it — Berlin. The show takes place in 1928, and follows a cop who gets assigned to the Berlin Murder Squad to help them track down a notorious serial killer running rampant in the city.
As with most Apple TV shows (including the aforementioned Cape Fear), Berlin Noir has lined up a stacked cast led by Jack Lowden, with supporting turns from Colin Firth, Maxine Peake, and Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning. Lowden currently plays second fiddle on Apple’s smash-hit thriller Slow Horses, and now, it looks as though Gary Oldman’s student has become the master.
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