The 15 Best Detective TV Shows Ever Made, Ranked

There are many sub-genres within crime stories, from true crime and crime dramas to thrillers and police procedurals. But one particularly prolific sub-genre is detective shows, which have investigators working alone or as part of a team to take down the crooks. These super-sleuths can be part of authorized law enforcement agencies, operate as private practice professionals, or just be complete amateurs. Similarly, detective shows span the gamut of narrative tones, from crime comedies to grimmer fare that play out like nihilistic thrillers, each adding their own distinct take on the genre.

Detective shows stretch as far back as the crime genre on television, producing some of the medium's most iconic series and characters. Simply put, we love detective series in all their glorious forms, and there is no shortage of them to recommend. Here are the 15 best detective TV shows ever made, ranked for any fans of the genre to check out.

So many crime shows are so completely self-serious, underscoring the stakes of the predominantly fictional crimes that they depict. The 2006 series "Psych" eschews that tonal expectation, having plenty of fun with its premise and likable ensemble cast. The show follows lifelong best friends Shawn Spencer (James Roday Rodriguez) and Gus Guster (Dulé Hill), with Shawn posing as a psychic to account for his keen observational skills. Shawn and Gus use this cover to assist the Santa Barbara police as consulting detectives, befriending several officers on the force in the process.

"Psych" gets by considerably on its easygoing charm, still often revolving around murder mysteries but without getting grim about them. Rodriguez and Hill practically bounce off of each other, with this palpable chemistry spreading to the rest of the ensemble cast. After completing its eight-season run, the series has since received a growing line of continuation television movies.

After playing a charming leading man on the big screen for much of the '60s, James Garner returned to television to star in the long-running series "The Rockford Files." Premiering in 1974, Garner plays Jim Rockford, a more laidback and hard-luck private detective than many of his genre counterparts. Working out of his mobile home in parking lots in Malibu, Rockford tries to focus on more low-stakes cases that deliberately are below police attention. Rather than relying on brute force, Rockford consciously avoids violence as best he can, even if he inevitably becomes entangled in it.

"The Rockford Files" proves that a detective doesn't have to be a macho action star or just well-put together to be cool. A lot of those qualities come from the late, great James Garner, who fully inhabits the character of Jim Rockford the moment he steps on-screen. He would later reprise his fan-favorite role in a set of television movies throughout the '90s without missing a step.

Though there is no shortage of period piece detective shows produced in the United Kingdom, the home front during World War II is a widely overlooked element. The 2002 ITV series "Foyle's War" remedies that oversight, following the adventures of police detective Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) during 1940s England. With many law enforcement personnel tied up in the war effort, Foyle tackles the crimes, taking advantage of the thinly spread resources. The final two seasons feature Foyle becoming embroiled in early Cold War intrigue, brought back into detective work after retiring.

"Foyle's War" is certainly unique among other British crime shows, leaning into the possibilities of its WWII setting. Kitchen is reliably good as the unassuming Foyle, constantly underestimated by his age and demeanor while butting heads with military officials who see him more as a nuisance. Another standout from the cast is Honeysuckle Weeks, playing Foyle's assistant Sam Stewart, forming a strong rapport with Kitchen's Foyle.

The defining role of Tony Shalhoub's career is playing the neurotic detective Adrian Monk, the titular protagonist of the 2002 series "Monk." A former police detective with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, Monk left the San Francisco police after the murder of his wife. He then becomes a private investigator and consultant for the police, with his crime-solving informed by his keen observational skills. Through his work and help from his friends, Monk learns to overcome debilitating aspects of his condition while earning his place back on the force.

"Monk" really is a showcase for Shalhoub, and across eight seasons, Adrian's quirky eccentricities never feel tired or overdone. The mysteries that Monk and his associates are drawn into adhere to a classic whodunit formula, but Monk's distinct personality keeps the proceedings fresh. And though most episodes feature relatively self-contained stories, it's fascinating to see Monk grow past his phobias as the series progresses. Another long-running fan-favorite from USA Network, "Monk" returned for a concluding television movie on Peacock that revealed Adrian's final fate.

British author Ann Cleeves is the literary heir apparent to the whodunit genre popularized by the legendary Agatha Christie. Several of Cleeves' creations have been adapted into television, most notably her Vera Stanhope novels into the ITV series "Vera." Brenda Blethyn stars as the titular character, a police detective in northern England nearing retirement whose personal demeanor is noticeably unkempt. This disguises the fact that she's supremely competent at her job, with an eye for detail and a close rapport with her team that solves even the most puzzling cases.

"Vera" ran for an incredible 14 seasons, bringing the character's television adventures to an end in 2025. Blethyn is consistently magnetic in her performance as Stanhope, striking up a good working chemistry with her various co-stars. This includes plenty of then up-and-coming British actors playing Stanhope's partners over the years, including Wunmi Mosaku and Kingsley Ben-Adir. A consistently tightly crafted detective show for well over a decade, "Vera" stands among the best British crime shows ever made.

When it comes to cozy television detectives, no one outdoes Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher in "Murder, She Wrote." The CBS series debuted in 1984, chronicling Fletcher's adventures as a crime writer living in small-town Maine who finds herself becoming involved regularly in murder mysteries. Across the show's 12-season run, Fletcher eventually relocates to Manhattan, where she works as a college instructor part-time. Fletcher's deductive reasoning and insightful questions of the suspects help solve the crimes that she often becomes embroiled in.

Playing Jessica Fletcher proved to be the role of a lifetime for the late Angela Lansbury, effectively evoking and modernizing a classic whodunit archetype. A lot of that comes from the show being influenced heavily by Agatha Christie, without being beholden to the English author's usual tropes, forging its own creative voice. A feature film adaptation of "Murder, She Wrote" has been in development, but so much of the premise's charm lies in Lansbury's performance that it's hard to imagine the new version living up to the cozy original.

One of the best Stephen King adaptations wasn't one of his more overtly horror works, but rather his crime thriller "The Outsider." Premiering in 2020, the HBO series has a small town in Georgia rocked by the gruesome murder of a young boy. Local police detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) initially believes Little League baseball coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman) is responsible, but subsequent evidence appears to exonerate him. As disturbing developments surrounding the case escalate, psychic detective Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo) comes on to consult on the investigation.

"The Outsider" weaves in dark tones and an unrelentingly menacing atmosphere, and though the ensemble cast is absolutely stacked, Mendelsohn and Erivo are the clear standouts, with their respective characters contrasting each other well. Though the creative team and King hoped for a follow-up, the show ultimately amounted to a prestige limited series. "The Outsider" made for gripping television, serving as a pitch-perfect adaptation of King's work and balancing crime thriller and psychological horror.

Yorkshire, in northern England, serves as the sweeping backdrop to the British crime drama "Happy Valley," created by Sally Wainwright. The show centers on police officer Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire), who vows revenge on Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) for ruining her daughter's life. This leads to her confronting Royce as he's implicated with a kidnapping of a young girl, with Cawood determined to stop him from claiming new victims. Later seasons have Cawood looking into murder cases under her jurisdiction while a convicted Royce plots his own vendetta against Cawood.

In contrast to its title, "Happy Valley" is one of the more graphic detective shows produced by the BBC in recent years. This reinforces the grudge between Cawood and Royce, which makes up the underlying core conflict of the series. Lancashire and Norton beautifully bring this complicated dynamic to life, with Lancashire bringing a complex depth to her role. A portrait of vengeance and unresolved trauma, "Happy Valley" is an unflinching look at how law enforcement work and personal connections make the job messy.

If there was ever a classic American television detective who helped popularize the genre beyond standard procedurals, it's Frank Columbo. Played by Peter Falk, the series enjoyed two lengthy runs, one throughout the '70s on NBC and another throughout the '90s on ABC. Columbo is a police detective in Los Angeles, whose seemingly bumbling nature conceals his expert crime-solving skills. This leads his opponents to underestimate them before he busts them, thoroughly proving their guilt as he reviews the evidence and inconsistencies with the suspect's account.

With his recognizably irascible and cigar-chomping demeanor, along with his usual rumpled raincoat, Frank Columbo is a television icon. So much of that comes from Falk's deep-seated understanding of his character, something he only improved upon and honed as he played the role for decades. That Columbo will catch the culprit is a foregone conclusion, with the thrill in seeing how the venerable detective works it all out.

The first recurring detective that Agatha Christie created and the most prolific of her characters is Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Across all the iterations of the beloved literary detective in other media, none match the longevity of David Suchet playing the character on "Poirot." Also titled "Agatha Christie's Poirot," the show ran from 1989 to 2013 on the British network ITV. Set primarily in the 1930s, just before the onset of World War II, the series adapted virtually every major story Christie wrote featuring Poirot.

All due respect to Kenneth Branagh's cinematic portrayal of the character, but Suchet made the role of Poirot all his own and had done so for decades. A major factor in this performance's iconic status is that Suchet refused to make Poirot funny, paying reverence to the source material. The series went slightly darker as it progressed, delving more into the psychology of its characters and the associated crimes, but Suchet's work remained sterling. The most enduring Christie adaptation to date, "Poirot" does the celebrated character justice.

Filmmaker Rian Johnson has already been doing a successful whodunit riff with his "Knives Out" movies, and he spreads that love for the genre to television with "Poker Face." The Peacock original series follows drifter Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne), who possesses an uncanny ability to detect when people are lying. Ditching her casino job after being implicated in a suspicious death, Charlie goes on the road with her trusty 1969 Plymouth Barracuda. However, trouble seems to follow Charlie wherever she goes, with Charlie putting her unusual skills towards solving murder mysteries.

"Poker Face" gives a full creative playground for Lyonne, who also serves as an executive producer, director, and writer on the show. The show's format allows for it to mix things up each episode, with Season 2 upping the experimentation further to great effect. Like much of Johnson's work, there is a self-aware quality to the show, something that Lyonne visibly relishes in her performance. Peacock may have canceled "Poker Face" after two seasons, but it's still one of the best original shows on the streamer.

It stands to reason that a series titled "True Detective" has a decent shot of earning a spot on this list, and the HBO series does not disappoint. An anthology series premiering in 2014, each season of the show tackles a different mystery from the perspective of a small team of police detectives. From a murder mystery spanning 17 years in the Louisiana bayou to a multi-decade investigation in the Ozarks, these stories involve conflicted cops confronted with grisly crimes. The show's fourth season, subtitled "Night Country," saw a change in creative talent behind the scenes as it explored a horrifying murder mystery in small-town Alaska.

While revolving around season-long standalone stories, "True Detective" always brings moody neo-noir stakes to the forefront of each mystery. Every season also features some of the best dramatic actors working today, very much at the top of their game, with Jodie Foster being among the more recent standouts. Like any good mystery, there are plenty of twists and turns, but the focus is always on the fully realized detectives at the center of each story.

Though plenty of British shows capture the allure of living in London, the BBC series "Luther" portrays the English capital as being a playground for serial killers. Idris Elba stars as police detective John Luther, who investigates London's most serious and violent crimes, often involving multiple murderers. Utterly obsessed with his work, Luther's unorthodox methods often place him directly in harm's way in confronting these killers. Luther's personal life also gets dangerously close to his work, leading to his estranged wife's murder and his odd partnership with the murderer Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson).

"Luther" is one of the most intense crime shows produced by the BBC, particularly as it pivoted to two-episode stories instead of one-and-dones. "Luther" ran for five seasons, each providing its titular protagonist with deadly and cunning adversaries to outwit and take down. The show received a continuation movie on Netflix, with Luther colliding with a particularly powerful murderer while upping the story's scope, with another movie in the works. One of the best thrillers to come out of the United Kingdom, "Luther" still stands as one of Elba's best roles in any medium.

Before he took the reins on "Doctor Who," prolific screenwriter and producer Chris Chibnall created the universally acclaimed crime drama "Broadchurch." The British series debuted in 2013, chronicling police detectives Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) as they investigate a child murder in a coastal English town. As the investigation continues, its impact on the community and the family of the victim is explored. The third and final season has Hardy and Miller reunite to investigate a brutal rape case in their town that has similarly shocked the community.

What puts "Broadchurch" above most other detective shows is its superbly crafted drama elements, emotionally elevating the underlying mystery. The show's stories never felt exploitative or gratuitous, but were rooted in real human tragedy and loss that was heartbreakingly highlighted. The show also features stellar performances from Tennant and Colman, with both actors bringing a raw vulnerability and intensity like never before. While its American remake, "Gracepoint," left a lot to be desired, "Broadchurch" offers a masterclass in the genre.

Adapted from a true crime book and set in the late '70s and early '80s, the Netflix thriller follows FBI criminal profilers Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) as they interview notorious incarcerated serial killers. This puts them face-to-face with the likes of Charles Manson (Damon Herriman) and David Berkowitz (Oliver Cooper) as they try to better understand the minds of murderers. Using the research that they've gathered, Ford and Tench try to solve ongoing murder investigations that have confounded the authorities.

Though not one of the series' creators, filmmaker David Fincher lent his creative talents to "Mindhunter," directing several episodes and executive-producing the show. Fincher's usual storytelling sensibilities inform a lot of the show's tone and presentation, including a meticulous attention to detail and ominous tone. Through it all is a strong emphasis on character development between its leads and the toll that their work takes on both of them. There's a reason why fans keep clamoring for a third season of "Mindhunter," and it's because those first two seasons are an absolute masterwork.