15 Smartest TV Detectives Of All Time, Ranked

Here's an intriguing question: If someone you loved was murdered, which television detective would you call first? Don't think in terms of your favorite character, but rather which one could actually solve the case most efficiently.

Surprisingly, it's a tough question that boils down to a few simple character traits. For all the detectives that have existed over the years, only a handful can truly be counted on to get the job done. Every one of them has specific strengths and flaws, but only the elite are devoid of any major weaknesses.

So, which would you choose? Would you trust a methodical investigator who never misses a detail, or a brilliant eccentric whose methods somehow always produce results? To help you solve this particular case, we've assembled a list of who we believe are the smartest detectives in television history. It might seem easy to pick the top spot, but on closer examination, small differences in deduction, observation, and consistency separate the very best from their equally gifted counterparts.

We'll start with a bit of a curveball. Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) from the acclaimed series "Twin Peaks" has all the traits of a typical detective. He's smart, perceptive, and open-minded. So, when he arrives in Washington to solve the murder of high schooler Laura Palmer and catches wind of the supernatural oddities surrounding her case, he doesn't let them faze him.

In fact, customary detective methods help him find clues, but his methodology also includes dreams, intuition, and sometimes supernatural intervention. That's why he ranks at No. 15 on this list. Cooper is certainly brilliant, but not in the same vein as the detectives ranked higher. Cooper eventually solves Laura Palmer's murder, to the detriment of David Lynch, proving his dogged determination, but it's also fair to say that luck plays a crucial role in his investigation.

Regardless, Cooper does his job well, and at the very least deserves a shoutout among TV's smartest detectives.

Taking a step back from the supernatural and into more familiar territory, we have Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) from "Law & Order: SVU." Where other detectives earn their stripes through more traditional methods, we're calling out Olivia for her emotional intelligence.

You see, Olivia is exceptionally good at reading people, particularly victims. She can tell when someone is withholding information, too frightened to speak, ashamed of something they've done, lying, or protecting somebody. Rather than resorting to physical violence or unruly tactics, she coaxes information out of them by building trust and listening. At times, her gifts lead Olivia on storylines too intense for Mariska Hargitay to rewatch.

That may seem like a fairly routine course of action, but many on this list wouldn't demonstrate the same level of restraint, either because of their inflated egos or lack of patience. Benson uses her impeccable interrogation skills to help solve countless crimes throughout her run on the series, making her one of the most valuable detectives in the "Law & Order" franchise.

These early entries all possess a distinct characteristic that helps them in their detective work but lack the elite deductive puzzle-solving abilities of their more noteworthy counterparts. In the case of John Luther (Idris Elba), from the BBC series "Luther," we have a detective with a knack for criminal psychology. He can get inside the head of a killer and anticipate their next move simply by asking, "What would I do in the same situation?"

Clearly, it's a helpful skill in his line of work as he contends with murderers, kidnappers, and all manner of psychopaths. Most notably, he quickly deduces that Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) murdered her parents despite lacking the evidence to prove it, kicking off an ongoing intellectual chess match between the two.

Ultimately, Luther ranks lower because he's far too impulsive, emotional, and ill-tempered to vault into the top 10. He's prone to making mistakes and breaking the rules, and he often lets his personal problems carry over into his job. In other words, he's human. Luther is obviously pretty awesome, but we prefer our detectives to operate independently of emotion.

L from the anime "Death Note" stands as a controversial entry on this list because, in all honesty, he deserves a much higher ranking. He's probably the smartest cat here and arguably faces the most dangerous opponent. However, his detective work is extremely specialized and therefore limited, while his methods are often downright reckless.

Then again, Light Yagami is not your typical criminal. The kid comes into possession of a mysterious notebook dubbed the "Death Note" that allows him to write the names of people he wants to kill, along with the manner in which they die. Somehow, L manages to investigate a string of seemingly inexplicable deaths without initially knowing that anything supernatural is involved.

L, for his part, deduces much of the truth remarkably quickly and correctly suspects Light, but never manages to outsmart his opponent enough to beat him. Yup, that's right — L loses. For all his intellectual prowess, his inability to actually stop his perp means he gets a spot just outside the top 10. We're still torn because, well, we would definitely call L under the right circumstances.

Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) from the series "Veronica Mars" is perhaps the most "normal" person on this list. She doesn't possess super intelligence like L or superhuman attention to detail. No, she's a normal, everyday person who just happens to be really good at her job.

Her biggest strength is resourcefulness. She investigates everything from murder and infidelity to political corruption, typically with fewer resources than the people she pursues. Early on, she's essentially a plucky teenager going up against wealthy adults, criminals, and cops, and she manages to outsmart them all.

Oh, and she's fairly well-rounded, capable of interrogating hardened criminals, lying convincingly to get out of precarious situations, conducting research, going undercover, and connecting clues. She's a great detective, but she's not freakishly good at her job like those above her.

Also, "Veronica Mars" (spoilers) ends with her husband Logan getting blown up in a car bomb she probably should have seen coming. That alone prevents her from cracking the top 10.

"True Detective" ranks among the best television you'll ever see, and Season 1 is easily the best of the series. Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) is a big reason for that. Brilliant and obsessive, this detective possesses near-supernatural abilities to recognize patterns and see connections that others don't. His entire purpose is to solve the murder of Dora Lange, a task he refuses to back away from even after everyone else has moved on.

No, really. The man spends 17 years on one case. That's elite dedication.

Rust also understands how suspects think and knows how to manipulate them into talking. On several occasions, we see his impressive interrogation skills on display as he convinces criminals that confessing is in their own best interest.

The No. 10 spot feels apt because, while his detective work is rather brilliant, the man is an out-and-out disaster. He's abrasive, nihilistic, emotionally unstable, and willing to take insane risks to see the job through. He also gets plenty of help from his partner, Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson), proving he's not the lone-wolf super detective the stories surrounding him often suggest.

Remember that kid in school who managed to pass every class with flying colors simply because they spent their weekdays reading books? Well, that's Gil Grissom (William Petersen), hero of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." His detective superpower isn't that he's observant or emotionally intelligent ... Gil is just, well, super smart.

This dude knows everything about forensic science, specifically entomology, or the scientific study of insects and how it relates to his job as a forensic investigator. Give the man a dead body, a few pieces of evidence, and a couple of bugs, and he'll figure out the cause of death without much trouble.

His only drawback, and the reason he ranks No. 9, boils down to his absolute dedication to physical evidence. He doesn't care whether a suspect appears guilty or innocent. All he cares about is what the evidence tells him, which occasionally leaves him a little shortsighted. Basically, he's sometimes unwilling to see the bigger picture, while his social awkwardness makes interpersonal situations a lot more difficult than they need to be.

Angela Lansbury's performance as mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher on "Murder, She Wrote" gave audiences comfort every Sunday night for 12 seasons. Living in the cozy (but incredibly violent) fictional town of Cabot Cove, this amateur sleuth had a knack for stumbling onto murder cases that she would seemingly solve with ease.

Granted, some theorize that Fletcher herself was responsible for the majority of these crimes. How else can you explain why she happens to land face-first in each and every terrible situation? She's not a cop or a forensic expert. She's a novelist who approaches each case almost as if she's editing someone else's mystery novel. Her amiable personality disarms criminals who don't see her as a threat, often causing them to spill the beans before they realize she's investigating them.

In almost every scenario, Fletcher solves the case and walks away with another story idea. For that reason, she deserves a high ranking even if her detective methods are rather amateurish. She gets the job done through sheer brilliance, and that has to count for something. Also, extra points for having a "Murder, She Wrote" movie in the works starring Jamie Lee Curtis.

Moving up the list, we next land on Shawn Spencer (James Roday Rodriguez), hero of the comedy/mystery series "Psych." Here we have a unique hero with a near-godlike level of perception who happens to be kind of an idiot. Trained at a young age by his father, Shawn learned to see things quite differently from everyone else. For example, when he walks into a room, he notices tiny details others miss — the number of hats, an unusual object, or something that changed since his last visit.

He's so good at his job that the police initially believe he's involved with the crimes, forcing Shawn to pretend he has psychic powers. And that's essentially the running joke in this wickedly entertaining series.

As stated, though, Shawn is incredibly immature, easily distracted, and more of a screw-up than a professional detective. He's the kind of guy you reluctantly hire to solve a case. We recognize his freakish skills, but we also want our detectives to take their jobs seriousl.

That leads us nicely to Patrick Jane (Simon Baker), who is basically a mature iteration of Shawn Spencer. As the heroic detective on "The Mentalist," Patrick likewise possesses incredible gifts that might seem supernatural to the untrained eye. Except his greatest strength isn't noticing small details in a room; it's applying finely tuned observational skills to read human behavior.

Patrick, you see, notices body language, facial expressions, speech patterns, and the tiniest changes in behavior. This allows him to determine which of his suspects are lying, afraid, or even attracted to others, a gift he uses to manipulate people into admitting their crimes or doing something stupid enough to get themselves caught. In other words, he screws with people's heads. Hence, the show's title.

Still, while supremely gifted and talented, Patrick doesn't quite measure up against the remaining entries on this list. He has an extraordinary gift, but a detective needs to be a little more, ah, multifaceted to crack our top 5.

For this entry, we're sticking with the Batman (Kevin Conroy) seen in "Batman: The Animated Series," which aired on Fox throughout the 1990s and largely defined the Dark Knight for an entire generation. Widely regarded as the definitive animated take on the character, the series gives the Dark Knight plenty of opportunities to showcase his deductive skills. More importantly, Batman is an expert in criminal psychology, allowing him to predict how criminals will think and stop them before they actually commit a crime. And he does it all more or less on his own.

The only reason Batman doesn't rank higher is that he enjoys advantages the detectives above him simply don't have. His vast wealth gives him access to cutting-edge technology and an arsenal of surveillance equipment that make solving cases considerably easier. While Batman is undoubtedly one of television's greatest detectives, the four sleuths ahead of him rely more heavily on the classical tools of observation, logic, and deduction alone.

Even so, if we needed someone to solve a case and make sure the bad guy was brought to justice, we'd light up the Bat-Signal and call on the World's Greatest Detective.

It's rare to find a hero whose greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) from USA's "Monk" has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a condition that severely impacts his daily life but also contributes to his extraordinary skills as a detective. He possesses a near-unmatched attention to detail, allowing him to notice even the tiniest inconsistencies at a crime scene and therefore solve murders that leave everyone else stumped.

Unlike Batman, Monk doesn't rely on gadgets. He enters a scene, discovers clues, and assembles them in his brain. Again, though, his intense attention to detail means he notices everything. And so, the slightest distraction — a crooked frame, a stain, or a missing button — throws him off balance. Often, he's too focused on smaller details to see the forest for the trees, but eventually he solves the crime.

Another interesting aspect that places Monk in the top tier of detectives is that he's driven by tragedy. His quest to solve his wife Trudy's murder propels him to solve crimes and makes him a likable underdog worth rooting for.

Hercule Poirot (David Suchet), specifically the iteration from ITV's "Agatha Christie's Poirot," could easily go No. 1. And it all boils down to his ability to understand people. He studies personal relationships, personalities, and motives, and can easily deduce whether someone is lying.

His tactics are quite simple. Poirot spends the majority of each episode talking to people, seemingly accomplishing very little. Then, at the end of the show, he explains everything he learned, revealing that he understood far more than he let on.

More impressively, he does not require gadgets, tools, or technology. He doesn't manipulate criminals into exposing themselves or even pretend to give a damn about their plight. Poirot is simple, methodical, and absolutely cunning. If some detail, whether physical or logical, seems out of place, he will investigate until he figures out why.

So, why isn't he at the top of the list? Well, Poirot's methods can at times make him too rigid. His enormous ego and distinct worldview occasionally work against him, and he's not particularly physical. Poirot is an extraordinary puzzle solver, but his pompous demeanor makes him slightly less approachable than the top two detectives on this list.

At No. 2, we have Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk) from the long-running series "Columbo," which made our list of best detective shows of all time. Unlike Poirot and many others on this list who go out of their way to prove their brilliance, Columbo works hard to convince everyone that he's an idiot. His subterfuge forces suspects to dismiss him or let their guard down just long enough for him to pounce.

It's really quite amazing.

Uniquely, the series reveals the criminal mastermind in the show's opening minutes. Columbo typically figures it out quite quickly, too. So, the show becomes more about how he's going to prove the suspect did it than actually solving the crime. As such, Columbo's job is much, much harder than anyone else's on this list. He has to find a flaw in the deviant's plan, which requires astute attention to detail.

Well, that and an enormous amount of psychological manipulation. He allows the criminals to believe they've outsmarted him — some even try to assist him in solving the very murders they committed. And his ability to remain humble and adapt to every situation ensures he comes out on top most of the time.

There's a reason Hollywood keeps returning to Sherlock Holmes on the big and small screen. Not only is he infinitely clever and seemingly several steps ahead of everyone around him, but he's also a fascinating character in his own right — flawed, arrogant, eccentric, but ultimately lovable. And he always solves the case.

While there have been countless iterations of the character, we're specifically highlighting Jeremy Brett's portrayal from the acclaimed "Sherlock Holmes" series. Whether set in Victorian England, modern-day London, or Manhattan, however, every incarnation of Sherlock Holmes follows the same basic formula: using his unmatched powers of deduction to bring criminals to justice with the help of his loyal friend Dr. Watson.

His cases often appear supernatural at first, only for Holmes to peel back the mystery and expose the very human culprit behind the crime.

The point is, nobody beats Holmes. Many detectives on this list excel in one or two areas. Holmes excels in all of them. He's observant, logical, endlessly patient, and a student of chemistry, anatomy, poisons, boxing, and countless other disciplines. He's also a master of disguise, making him equal parts Batman and Hercule Poirot.

Simply put, there's no one else like him. If we had to choose one detective to solve an impossible case, we'd pick Sherlock Holmes every single time. After all, he'd probably solve it.