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The 10 Best Crime TV Shows of the Last Decade

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Nazarii Verbitskiy

TV Shows & Movies - January 28th 2026, 19:00 GMT+1

Best Crime TV Shows of the Last Decade Person of Interest — 10. Person of Interest

Network TV rarely lets a show get this paranoid, this moral, and this weirdly tender without sandpapering the edges. In its second sentence you can already feel what *Person of Interest* is doing: turning crime-of-the-week mechanics into a bigger argument about surveillance, power, and who gets left behind by the system. Jim Caviezel plays Reese like a man running on fumes and guilt, while Michael Emerson’s Finch is the anxious brain of the operation – brilliant, frightened, and never fully sure he’s doing the right thing. As the stakes escalate, the series stops being “two guys helping strangers” and becomes a full-blown tech-thriller about how the world changes when the cameras start looking back. It’s sharp, propulsive, and way more relevant now than it had any right to be. | © Warner Bros. Television

Lucifer cropped processed by imagy — 9. Lucifer

*Lucifer* could’ve coasted on the “devil solves crimes” hook, but it ends up being way more emotionally sticky than it needs to be. Tom Ellis makes Lucifer Morningstar charming, petty, wounded, and oddly earnest – basically a walking contradiction – and the show knows how to squeeze comedy out of that while still taking the feelings seriously. The procedural cases keep the pace moving, yet the real engine is the found-family dynamic and the slow drip of celestial lore that keeps complicating everyone’s lives. It’s also a rare series that actually improves once it finds its rhythm, leaning harder into character arcs without losing the fun. When it wants to go big with romance, heartbreak, and redemption, it doesn’t flinch. | © Warner Bros. Television

Cropped Mr Robot — 8. Mr. Robot

The show doesn’t just depict hacking – it makes you feel the loneliness that pushes someone toward it. Rami Malek plays Elliot like he’s permanently half a step away from disappearing, and the storytelling keeps you trapped inside that uneasy headspace without ever letting you relax. One minute it’s a conspiracy thriller about corporations and control; the next it’s a character study about identity, addiction, and the lies people tell themselves to survive. What really sells it is the confidence: the framing, the sound design, the willingness to take big swings and commit to them even when they’re uncomfortable. By the time the puzzle pieces start snapping into place, you realize the real crime wasn’t just financial – it was personal, and it was always happening in *Mr. Robot*. | © Universal Content Productions

Cropped Narcos — 7. Narcos

The series sells the fantasy of power and then spends three seasons showing you the bill. Wagner Moura’s Pablo Escobar isn’t framed as a cartoon monster – he’s charismatic, terrifying, and depressingly human, which is exactly why the story stays so tense. The DEA perspective adds that procedural spine, but the show’s real strength is how it treats the drug war like a machine that keeps grinding no matter who’s in charge. Violence is constant, yet it’s never “cool”; it’s transactional, messy, and always spreading. The performances across the board keep the politics and the personal stakes tangled together, so you’re never just watching history – you’re watching people make choices with consequences. For a crime epic that feels both addictive and bleak, start with *Narcos*. | © Gaumont Television USA

6. Daredevil

Hell’s Kitchen has never looked so bruised, and that grindhouse texture is half the appeal. The violence is crisp and punishing, but the show’s real hook is how it makes heroism feel like a bad habit you can’t quit – especially when Charlie Cox plays Matt Murdock as a man who’s constantly negotiating with his own anger. In the middle of all that grit, *Daredevil* still finds room for legal drama, Catholic guilt, and friendships that keep cracking under pressure. Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin isn’t just a villain; he’s a tidal wave in a suit, and every collision with him feels inevitable. It’s stylish, brutal, and surprisingly soulful for something that hits this hard. | © Marvel Television

The Killing cropped processed by imagy — 5. The Killing

Regen, Angst und das Gefühl, dass jeder Hinweis eine noch schlimmere Tür öffnet – diese Serie baut praktisch eine ganze Atmosphäre aus Erschöpfung auf. *The Killing* nimmt die Frage „Wer hat sie getötet?“ auf und weigert sich, sich zu beeilen, lässt die Trauer im Raum stehen, während die Detektive weiterarbeiten, auch wenn sie sie offensichtlich auffrisst. Mireille Enos und Joel Kinnaman haben einen großartigen Push-Pull-Rhythmus: Sie ist beständig, bis sie es nicht mehr ist, er ist impulsiv, bis ihn die Last einholt, und zusammen lassen sie die Routinearbeit persönlich wirken. Das Beste daran ist, wie der Fall alles um sich herum befleckt – Politik, Familien, die Stadt selbst –, sodass das Rätsel zu einem Porträt davon wird, wie Systeme sich selbst schützen. Es ist düster, ohne leer zu sein, und die Spannung lebt vom Warten. | © Fox Television Studios

Cropped aunt polly peaky blinders — 4. Peaky Blinders

The suits are immaculate, the razor blades are literal, and the ambition is borderline feral. Cillian Murphy plays Tommy Shelby like a man who’s already survived his own ending, moving through business and bloodshed with that calm, dead-eyed focus that makes everyone around him nervous. In *Peaky Blinders*, crime isn’t just a job – it’s a ladder, and every rung is slick, political, and expensive, from backroom deals to full-on power plays. The show’s style is loud on purpose: modern music, slow-motion swagger, and a sense that violence can look seductive right up until it ruins someone. What keeps it addictive is the family dynamic, because loyalty is never pure and love is never safe. | © BBC Studios

The Wire 2002 cropped processed by imagy — 5. The Killing

Rain, dread, and that slow-drip feeling that every clue opens a worse door – this show practically builds a whole atmosphere out of exhaustion. *The Killing* takes the “who killed her?” setup and refuses to hurry, letting grief sit in the room while detectives keep working even when it’s clearly eating them alive. Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman have a great push-pull rhythm: she’s steady until she isn’t, he’s impulsive until the weight catches up, and together they make the procedural grind feel personal. The best part is how the case stains everything around it – politics, families, the city itself – so the mystery becomes a portrait of how systems protect themselves. It’s bleak without being empty, and the tension lives in the waiting. | © Fox Television Studios

Better Call Saul 2015 cropped processed by imagy — 3. The Wire

Nothing about this series is interested in easy villains or neat closure, which is exactly why it still feels unmatched. *The Wire* moves through Baltimore like a lived-in ecosystem – cops, corners, unions, city hall, schools, the newsroom – showing how every institution bends people into shapes they didn’t choose. The writing is patient and brutally funny, the performances are stacked with future stars, and the show trusts you to keep up without holding your hand. What makes it hit hardest is how it treats “crime” as a symptom more than a genre engine: follow the money, follow the incentives, follow the damage. Even when it’s quiet, it’s devastating, and by the end you don’t feel entertained so much as informed. | © HBO

1. True Detective

*True Detective* hit like a bolt because it treated a crime story like a haunted Southern novel – decay, mythology, and dread baked into the landscape. Even in the moments where nothing “happens,” the dialogue keeps tightening the screws, and the show trusts long scenes to do the heavy lifting. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson turn the first season into a duel of worldviews: obsession vs. denial, nihilism vs. pragmatism, both rotting in different ways. The anthology format means quality and tone shift by season, but when it’s firing, it’s not just solving a case – it’s diagnosing a culture. It also gave TV one of its most talked-about tracking shots, the kind of bravura that still feels like a flex. | © HBO

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Crime TV has been on a ridiculous run lately – mysteries that play like novels, investigations that feel uncomfortably real, and true-crime stories that make you pause just to breathe. The best series aren’t only chasing a killer; they’re digging into power, corruption, and obsession.

Here are 10 crime shows from the last ten years that actually stick with you, from sleek modern noir to slow-burn character studies. Some were huge cultural events, others flew under the radar – but every one earns the binge.

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Crime TV has been on a ridiculous run lately – mysteries that play like novels, investigations that feel uncomfortably real, and true-crime stories that make you pause just to breathe. The best series aren’t only chasing a killer; they’re digging into power, corruption, and obsession.

Here are 10 crime shows from the last ten years that actually stick with you, from sleek modern noir to slow-burn character studies. Some were huge cultural events, others flew under the radar – but every one earns the binge.