The 7 Best Crime Mystery TV Shows of All Time

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That’s why we picked 7 of the best crime mystery TV shows ever made — the kind that make you watch one episode and immediately want to binge the entire thing right after.

7) How to Get Away with Murder

This genre doesn’t necessarily have to be restrained, and How to Get Away with Murder understands that perfectly. It takes the classic “case of the week” structure and blends it with an overarching murder/cover-up storyline that gets more and more absurd with every episode — but also more addictive. In the story, we meet Annalise Keating (Viola Davis), a law professor and criminal defense attorney who selects a group of students to work with her, only for them to end up tangled in deaths, lies, and a chain of terrible decisions.

The show thrives on cliffhangers, twists, and big reveals, but not in an overwhelming way — it’s the kind of pacing that feels designed to keep you stuck in that “just one more episode” mindset. But the real difference is that the series never pretends its characters are heroes, because pretty much everyone is guilty of something. And of course, Davis is the true standout of How to Get Away with Murder, since her performance elevates moments that could’ve turned into “plot twist for the sake of plot twist.” Not everything has aged perfectly, but when it comes to pure entertainment and mystery, the show delivers.

6) The Outsider

Not talked about nearly as much as it should be, The Outsider is the kind of show that hooks you with a premise that doesn’t seem new to anyone, and then slowly pulls the rug out from under you. It starts as a grounded, almost procedural police case, where a young boy is murdered, and all the evidence points to a seemingly ordinary and respected man in town. Then you realize he has an alibi that’s way too solid to dismiss, and there’s something deeply wrong about the entire crime. And the best part is that there isn’t some obvious big secret reveal, which is usually the predictable route.

Overall, it’s a series where the more you think you understand what’s going on, the more it reminds you that no, you really don’t. The Outsider stands out because it uses that contradiction as its emotional engine. So it’s not just “who did it?” — it’s “how can something like this even exist?” And once Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo) enters the story, the show becomes the perfect hybrid of crime investigation and something almost supernatural (without ever losing its serious tone). This isn’t a series for people who need nonstop action, but it’s for anyone who wants a true, old-school mystery.

5) Big Little Lies

Big Little Lies pulls off a genius trick: it looks like nothing more than a rich-people drama (and it’s marketed that way), but underneath it all, there’s a seriously well-crafted crime mystery. And this isn’t the kind of forced mystery where you can tell the writers are hiding information just to mess with the audience. Here, the suspense works because it grows naturally out of the characters’ emotional chaos. The story follows a group of mothers in Monterey, California, whose seemingly perfect lives start colliding until everything leads to a murder during a school event.

You spend episode after episode watching these relationships fall apart and thinking someone is definitely going to end up dead at any second. However, the fun part is that the show makes you suspicious of everyone without turning them into villains. So what makes Big Little Lies one of the best in the genre is that the crime isn’t just a hook; it’s the inevitable endpoint of a long buildup of abuse, resentment, and buried secrets. That’s where the real focus is, and it’s elevated even more by an incredible cast like Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Laura Dern. It’s a crime mystery dressed up as a prestige drama, but with the soul of a thriller.

4) Mare of Easttown

Without relying on tricks to pull you in, Mare of Easttown wins you over because it simply knows what it’s doing and does it well. The series follows Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet), a detective in a small town in Pennsylvania, trying to solve the murder of a teenage girl. But at the same time, her personal life is falling apart, with a messy family situation, trauma, grief, and her reputation all on the line. The mystery is tightly constructed, the suspects actually make sense, and the show is sharp enough to keep you always second-guessing the killer — it wouldn’t be surprising at all if the character who seems the most harmless ends up being the one hiding the darkest truth.

But what puts the show above a lot of other crime mysteries, though, is that it never treats the murder like simple entertainment. The crime carries weight, and the investigation feels exhausting and emotionally draining, the way it should. So you’re not just watching to find out who did it; you’re watching to see how far Mare can go before she completely breaks. Winslet’s performance is incredibly human, portraying a character who’s raw, impatient, and deeply flawed, and that’s one of the biggest reasons Mare of Easttown is worth watching.

3) Sharp Objects

Possibly the cruelest show on this list, in the way it gets inside your head and refuses to leave, is Sharp Objects. The series follows Camille Preaker (Amy Adams), a journalist who returns to her hometown to cover the murders of two young girls, only to find herself forced to deal with her controlling mother and memories she clearly never processed. The mystery itself is strong, sure, but the real hook is the feeling that this town is emotionally rotten at its core. All the conversations in this story feel poisoned, like there’s always something lurking just beneath the surface that no one is saying out loud.

So the most interesting thing is that it doesn’t feel like you’re watching a normal investigation; it feels like you’re watching someone get swallowed whole by their own past. Sharp Objects can resemble Mare of Easttown in that way, but here the tone is darker and more unsettling. The crime is really just the gateway into what the series actually wants to explore: trauma, abuse, and the kind of pain that becomes routine. And by the time you reach the ending, you’re left sitting there replaying everything in your head, completely stunned, and already wanting to rewatch it just to catch the warning signs you missed.

2) Mindhunter

One of the highest-quality productions not just in this genre, but in TV overall. Unfortunately, it ended up getting canceled (and that’s why fans are still hoping for a comeback to this day), but it’s still absolutely worth watching. Mindhunter follows two FBI agents in the ’70s as they begin interviewing imprisoned serial killers in order to understand psychological patterns and help develop modern criminal profiling. What makes it brilliant isn’t one specific case, but the mindset behind the crimes (which is what truly fascinates people). While other shows rely on investigations or chase scenes, this one can keep you hooked with nothing more than two people sitting in a room talking.

The pacing is colder and more calculated, and the dialogue is what creates the tension. But what makes Mindhunter one of the best crime mystery shows is that it doesn’t glamorize killers, while also refusing to reduce them to simple movie monsters. It hits an unsettling middle ground, showing a more realistic kind of horror: the banal, rational, articulate kind. And as the story moves forward, you start to notice the investigators themselves changing — and not always for the better. It’s an incredibly smart show from start to finish, without ever feeling like it needs to show off how smart it is.

1) Dark

Dark is one of those shows that instantly comes up whenever people talk about the best crime mysteries on TV, since its storytelling and structure are borderline perfect, and it hooks you in the most dangerous way possible: it’s confusing, but then you start to understand it, only to realize you actually don’t, and that becomes a never-ending cycle. And just when you think you’ve finally cracked the code, something happens that completely shocks you and forces you to pause the show just to process it. With a strong sci-fi edge, the story follows four families in the German town of Winden after a boy goes missing, setting off an investigation with decades-old secrets tied to time and identity.

And honestly, who doesn’t remember when the show became a global obsession? That’s because of the concept and the way the story chooses to unravel itself, since no answer is ever truly simple — one mystery can have multiple roots. Dark sits in a league of its own because it’s meticulous like almost nothing else on TV, almost obsessive in the way it ties every detail together. It demands a lot from the audience, but by the time you reach the ending, you feel completely satisfied. It’s the kind of series that comes around once in a million. Pure intelligence, planning, and insanely phenomenal consistency, with absolutely no room for mistakes.

Do you like any of these shows? Which other one should be on the list? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!