The 15 Best Crime Shows Streaming in 2025

Crime dramas are the most reliable genre in television. Whether you gravitate toward detective procedurals, true crime adaptations, organized crime sagas, or psychological thrillers about people who commit terrible acts, streaming services have an embarrassment of riches available right now. Here are the 15 best, ranked by quality.

How We Selected: We surveyed options using full-season viewing, critical analysis, and production quality assessment. Key factors included narrative quality, thematic depth, acting performances, production values. No sponsorship or affiliate relationship influenced our selections.

1. Slow Horses (Apple TV Plus) is the best crime-adjacent show on television. Five seasons in, Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb leads a team of disgraced MI5 agents who keep stumbling into espionage plots that test their survival. The writing is razor-sharp, balancing dry British humor with genuine menace. Each season adapts a Mick Herron novel, giving the show a literary intelligence that elevates it above typical spy fare.

2. Fargo (Hulu) has delivered five seasons of Coen Brothers-inspired crime stories set in the American Midwest. The fifth season stars Jon Hamm as a corrupt sheriff and Juno Temple as a woman escaping a dangerous past. Billy Bob Thornton’s season one, the Gerhardt crime family in season two, and Jessie Buckley’s season five are particular standouts across the anthology.

3. True Detective (Max) returned to form with Night Country, set during the dark Alaskan winter where Jodie Foster investigates the disappearance of a research station’s entire staff. The season restored the atmospheric dread and existential questioning that made season one a cultural event.

4. The Penguin (Max) gives Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb a full character study set between Matt Reeves’ Batman films. Eight episodes of Gotham City crime drama that plays like a Scorsese gangster film with comic book DNA. Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone is one of 2024’s best performances.

5. Adolescence (Netflix) is a four-episode British limited series about a 13-year-old accused of killing a classmate. Each episode is filmed in a single continuous shot, creating an immersive, claustrophobic experience. Stephen Graham’s performance as the boy’s father is devastating.

6. Cross (Amazon Prime Video) stars Aldis Hodge as James Patterson’s detective Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist tracking serial killers in Washington DC. The show takes the pulpy source material and grounds it with strong performances and sharp plotting.

7. Task (Hulu) reunites the Mare of Easttown team for a miniseries starring Mark Ruffalo as the head of an FBI task force investigating a complex kidnapping case. Ruffalo brings the same lived-in authenticity that Kate Winslet brought to Mare.

8. The Day of the Jackal (Peacock) stars Eddie Redmayne as a modern-day assassin in a taut, globe-trotting thriller adapted from Frederick Forsyth’s classic novel. Sleek direction and a committed central performance make this one of the best assassin dramas in years.

9. Reacher (Amazon Prime Video) delivers exactly what it promises: Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher, a massive ex-military investigator who rolls into small towns and punches his way through criminal conspiracies. Three seasons of satisfying action-procedural entertainment adapted from Lee Child’s novels.

10. Baby Reindeer (Netflix) is Richard Gadd’s autobiographical limited series about a comedian stalked by a woman he met at the bar where he works. The show’s unflinching examination of trauma, complicity, and cycles of abuse earned it four Emmy Awards and sparked global conversation.

11. The Night Agent (Netflix) follows a low-level FBI agent who answers a secret phone line and gets drawn into a conspiracy reaching the highest levels of government. Two seasons of propulsive spy-thriller action that moves at a relentless pace.

12. Poker Face (Peacock) stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a woman who can always tell when someone is lying, traveling across America and solving murders in a loving homage to Columbo. Rian Johnson’s creation delivers a fresh, entertaining case every episode.

13. The Gentlemen (Netflix) is Guy Ritchie’s crime comedy about an aristocrat who inherits a vast marijuana empire hidden beneath his family estate. Theo James leads a charming cast through eight episodes of stylish, funny British crime fiction.

14. Tulsa King (Paramount Plus) stars Sylvester Stallone as a New York mafia boss who gets exiled to Oklahoma and decides to build a new criminal enterprise from scratch. Two seasons of fish-out-of-water crime comedy that works largely because of Stallone’s surprising charm.

15. Lioness (Paramount Plus) is Taylor Sheridan’s espionage thriller starring Zoe Saldana as a CIA officer who recruits undercover operatives to infiltrate terrorist organizations. Two seasons of intense, militaristic spy drama.

For mystery-focused alternatives, check our mystery shows guide. For the broader drama landscape, see our top drama series.