Crime thrillers are among the most gripping shows on television, keeping you invested all the way through, from start to finish. The best ones involve intense action, menacing characters, and an intriguing story. Plenty of them of late have delivered in spades in all three departments.
Whether you’re in the mood to watch a detective hunting a creepy serial killer living a double life, an underestimated potential mob boss reaching his violent potential, or an FBI agent kick butt and take names, the crime thrillers that are perfect from start to finish are ones you’ll be clamoring to watch again and again.
‘The Fall’ (2013–2016)
Told through three seasons, The Fall is about serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) who lives a double life as a married husband, father, and ironically, a grief counselor. But when Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) begins investigating a rash of female victim killings, she quickly begins to close in on him.
A wonderful cat and mouse game, The Fall, which is set in Ireland, will keep you captivated from start to finish with its tremendous cast and compelling story. It’s psychologically intriguing and narratively beautifully told. Dornan is quietly and terrifyingly convincing in the role of a troubled man with a compulsion, desperate to hide who he really is.
‘The Night Agent’ (2023–Present)
The Night Agent is technically still going, the action thriller ranking among the most watched shows on Netflix. But it’s one of those shows that keeps getting better and better. While we don’t know for sure how The Night Agent will end, we do know that the fourth season will be its last.
The series centers around FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), who eventually becomes a Night Action agent, working in the shadows to take down bad guys. It’s like a popcorn action movie told through 10 episodes at a time for each story. It’s a highly bingeable show with a satisfying ending each time, and an intense journey all through the middle. It’s one of those rare thriller shows that’s even better the second time around.
‘Hannibal’ (2013–2015)
A unique telling of the characters from Thomas Harris‘ novels, Hannibal follows the relationship between psychiatrist and secret serial killer and cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Madds Mikkelsen) and FBI special investigator Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), who become fast friends. On the surface, Hannibal tries to help Will through the trauma of the things he sees on the job and his own dark thoughts. But secretly, Hannibal is enjoying being able to manipulate Will, and get access to cases in the process, some of which he’s involved in more ways than one.
The psychological horror thriller has an old school feel to it even though it’s barely over a decade ago. Airing for just three seasons, fans were upset when Hannibal was cancelled, and the show remains one of the best serial killer series to ever grace the small screen. It has a fitting end, taking viewers through this complicated, psychological game between a doctor with a dark secret who feels no empathy and an agent who oddly believes Hannibal is the only one who truly understands him.
‘The Penguin’ (2024)
Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti are magic together in The Penguin based on the DC Comics villain. Farrell is Oswald “Oz” Cobb, otherwise known as The Penguin, in this crime drama, a disfigured man working a low-level job for a crime boss, but with big aspirations to move up. Milioti, meanwhile, is Sofia Gigante, the mob boss’ daughter and a presumed psychopathic serial killer who crosses paths with Oz once she’s released from Arkham State Hospital. As the two lobby for power, things get increasingly dangerous.
The Penguin, one of the most perfect HBO shows of the last decade, is an intense ride through all eight episodes that will leave you wanting more. The dark and ominous setting, the incredible make-up and costumes, and the clever backstory for a character we already know so well in the present, come together to make a worthy entry into the DC Comics universe. But what makes The Penguin especially fantastic is that it doesn’t feel like a superhero show; it’s more like The Sopranos, which means even non-comic fans will enjoy it.
‘You’ (2018–2025)
Though it’s in ways a lesser copycat of Dexter, You does have one leg up on that fantastic crime drama: it ended in a satisfying way. The psychological thriller stars Penn Badgley as charming bookstore employee Joe Goldberg, who worms his way into the lives of different women through the course of the series. But he tends to become obsessed, stalking them until it escalates to something worse, all in the name of protecting his love and their relationship. That’s in his twisted mind, at least.
Joe becomes increasingly unhinged as the series progresses, and it culminates in an exciting final season that puts a bow on the story, giving some characters a happy ending, others not. What’s so wonderful about the way You ends is that we truly get to see the extent of Joe’s narcissism, his complete inability to see beyond his own flaws. It’s exactly the way the show should have ended.
‘The Night Manager’ (2016–Present)
The Night Manager was so good, it returned a decade later with a new season. The British spy thriller is about Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston), the night manager of a luxury hotel who was once upon a time a military officer. Head of the Foreign Office’s International Enforcement, Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), recruits him to help take down arms dealer Richard “Dickie” Onslow Roper (Hugh Laurie) and so begins his journey to infiltrate that inner circle.
Tense through each six-episode season, the show is smartly written and keeps you invested through every moment. While the second season didn’t receive as high of ratings as Season 1, both are Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and the show has picked up numerous awards. Based on the John le Carré novel, The Night Manager is wonderfully acted and beautifully presented.
‘The Beast in Me’ (2025)
Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys are a formidable pair in The Beast in Me, the story of grieving author Aggie (Danes) having trouble focusing on her next book when Nile (Rhys) moves in to her neighborhood and his actions annoy her. It doesn’t help that she recognizes him as the wealthy son of a real estate magnate who was years ago accused of killing his first wife, but later deemed innocent. When she visits to air her complaints about his activity, the two get twisted up in a dangerous game. Aggie isn’t convinced he’s innocent, recognizing there’s clearly something off about him. But he’s offering her the chance to write a book on his story, which she can use to both cure her writer’s block and perhaps get to the bottom of the story.
The Beast in Me is a powerful story of grief, death, and greed. Propped up by a supporting cast that includes Brittany Snow, Natalie Morales, Jonathan Banks, and David Lyons, you’ll want to binge your way through the eight episodes, wondering the entire time if Nile did in fact kill his wife, or he’s just sorely misunderstood. The scene as he dances in Aggie’s house to a record playing “Psycho Killer” is both funny and unsettling, a testament to the leads and their chemistry. It’s a Netflix thriller that gets better with every episode.
‘The Night Of’ (2016)
A powerful story of race, perception, justice, and how quickly someone’s life can take a wrong turn, Nasir “Naz” Khan (Riz Ahmed) meets a young woman and has a one-night stand to kick off the story in The Night Of. But when he wakes up next to her dead body the next morning, things don’t look good for him. He’s logically accused of her murder, and as he goes through the trial with his lawyer, John Stone (John Turturro), we see the decline of a once promising young man who seemingly just found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The story told through eight episodes will have you saddened about the justice system and questioning the idea that some people are often considered guilty before being proven innocent versus the other way around. Most jarring is that no matter how the case turns out, and whether Naz is deemed innocent or not, his life will be forever changed by what he has endured in prison. The Night Of is a powerful commentary filled with mystery and no chance for anything but a devastating end, any way it goes.
‘The Devil’s Hour’ (2022–Present)
Lucy Chambers (Jessica Raine) is a social worker in The Devil’s Hour who keeps seeing terrifying visions every night at the exact same time: 3.33 A.M., known as the “devil’s house.” Her eight-year-old son claims to see people who aren’t there, and her mother also seems to speak to invisible people, and Lucy is beside herself. She gets the sense that her house is haunted, and she is somehow being pushed towards finding a serial killer.
The series, one of the best Prime Video shows everyone has been sleeping on, is told through a six-episode first season and a five-episode second. It also stars Peter Capaldi as Gideon Shepherd, a criminal who seems to “remember the future.” The show is disturbing and mind-bending, a haunting thriller that skews more towards the horror genre for fans who don’t mind getting spooked.
‘Breaking Bad’ (2008–2013)
One of the best crime dramas of all time, arguably the best TV shows of all time, Breaking Bad isn’t quite as cerebral as some other crime thrillers. It also doesn’t lean as heavily and as often into violence, carefully placing such scenes only as needed, and focusing on heightening tensions in other ways. The story begins when high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) gets a terminal cancer diagnosis and turns to cooking and selling drugs to build a quick nest egg for his family when he’s gone. But slowly through the show’s five seasons, Walter becomes increasingly obsessed with his power, realizing his full potential as someone to be feared, not someone to be walked over.
Breaking Bad features one of the best on-screen duos with Cranston alongside Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman, a former troubled student Walter turns to for help getting his drug business off the ground. While the show is about the dangers of the criminal underworld, it’s Walter’s personal journey to becoming Heisenberg that’s the heart of the series. It has fantastic re-watch value along with one of the best TV series endings ever, so you get as satisfying an end as the beginning, seeing the entire story come full circle.
