8 Crime Shows Without a Single Flaw

Image via AMC Published Aug 23, 2026, 7:21 PM EDT Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV. Sign in to your Collider account There's a murder or some other heinous crime. A detective works to solve it. A perpetrator tries to evade capture. Most crime shows follow a formulaic pattern, though some of the best ones divert and give you something truly unique. Arguably all the best, most flawless crime shows do just that. There's a creative narrative structure, theme, visual style, or plot that sets them apart from all others. You could watch and re-watch a thousand times and struggle to find anything to nitpick about. Of course, you can always find something to complain about with a show, but the most flawless crime shows will really make you struggle with that task. 'Dexter: Resurrection' (2025–Present) Image via Paramount+ with Showtime The original series Dexter was pretty flawless up until its final episode. Even on a rewatch, I notice that the latter half is better than I remember from when I originally watched. Whatever viewpoint you have on Dexter Seasons 5 through 8, however, there's no denying that the first season of Dexter: Resurrection more than makes up for it as one of the greatest crime shows of the last 10 years. Continuing the narrative from the limited sequel series Dexter: New Blood, the series switches up the setting to New York and follows Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) as he tries to reconnect with his son Harrison (Jack Alcott), evade old friends looking for him now that they know he's alive, and continue giving into his murderous urges. As the most beloved vigilante serial killer on TV, the fact that viewers continue to root for Dexter is a testament to the character's impact and Hall's performance, which is downright perfect. 'The Wire' (2002–2008) Image via HBO Raw, real, honest, and emotional, The Wire has often been called one of the best crime shows of all time. This is in part because the show is loosely based on the experiences of Ed Burns, a former homicide detective and public-school teacher who served as creator David Simon's writing partner. Set in Baltimore, the series highlights all the institutions involved in the wheels of justice, including city government, education, print news, and the illegal drug trade, and explores how they intertwine. It's no surprise that many of the cast members, who were relative unknowns at the time the series aired, like Dominic West and Idris Elba, have gone on to achieve big things in Hollywood. The Wire is one of those rare shows that didn't get the attention it deserved when it originally aired, but has since developed a cult following as fans recognize its brilliance. 'Breaking Bad' (2008–2013) Image via AMC Ask anyone what the best show of the 2000s is, and nine times out of 10, you will probably hear Breaking Bad. The series is iconic, the story of a chemistry teacher diagnosed with a terminal illness who turns to cooking drugs to ensure he can create a nest egg for his family when he's gone. But this is only the beginning: what happens from there is the real story as Walter White (Bryan Cranston) becomes someone far removed from who he is. His ego inflates to an epic size as he develops a reputation for cooking the purest methamphetamine in the criminal underworld. Cranston delivers one of the best TV performances of all time in this role. From the acting to the story to the cinematography, the tension and the moral ambiguity, Breaking Bad has it all. For five seasons, you watch a once docile husband and father become a menacing criminal, and you can't help but wonder if you kind of maybe like him more now. If there's one flaw with Breaking Bad, it's that the show couldn't find a viable way to stretch the story out longer because fans wanted more. But on the flip side, it ended at the absolute perfect time to solidify the series' spot in history as one of the best crime dramas ever. 'Better Call Saul' (2015–2022) Image via AMC Born from Breaking Bad, the character of slimy lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) was so popular in that show that he got his own backstory. In fact, Better Call Saul both showed how the man named Jimmy McGill came to be known as Saul Goodman before he met Walter White, as well as what happened to him after the end of the original series. Some call the neo-noir legal drama's crime even better than Breaking Bad: it even ran a season longer. It's dark, emotional, and peels back a lot of layers, providing welcome context that explains why Saul became who he is. There are elements that tie both shows together nicely, like Michael Mando playing Nacho Vargo, a character mentioned in Breaking Bad but never seen, as well as Jimmy/Saul meeting Mike (Jonathan Banks) and Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Plus, who can forget his complex relationship with Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), a highlight of the show? It's one of the best prequel series ever made. Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one. 🏕️Jason 🔪Michael 💤Freddy 🎈Pennywise 🪆Chucky TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 Something feels wrong. You can't explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty. ALeave immediately. I don't need to understand a threat to respect it. BStay quiet and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it. CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel safe again. DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the dark — I'd rather know what I'm dealing with. ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply. ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people. BA quiet suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight. CIn my own head — the most dangerous place of all, depending on what's already in there. DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things. ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you'd expect is a threat. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours? APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence. BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out. CPsychological resilience — I've faced my worst fears before. They don't have the same power over me. DEmotional steadiness — I don't panic. Panic is what gets you caught. EScepticism — I don't underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it. AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer. BThe invisible — a threat I can feel but can't locate, watching from somewhere I can't see. CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me. DThe unknowable — something ancient, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself. EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it's too late. NEXT QUESTION → 05 You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't. AThe one who says "we need to leave" first — and means it, even when no one listens. BThe one who stays quiet, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does. CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to. DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed. EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not. AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn't, but I can't leave them behind. BAssuming I'm safe once I've found a hiding spot. That's when it finds me. CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy. DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I'm dealing with. EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That's exactly what it wants. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it. AThe environment itself — I use the terrain, the water, the geography against it. BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn't expect. CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon. DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on. EImprovisation — I use whatever's at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force. NEXT QUESTION → 08 It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours? AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me. BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it. CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most. DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed. EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it. REVEAL MY VILLAIN → Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck. Jason VoorheesJason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit. He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategise, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues. Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge. The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance. You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected. Michael MyersMichael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention. But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound. Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is. Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had. You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it. Freddy KruegerFreddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised. You are harder to destabilise than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away. The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it. Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on. Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here. PennywisePennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it. The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly. You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away. That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise's worst nightmare. It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all. ChuckyChucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is. You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance. Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone. Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing. Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 'Mindhunter' (2017–2019) Image via Netflix A testament to Mindhunter's impact is that fans have been begging for a third season, even though it ended seven years ago. The psychological crime thriller tells the backstory of the creation of the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) of the FBI and the origins of the coining of the term "serial killer." Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany play real-life agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench, both of whom were integral in defining the concept of a repeat killer who had a compulsion that was deeply rooted in psychological trauma. They didn't just kill for the sake of killing. Along with their impressive performances, every actor who plays a real-life killer is absolutely fantastic, so convincing right down to the appearance, vocal inflection, and mannerisms. The dialogue will give you chills, even more so knowing that much of it was taken from actual transcripts with the real killers. It's a deeply fascinating thriller series with no weak episodes that dives heavily into psychology and reminds you that there was a time we didn't call them serial killers. 'Ozark' (2017–2022) Image via Netflix Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) is a skilled accountant in Ozark, maybe too skilled for his own good. He decides to lend his talents to the cartel as a side job to make a little extra dough. But while it was easy to get in, it's not as easy to get out. His money laundering work is too good, too clean that he's forced to move his family to the Ozarks and set up permanent shop there, now working as part of a massive criminal enterprise, or else. Ozark follows the descent of not only Marty but also his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) into a world that's completely foreign to them, but that they seem to blend into with terrifying ease. Adding color to the story is Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner), a local petty thief who is brought into the fold, working far out of her depth. Garner steals every scene she's in. The show from start to finish will keep you both satisfied and wanting more. 'Your Friends & Neighbors' (2025–Present) In perhaps his closest role to Don Draper in Mad Men, and his best since that show ended, Jon Hamm plays Andrew "Coop" Cooper in the dark comedy crime drama Your Friends & Neighbors. He's a wealthy hedge fund manager who turns to petty theft after getting fired. It's at first to keep up with the Jones', ironically stealing from his own friends and neighbors, since they're easy targets with items of value he knows they won't even miss. But then, it becomes an adrenaline rush, a statement about the absurdity of excess and the arrogance of materialism. Coop hasn't downgraded his own lifestyle, but he has combined it with a dark side as a criminal just figuring out this side of himself, and how to balance it with being a good father and loyal friend to those he actually cares about. With Hamm narrating Coop's inner thoughts throughout the show, and compelling side characters with their own sordid stories, Your Friends & Neighbors is on track to be one of the best new shows of this decade. 'The Outsider' (2020) Image via HBO Jason Bateman gets a second entry on this list with The Outsider, in which he has a small role and serves among the executive producers. While his character, Terry Maitland, appears sparingly in the show, he's the catalyst that sets the entire story in motion. A town is shocked when this father and Little League coach is accused of murdering a young boy. Terry is taken aback when seeing the graphic footage that depicts him in a compromising situation. But Terry swears it isn't him. It sounds like the most ridiculous excuse in the book to claim the perpetrator is just your long-lost doppelgänger, but detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) can't shake the feeling that Terry is telling the truth. With the help of eccentric savant private detective Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo), Ralph learns that there might be something supernatural at play, despite his instincts telling him that's impossible. The Outsider combines classic crime drama with supernatural horror in a story that you just know right from the beginning couldn't possibly come from anywhere else but the brilliant mind of Stephen King. The Outsider Release Date 2020 - 2020-00-00 Main Genre Crime Seasons 1 Creator(s) Richard Price