16 crime dramas to binge watch now

Few genres lend themselves so readily to binge-watching as crime, by virtue of the fact that there’s a mystery to be solved and therefore a reason that you have to get to the end right now. Here are ten crime TV shows that should be eating up all your weekends for the foreseeable future.

True Detective
With an all-star cast and a gripping story that leaves you on tenterhooks from episode to episode, this is one of TV’s best crime shows. Each season there is a new narrative and new characters – the first season stars Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson and Michelle Monaghan while season two stars Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams and Vince Vaughn. The best part is that if you get addicted, there are rumours of a third season.

The Bridge
This cracking murder mystery was so popular that it was remade in America with Diane Kruger. You can’t beat the original though, and with no disrespect to Kruger she can’t compare to Sofia Helin as Saga Noren, the off-beat Swedish detective who is forced to team with her Danish equivalent, Martin Rohde (Kim Bodnia), when a dead body is found placed precisely on the border between their two countries. The interplay between the leads will keep you coming back just as much as the need to know who committed the crime.

Sons of Anarchy
A series that follows an outlaw biker gang as they shoot their way through rival gangs like there’s no tomorrow and Scarface never existed. The whole thing is based around Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which, let’s face, it is a bona fide classic. Throw in motorbikes and more Mexican stand-off situations than you could throw a sombrero at and you’ve got some seriously addictive telly.

Peaky Blinders
If Gangs of New York had a sequel and that sequel was set in Birmingham, this is what it would be. An absolute British triumph of television starring Cillian Murphy as crime boss Tommy Shelby as he runs rackets post World War I with his flat-capped gang, The Peaky Blinders. Notable appearances from Sam Neill other big names couple together to make it one of the best things that the BBC have made in years.

Orange Is The New Black
The US doesn’t need John Oliver to dictate the failings of its penal system for comedic effect – no, it already has Orange Is The New Black, the pitch black comedy based on the experiences of Piper Kerman and her memoir about living for a year in a women’s prison. The episodes just get better and better, and with season three now added, if you’re not already telling friends/parents/strangers about this show today, there’s no better reason not to commence binge viewing today.

Fargo
Slotting straight into the same universe of the original Cohen Brothers film, Fargo is a charming (and bloody) indie-fied crime series for the coffee house generation. All ironic jumpers, funny characterisations, suspense and Billy Bob Thornton sporting the worst haircut of his career. Essential viewing for anybody with eyeballs.

Better Call Saul
OK, so it might not have the same edge-of-your-seat discomfort of Breaking Bad but the televisual return of Saul Goodman definitely has its own weight. Charting the rise (ok, flatline) of Walter White’s future lawyer from morally challenged good guy to hustlin’ legal trickster.

Luther
One of the best British crime thrillers of recent years, with Idris Elba playing the growling Detective Chief Inspector who blurs the lines between right and wrong in order to get the job done. As the series develops, the crimes stretch across multiple episodes and the complications of Luther’s life become ever more tangled, making it almost impossible to watch just one episode.

The Killing
It’s the show that kickstarted the ‘Nordic noir’ trend and if you still haven’t seen it then Netflix is the perfect way to rectify that. Sofie Grabol is superb as the Detective Inspector assigned to find the killer of a young woman. The plot twists and turns so much in each episode that you’ll probably make it through series one in a day (it’s twenty hours long).

Dexter
It might start to flag a little towards the end but Michael C Hall’s ‘good-guy’ serial killer Dexter Morgan rode the first wave of boxset binges when it kicked off way back in 2006 and it still holds up with the best of them. If you’re a fan of dubious anti-heroes, Miami sunshine and wry humour then this is your kind of show.

White Collar
As slick as crime shows get, this stars Matt Bomer as a high class conman who makes a deal with the FBI after he breaks out of prison and is recaptured. He suggests that he uses his considerable devious skills to help his captors bag bigger fish in return for a life lived on the outside. The pleasure is in never being sure who’s tricking whom.

Prison Break
Season one is the best of the run, with a man committing a crime in order to be put in jail so that he can then break out his brother who has been sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit. It’s a hugely daft conceit but one that the show has enormous amounts of fun with. Later series get sillier, but there’s still an enjoyable trash element that will keep you watching ‘just one more’ before bed.

Sherlock
When Sherlock launched in 2010 it immediately had the feeling of a show that would be beloved for years, as if it had already been around for decades but we’d only just noticed. Even once you know how all the crimes were committed it still bears repeat viewing for the beautifully drawn friendship between Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

Lie To Me
As the crime procedural became ever more popular at the end of last decade, TV networks were constantly looking for new twists. So you got weird shows like The Mentalist, with a fake psychic using his tricks to solve crime. Lie To Me was a better example of how to tackle a similar idea. The ever excellent Tim Roth plays the head of an agency that assists criminal investigations by using psychology, deducing whose pants are on fire simply by reading their face.

The Shield
Traditionally, corrupt police officers are the ones you root against but in this black-hearted drama the main protagonist is Vic Mackey, a cop who frames people for crimes they haven’t committed and commits robbery and sundry other illegal activities in the course of his job. But he’s also a devoted family man. This is a series in which bad guys and good guys are not clearly drawn, making you never quite sure whether you want the wrongdoers to get caught or escape scot-free.

Breaking Bad
Obviously. We’re not going to berate you if you haven’t seen it yet, but you know you’ve got a treat in store when you do get round to it, and that you’re probably going to have to cancel all your plans until you’ve finished it.

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