Summary

  • Netflix offers a diverse range of crime shows, from traditional procedurals to ones with unique elements like comedy, fantasy, and science fiction.
  • Some of the best crime shows on Netflix are not original series, but rather picked up from outside sources, including international shows that gained popularity worldwide.
  • Shows like "Good Girls" and "Ozark" feature small groups of criminals, providing an intriguing mix of drama and comedic elements, while "Money Heist" and "Mindhunter" offer complex storytelling with unconventional narratives and unreliable narrators.

Though Netflix might be better known for its true crime documentaries, fans of fictional crime dramas with a Netflix subscription are lucky. The streaming service has a strong catalog of offerings from the genre. There are international detectives, procedural dramas, British favorites, and series inspired by real cases. Some fans are invested in the cases. Others prefer learning more about the law enforcement officers solving them.

Not every crime show is a Netflix original series either, meaning that the streaming platform has picked up quite a few of its best crime dramas from outside sources. Some are shows that Netflix saved from cancelation, while others have found a cult following thanks to the ability to stream them after their cancelation. There are also international series that Netflix has helped to make popular all over the world. The best crime shows on Netflix range from traditional crime procedurals to ones with more unique and even fantasy elements.

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Good Girls (2018-2021)

Starring Christina Hendricks and Retta

Most of the best-known crime shows go the drama and procedural route. While there is definitely a dramatic lean for Good Girls, the series is also much more comedic than so many crime shows, and not a procedural. Instead, the focus is on three women (Hendricks, Retta, and Mae Whitman) who try to eliminate their financial troubles by committing a robbery and wind up embroiled in the schemes of a crime boss and government agents. It’s the kind of series where everything that can go wrong for the Good Girls main characters does, and it makes the high-stakes heist hijinks especially entertaining.

The Blacklist (2013-2023)

Starring James Spader and Megan Boone

Red walking with Liz in The Blacklist
The Blacklist
Crime
Drama
Thriller
Action

Seasons
10

While The Blacklist has crime procedural elements, the series is more of a thriller than the usual case-of-the-week format many crime shows employ. Spader stars as a career criminal who makes a deal with the FBI to help them catch other criminals. He does so, however, with an unknown connection to the agent running the case, and the mystery of their connection drives a lot of the earlier seasons of the show. When that mystery is dropped in the later seasons, viewers weren’t especially happy, but that doesn’t make the intrigue of the show any less.

NCIS (2003-)

Starring Mark Harmon and Sean Murray

NCIS
Crime
Drama

Cast
sean murray , Wilmer Valderrama , Katrina Law , Brian Dietzen , david mccallum , Mark Harmon , Rocky Carroll , Gary Cole , Joe Spano
Seasons
21

Though the main cast of NCIS has changed drastically since it first debuted, the show is still going strong. A spinoff of JAG, the show focuses on the investigation of crimes connected to the military. The series holds strong to its crime procedural roots. While all episodes feature a case-of-the-week, the seasons usually have a longer arc to them, satisfying both casual and long-term viewers. The cast chemistry and the gradual reveals of the investigators' personal lives in the background with the mysteries in the foreground provide the show with the perfect balance.

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Bodies (2023)

Starring Amaka Okafor and Stephen Graham

Amaka Okafor as Shahara Hasan, Shira Haas as Iris Maplewood, and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Charles Whiteman Karl Weissman in Bodies season 1
Bodies
Crime
History
Mystery
Sci-Fi

Cast
Jacob Fortune-Lloyd , shira haas , Amaka Okafor , Kyle Soller , Greta Scacchi , Tom Mothersdale , Michael Jibson , Stephen Graham
Seasons
1

Most crime shows are thought of as typical detective mysteries, but Netflix offers so many crime shows that prove there is a lot more variety in the genre. Bodies is one of those. The show is a mystery that takes place over four different time periods with detectives investigating the discovery of a body in the same place in each time period - and the same body at that. Bodies provides a dose of science fiction to the crime genre.

Lucifer (2016-2021)

Starring Tom Ellis and Lauren German

Lucifer
Fantasy
Drama
Crime

Cast
Tom Ellis , Kevin Rankin , Lesley-Ann Brandt , Rachael Harris , D.B. Woodside , Kevin Alejandro , Lauren German , Scarlett Estevez
Seasons
6

If Bodies brings science fiction to crime shows, then Lucifer brings an element of fantasy. The series was canceled by FOX and revived by Netflix, becoming a streaming hit as a result. Inspired by the Vertigo comic, Lucifer follows the devil himself as he lives among humans on Earth and finds himself drawn to the one person who seems to be immune to his charms - homicide detective Chloe Decker. With its case-of-the-week format, fascinating mythology, a great love story, and even a musical episode, Lucifer is a crowd-pleaser of a show.

Money Heist (2017-2021)

Starring Úrsula Corberó and Álvaro Morte

Lisbon with her mask in Money Heist
Money Heist
Action
Crime
Thriller

Seasons
5

Called La casa de papel in its original Spanish, Netflix picked up Money Heist from the Spanish network Antena 3 and then kept renewing it thanks to the huge number of viewers streaming it. It’s one of Netflix’s best global crime shows. Money Heist follows a group of criminals who team up for two different and very ambitious heists. The appeal of the show, however, is that the story isn’t exactly straightforward, since there are time jumps and flashbacks, but also the use of an unreliable narrator, keeping the audience guessing all along.

How To Get Away With Murder (2014-2020)

Starring Viola Davis and Aja Naomi King

How to Get Away With Murder
Drama

Cast
Viola Davis , Aja Naomi King , Billy Brown , Jack Falahee
Seasons
6

How To Get Away With Murder is exactly what the title implies. The series follows a group of law school students and their teacher who find themselves thrown together when they accidentally kill someone in the first episode and have to keep their secret. As the show progresses, there are more crimes and more twists among this one group than other crime shows might have in a cast of 50 characters. It’s those twists that make the show legendary. These are not career criminals or detectives, but people who initially want to practice law themselves but wind up on the wrong side of it.

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Mindhunter (2017-2019)

Starring Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany

Jonathan Groff walking through a prison hallway in Netflix's Mindhunter
Mindhunter
Crime
Drama
Thriller

Cast
Jonathan Groff , Holt McCallany , Hannah Gross , Cotter Smith , Anna Torv , Stacey Roca , Cameron Britton , Michael Cerveris , Joe Tuttle , Lauren Glazier
Seasons
2

The series is based on John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker's Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv play the FBI agents and psychologist who start the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. By interviewing serial killers in prison, they begin to understand how murderers think. They hope to use that knowledge to solve open cases. Unfortunately, the gripping series was left open-ended, so viewers looking for a neatly wrapped-up conclusion will not find one here.

Collateral

Starring Carey Mulligan and Nathaniel Martello-White

Carey Mulligan and Nathaniel Martello-White in a doorway in Collateral on Netflix

Carey Mulligan stars as Detective Inspector Kip Glaspie in this four-part series. She investigates the murder of a pizza delivery driver, who wasn't originally given the assignment during which he was killed. Given its short length, Collateral is perfect for mystery lovers looking for something to binge in an afternoon. It's also worth checking out if looking for something a bit different from other police dramas. Creator David Hare described these characters as "completely normal people, and there isn't any of that police attitudinizing" to The Telegraph.

Ozark (2017-2022)

Starring Jason Bateman and Julia Garner

Ozark
Thriller
Drama
Crime

Seasons
4

Much like the comedic Good Girls, Ozark features a small group of criminals who become part of a money laundering scheme. In this case, however, it’s a family who ends up making the move from a Chicago suburb to Missouri that winds up on the bad side of multiple criminal groups. It’s a departure for Jason Bateman, who is best known for his more comedic roles, and the series helps to solidify Julia Garner as one of the most versatile actresses of the modern age. Ozark is easily Netflix’s best crime drama.