Netflix is a treasure trove of streaming content for all tastes and preferences. If you enjoy crime dramas, there lies beneath the most promoted series quite a few overlooked but gripping options. Netflix produces and showcases series from all over the world, varying in narratives, styles, and themes.
Whether you like slow-burn thrillers, smart whodunnits, or crime comedies, you'll find at least one binge-worthy selection below.
Updated July 11, 2020 by Sam Hutchinson: Crime dramas are some of the most popular TV shows on Netflix at the moment. The shows are constantly attracting a wide audience due to their intense and thrilling themes. However, due to the vast number of crime dramas on Netflix, some of the best shows are buried beneath shows that are more popular (even if these popular shows aren’t necessarily very good).
Marcella (2016-)
Marcella isn’t only one of the most underrated crime dramas on Netflix, it’s one of the most underrated shows on Netflix. The series follows the titular Marcella (Anna Friel) as she learns to balance her fragile mental state with her job as a detective.
The third season of Marcella has just been released, so now is the perfect time to binge the series and catch up with this incredible drama.
The Stranger (2020)
The Stranger was one of the most talked-about shows of 2020. The series follows a man as he tries to track down his wife after she mysteriously disappears. The deeper he investigates, the more the mystery seems to revolve around a stranger he met before his wife vanished. The series lasts for one season, making it an easy story to get through fairly quickly.
Collateral (2018)
Starring John Simm and Carey Mulligan, Collateral follows the web events that occur after the murder of a pizza delivery boy in London. The show combines complex political plots with the typical crime drama themes.
Collateral is a four-episode series, making it an incredibly speedy watch for those with too much time on their hands.
Criminal: United Kingdom (2019)
Criminal: UK is part of Netflix’s Criminal anthology series, with 12 episodes being divided between the UK, Germany, France, and Spain. The UK version stars David Tennant and Hayley Atwell, with the three episodes being set in a police interrogation room.
As with the other entries on this list, the series is very short and intense enough to keep any viewer glued to their screen.
Giri/ Haji (2019)
Another show that hasn’t received the recognition it deserves, Giri/ Haji is a British crime drama that follows a Japanese detective who is sent to London to locate his brother, who is believed to be dead.
The show is very intense and flits between Tokyo and London very well. This international structure makes it one of the most unique and breathtaking crime dramas on Netflix.
The Valhalla Murders (2020)
Travel to the cold and monochromatic country of Iceland by enjoying this unique whodunnit. The series follows a female detective named Kata whose town becomes a killing ground for an unknown serial slayer. The person seems to be targetting older men, and the crimes are connected by knife slashes around each victim's eyes.
The Valhalla Murders manages to provide an inside look into the workings of Kata's Icelandic police department, into the family dynamics that inform detective work, and into the public response to violence.
The Mire (2018)
This Polish six-part series, just released on Netflix, takes place in a small city during '80s. After a local sex worker and a political activist are killed, a series of teen suicides follows, devastating residents of the area.
A pair of journalists asked to write about the deaths for the local newspaper soon discover there's more to the cases than meets the eye. They also come to believe the police are involved in a massive cover-up that, if exposed, would implicate many important people in the crimes.
London Spy (2015)
British actor Ben Whishaw stars in London, an engrossing and well-acted five-part miniseries written and directed by Tom Rob Jones. Jones is also known as the writer for Ryan Murphy's American Crime: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.
Whishaw plays party boy Danny, who falls in love with a mysterious fellow named Alex. Only eight months into their relationship, Danny finds Alex murdered in his apartment. While authorities try to sculpt one narrative about Alex's strange death, Danny goes rogue to try to uncover the truth. Jim Broadbent co-stars.
Get Shorty (2017 - )
Detective novelist Elmore Leonard's 1990 book is the basis for this dark comedy starring Chris O'Dowd and Ray Romano. Not to be confused with the 1995 movie of the same name, the series only adapts the basic premise of its source materials. O'Dowd plays an enforcer for a Nevada crime ring named Miles Daly. Daly decides to leave his life of crime behind and become a movie producer.
He moves to Los Angeles, where he begins a business partnership with Ray Romano's character Rick Moreweather, a second-rate producer. Unfortunately, Daly's criminal past follows him.
The Break (2016 - )
This French-language Belgian series focuses on a police detective named Yoaan Peeters. In the first series, he travels back to his hometown from Brussels in order to investigate the death of an African soccer player. The man's body was found in a river, and while it was originally deemed a suicide, Peeters believes there's more to the story.
The second series sees Peeters teaming up with a criminal psychiatrist who needs his help proving the innocence of one of her patients. The man, a former gardener for a wealthy woman, was accused of the woman's murder after she was found in her swimming pool. Both series are available on Netflix.
Sacred Games (2018 - )
For fans of Bollywood, check out this ornate and glitzy cat-and-mouse thriller that moves through the crowded streets of Mumbai, India. Based on a novel by Vikram Chandra, the series' main character is an anti-hero police officer named Sartaj Singh. One day, he receives a call from a gangster who has been missing for 16 years.
The gangster informs him he has 25 days to save the city. Singh travels the vast, dark underworld of Mumbai in order to figure out whether or not the threat is real.
Retribution (2016)
Released in the United Kingdom as One of Us, Retribution is an interesting mash-up of rural Scottish murders and Shakespearean-level theatrics. When a newly married couple return from the honeymoon, they are found maimed and murdered in their remote village in the Scottish Highlands.
It gets more unsettling when the man who appears to be their killer reappears after being seriously injured in a car crash. This four-part series is the kind you will want to watch in one sitting.
American Crime (2015 - 2017)
American Crime is an anthology crime drama that aired on ABC for three seasons. Emotional and raw, each season digs into the racial, gender, and class issues that play into the current nature of the American criminal justice system. By focusing on marginalized people and how their lives are affected by violence, political policies, and cultural stigmas, the show is rife with social commentary.
John Ridley, who won an Oscar for his 12 Years a Slave screenplay, is the showrunner. Each of its three seasons stars well-known actors like Timothy Hutton, Regina King, and Lili Taylor.
Top Boy (2011 - )
This British organized crime series first aired on Channel 4 across the pond in 2011. A second series followed in 2013. Canadian rapper Drake expressed interest in seeing the series revived, and Netflix aired the third series in 2019. The fourth is on the way.
Top Boy complicates the "bad gangster" narrative by making young, aspiring drug dealers in an East London apartment complex its protagonist. Most of the action focuses on young business partners Sully and Dushane who both vie for the "top boy" position in their growing crime ring.
Damnation (2017 - 2018)
Damnation is an American period crime drama set in 1931 at the height of the Great Depression. As labor strikes and wage wars spread, the show focuses on a man named Seth Davenport, a drifter who poses as a preacher. Davenport rallies workers to stand up against their greedy bosses and predatory banks.
Davenport becomes the target of wealthy business owners who would like to see him dead. The show raises important questions about who the true criminals are as it exposes all the suffering laborers must endure while their superiors amass wealth. Despite only lasting one season, Damnation is a well-made and powerful contribution to Netflix's offerings.