We know that there’s no one left out there watching just one episode of a TV series on one night anymore. So, this IS the golden age of detective and cop shows and since solving some nice fictional crime is one of the most relaxing things ever: waiting all the way to the end to see what will happen and to forget all about your mundane little problems. So, this is a list for you and the Sherlock inside you to eat up all your weekends for the foreseeable future.
Horatio Caine, a former homicide detective, heads a group of investigators who work crimes amid the steamy, tropical surroundings and cultural crossroads of Miami. His team includes Calleigh Duquesne, a bilingual Southern beauty with a specialty in ballistics; Tim Speedle, a cocky yet disarming investigator who is well-connected on the street, and Eric Delko, an underwater recovery expert who knows all the twists and turns of the Florida waterways. Rounding out the team is Alexx Woods, the no-nonsense, know-it-all coroner. And, after Speedle is killed in Action, Former Patrolman Ryan Wolfe joins the team. Together, these investigators collect and analyze the evidence to solve the crimes and to vindicate those who often cannot speak for themselves -- the victims.
CSI Head Detective Mac Taylor and his team solve crimes in New York City.
Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, formerly Atlanta police officer and CIA-trained interrogator, is given the opportunity to run her own division of elite officers of the Los Angeles Police Department. Her unusual procedure for obtaining confessions, blatant disregard for politics, and country accent make her a marked woman. However, with all the bluster and bravado, she still maintains her title, The Closer.
Lilly Rush is a Philadelphia police detective working for the department's homicide squad and being assigned 'cold cases': crimes that were committed many years before and have not been solved. Lilly must try to re-think the crime scenes and interview other people involved with the victims to find a link to solving the cases.
The show follows a crime, usually adapted from current headlines, from two separate vantage points. The first half of the show concentrates on the investigation of the crime by the police, the second half follows the prosecution of the crime in court.
Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the leader of a team of special agents belonging to the NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) Major Case Response Team. Gibbs, a former Marine, is a tough investigator and a highly skilled interrogator who relies on his gut instinct as much as evidence. Gibbs' second in command is Senior Field Agent Tony DiNozzo, a womanizing, movie-quoting former Baltimore Homicide Detective, who despite being the class clown always gets the job done. The team also consists of probationary field agent Eleanor Bishop, a former NSA agent, as well as Junior Field Agent Timothy McGee, a computer-savvy agent often mocked by DiNozzo. Assisting them are Abby Sciuto, the energetic-but-Goth lab tech who is like a daughter to Gibbs, and Dr. Donald Mallard, nicknamed Ducky, the eccentric medical examiner full of unusual stories. This team of elite agents, based in Washington, D.C., solve criminal cases involving Marine and Navy personnel and their families...
After the unsolved murder of his wife, Adrian Monk develops obsessive-compulsive disorder, which includes his terror of germs and contamination. His condition costs him his job as a prominent homicide detective in the San Francisco Police Department, but he continues to solve crimes with the help of his assistant and his former boss.
After a serial killer named Red John murdered Patrick Jane's wife and daughter, Jane dedicated his life to hunting down and killing Red John. To that end, he gave up his lucrative pretense of being a psychic and joined the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a consultant to the team responsible for investigating the Red John case, led by Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon. Using Jane's exceptional gift for observation and his mentalist trick able to close an unprecedented number of cases, but Jane's unconventional and often outright illegal methods also bring much censure down on Lisbon's head, making his assistance both a blessing and a curse. Meanwhile, the hunt for Red John continues...
Based in Quantico, Virginia, the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is a subsection of the FBI. Called in by local police departments to assist in solving crimes of a serial and/or extremely violent nature where the perpetrator is unknown (referred to by the Unit as the unknown subject or unsub for short), the BAU uses the controversial scientific art of profiling to track and apprehend the unsub. Profiling entails coming up with basic characteristics of the unsub and the victims (referred to as the victimology), using evidence from the case and matching that information to historic precedents and psychological analyses as a means to solve the case. Because of the nature of the work conducted by the BAU - the work being time-consuming and psychologically demanding - its members are fiercely loyal to the Unit and to its other members. Also because of the work's overall demanding nature, not many members of the BAU have been able to maintain a happy or stable family life.
A highly articulate, erudite and intelligent businessman and mastermind, 'Red' Reddington, has allegedly been on the '10 Most Wanted List' of various U.S. law enforcement agencies for over 20 years. The legend is that Red is as elusive as he is clever, controlling a labyrinth of creative enterprises, coupled with uncanny ability to gather and finesse information at the drop of a hat. On the first day at FBI for a new female profiler fresh out of Quantico, Red offers to bandy wits with the FBI. Red promises to deliver various criminals and plots previously unknown to any branch of law enforcement... and all Red requests in return is to choose his muse.
Explores the early relationship between the renowned psychiatrist and his patient, a young FBI criminal profiler, who is haunted by his ability to empathize with serial killers.
Two FBI agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully work in an unassigned detail of the bureau called the X-Files investigating cases dealing with unexplained paranormal phenomena. Mulder, a true believer, and Scully, a skeptic, perceive their cases from stand points of science and the paranormal.
Dexter Morgan, Miami Metro Police Department blood spatter analyst, has a double life. When he's not helping the Homicide division solving murders, he spends his time hunting and killing bad guys that slip through the justice system. He spends his sun-drenched days solving crimes - and moonlit nights committing them. But not to worry, our cool-blooded Dexter doesn't kill just anyone. He reserves his homicidal hobbies to taking only the lives of other killers.
In 2012, Louisiana State Police Detectives Rust Cohle and Martin Hart are brought in to revisit a homicide case they worked in 1995. As the inquiry unfolds in present day through separate interrogations, the two former detectives narrate the story of their investigation, reopening unhealed wounds, and drawing into question their supposed solving of a bizarre ritualistic murder in 1995. The timelines braid and converge in 2012 as each man is pulled back into the world they believed they'd left behind. In learning about each other and their killer, it becomes clear that darkness lives on both sides of the law.
In this modernized version of the Conan Doyle characters, using his detective plots, Sherlock Holmes lives in early 21st century London and acts more cocky towards Scotland Yard's detective inspector Lestrade because he's actually less confident. Doctor Watson is now a fairly young veteran of the Afghan war, less adoring and more active.
Set in Baltimore, this show centers around the city's inner-city drug scene. It starts as mid-level drug dealer, D'Angelo Barksdale beats a murder rap. After a conversation with a judge, Det. James McNulty has been assigned to lead a joint homicide and narcotics team, in order to bring down drug kingpin Avon Barksdale. Avon Barksdale, accompanied by his right-hand man Stringer Bell, enforcer Wee-Bey and many lieutenants (including his own nephew, D'Angelo Barksdale), has to deal with law enforcement, informants in his own camp, and competition with a local rival, Omar, who's been robbing Barksdale's dealers and reselling the drugs. The supervisor of the investigation, Lt. Cedric Daniels, has to deal with his own problems, such as a corrupt bureaucracy, some of his detectives beating suspects, hard-headed but determined Det. McNulty, and a blackmailing deputy. The show depicts the lives of every part of the drug 'food chain', from junkies to dealers, and from cops to politicians.