Better Call Saul

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• Top 6 Crime TV Shows

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• True Detective

  True Detective premiered on HBO in January 2014, created by Nic Pizzolatto, and its first season, starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as Louisiana detectives investigating a ritualistic murder across two intercut timelines, became an immediate critical sensation and a significant factor in McConaughey's broader career resurgence often nicknamed the "McConaissance." The season's six-minute unbroken tracking shot during a tense raid sequence in its fourth episode became one of the most widely discussed and analyzed single scenes in modern television, frequently cited by critics and filmmakers as a genuine technical achievement rarely attempted in episodic television production. True Detective adopted an anthology format, with each subsequent season telling an entirely new self-contained crime story with different characters and settings, a structure that let the show recruit different major film stars for each installment, including Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, Mahershala Ali, and Jodie Foster across its various seasons. True Detective's combination of its acclaimed first season's technical filmmaking achievements and its anthology structure recruiting major film talent for each new story has made it one of the most influential prestige crime dramas of the modern television era.

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• Mindhunter

  Mindhunter premiered on Netflix in October 2017, developed by Joe Penhall with David Fincher directing and executive producing multiple episodes, dramatizing the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit's pioneering research into criminal profiling through interviews with incarcerated serial killers during the late 1970s and early '80s. The series was based on the real 1996 book "Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit," co-written by former FBI agent John E. Douglas, whose real career directly inspired the show's lead character and whose actual research helped establish criminal profiling as a legitimate law enforcement discipline. Fincher's directorial involvement brought his characteristically meticulous, methodical visual style to the series, and the show's extended, tension-filled interview scenes with fictionalized versions of real serial killers, including Ed Kemper and Charles Manson, became particularly noted for their unusually restrained, dialogue-driven approach to depicting infamous real criminals. Mindhunter's combination of its grounding in real FBI criminal-profiling history and David Fincher's meticulous directorial approach has made it one of the most critically respected crime dramas of the streaming era, despite Netflix placing the series on indefinite hiatus after two seasons.

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• Narcos

  Narcos premiered on Netflix in August 2015, created by Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, and Doug Miro, dramatizing the rise and fall of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and the broader Colombian and later Mexican cocaine trade across its multi-season run, blending scripted drama with documentary-style narration and archival footage. Brazilian actor Wagner Moura's performance as Escobar drew significant critical acclaim, and the show's decision to film substantially on location in Colombia, with extensive Spanish-language dialogue subtitled for English-speaking audiences, represented a genuinely different approach to how English-language streaming platforms had previously handled international crime stories. The series later shifted its narrative focus for its final two seasons, retitled "Narcos: Mexico," to the rise of the Mexican drug trade following Escobar's death, following real DEA agent Kiki Camarena's investigation into the Guadalajara Cartel, extending the franchise's exploration of the broader hemisphere-wide drug trade. Narcos's combination of its willingness to embrace substantial Spanish-language dialogue and Colombian location filming and its dramatization of real, historically significant drug-trade figures has made it one of the most internationally significant crime dramas produced for an American streaming platform.

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• Fargo

  Fargo premiered on FX in April 2014, created by Noah Hawley as an anthology series inspired by the Coen Brothers' 1996 film of the same name, with each season telling an entirely new self-contained crime story set in the same broader Upper Midwest region and sharing the film's distinctive tonal blend of dark violence and deadpan regional comedy. Hawley secured the Coen Brothers' direct blessing and executive-producer involvement for the series, a genuinely significant endorsement for a television adaptation of an acclaimed film, and the show's anthology format let it recruit a rotating roster of major film actors for each season, including Billy Bob Thornton, Kirsten Dunst, Ewan McGregor, and Jon Hamm. The series became known for weaving genuine historical events and figures into its otherwise fictional crime narratives across different seasons and time periods, a structural choice that let each installment explore different specific decades of Upper Midwest regional history and culture. Fargo's combination of its direct Coen Brothers endorsement and its anthology structure recruiting major film talent for each self-contained regional crime story has made it one of the most critically respected crime anthology series of the streaming and prestige-cable era.

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• Dexter

  Dexter premiered on Showtime in October 2006, based on Jeff Lindsay's series of novels, starring Michael C. Hall as a Miami police blood-spatter analyst who secretly moonlights as a serial killer targeting other murderers who've evaded justice, guided by a personal code taught to him by his adoptive father. The show's genuinely unusual premise — asking audiences to root for a serial killer protagonist by making his victims exclusively other killers — drew significant critical attention for its dark comedic tone and Hall's performance, and the series became one of Showtime's most commercially significant original dramas during its original eight-season run. The show's original 2013 series finale drew widespread and lasting critical backlash as one of the most poorly received endings in television history, a reception significant enough that Showtime later revived the franchise with "Dexter: New Blood" in 2021, specifically framed in part as an attempt to give the character and its audience a more satisfying conclusion. Dexter's combination of its genre-defining "sympathetic serial killer" premise and its unusually direct franchise response to fan backlash over its original ending has made it one of the most discussed and revisited crime dramas of the 21st century.

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• Curb Your Enthusiasm

  Curb Your Enthusiasm premiered on HBO in 2000, created by and starring Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld, playing a fictionalized version of himself navigating a series of increasingly awkward social conflicts, largely improvised around outlined scene structures rather than fully scripted dialogue. The show's largely improvisational format, with actors working from detailed scene outlines rather than word-for-word scripts, gave the series a distinctively loose, naturalistic comedic rhythm that became closely associated with David's specific brand of socially oblivious, conflict-generating humor. The series ran intermittently across more than two decades, with irregular multi-year gaps between some seasons, an unusually flexible production schedule that let David and HBO revive the show whenever creatively and logistically convenient rather than adhering to a fixed annual season structure. Curb Your Enthusiasm's combination of its largely improvised outline-based comedic format and its unusually flexible, decades-spanning production schedule has made it one of the most distinctive and influential comedy series in HBO's history.

• Arrested Development

  Arrested Development premiered on Fox in 2003, created by Mitchell Hurwitz, following the wealthy but dysfunctional Bluth family after the family patriarch's arrest for financial crimes, told through a densely layered mockumentary style built around recurring visual gags and callback jokes that rewarded repeat viewing. The show earned significant critical acclaim and multiple Emmy Awards despite consistently low broadcast ratings, becoming an early and frequently cited example of a "critically beloved but commercially struggling" series that Fox ultimately canceled after three seasons despite its passionate cult following. Netflix's 2013 revival of the series for a fourth season, released as a full season available all at once, became one of the earliest and most closely watched examples of a streaming platform reviving a canceled broadcast show, a template numerous other platforms and shows later followed. Arrested Development's combination of its densely layered joke-writing style rewarding attentive rewatching and its historically significant Netflix streaming revival has made it one of the most influential single-camera comedies of the 2000s.

• Brooklyn Nine-Nine

  Brooklyn Nine-Nine premiered on Fox in 2013, created by Dan Goor and Michael Schur, following the detectives of a fictional Brooklyn police precinct in a workplace comedy format, and it starred Andy Samberg as a talented but immature detective clashing with his by-the-book new captain. The show's casting of Andre Braugher as Captain Raymond Holt, a gay Black police captain whose deadpan delivery became one of the series' most celebrated comedic elements, represented a notably different kind of authority-figure character than typical sitcom police captains. Following Fox's cancellation after its fifth season, a significant social media campaign from fans and other television figures helped drive NBC to pick the show up for additional seasons, becoming a widely cited example of fan advocacy directly influencing a network's programming decisions. Brooklyn Nine-Nine's combination of its genuinely groundbreaking central authority-figure character and its fan-driven revival after cancellation has made it one of the more culturally notable comedy series of the 2010s.

• Parks and Recreation

  Parks and Recreation premiered on NBC in 2009, created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, following the mockumentary-style daily work of the Parks and Recreation department in the fictional small town of Pawnee, Indiana, initially conceived partly as a spin-off of The Office before becoming its own distinct show. The series is particularly noted for Amy Poehler's performance as relentlessly optimistic bureaucrat Leslie Knope, a character whose earnest, uncynical belief in the value of local government and public service stood in deliberate contrast to more cynical workplace comedy protagonists common in the genre. The show's slow-building first season, which many critics and even the creators themselves have described as a rocky start closely mirroring The Office's own similarly shaky first season, gave way to widespread critical acclaim once the show found its distinct comedic voice from its second season onward. Parks and Recreation's combination of its uniquely earnest, optimistic comedic tone and Amy Poehler's beloved central performance has made it one of the most fondly remembered workplace sitcoms of its era.

• Friends

  Friends premiered on NBC in September 1994, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, following six friends navigating relationships and careers in New York City, and it became one of the most commercially successful and widely syndicated sitcoms in television history across its ten-season run. The show's ensemble cast negotiated a famous unified salary deal during its later seasons, with all six main actors eventually earning $1 million per episode each, a groundbreaking demonstration of collective bargaining power among an ensemble cast that reshaped how subsequent hit shows approached similar negotiations. Friends achieved a massive second life on streaming platforms decades after its original run, with Netflix and later Max paying enormous licensing fees to retain streaming rights, reflecting the show's sustained, multi-generational popularity long after its original 2004 finale. Friends's combination of its historically significant ensemble cast salary negotiations and its sustained multi-decade streaming popularity has made it one of the most commercially significant sitcoms in television history.