Over the past few years, crime dramas have really upped their game and we’ve seen some fantastic additions to the genre.
A good crime drama is a perfect way to exercise your mind and get swept up into an (often literally) killer storyline while also presenting gritty scenarios in a more stylised way than most true crime documentaries — although we definitely love both.
Some of the most critically acclaimed crime dramas of the past five years have all found a home in the streaming library over on BINGE so we thought we’d put together a little roundup of the ones we highly recommend you start streaming immediately.
Vigil
Vigil stars the brilliant Suranne Jones (Gentleman Jack, Doctor Foster) as DCI Amy Silva and Rose Leslie (Game Of Thrones, The Good Fight) as DS Kirsten Longacre who lead an investigation on land and at sea into a conspiracy that goes to the very heart of Britain’s national security.
The story centres on the Trident nuclear submarine HMS Vigil, where a crew member is found dead on board promoting the police in Scotland to come in and investigate. The only problem is the UK’s nuclear deterrent must remain unbroken, so the submarine must stay on patrol and Detective Chief Inspector Amy Silva must go aboard to start investigating. Although the death was written off as an accidental overdose, Amy suspects foul play. But when the crew close ranks in the face of Amy’s questioning, a new threat overshadows her inquiry.
Vigil premieres on Monday, August 30, with episode two available the following day, Tuesday, August 31. New episodes will drop weekly each Monday until the finale on 27 September.
Mare of Easttown
Kate Winslet stars in this incredible series that had everyone talking when it first premiered.
Winslet stars as small-town Pennsylvania detective Mare Sheehan, whose life starts to crumble around her as investigates a local murder. The series explores the dark side of a close community and provides an authentic examination of how family and past tragedies can define our present and also stars our very own Guy Pearce.
Winslet also served as executive producer on the limited series and recently revealed to Variety that she stayed awake until 4am reading the murder mystery script, then accepted the role immediately.
“I was working on something else at the time that was quite demanding,” she said. “And I just thought, ‘You know what? F—k it. I’ll just read it right now.’ Just sort of dropped everything else and sat up through the night and read Episodes 1 and 2.”
The Sopranos
Look, this one really needs no introduction given it is widely considered to be one of the greatest television shows of all time.
However, if you need a quick refresher, The Sopranos stars the late James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, a New Jersey-based Italian-American mafioso as he tries to balance his family life with his role as the leader of a criminal organisation. Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco and Michael Imperioli also star in main roles.
This one is perfect if you are excited about the upcoming prequel future film The Many Saints of Newark, which sees James Gandolfini’s son, Michael, take on the younger version of the role made famous by his dad.
The Night Of
If you have not yet witnessed the sheer brilliance that is Riz Ahmed in The Night Of, then please, please, PLEASE rectify this situation as soon as you possibly can.
The story follows a young man named Nazir Khan in New York City who wakes up in an Upper East Side brownstone after a wild night out, to discover the body of a young woman and no recollection of what has transpired. He is arrested for the murder and sent to Rikers Island Prison to await trial.
The Night Of explores the themes of racial profiling and discrimination, the broken justice system of America and the way in which the lack of rehabilitation and support in prison often takes innocent young men and turns them into criminals, even if they weren’t one before they entered.
The limited series was nominated for 13 Emmy Awards and won five, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for Ahmed.
The Wire
Another show that often finds itself at the top of “the best tv shows of all time” lists, The Wire ran from 2002 until 2008 and focused on the city of Baltimore, Maryland and its relationship to law enforcement.
Over the course its run, The Wire looked at the illegal drug trade, the port system, the city government and bureaucracy, education and schools, and print news while examining the themes of society, racism and politics.
Incredibly, the series never won any major awards, but that is certainly no indication of its brilliance.
The Undoing
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant star in The Undoing which focuses on a successful therapist, Grace Fraser (Kidman), along with her husband, Jonathan (Grant), and their young son (Noah Jupe), who attends an elite private school in New York City.
A chasm opens in her seemingly perfect life: a violent death, a missing spouse and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only a chain of terrible revelations. Left behind in the wake of a spreading and very public disaster, and horrified by the ways in which she has failed to heed her own advice, Grace must dismantle one life and create another for her child and herself.
The Undoing is adapted from the Jean Hanff Korelitz novel, You Should Have Known and features a twist ending for the ages.
Mr Inbetween
We had to add a homegrown crime drama to the list and they don’t get much better than Mr Inbetween.
This one is the perfect blend of drama and comedy as hitman for hire Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan) tries to juggle his criminal activities with his obligations of being a dad, a partner, an ex-husband and also a caretaker to his terminally ill brother.
The plot revolves around the way Ray deals with criminals and monsters in his own violent way and how this behaviour starts to take its toll and affects his relationships.
Big Little Lies
There’s a good chance you already devoured Big Little Lies when it first premiered back in 2017, which means it’s the perfect time to take a trip back to Monterey, California, where the mansions are to be envied but the lives of the people within them are often not.
Based on Liane Moriarty’s best-selling novel of the same name, the series centres around four women (played by Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley and Laura Derm) whose lives are turned upside down when a murder investigation rocks their community.
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