7 Detective Shows Where Every Episode Is a Masterpiece

Image via NBC Published Jul 25, 2026, 6:52 AM EDT Jennie Richardson is a TV Features and Lists Writer for Collider, and a graduate student pursuing an MFA in Fiction Writing. In other words, she really loves stories. Sign in to your Collider account The detective show is a TV staple. Each episode shows the main character – whether they be a detective, a private investigator, or a police consultant – using their unique skills to solve a crime. Intense detective dramas see their main crime-solving teams investigating murders and other major crimes, while lighter detective shows lean into the comedy of what it means to try to solve complex cases each week. There are so many excellent detective shows out there, but it's especially impressive when detective shows make every episode count. The best detective shows have compelling weekly mysteries, while also taking the time to explore their characters and their respective arcs over the course of the series. These are detective shows where every single episode is a masterpiece. 'Mare of Easttown' (2021) Image via HBO Mare of Easttown is a limited series that follows a small-town detective sergeant named Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet). Mare has been struggling with debilitating grief since the death of her son, but she's been trying her best to continue to do her job to the best of her ability. This is especially difficult in the wake of a string of disappearances of young women and girls, which Mare has been unable to solve for a long time. When a local teenage girl named Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny) is brutally murdered, Mare is at the forefront of the investigation with the help of her new partner, Detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters). Soon, Mare realizes that there are people in her town with horrifying secrets who will do pretty much anything to keep them covered. Mare of Easttown is riveting from start to finish, and each episode leaves a lasting emotional impact. 'Wild Cards' (2024–Present) Image via CBC Television Wild Cards is a funny and entertaining procedural that follows the unlikely partnership between a disgraced detective and the con artist who's been assigned to be his consultant and partner. Cole Ellis (Giacomo Gianniotti) has been stuck working as a water cop since an investigation ended in him being framed for a crime that he did not commit. When his department arrests con artist Max Mitchell (Vanessa Morgan), Max shares her thoughts with Ellis on an unrelated crime. Quickly, it becomes apparent that Ellis and Max work very well together, and they're assigned to work as partners on a trial basis. Ellis is very rigid and by-the-book, while Max is carefree and willing to bend the rules to solve crimes. Through working together, they develop a lovely and unlikely partnership and friendship, and she even helps him look into a seemingly impossible-to-solve cold case: the murder of his brother. Wild Cards has the perfect balance of comedy and suspense, and each of its weekly cases is entertaining in its own way. 'Hannibal' (2013–2015) Image via NBC Hannibal is an intense and captivating thriller series that follows Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), a brilliant criminal profiler who consults for the FBI. Will's unique skill is his ability to put himself in the shoes of the most horrific killers, and in doing so, he's able to solve cases that even the most seasoned investigators cannot. All the while, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) becomes a constant in Will's life after helping out on several cases, and not even Will knows that Hannibal is secretly a cannibalistic serial killer. Hannibal's main overarching storyline is captivating and very well-written, but each individual episode is also fantastic. Every case has a horrifying twist and a shocking reveal, and it is impossible to look away once Will starts putting the pieces together. Hannibal is one of the more suspenseful and gripping detective shows, and each of its cases feels very high-stakes and urgent. 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' (2013–2021) Image via FOX Amongst the crime procedurals and gritty dramas lies Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a rare detective sitcom. The series follows Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), a naturally skilled detective who lacks impulse control and doesn't care for the rules. When a strict new captain, Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher), takes over at Jake's precinct, the two initially butt heads. Soon, though, Jake grows to trust Holt's guidance, and they both start to learn from each other. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is laugh-out-out funny, and it takes full advantage of its long seasons. It has some of the most memorable and hilarious episodes of any detective show ever, with its annual Halloween heists, recurring cameos from beloved side characters, and clever concept episodes. The series is excellent from start to finish, and it also has some very clever plot twists and killer reveals. Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would BeYour Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. 🎖️Rambo 🍸James Bond 🏺Indiana Jones 🔧John McClane 🎭Ethan Hunt FIND YOUR PARTNER → 01 You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you. ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged. NEXT QUESTION → 02 You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission. AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of. ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead. NEXT QUESTION → 04 The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are. AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability. APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership. AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters. ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had. ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up. NEXT QUESTION → 09 Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together. AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked. NEXT QUESTION → 10 It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one. AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been. REVEAL MY PARTNER → Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse. RamboYour partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know. James BondYour partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing. Indiana JonesYour partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them. John McClaneYour partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay. Ethan HuntYour partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 'Ultraviolet' (1998) Image via Channel 4 Ultraviolet is a stunning, dark crime drama with a supernatural twist. The six-episode miniseries follows Michael Colefield (Jack Davenport), a detective sergeant who's committed to following the rules. The night before the wedding of Michael's best friend and partner, Jack (Stephen Moyer), a police informant (Ronnie Letham) tries to urgently get in touch with Jack, and is then shot and killed. Michael soon learns that Jack has become a vampire (although the word is never used in the show), and he's working with a larger group of vampires to try to take over the world. After this life-changing event, Michael is recruited to work for a secret government organization called Section 5. The organization is made up of a Gulf War veteran (Idris Elba), a doctor and scientist (Susannah Harker), and a priest (Philip Quast). Section 5's sole purpose is to hunt down and kill all vampires, and each episode, they solve a different vampire-related crime. Each episode of Ultraviolet is an absolute masterpiece, and the series expertly maintains its crime-solving structure while also leaning into its horror side. 'Psych' (2006–2014) Image via USA Network Psych is a crime comedy procedural that follows Shawn Spencer (James Roday Rodriguez), a hyper-observant man with a photographic memory. What Shawn lacks in ambition, he makes up for in natural talent. He uses his detective skills to call in tips to the police, but when he's accused of a crime, he pretends to be a psychic to explain his prior knowledge. From there, Shawn opens a whole business around this lie, and he regularly consults for the police alongside his best friend, Gus (Dulé Hill). Every episode of Psych is brilliantly crafted and absolutely hilarious. Each episode, Shawn solves the weekly crime (usually a murder), and then he has to go back and pretend that the answers are coming to him in real time. Psych's individual cases in each episode are clever and have excellent twists. Best of all, it's absolutely hilarious to see the lengths that Shawn goes to in order to pretend that he has psychic powers. 'Pushing Daisies' (2007–2009) Another phenomenal Bryan Fuller detective series is Pushing Daisies, a fairytale-procedural hybrid that follows Ned (Lee Pace), a piemaker who can wake the dead with a single touch. Ned's power and their its rules have only caused problems for him in the past, so he keeps them hidden and generally isolates himself. Still, he uses his power to help Private Investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) solve murder cases by briefly waking the dead and asking them who killed them. When Emerson's latest case is the investigation into the murder of Ned's estranged childhood sweetheart, Chuck (Anna Friel), Ned finds himself unable to bring himself to send her back to being dead. Every single episode of Pushing Daisies is an absolute masterpiece. In each one, Emerson, Ned, and Chuck solve an outlandish and over-the-top murder. The cases are always very strange and funny, and they ultimately culminate in surprising twists. Alongside the weekly cases, though, are beautiful moments of development for the characters. Ned and Chuck quickly fall back in love, even though they can never touch, or she will die again. Ned is also keeping a major secret from her that could ruin everything if she ever found out.