All 30 Episodes Of This Netflix Crime Series Are Great From Start To Finish

MovieStillsDB Published Sep 19, 2026, 7:45 PM EDT Cher Thompson is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, where she covers everything from explosive reality TV moments to cast interviews about the twists and turns of scripted dramas. With a background in creative writing, marketing, and teaching, Cher knows how to spot both the storytelling genius and the guilty pleasures in pop culture. Her work blends wit with insight, making readers feel like they’re chatting with a friend who just happens to know way too much about TV. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Netflix has spent the past several years building up its original programming lineup, including one fantastic crime drama that only spanned 30 episodes, but was great from beginning to end. While Netflix's original programming run has left some viewers confused about the way they position their programming and others struggling to understand why it doesn't have the longevity as other platforms', there are a few shows from the streamer that have established themselves with a strong fanbase and critical acclaim. The platform's most successful crime dramas have avoided overly predictable pitfalls and grown from character-driven twists in their overall stories. Consistency and strong characterization are what tend to separate good crime dramas on Netflix from the rest, and the platform has been able to bring a few fairly strong contenders to life in the last stretch of years. One of the best examples of a crime drama that's been able to stand out from the crowd on the streamer, which produces a fair amount of original content year in and out, is Dead to Me. The series, which starred Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, was a darkly comedic crime drama that spanned just 30 episodes, but held its own. Rather than losing focus and overstaying its welcome, Dead to Me focused on making its short run an incredibly memorable one. Navigating the standard challenges of a crime drama as well as those of a streamer, the series is an iconic mix of emotionally intense narrative and twisting narrative structure. Dead To Me Stays Consistently Brilliant Across All 3 Seasons Over the course of three short seasons, Dead to Me was able to stay consistent in the quality of the series and the way it laid out its story. Following Jen Harding (Applegate), a recently divorced real estate agent, as she forms an unlikely friendship with Judy Hale (Cardellini) after they meet at a grief support group, the story begins to unfold as their connection becomes less of a coincidence. What starts as a story about grief evolves over the course of the show's first season into a true crime drama, staying irreverent and hilarious as the narrative pushes boundaries. While many shows in the genre eventually run out of momentum in their story, especially with the crime itself resolved over the course of its episodes, Dead to Me managed to stay fresh throughout its run regardless of the twists. The show does this by ensuring that, rather than the primary focus of the series being the twists and turns of mystery, it pays close attention to the relationship between its central characters as it ebbs and flows. The chemistry between Applegate and Cardellini ensures that Jen and Judy's friendship is never stale, and ultimately allows the show to shine. Dead To Me Is One Of The Best Dark Comedy Shows On Netflix Although Netflix categorizes Dead to Me as a crime thriller, the show is more of a dark comedy than anything else, which allows it to move between genres fairly easily. The darkness of the show itself, which stems from both the premise and the way the characters move through their stories, is often more of the stuff of a crime thriller, while the comedic parts of the series infuse some light into the story. The writing of the series understands that comedy comes from discomfort, and brings that to life through Applegate and Cardellini's characters through nearly every situation possible. With a willingness to embrace emotional consequences that isn't common on TV, Dead to Me is able to prioritize the emotional reality that faces its characters. Instead of making light of dark circumstances, the show takes on the reality of the tough situations that the characters find themselves in, pushing the central relationships forward with a consistency that matches award-winning prestige dramas. Across its thirty episodes, Dead to Me makes it clear that it knows exactly what it is and how it treads through its story, consistently ensuring that it's earning all of the praise and critical acclaim it receives. Release Date 2019 - 2022-00-00 Showrunner Liz Feldman Directors Liz Feldman