20 Best Detective TV Shows, Ranked: ‘Law & Order,’ ‘Columbo,’ & More

Tony Shalhoub’s ex-San Francisco detective has been making hand sanitizer cool since 2002. Even as he deals with hundreds of phobias — and other Monk-ey business — this police consultant always proves himself to be a formidable crime-solver.

Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas are detectives taking down baddies in the Florida heat. Pretty normal fare, right? But what really elevates Miami Vice is its style: its Art Deco color scheme, its New Wave soundtrack, and its designer fashion.

What happens in Vegas… gets investigated by the city’s graveyard-shift forensic team in this ratings mega-hit. Though it’s the seediest and most sensationalized entry on this list, CSI’s mass popularity and pop culture impact can’t be denied.

Unlike in many other workplace comedies, the characters of this NYPD-set comedy are actually good at their jobs, solving cases in uproarious fashion. Plus, B99 is a rare cop comedy to delve into serious policing issues.

Book ’em, Danno! This Hawaii-set series (the original) surfed on the airwaves for 12 seasons — then a record for the genre — and traded the backlot cityscapes of typical police procedurals for colorful, sun-drenched Aloha State exteriors.

After going from popular girl to pariah, Veronica (Kristen Bell) follows in her father’s footsteps, becoming a private eye armed with a taser, a telephoto lens, a wry wit, and a dog named Backup. Criminals of Neptune, California, don’t stand a chance.

A noir, a musical, a comedy, a fantasy, and a romance all in one, this show follows a pie maker (Lee Pace) with a death-reversing touch, who brings murder victims back to life just long enough to learn about their demises. Dark and delightful!

We’ve seen umpteen fictional crime writers become fictional crime solvers. But for us (and for award show voters), none did it better than Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher, who often outsmarts the constabulary in the cozy town of Cabot Cove, Maine.

“Just one more thing,” this rumpled detective says, almost as an afterthought, before asking a question that blows his investigation wide open. The popularity of Peter Falk’s character — and the inverted “howcatchem” format — kept viewers hooked for 35 years.

For all its flaws, Dick Wolf’s Big Apple franchise is a TV institution, one in which countless New York-based actors have turned up on one side of the law or the other. The first half of each episode has detectives nabbing out the baddies. These are their stories.

At 26 seasons and counting, the first L&O spinoff is now the longest-running entry in the franchise, and that’s a testament to Mariska Hargitay’s appeal — and Emmy-endorsed performance — as one of the cop show genre’s far-too-few female leads.

Even though its setting was never mentioned, this detective show lent realism to the genre — and innovation. Check out the handheld camera work, the intercut and serialized storylines, and the interplay between its characters’ lives on and off the clock.

Whenever Kate Winslet comes to TV, we take notice. But this series, in which she plays a Pennsylvania detective working a murder case while struggling with her own trauma, was a defining showcase of her acting (and her aptitude for accents).

Never mind the alien invasions, government conspiracies, and monsters of the week — this shadowy sci-fi thriller is a detective show at heart. The truth is out there, and FBI Agents Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Mulder (David Duchovny) will find it.

Time is a flat circle, says Rustin Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) — does that mean we’ll eventually get to be first-time True Detective viewers again? If you haven’t already seen it, come for the action-packed first season, stay for the chilling fourth.

A former TV detective, a has-been Broadway director, and a sardonic Millennial team up to investigate murders in their Upper West Side building. Cross-generational hilarity ensues, thanks to the talent of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez.

In this anthology set all around the Great Plains and Midwest, Fargo is less a place than a feeling — specifically, one of everyday people desperate enough to do bad things and the detectives close on their heels. And it’s binge-worthy TV, donchaknow?

There’s a reason fans were waiting for years for this show to stream. A precursor to The Wire (more on that below), Homicide and its stellar cast, led by Andre Braugher, shed the noble detective trope and dared to show the job’s rough edges.

With the unsettling vibes only David Lynch could provide, this seminal series follows an FBI agent (Kyle MacLachlan) as he investigates a murder in a town full of eccentric characters. A cult classic was born, one that inspired countless other creators.

Created by a former police reporter and produced by a former homicide detective, this crime show delves deep into the urban life of Baltimore, Maryland. And both cop and criminal are portrayed with humanity, as we’re all just products of the society and the systems that surround us. The Wire is less entertainment and more exposé, and it’s our top detective show.