Who doesn’t love a good detective series? Ever since the days of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, people have been captivated by the genre, which has snowballed with the advent of streaming media. However, I have a short attention span when it comes to these procedural dramas, and if a case drags on for too many episodes, my interest quickly wanes.
I therefore usually check the episode count before committing to a detective series, as I love to immerse myself over the course of a weekend. There’s something inherently satisfying in watching a case unravel without letting the momentum slip, and there are a handful that had me hooked from the very first episode.
Broadchurch
Watch it on Prime Video
The coast of southern England is often bleak yet hauntingly beautiful, making it a fitting backdrop to this slow-burning mystery that begins with the tragic discovery of an 11-year-old boy’s body on the beach. This sends shockwaves through the small-town community, and local detectives Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) are tasked with uncovering the truth.
Broadchurch excels in its character development, particularly between its two strong leads, and in capturing the emotional toll of the crime, not only on the victim’s family but also on the broader community. While it spans three seasons, each consists of only eight episodes with layered storytelling, nuanced performances, and shocking revelations throughout, making it eminently bingeable.
River
Watch it on Netflix
I slept on River for too long. This hidden gem of the detective genre is deeply emotional, compelling, and original. It stars Stellan Skarsgård as Detective Inspector John River, who, despite his successes, is haunted by the ghosts of the victims whose cases he couldn’t solve. These include his recently murdered former partner, who still communicates with the protagonist through his tormented hallucinations.
This concise six-parter is notable for being more than just a murder mystery. It is also a poignant exploration of grief, mental health, and justice, told with brilliant performances and a uniquely poetic tone. I found this series to be more profound than your typical police procedural drama, with its relatively short length making its impact that much more significant.
Mare of Easttown
Watch it on HBO
Kate Winslet delivers a powerhouse performance in Mare of Easttown, a limited series that was an instant success upon its release. Here, she plays Detective Mare Sheehan, tasked with investigating the murder of a young girl and the disappearance of another in a blue-collar Pennsylvania town. As the story unfolds, we see her struggle with personal tragedy, professional pressure, and complicated relationships, all while maintaining an unyielding dedication to her job.
At just seven episodes, Mare of Easttown packs a hard punch with its emotionally rich drama, deep character studies, and a convincing depiction of the small-town community that makes it feel unnervingly claustrophobic at times. There are plenty of twists and a gripping narrative that kept me hooked from one episode to the next, and I found that the show left a lasting impression long after its conclusion.
The Stranger
Watch it on Netflix
This adaptation of Harlan Coben’s novel translates well as a rapid-fire series and is one of many engaging British thrillers currently available to stream. The story gripped me from the first episode as its titular character, a mysterious woman, confronts seemingly ordinary people with devastating secrets that instantly upend their lives. Richard Armitage plays a family man whose encounter with her sets off a chain of lies, betrayal, and murder.
At only eight episodes long, The Stranger is perfect binge-watching material, as each episode ends with a clever twist or cliffhanger, making it more compelling than the last. It is laced with themes of digital privacy, hidden pasts, and the facades that people maintain, all while delivering an edge-of-your-seat mystery that builds to a satisfying conclusion.
Mindhunter
Watch it on Netflix
Rather than following the usual whodunnit formula, Mindhunter focuses on the psychology behind criminal behavior, making it a refreshingly unique spin on the genre. Set in the late 1970s and early 1980s, this acclaimed Netflix series follows FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) as they write the rule book on modern criminal profiling by interviewing some of the most notorious serial killers of the era.
Fans of David Fincher’s work will instantly recognize his dark and brooding direction here, and while Mindhunter isn’t heavy on action, it’s increasingly thought-provoking and gripping as the series develops. Similar in style to Fincher’s Zodiac, and also rooted in real events, it’s fascinating to follow the protagonists’ journey into the darkest recesses of the human mind. While it required a bit of commitment to watch the first season in a single weekend, this is a series that I will undoubtedly revisit in the future.
The short-form detective series is the best format for streaming
These excellent series prove that you don’t need a sprawling multi-season saga to tell a decent detective yarn. On the contrary, it is often more effective to pack all the intrigue, tension, and emotional weight of longer shows into a binge-friendly format that is still long enough to pace itself in a way that movies cannot.
As winter draws ever closer, my weekend plans tend to be more couch-oriented, and I’ll likely be giving some of these series a rewatch, despite knowing their endings. After all, the mark of a good mystery doesn’t lie in its conclusion, but rather in how it arrives there.
