There’s nothing like a good crime thriller TV show to keep your attention from start to finish, and Hulu has dozens to stream, but only a handful can be considered the best. The best crime thriller TV shows include some of the best TV shows ever, a testament to the reach and quality of the genre.
It’s important to note that there are crime series and there are thriller series, and though the genres often touch, they don’t necessarily have to. The Sopranos is a crime drama, but I wouldn’t call it a thriller. Severance is a thriller but with no crime drama elements. These Hulu shows nail the intersection.
Criminal Minds (2005-Present)
The police procedural Criminal Minds premiered on CBS in 2005 and has been running straight through since, with a new season debuting just about every year. The series morphed into Criminal Minds: Evolution in 2022 on Paramount+ but has largely retained the same ethos, themes, and style.
Criminal Minds follows a group of criminal profilers who work for the FBI as members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. This unit investigates crimes and does its best to find the unsubs of each case, or the unknown subject. The series has rotated cast members over its many years, with Mandy Patinkin, Pagett Brewster, and more all making appearances.
The series has spawned spinoff shows, video games, and even foreign adaptations. Compared to shows like CSI and NCIS, Criminal Minds takes a more serious approach to its crime storytelling. There’s more of an examination of police work in the series, which makes the thrills feel more grounded.
Banshee (2013-2016)
Banshee follows a former criminal and conman played by Antony Starr, and it’s one of the best thriller TV shows you’ve never heard of. The series begins with the conman fleeing a Ukrainian mob boss by the name of Rabbit (Ben Cross) and landing in the backwater town of Banshee, Pennsylvania.
There, he happens to witness the murder of the town’s sheriff, Lucas Hood, and takes his identity, becoming the new sheriff of the town, bringing his own brand of justice. Lucas now has to balance his “real” duties of being law enforcement with the life he left behind, which is constantly threatening to catch up with him.
Banshee is never afraid to put sex and violence front and center, and much of the show is filled with all the lurid storytelling and mind-blowing plot moments crime thriller fans have come to expect. Starr is incredible in the lead role and will make you view his The Boys part in a whole new light.
Justified (2010-2015)
Justified stars Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, a lawman in the Eastern District of Kentucky, based out of Lexington. Raylan subscribes to an Old West style of frontier justice, making him an unconventional officer who is a scourge on criminals and a problem child for the U.S. Marshal Service.
Ralyan is given jurisdiction over Harlan County in Kentucky, which is where he grew up, meaning he returns to a location where he knows just about everyone and everyone knows him. It turns out that many of his former acquaintances have turned to lives of crime, sometimes pushed by the difficulty of life in Eastern Kentucky.
One of the best adaptations of an Elmore Leonard story, Justified is the prototypical neo-Western. This is a series that seamlessly blends old-school style Western storytelling with the difficulties and strictures of modern American life in the more desperate parts of the nation.
24 (2001-2010, 2014)
Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and 24 were crime thrillers and TV royalty for a period of time in the early 2000s, and if you’re wondering if time has not been good for the series, don’t worry, it’s still as excellent as it ever was. The torture and interrogation scenes are certainly excessive, but the thrust of the story remains relevant.
Each season of the show takes place across one day, with each episode of the 24-episode season taking up one hour of the day. At the bottom of the screen is a ticking clock, counting down the minutes until whatever terrible event is meant to happen. It’s an ingenious way to ramp up the drama of the series.
Often ranked among the best TV shows ever, 24 changed what it meant to be a serial. This was a show so tied to a cause-and-effect relationship between each episode that each episode literally ran into the next. It’s a truly epic show that features an incredible performance at the center, almost making it an Odyssey.
The Shield (2002-2008)
The Shield is an incredibly underrated crime thriller, better compared to the best prestige TV shows like The Sopranos or Breaking Bad than it is to other police series like Blue Bloods or CSI. The show follows the experimental division of the LAPD, who work primarily in the dangerous Farmington district of the city.
This division, referred to as the Strike Team, is led by Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), and together, he and his detectives stage arrests, coerce information, and generally cause mayhem, nominally in the name of policing. In reality, they’re more interested in accumulating money and power in the neighborhood.
Vic Mackey is the template of an antihero. He’s no doubt the protagonist, but his actions throughout the series are so vile that by the end of the seven seasons, you’ll be rooting for his downfall. It’s a risk-taking TV series that is unafraid to portray its characters honestly, never giving them the benefit of the doubt for their awful actions.
The Jetty (2024)
The Jetty is a highly underrated crime thriller that aired as a four-season miniseries on BBC Player. The series stars Jenna Coleman as Ember Manning, a detective who investigates a fire at a vacation home in the Lancashire town, which is linked to a podcast journalist and a missing person’s cold case.
There’s an added, unsettling plot about an illicit love triangle to make things a bit more personal for the young detective. This series is as much about the crimes in the show as it is about the difficulties young women can have navigating the world, particularly when thrust into positions where they have to wield some power.
It’s an incredibly gripping crime thriller, and if you’re subscribed to Hulu, there’s no reason not to watch it, particularly considering it’s only four episodes. There’s a compelling mystery, some fantastic character work and acting, and a relevant message that will hit close to home for many.
