Top 10 Criminal Drama Shows of All Time

4 min read

Welcome to our list of Criminal Drama Series as today we’ll be counting down the top 10 shows which not only attracted a mass audience but managed to make a special place in their heart.

Some of the picks are relatively new and some of them are classics but I promise with my heart you are gonna love them within seconds.

So here we go with the very first and probably the best Criminal Drama TV show ever created….

The Wire

Available on Disney Hotstar

Perhaps the best TV Series of all time. Its exciting and intriguing at the same time.

The city of Baltimore is getting filled with drug mafias and law is getting teared up by the drug kingpins.

The drug lords have inner contacts with high officials which helps them to execute their business buttery smooth and drowning the youth into drugs.

Detective James McNulty and his team fight against the drug lords, investigate them and their connections up in the systems, and tries to stop them from doing their business in order to prevent potential harm.


Breaking Bad

Available on Netflix.

With over 139 wins and 229 nominations, Breaking Bad is the most awarded show ever in the history of entertainment. Still want any other reason to watch it? Here’s the story…

Walter White is a chemistry teacher who discovers that he has cancer. He partners with Jesse in order to run a Drug business to cover his financial expenses but it goes to a whole new direction once it get started. Now he faces police, rival drug lords and local politics in order to survive.

This show beats games of throne in competition of most like show ever, as it gets 96% likes while other gets only 92%.


Better Call Saul

Available on Netflix

Saul, famously called everyone’s favorite lawyer. This show is prequel to the Breaking Bad, which carries almost same story line and events.

Jimmy McGill was a struggling con artist who becomes a small attorney, still struggling with his finances and going through series of unsuccessful trails until he becomes Saul Goodman, an alter Ego of him. He gets morally corrupted and starts to fight to protect bad men and drug lords.

Now you might have a question in your mind that do I have to watch breaking bad to understand the story of Better Call Saul?

No, you don’t have to. You can watch any of the show and you’ll just fall right into the story.


The Sopranos

Available on Disney Hotstar

An Italian American crime show with an IMBD rating of stunning 9.2 is still worth your while to watch.

This series with 6 good seasons is about the story of an Italian American crime lord Tony Sopranos who is struggling with his mental health due to his family and work mismanagement. He goes to see a psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi with whom he ends up having relationship. He tries to hide the relationship and the fact that he’s seeing a psychiatrist from his family and outer world.


Dexter

Available on Voot

This show is story of Dexter Morgan who is a forensic doctor for police department but he is not what he seems.

He lives a double life. During day time he is a regular forensic doctor but in night time he is a serial killer. But he only targets the criminals and murders who spoils the peace of the city.

Watch him protecting the secrecy of his alter ego and acting as a regular American citizen in day time.


Homeland

Available on Disney Hotstar

Do you like anti-terrorist drama? Yes you said? Well this is the right show for you.

This show is about a CIA agent Carrie Mathison whose job is to identify national threats and eliminate them before they harm the country.

When a Marine comes back from being hostage in Al Qaeda’s camp after 8 years, everyone starts to celebrate the fact and considers it as a victory. But Carrie gets suspicious that he may have joined hands with the enemy.

She goes to spy on him and faces immense troubles and political interference.


Sherlock

Available on Netflix

This show is the modern version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original title Sherlock Holmes.

In the streets of London, a retired military doctor Dr. Watson starts to share his flat with the infamous Sherlock Holmes who is known to solve crime mystery cases way better and fast than police can ever imagine plus he reads people like kindergarten poems.

Watch him solving murder, theft, and kidnapping mysteries in his sociopathic style…oops, I mean “High Functioning Sociopathic Style”.


Hannibal

Available on Prime

Will Graham gets recruited as a special investigator in FBI by Jack Crawford to catch serial killers and murderers of the city. But as he starts to operate things get a little tough for him so Jack introduce him to a FBI psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal to work with.

But Dr. Hannibal is not what he seems to be. He is a serial killer who is in the FBI to manipulate it from within so that he can get away from his crimes every time he kills someone.

As they both work with each other Dr. Hannibal grows insecure from Will’s ability to catch a killer. So he tries to psychologically manipulate him to turn him into a serial killer himself.


Punisher

Available on Netflix

This show is produced and created by Marvel. So you know it is going to be great.

Frank Castle plans to take revenge from the people who killed his wife and children. But as he does it he discovers a conspiracy that puts him in bigger picture. This conspiracy introduces him to a greater criminal world which is affecting more people like him.

He joins hands with Billy Russo, who runs a private military firm, and Former NASA Analyst Micro to dig deeper into the conspiracy and discover the truth.


Monk

Available on Prime

And the last on our list is a Crime-comedy mixture.

Adrian Monk was a star cop in his department known for his capabilities to get things done at whatever cost possible.

Until he develops a compulsive disorder and now it is hard for him to even perform simple day to day tasks. But he still chooses to solve the cases. Watch him struggling to manage both personal and professional life.


Honorable Mentions

Elementary, The Shield, Law And Order, NYPD Blue, Prison Break.