Television series

Crime Story

Name: Crime Story
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime
Released: 1986
Cast: Dennis Farina, Tony Denison, Bill Smitrovich, Steve Ryan, Billy Campbell

Other titles called Crime Story: the 1993 film.

A Chicago cop-and-mobster cat-and-mouse game set in the early '60s, where Lieutenant Torello pursues a charismatic young hood named Ray Luca as he climbs the organized-crime ladder. Crime Story is propulsive serialized television: each episode advances a larger story, characters change and suffer real consequences, and the moral line between law and lawlessness blurs constantly. It's for anyone who wants their crime drama to actually go somewhere.

TVMaze rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like crime stories built on a long, patient cat-and-mouse between a hard-nosed cop and a climbing mobster, where the moral grey areas matter more than the shootouts.

Skip it if you want a self-contained case each week; this is a serialized saga where the threads run across many hours and the slow build can feel like waiting for the real payoff.

What it asks of you: Sixty-minute episodes, forty-four in all across two seasons, so it wants a commitment and steady attention rather than background viewing, and it moves at the speed of a rising career.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Sopranos1999

The definitive modern mob story: complex antiheroes, psychological depth, and a willingness to let consequences accumulate. If you loved Crime Story's moral ambiguity and character arcs, this is the show that learned from it.

But Slower pacing than Crime Story, and the early seasons take time to establish tone. Some find the therapy sessions repetitive.

Miami Vice1984

Contemporaneous and kindred in spirit: serialized crime storytelling with style, real stakes, and characters who evolve across seasons. Same era's approach to making cops-and-criminals personal and textured.

But The aesthetic is very 1980s, which works or doesn't depending on your tolerance for neon and synth. Some plots feel dated now.

The Wire2002

A systematic, season-long exploration of how crime, police work, and institutions actually function. Like Crime Story, it trusts you to follow complex webs and multiple perspectives without hand-holding.

But Dense and demanding—you need to pay attention or you'll lose the thread. Very bleak, and slower than Crime Story's forward momentum.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Crime Story

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Thief1981

Michael Mann directed Crime Story's pilot and shaped its DNA; Thief is the film version of that same sensibility—crime as a profession, aestheticized but never romanticized.

Michael Mann's masterpiece about a professional criminal in Chicago, set in roughly the same era and world as Crime Story. Stylish, tense, and absolutely obsessed with how crime works as a business and a life. Mann invented the template that Crime Story followed.

But Deliberately paced and atmospheric rather than plot-driven. The ending is bleak and doesn't offer catharsis, which can feel punishing if you've invested in the protagonist.

Homicide: Life on the Street1993

Serialized crime procedural that respects its audience and its characters. Balances procedural cases with larger story arcs and lets detectives have lives outside the job, much like Crime Story's ensemble approach.

But Early seasons are rougher in execution. The tone shifts over time, and not every viewer adjusts to the later stylistic choices.

The Godfather Part II1974

Parallel narratives about a crime family's rise and fall, tracing how power corrupts and how business and morality diverge. The same DNA as Crime Story's interest in how organized crime actually works and changes people.

But At over three hours, it demands patience. Some find the intercutting between timelines confusing, and the pacing is deliberate by design.

Wiseguy1987

An undercover cop infiltrating different crime organizations each season. Serialized, intense, and interested in the psychological toll of deception. Very much in Crime Story's wheelhouse of moral compromise and long-form consequences.

But Uneven in quality across seasons, and the show's cancelled ending is abrupt and unsatisfying for some viewers.

L.A. Confidential1997

A 1950s LA noir about corrupt cops and the criminals they pursue, with the same moral fog as Crime Story. Tightly constructed, beautifully shot, and genuinely thrilling without sacrificing character complexity.

But At its core it's a mystery-thriller, so once solved, the rewatch loses some punch. Some find the violence excessive for the story being told.

City of God2002

A sprawling, kinetic look at how a young man rises through organized crime in Rio's slums, with the same interest in how violence and ambition feed each other. Stunning filmmaking and real emotional stakes.

But Subtitled, and the kinetic visual style can feel overwhelming. Based on true events, so the casual cruelty is sometimes hard to sit with.

Gomorra: La Serie2014

An Italian series about Neapolitan organized crime that treats gangsters as ordinary people in an ordinary system. Unflinching and serialized in the way Crime Story was, with genuine consequences for choices made.

But Subtitled, and the pacing is European—slower and more contemplative than American crime TV. The violence is sudden and casual, which some find harder to watch than spectacle.

Donnie Brasco1997

Like Crime Story's central dynamic of Torello and Luca, it's built on the impossible relationship between a cop and a criminal—two men on opposite sides who understand each other too well.

An undercover FBI agent infiltrates the Mafia and genuinely befriends his mob target, creating an agonizing moral knot. It's about the cost of deception and the blurry line between loyalty and duty in exactly the way Crime Story was.

But A melodrama at heart, and some find the emotional beats manipulative. The second half shifts tone noticeably, and the ending is wrenching rather than satisfying.

The Long Goodbye1973

Both are about men following men they thought they knew, and both are more interested in the texture of that pursuit than in conventional justice or resolution.

Robert Altman's noir: a private detective stumbling through 1970s LA helping a friend, only to discover the friend has betrayed him. A meditation on loyalty, masculinity, and how the world changes around you. Completely different in mood from Crime Story but structurally similar—a protagonist pursuing someone he once trusted.

But Deliberately anti-climactic and philosophical rather than thrilling. The 1970s setting and tone feel removed from the crime-procedural convention, and the ending baffles viewers expecting payoff.