Television series

Nocturne

Other titles called Nocturne: the 1946 film, the 2019 film.

A gritty crime thriller where an ex-soldier detective retreats to small-town Pennsylvania for peace, only to face a methodical serial killer who threatens everything he's rebuilt. Nocturne is taut, character-driven television that balances intimate family drama with procedural tension. It's for viewers who want their crime shows grounded in real stakes and moral complexity.

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True Detective2014

A detective haunted by his past investigates a ritualistic murder in Louisiana. Like Nocturne, it weaves psychological depth with a hunt for an elusive killer, building dread through character study as much as plot.

But The second season lost the thread badly, and even season one's final act falters. Fair to be gun-shy about the anthology format.

True Detective poster

MINDHUNTER2017

FBI profilers studying serial killers in the 1970s to understand their psychology. Both shows treat the killer as a puzzle to be understood rather than simply caught, with the investigation forcing protagonists to confront uncomfortable truths.

But It ended on a cliffhanger and was cancelled. Investing means accepting an unresolved story.

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Mare of Easttown2021

A small-town detective investigates a murder while managing her fractured family. Kate Winslet anchors a show that finds tragedy in routine lives and places character wounds at the centre of a crime narrative.

But Bleak to the point of suffocation. If you watch it, you will feel heavy for days afterward.

Mare of Easttown poster

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Memories of Murder2003

Both centre a detective's obsessive pursuit of a killer who embodies something systemic and irreducible. The investigation itself becomes an act of faith in justice when the system fails.

A serial killer haunts 1980s South Korea; two detectives pursue him with clashing methods across a police procedural that explodes into moral and political fury. Bong Joon-ho's masterpiece shows that crime thrillers can be formally inventive and emotionally devastating simultaneously.

But It's a two-hour-twenty-minute film from 2003 in Korean with subtitles. The pace is deliberate; some viewers find it slow.

Memories of Murder poster
More like this (8)

Broadchurch2013

A child's murder shatters a quiet seaside village. It captures that same suffocating dread of evil infiltrating a place meant to be safe, and the way investigation forces townspeople to turn on each other.

But The twist, once revealed, feels narratively convenient. It's tense because it withholds, which can feel manipulative in hindsight.

Broadchurch poster

The Killing2011

Sarah Lund hunts a killer across Copenhagen's grey winter. Methodical, atmospheric, obsessed with the slow accumulation of evidence and the detective's personal sacrifice to the case.

But Three seasons is a lot for one murder investigation. Patience wears thin when the story circles rather than progresses.

The Killing poster

Homicide: Life on the Street1993

Baltimore detectives solve murders across a season where cases overlap and close. A foundation stone for serious crime drama, showing how procedure and humour and humanity coexist in a squad room.

But It's 1990s television. The pacing and aesthetics feel dated if you're accustomed to modern editing and visual language.

Homicide: Life on the Street poster

The Wire2002

Baltimore's institutions—crime, police, politics, schools, media—laid bare across five seasons. An ambition that makes most crime shows look small, and a formal brilliance that rewards close attention.

But Dense, demanding, sometimes wilfully opaque. You cannot half-watch it. The first season also takes five episodes to unlock.

The Wire poster

Bosch2015

Harry Bosch, a LAPD detective, works unsolved murders while navigating bureaucracy and conscience. It's steady, well-crafted procedural television with a protagonist who believes the dead deserve justice even when the system doesn't.

But Competent but not inspired. It does its job without reaching for anything transcendent.

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Luther2010

Idris Elba plays a brilliant, volatile detective consumed by cases. High-octane and twisty, heavy on psychological cat-and-mouse between hunter and hunted.

But Leans into melodrama and implausibility. The plot mechanics creak; you have to accept a lot on faith.

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Godless2017

Both explore what a man will sacrifice and risk to protect his family and community. Both understand that refuge is temporary and that evil doesn't announce itself.

A woman-run New Mexico mining town becomes the refuge for a fugitive. A western that inverts power structures and explores how safety is fragile, how protection exacts costs, how good people harbour contradictions.

But Only one season, and it's less interested in plot momentum than atmosphere and moral complexity. Some find the pacing frustratingly slack.

Godless poster

You're the Worst2014

Zazie Beetz in a role that demands she hold contradictions—toughness and vulnerability, humour and darkness—with the same intensity she brings to Nocturne. It's her doing almost the opposite register, but the emotional intelligence is identical.

A cynical comedy about two terrible people falling in love in Los Angeles. Zazie Beetz is brilliant as a woman whose sharp wit masks real trauma; the show balances laugh-out-loud comedy with genuine emotional reckoning.

But It's a romantic comedy first, and often outrageously crude. If you hate quippy banter or hate-love stories, this will grate.

You're the Worst poster

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