Best Crime Shows of the 2000s (Ranked)

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Breaking Bad

★9.5Ended(2008–2013)

#1Score 9.502.7M IMDb votes

A high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer turns to manufacturing and selling methamphetamine in order to secure his family's future.

The Wire

★9.3Ended(2002–2008)

#2Score 9.29442.1k IMDb votes

The Baltimore drug scene, as seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement.

Death Note

★8.9Ended

#3Score 8.89503.2k IMDb votes

An intelligent high school student goes on a secret crusade to eliminate criminals from the world after discovering a notebook capable of killing anyone whose name is written into it.

Shield

★8.7Ended(2002–2008)

#4Score 8.6798.9k IMDb votes

Drama series following the lives and cases of dirty cop Vic Mackey and the LAPD unit under his command.

Dexter

★8.6Ended(2006–2013)

#5Score 8.60959.7k IMDb votes

He's smart. He's lovable. He's Dexter Morgan, America's favorite serial killer, who spends his days solving crimes and nights committing them. Golden Globe winner Michael C. Hall stars in the hit SHOWTIME Original Series.

Deadwood

★8.6Ended

#6Score 8.58130.7k IMDb votes

A show set in the late 1800s, revolving around the characters of Deadwood, South Dakota; a town of deep corruption and crime.

Sons of Anarchy

★8.5Ended(2008–2014)

#7Score 8.49361.4k IMDb votes

A biker struggles to balance being a father and being involved in an outlaw motorcycle club.

Trailer Park Boys

★8.5Ended

#8Score 8.4658.7k IMDb votes

Three petty felons have a documentary made about their life in a trailer park.

Justice League

★8.5Ended

#9Score 8.4658.3k IMDb votes

Seven of the most formidable heroes form arguably the most powerful team ever.

Air Crash Investigation 2003

★8.8Ongoing

#10Score 8.456.9k IMDb votes

Dramatized reconstruction of real-life air disasters, along with interviews with aviation experts and eyewitnesses.

Boston Legal

★8.5Ended(2004–2008)

#11Score 8.4554.4k IMDb votes

Boston Legal is a spin-off of the long-running David E. Kelley series The Practice (1997), following the exploits of former Practice character Alan Shore (James Spader) at the legal firm of Crane, Poole, and Schmidt.

Southland

★8.5Ended(2009–2013)

#12Score 8.4335.4k IMDb votes

The lives of Police Officers working for the Los Angeles Police Department.

24 - Live Another Day

★8.4Ended

#13Score 8.39208.6k IMDb votes

Counter Terrorism Agent Jack Bauer races against the clock to subvert terrorist plots and save his nation from ultimate disaster.

Fringe

★8.4Ended

#14Score 8.39273.2k IMDb votes

An F.B.I. agent is forced to work with an institutionalized scientist and his son in order to rationalize a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena.

Psych

★8.4Ended

#15Score 8.38122.2k IMDb votes

When a novice sleuth convinces the police he has psychic powers, he and his reluctant best friend are hired on as consultants to help solve complicated cases.

Prison Break

★8.3Ended

#16Score 8.30682.7k IMDb votes

Due to a political conspiracy, an innocent man is sent to death row and his only hope is his brother, who makes it his mission to deliberately get himself sent to the same prison in order to break the both of them out, from the in...

The Good Wife

★8.3Ended(2009–2016)

#17Score 8.2890.3k IMDb votes

Alicia Florrick has been a good wife to her husband, a former state's attorney. After a very humiliating sex and corruption scandal, he is behind bars. She must now provide for her family and returns to work as a litigator in a la...

Veronica Mars

★8.3Ended(2004– )

#18Score 8.2784.4k IMDb votes

After her best friend is murdered, and her father is removed as county Sheriff, Veronica Mars dedicates her life to cracking the toughest mysteries in the affluent town of Neptune.

Spooks

★8.3Ended

#19Score 8.2020.5k IMDb votes

The missions of MI-5, the UK's domestic intelligence organization.

White Collar

★8.2Ended(2009–2014)

#20Score 8.19155.3k IMDb votes

A white-collar criminal agrees to help the FBI catch other white-collar criminals using his expertise as an art and securities thief, counterfeiter, and conman.

The Mentalist

★8.2Ended(2008–2015)

#21Score 8.19257k IMDb votes

A famous "psychic" outs himself as a fake, and starts working as a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation so he can find "Red John", the madman who killed his wife and daughter.

Bleak House 2005

★8.3Ended

#22Score 8.1411.7k IMDb votes

A suspenseful tale about the injustices of the 19th Century English legal system.

Hustle

★8.2Ended

#23Score 8.1324.6k IMDb votes

A motley group of London con artists pulls off a series of daring and intricate stings.

Murdoch Mysteries

New

Murdoch Mysteries

★8.2Ongoing(2008– )

#24Score 8.1120.8k IMDb votes

In the 1890s, William Murdoch uses radical forensic techniques for the time, including fingerprinting and trace evidence, to solve some of the city's most gruesome murders.

Castle

★8.1Ended(2009–2016)

#25Score 8.09189.2k IMDb votes

After a serial killer imitates the plots of his novels, successful mystery novelist Richard "Rick" Castle receives permission from the Mayor of New York City to tag along with an NYPD homicide investigation team for research purpo...

Criminal Minds

★8.1Ongoing(2005– )

#26Score 8.09244k IMDb votes

The cases of the F.B.I. Behavioral Analysis Unit (B.A.U.), an elite group of profilers who analyze the nation's most dangerous serial killers and individual heinous crimes in an effort to anticipate their next moves before they st...

Monk

★8.1Ended(2002–2009)

#27Score 8.08103.3k IMDb votes

The series follows Adrian Monk, a brilliant former San Francisco detective, who now consults the police as a private consultant who battles with an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Damages

★8.1Ended

#28Score 8.0533.4k IMDb votes

A law school graduate becomes the protÃ©gÃ©e of a successful high-stakes litigator.

Lie To Me

★8.0Ended(2009–2011)

#29Score 7.99136.6k IMDb votes

About Cal Lightman, the world's leading deception expert who studies facial expressions and involuntary body language to expose the truth behind the lies.

Burn Notice

★8.0Ended(2007–2013)

#30Score 7.9883.9k IMDb votes

A spy recently disavowed by the U.S. government uses his special ops training to help others in trouble.

Shameless UK

★8.0Ended

#31Score 7.9321.1k IMDb votes

The lives and relationships of a group of siblings and their estranged father Frank Gallagher on a rough Manchester estate.

The First 48

★8.2Ongoing(2004– )

#32Score 7.914.9k IMDb votes

The series follows detectives during the hours immediately following a homicide.

True Blood

★7.9Ended(2008–2014)

#33Score 7.90273.7k IMDb votes

Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse encounters a strange new supernatural world when she meets the mysterious Bill Compton, a southern Louisiana gentleman and vampire.

Weeds

★7.9Ended(2005–2012)

#34Score 7.89123.9k IMDb votes

When a suburban mother turns to dealing marijuana in order to maintain her privileged lifestyle after her husband dies, she finds out just how addicted her entire neighborhood already is.

Leverage

★7.9Ended(2008–2012)

#35Score 7.8857.5k IMDb votes

A crew of high-tech crooks attempt to steal from wealthy criminals and corrupt businessmen.

New Tricks

★8.0Ended

#36Score 7.8710.3k IMDb votes

Three retired police officers are drafted in to solve cold cases, with a touch of comedy and drama

Underbelly

★8.0Ended

#37Score 7.805.8k IMDb votes

Each season of this multi-award-winning television series takes you through a 13-episode run in the rise and fall of real-life Australian underworld figures as told from both sides of the law.

NCIS

New

NCIS

★7.8Ongoing(2003– )

#38Score 7.79178.6k IMDb votes

The cases of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service's Washington, D.C. Major Case Response Team, led by Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Bones

★7.8Ended(2005–2017)

#39Score 7.79193.3k IMDb votes

Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan and cocky F.B.I. Special Agent Seeley Booth build a team to investigate murders. Quite often, there isn't more to examine than rotten flesh or mere bones.

Bored To Death

★7.8Ended(2009–2011)

#40Score 7.7736.4k IMDb votes

A well-meaning but struggling writer decides to lead a sort of double life by pretending to be a private detective using the methods he read about in old detective novels.

The Closer

★7.8Ended(2005–2012)

#41Score 7.7733.5k IMDb votes

Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson runs the Priority Homicide Division of the LAPD with an unorthodox style. Her innate ability to read people and obtain confessions helps her and her team solve the city's toughest, most sensitive...

Flashpoint

★7.8Ended(2008–2012)

#42Score 7.7519.7k IMDb votes

The missions and trials of a Toronto police tactical unit.

Whitechapel

★7.8Ended(2009–2013)

#43Score 7.7416.6k IMDb votes

A fast-tracked inspector, a hardened detective sergeant, and an expert in historical homicides investigate modern crimes with connections to the past in the Whitechapel district of London.

CSI

★7.7Ended

#44Score 7.6995k IMDb votes

Series following an elite team of police forensic evidence investigation experts as they work their cases in Las Vegas.

Torchwood

★7.7Ended(2006–2011)

#45Score 7.6846k IMDb votes

The members of the Torchwood Institute, a secret organization founded by the British Crown, fight to protect the Earth from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats.

Alias

★7.6Ended(2001–2006)

#46Score 7.5958.4k IMDb votes

Sydney Bristow is an international spy recruited out of college, trained for espionage and self-defense.

Law and Order Criminal Intent

★7.6Ended

#47Score 7.5830.3k IMDb votes

This series focuses on the NYPD's Major Case Squad, a force of detectives who investigate high-profile cases, while also showing parts of the crime from the perpetrator's point of view.

Wallander

★7.6Ended

#48Score 7.516.7k IMDb votes

A Swedish cop in a small town by the Baltic coast.

Sea Patrol

★7.5Ended(2007–2011)

#49Score 7.393k IMDb votes

Following the crew of the patrol boat HMAS Hammersley, as they patrol the northern sea border of Australia. They have to deal with foreign fishermen poaching fish, smugglers and with political unrest in a neighbouring island state.

The Jury UK

★7.6Ended

#50Score 7.391.6k IMDb votes

Twelve men and women are called for jury service in the retrial of a man accused of a triple murder after the High Court overturns the original verdict.

Score = IMDb rating weighted by vote count (Bayesian average). Shows need at least 1,000 votes to be ranked.

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Best Crime Shows of the 2000s