The 10 Best Crime Shows With Less Than 20 Episodes, Ranked
Liam Gaughan is a film and TV writer at Collider. He has been writing film reviews and news coverage for ten years. Between relentlessly adding new titles to his watchlist and attending as many screenings as he can, Liam is always watching new movies and television shows.
In addition to reviewing, writing, and commentating on both new and old releases, Liam has interviewed talent such as Mark Wahlberg, Jesse Plemons, Sam Mendes, Billy Eichner, Dylan O'Brien, Luke Wilson, and B.J. Novak. Liam aims to get his spec scripts produced and currently writes short films and stage plays. He lives in Allentown, PA.
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Crime is the most prevailing and popular genre on television, and has been for quite some time. There is no shortage of great crime shows that are worth recommending, but a vast majority of them also come with a hefty time investment that could seem intimidating. The Sopranos is a show that comes highly recommended, but its 86 episodes almost seem tame in comparison to the network procedurals that have libraries of hundreds.
There are plenty of exciting crime shows that are in production or airing right now, with the crime genre continuing to be a favorite among modern audiences. With that being said, there are still a wide range of options for viewers wanting to have a faster binge among miniseries, short shows, and programs that were cancelled far too soon. The following short crime shows with fewer than 20 episodes will give viewers that quick fix.
10 'Tokyo Vice' (2022–2024)
Tokyo Vice is a remarkable true crime series based on the true story of the crime reporter Jake Adelstein, the first American writer to work at the most powerful newspaper in Tokyo. Jake is played in the series by Ansel Elgort, and it shows his experiences uncovering the seedy criminal underworld of Japan while working alongside a veteran law enforcement officer portrayed by Ken Watanabe, in what might be the best performance of his entire career.
Tokyo Vice is the rare expensive streaming show where the money is on the screen, as HBO Max spared no expense in beautifully recreating the ‘80s and fleshing out all the environments described in Adelstein’s books. While Tokyo Vice was sadly cancelled by the end of its second season, it’s a miracle that it exists, and it is going to keep aging extremely well.
9 'Too Old to Die Young' (2019)
Too Old to Die Young is a one-of-a-kind miniseries achievement by Nicolas Winding Refn, a polarizing director who nonetheless always delivers something that is worth dissecting. Although Too Old To Die Young is a contemporary crime drama set in the underworld of Los Angeles, it contains a number of allusions to classic Western and samurai stories, as well as complex religious imagery that makes it work on a metaphorical level.
Too Old to Die Young certainly feels like a feature film because of the sheer ambition of what Refn is trying to do, but it is also serialized in a way in which every episode feels like a complete statement that can almost be viewed as completely standalone. It’s an oddly beautiful series, despite how disturbing it can get, and features a great score by frequent Ren collaborator Cliff Martinez.
8 'The Night Of' (2016)
The Night Of is among the most gripping miniseries that HBO has ever made, and it’s a must-watch because of how relevant it feels a decade after its debut. Although it is hardly the first murder mystery show to air on the network, The Night Of follows a Muslim cab driver (Riz Ahmed) in New York City who is falsely accused of committing a murder, forcing his dedicated public defender (John Turturro) to work overtime to secure that he is not harmed in prison.
The Night Of deconstructs the racism and Islamophobia within the legal system, showing the danger inside prisons as well as the impediments within the judicial process, and is able to spin a complex mystery that ends on a devastating note. The show is packed with terrific performances from a number of HBO veterans, including the late great Michael K. Williams.
7 'Ripley' (2024)
Ripley is hardly the first adaptation of the iconic series of thriller novels by Patricia Highsmith, but it's perhaps the most complete because it takes the time to flesh out The Talented Mr. Ripley into a sprawling miniseries that gets into the mind of one of the most complex literary antiheroes of all-time. Several great actors have inhabited the role of Tom Ripley, but Andrew Scott’s performance stands out because he creates a totally unreadable character where it is never entirely clear how much of his presentation is an illusion.
Ripley is shot in gorgeous black-and-white by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Robert Elswitt, and it evokes the moody, atmospheric noirs of the 1950s, the era in which it was both originally written and when it takes place. It’s the perfect option for both fans of the novels and those experiencing the story for the first time.
6 'Top of the Lake' (2013–2017)
Top of the Lake is a challenging and deliberately disconfirming detective show that was created by the Academy Award-winning director Jane Campion and continues the exploration of the female experience that she has tackled in all of her films. Elisabeth Moss has had many great television shows, but she is remarkably well-suited for playing a traumatized detective who has to look into her own past while investigating the murder of a teen girl.
Top of the Lake was designed as a miniseries before it was continued with the sequel series Top of the Lake: China Girl, but the two seasons together still have fewer than 20 total episodes. It might not be a series that can be “enjoyed” in the traditional sense because of how frankly it addresses its subject matter, but it is impossible to deny the brilliance of Campion’s craftsmanship.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz
Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
5 'Terriers' (2010)
Terriers is one of the great “hidden gem” shows of the 2010s, and it’s a tragedy that it was cancelled after only one season because of how much potential there was for it to span many years. The show is about the former detective Hank Dolworth (Donal Logue) and his partner Britt Pollock (Michael Raymond-James), who start an independent detective agency because they have acquired a unique set of crime-solving skills, but do not want to be associated with law enforcement.
Terriers has a perfectly bittersweet tone because it deals with the melancholy of middle-aged malaise, but also features a fun banter between two likable characters. Although the show didn’t get enough viewership at the time it was first airing, it did include an early showcase for the television work of Rian Johnson before he went on to create Poker Face for Peacock.
Under the Banner of Heaven is based on a shocking true story about a case of murder and polygamy within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but it offers a balanced depiction of the events because it is told through the perspective of a Mormon police officer played by Andrew Garfield. Although Under the Banner of Heaven is a thought-provoking mystery, it is also a deeply thoughtful exposé on religion and the lengths people will go to in order to justify their faith.
Under the Banner of Heaven succeeds because it does not paint any of its issues as being black-and-white, and shows a remarkable degree of restraint in avoiding any indulgence in the most scandalous details. It also has one of the greatest ensembles in recent television history, including a surprisingly dark performance from Rory Culkin.
3 ‘Mare of Easttown’ (2021)
Mare of Easttown is more than just another crime miniseries because it is an all-consuming exploration of the way in which grief can encapsulate an insular community and force its inhabitants to hide secrets from one another. Brad Ingelsby is a wonderful writer with a real knack for creating beautifully flawed characters, and he gives Kate Winslet an opportunity to deliver a performance that is arguably just as good as any of her film work.
Mare of Easttown is the rare crime series that ends on a completely satisfying note in which the mystery is solved, and there is just the right amount of ambiguity, even if Ingelsby recently confirmed that it is set in the same universe as his other HBO series, Task, which will experience a crossover in its next season when Julianne Nicholson reprises her Emmy-winning role.
2 'The Penguin' (2024)
The Penguin is one of the most surprising HBO projects in recent years because it wasn’t just a comic book spinoff, but an engaging anti-hero crime epic that has more than a few allusions to The Sopranos. While Colin Farrell debuted his version of Oz Cobb in The Batman, The Penguin explores how he took advantage of the opening within the Gotham City underworld to rise his way to the top and become a powerful kingpin.
Farrell’s performance is truly astonishing because he is able to create a genuinely tragic character while wearing a heavy degree of makeup in order to completely transform himself, but the true standout of The Penguin is Cristin Miloti in the unforgettable role of Sofia Falcone, who is transformed from a victim of psychological abuse to one of the most powerful members of her crime family.
1 'Mindhunter' (2017–2019)
Mindhunter is a fascinating exploration of the origins of investigations into serial killers, as the show is loosely inspired by the memoir of the same name by former FBI Agent John Douglas, who served as the loose inspiration for the character of Will Graham in the novels of Thomas Harris, including Red Dragon. A fictionalized version of Douglas appears in the show as the character Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff), who starts a special unit in the FBI to begin interviewing serial killers while traveling around the country to get involved in various cases that the local cops can’t crack.
Mindhunter was created by David Fincher, the brilliant director behind some of the greatest serial killer films of all-time, and does more to unpack the way that disturbed individuals are drawn to violent crimes than most shows do, with a quadruple number of episodes.
Mindhunter
- Release Date
- 2017 - 2019
- Network
- Netflix
- Showrunner
- Joe Penhall
- Directors
- David Fincher, Carl Franklin, Andrew Dominik, Andrew Douglas, Asif Kapadia, Tobias Lindholm
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