10 Best Crime Shows With Less Than 5 Seasons, Ranked

Although it’s really fun to follow a crime show that spans years, or even decades, good crime television doesn’t always need more than five seasons to make an impact on viewers. While Law & Order: SVU, Criminal Minds, the Chicago series, or any other long-running crime show feels like hanging out with someone you’ve known for a long time, it’s nice to sometimes watch a story get told through fewer seasons. Though technically, some of the shows on this list are still airing and have the potential to surpass five seasons, for now, they fit the bill. You have enough time to catch up with them and see which one you prefer. Whether it’s a hidden gem, a show everyone loves, or something in between, these are some great crime TV shows with fewer than five seasons. 10 ‘Mr Inbetween’ (2018-2021) One of FX’s hidden gems is the Australian show Mr. Inbetween. If you’ve recently gone to your Disney profile and scrolled around for a new show, you probably saw the colorful poster for this one. Mr. Inbetween is easy to watch, has three seasons, and is a dark comedy about crime and, well, life; you’ll find it funny, brutal, and sometimes even endearing. This is one of those rare crime shows that feels human in that it doesn’t just portray grim situations and the dark, seedy parts of life, but a lot of it is also relatable and realistic. Mr. Inbetween follows Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan), who, besides being a hitman by vocation, is also a family man and a friend to many people. The show depicts his efforts to balance the two aspects of his life, and the attempts to juggle violent work and a quiet, ordinary life are sometimes hilarious, other times brutal, and even often profound. The creator of the show is also the star, Scott Ryan. You’ll find him likable and awkward and, at the same time, villainous and dangerous, which is the best combo for a great crime show. 9 ‘Tulsa King’ (2022-) Tulsa King is one of Taylor Sheridan’s shows currently airing on Paramount+, and it surprised everybody, mostly because of Sylvester Stallone’s magnetic lead role. Although everything seems to be going effortlessly and pretty great for his character in Tulsa King, he and his associates are often left entangled in something bigger than themselves, and often very dangerous. Stallone is great here; he’s commanding, witty, and often a voice of reason as much as a voice of chaos. Tulsa King is an unexpected banger, and its third season is currently airing. Tulsa King follows New York mafia capo Dwight Manfredi, who is released from prison after serving a 25-year sentence. Believing he will be repaid for his sacrifice for the family upon release, Dwight realizes there was a change of “management,” and he is banished from New York instead. He is sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but instead of lying low and following New York’s orders, Dwight establishes his own crime family and creates an empire out of thin air, basically. Tulsa King is a crime show as much as it is a dark comedy and a drama; watching it feels like you’re hanging out with Dwight and his ragtag crew of criminals. 8 ‘Tracker’ (2024-) Network television is a bit underrated in these sorts of lists, but plenty of network TV shows deserve attention because of their high watchability factors and general appeal. Some of the greatest crime shows ever made are network TV series, like Dexter or Justified; while we don’t have that sort of iconic show nowadays, we do have some with the potential to be, like Tracker. It’s a classic crime procedural series, and it’s honestly pretty cool, which even CBS agreed on. Despite premiering in 2024, it has already reached its third season, and it’s gearing up to being one of the most popular TV shows. If you like shows like Reacher, you will probably like Tracker as well. It follows Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley), a lone wolf survivalist traveling across America and tracking missing people. Hartley’s charisma and style are pretty appealing and make Tracker pretty fun to watch. The show is grounded, often gritty, and sometimes feels like a Western. It’s so obviously built on the classic network TV energy that feels familiar yet totally fresh. 7 ‘Blue Lights’ (2023-) Fans of crime dramas have plenty of great material to watch among British series. One of the best recent police procedurals that commands attention from start to finish is Blue Lights. It’s been praised for its realistic and subtle storytelling approach, setting it apart from other similar police dramas that usually rely on cliffhangers and shock. After all, the UK gave us shows like Prime Suspect, Broadchurch, and Luther, and it does often have to reinvent the genre to keep providing compelling police procedurals. Blue Lights is set in Belfast and follows a group of rookie officers solving crimes and navigating the moral, social, and emotional complexities of being a modern police officer. It’s no secret that the modern sentiment toward the police is less than friendly, and Blue Lights encompasses that to some extent, too. The show is still ongoing and has great potential to extend to five seasons and more, but so far, there have been three seasons with six episodes, and you’ll probably just binge-watch it over a free weekend when you start. 6 ‘Dark Winds’ (2022-) Dark Winds is one of the best new crime shows on TV; it’s an adaptation of a beloved detective novel series, Leaphorn & Chee by Tony Hillerman, and it’s brilliant having a TV show led by Native American stars hit the mainstream and become so popular. It’s a story about the police officers of the Navajo Country in the Four Corners of the American Southwest, and each season follows a different case while also focusing on the protagonists’ personal lives. Dark Winds has three seasons for now, with Season 4 premiering in February 2026. Dark Winds is a brooding detective drama/thriller set during the 1970s. It follows Lieutenant Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), who is a healthy mix of tradition and modernity, but he is plagued by the death of his son. His deputy, Manuelito (Jessica Matten), is a firm believer in tradition and superstition, while a newcomer, Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), is somebody who’s abandoned his native identity over the years to join the FBI. Besides being dark and vibing like a noir thriller, Dark Winds also incorporates a lot of Native American culture and traditions, particularly Navajo, making the show beautiful, too. 5 ‘Tokyo Vice’ (2022-2024) Tokyo Vice is in limbo right now in terms of moving forward, but it’s one of the best shows under five seasons you could watch. It was loosely based on the memoirs of journalist Jake Adelstein, who moved to Tokyo to become a journalist and found himself working with a detective to uncover the crimes of the yakuza in Tokyo. It’s a surprise that Adelstein lived to tell the tale, but his story is very interesting and compelling. Tokyo Vice is visually stunning and evokes that ’90s feeling so well that you feel like you were in Tokyo back then. Tokyo Vice follows an American journalist, Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort), as he moves to Tokyo away from his estranged family and starts working for Tokyo’s biggest newspaper. As the Yakuza crimes are at an all-time high, Jake expresses interest in writing more about that, and his police “handler” becomes detective Katagiri (Ken Watanabe). Besides the legendary Watanabe, the rest of the cast is also stellar and plenty are well-known Japanese actors-Rinko Kikuchi, Show Kasamatsu, and Shun Sugata, to name a few. Elgort is also quite likable as Jake, even though Jake himself is nosy and sometimes annoying. 4 ‘Mindhunter’ (2017-2019) Mindhunter is one of the shows that should be mandatory viewing for fans of serial killer and crime content. People who like true crime, psychological thrillers, and David Fincher will absolutely love Mindhunter and its premise. We’re still holding out hope that the rumors about Mindhunter Season 3 are true, because that would be a sign that the world is healing, but for now, they’re treading lightly and not promising anything. All we have are 19 perfect episodes of a television masterpiece. Mindhunter follows FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) as they join forces with a psychiatrist, Dr. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), in questioning serial killers to get into their minds and figure out the pathology of their personalities. They do this to later train new agents and police officers around the country to recognize repeat killers and catch them before they commit more crimes. This was based on a true story from the memoirs of former FBI profiler John E. Douglas, and it’s a mix of true crime and fiction; it prioritizes psychological terror over spectacle, and it’s cerebral, haunting, and visually masterful. 3 ‘Ozark’ (2017-2022) With Ozark, there is a lot to unpack and potentially even be surprised by. Jason Bateman is one of the showrunners, the lead, and the director of some episodes; he’s generally known for rom-coms and silly comedies, but he steps in as a tormented patriarch who seemingly tries to protect his family but is also secretly in pursuit of glory and recognition. Ozark pointed us to some memorable talents like Julia Garner and Tom Pelphrey, but more so, it’s a sign we can trust Bateman with crime shows because he kind of got the hang of it pretty well. Ozark follows Marty Byrd, who gets involved with stashing money for the Mexican cartel with his business partner. After his business partner is killed, Marty throws a lifeline and offers the cartel to stash their money somewhere in Lake Ozark territory. After Marty and his family move there, their glory only begins. And while their family becomes more fractured, their business booms, showing that one doesn’t go with the other. Ozark is not an idea; Ozark is a cautionary tale. It’s a very visually beautiful and gripping Netflix crime show that you’ll binge-watch pretty easily. 2 ‘Barry’ (2018-2023) Another show that puts a very well-known comedian into a different context is Barry, which stars Bill Hader, who is also the show’s co-creator. Barry is best described as a dark comedy; it’s very funny and deeply disturbing at times, sometimes all at once. Barry can brag about having one of the greatest episodes of television-Season 2, Episode 5, “ronny/lily.” It’s a mix of comedy and superb action and thriller vibes, which seems to be fully connected with Hader’s sense of humor. Barry ended after four seasons, and it’s a crime show you’ll quickly finish and then have the desire to rewatch soon after. Barry follows the titular character Barry (Hader), an Iraqi war veteran suffering from PTSD. He becomes a hitman under the care of his longtime friend Fuchs (Stephen Root), and after getting a job in Los Angeles, he moves there and enters an acting class with an aging actor, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler). Barry is a tragic character because, while he suffers from PTSD and wants a guiding father figure in his life, everybody around him is more than eager to simply take advantage of him. It’s as much of a character study as it is a crime show, and it’s moving at times and ridiculous at others-a perfect show in many unusual ways. 1 ‘True Detective’ (2014-) True Detective is gearing up for Season 5 and, apparently, Nicolas Cage is going to be its star. Some of us are quite excited about this, while others, not so much; that depends on how much you liked the show after its first season. This anthology series is one of the greatest crime shows ever made, and all four of its seasons are exceptional. Plenty of people expected the vibe of the first season to continue, but it’s really hard to replicate greatness, and, most of the time, it’s not recommended to try anyway; this is why the creators did their best to still deliver stories that would impress and feel aligned with its stellar beginnings. True Detective follows a pair of detectives in every season as they try to solve difficult cases that infiltrate their personal lives. In Season 1, two Louisiana detectives try to solve a ritualistic murder; in Season 2, a pair of detectives stumble onto corruption in a small California town; in Season 3, a detective with Alzheimer’s tries to recall an unsolved case with his partner, and in Season 4, two detectives in the Alaskan town of Ennis are solving the mysterious death of all the members of a nearby research station. From the gritty, cosmic horror of Louisiana swamps to the frozen, Carpenter-like Alaskan dread, True Detective remains a benchmark for atmospheric, high-concept crime storytelling.
https://collider.com/crime-shows-less-than-5-seasons-best-ranked/

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