There’s nothing like finding a sharp new police procedural to captivate your attention for as long as it lasts (i.e., as fast as you can binge it). But what’s a crime addict to do once they’ve binged The Wire, NYPD Blue, and every possible iteration of Law & Order?
Well, why not turn to the world of international cop dramas? Streaming services are currently doing a great job beefing up their international content, giving viewers the chance to sample popular television shows from all over the world. There’s something here for everyone in this list of police dramas, whether you’re sticking to English-language or moving farther afield. We recommend you branch out, and see how gritty cop shows can get in other countries.
20 Line of Duty (U.K.)
From 2012 to 2021, the six fast-paced, action-packed seasons of Line of Duty had viewers across the U.K. hooked. The premise? Two police officers working in Anti-Corruption Unit 12 of a fictional police force, Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) and Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure), must battle to uncover the seedy underbelly of the police, which is rife with links to organized crime. Each season focuses on a complex investigation into a dirty cop, under the tutelage of Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar).
Impressive guest stars pop up, including Keeley Hawes, Thandiwe Newton, Stephen Graham, and Kelly Macdonald. Running through the entire series is a continuous story arc concerning a high-ranking police officer who is leaking information to the same criminal gangs they are trying to fight from the inside. This one will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
19 19-2 (Canada)
This fierce French-Canadian show was set in Montreal, and ran from 2011 to 2015. It explored both the work and private lives of officers in Poste 19, focusing on Nick Berrof (Réal Bossé), a tough, about-to-be divorced cop whose partner was grievously wounded, and Ben Chartier (Claude Legault), a cop new to the city after leaving his hometown, having been ostracized for arresting his own father for drunk driving.
The rest of the tight-knit station team includes a spiraling alcoholic and the lesbian partner tired of covering for him, a domestic abuser, a raw cadet, an unpleasant, domineering commander and a caring sergeant. As the show progresses, Chartier finds himself investigating Berrof, who has ties to the Bulgarian mafia, among other shady connections. The show has a good balance of personal life drama and every day policing.
18 Spiral (France)
Sort of like a grimier, gorier, French version of Law & Order, Spiral is not for the faint of heart. For eight seasons, it followed the investigations of a group of Parisian police officers, who then handed their cases over to the lawyers at the Palais de Justice. Each season begins with a grim crime, and the team is on the case, led by Captain Laure Berthaud (Caroline Proust), a tough, dedicated cop with a disastrous personal life that often sees her sleep with colleagues.
The show tackles numerous hot-button issues, like drug abuse, human trafficking, and religious extremism. As with Law & Order, the show also examines the often tenuous working relationship between law enforcement and the judicial system, and the toll that working in both fields can take on even a driven, passionate professional.
17 The Bridge (Denmark/Sweden)
A show so popular it spawned six remakes, transporting the titular bridge between Denmark and Sweden to the U.K./France, Estonia/Russia, Mexico/U.S., Greece/Turkey, Germany/Austria, and Malaysia/Singapore. The original (2011-2018) began with what seems like the body of a woman placed exactly on the halfway point of the Øresund Bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden.
A bizarre discovery means that two detectives must share the case, Danish Martin Rohde (Kim Bodnia) and Saga Norén (Sofia Helfin). Rohde is jovial yet stressed, recently realizing he’s about to become a father of six. Norén is a brilliant detective on the autism spectrum with spotty social skills. Together, they are pulled into a tangled web of crime, made more difficult by cultural and personality differences. An engaging classic.
16 Babylon Berlin (Germany)
Simultaneously a historical drama, neo-noir, and police procedural, Babylon Berlin was recently renewed for a fifth season. The scene is set in 1929, with Gereon Rath’s arrival in the city, Rath (Volker Bruch) is a detective from Cologne who still suffers with the aftereffects of WWI: his morphine dependency is increasingly not enough to banish guilt over his brother’s death.
He’s in Berlin to root out extortion, and he crosses paths with Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries), a wily flapper with her eyes on a place in the homicide unit. Pitch-perfect period costumes and sets only heighten the shadowy, intricate cases that see Rath and Ritter running all over Berlin, solving increasingly political crimes, and possibly falling in love as well. (Bonus: a fantastic soundtrack.)
15 Balthazar (France)
Suave Israeli/French actor Tomer Sisley plays the title character in this French series, an unusually talented forensic pathologist. And we mean unusual: Raphaël Balthazar talks to the ghosts of the corpses he works on, figuring out the stories behind their demise. He’s haunted by a crime he could not solve, the murder of his wife, and he works closely with police officer Hélène Bach (Hélène de Fougerollés). With five seasons in the bag, it’s one of France’s most popular shows.
14 Astrid et Raphaëlle (France)
Focusing on two female leads, this French procedural is concerned with Astrid (Sara Mortensen), an autistic woman who works tucked away in the police archives, where she memorizes the pertinent details of every case she sees. Raphaëlle (Lola Dewaere) is a somewhat sloppy detective who ends up intrigued by Astrid’s singular talents, and the two begin to work together. The show has received plaudits for its depiction of a woman on the spectrum, played by Mortensen with sensitivity and charm.
13 The Killing (Denmark)
Forbrydelsen in the original Danish, The Killing is the Scandi-noir that started a sensation, and resulted in a popular American version as well. Copenhagen detective inspector Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl) is a driven, emotionally isolated mother-of-one who must solve the murder of a young girl before she moves to Sweden.
The dark plot takes deliciously surprising twists and turns as Lund struggles to work with her new partner, Jan Meyer (Søren Malling), and wrap up the case, so she can move, although it soon becomes apparent that the case is a convenient excuse to prevent her from moving. From Lund’s gorgeous sweaters and inability to work well with others to a plot that kept even the actors guessing (who weren’t told who the killer was until they received the script with the big reveal), this one deserves its icon status.
12 Delhi Crime (India)
This hard-hitting crime series tackles real-life cases, becoming the first Indian television show to win an International Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for its efforts. With seasons one and two releasing in 2019 and 2022, they focused on the infamous Delhi gang sexual assault of 2012 and the Chaddi Baniyan Gang, respectively. The incident portrayed in the first season was international news, and meticulously researched to provide a nuanced view of what was a horrific reckoning over attitudes towards sexual crimes, and it begins with the actual incident itself and follows the police investigation through to the arrest of the suspects and the death of the victim.
11 Dublin Murders (Ireland)
Based on the popular Dublin Murder Squad novels of Tana French, this eight-part series (which has gotten the nod for a second season) focused on two of the books, In the Woods and The Likeness. Detectives Rob Reilly (Killian Scott) and Cassie Maddox (Sarah Greene) have rich source material to work with, investigating the murder of a 13-year-old girl, which might just be connected to a decades-old crime that saw three boys disappear and only one come back. Both Reilly and Maddox have their own demons to deal with as well, as in all the best psychological dramas, and Scott and Greene bring the characters to life in a way that’s true to French’s page-turning texts.
10 Trapped (Iceland)
Icelandic-American actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson has a star turn as Andri Ólafsson, the police chief of a small fishing town (although he heads to the big city of Reykjavik for seasons two and three). Iceland itself is another main character, with its breathtaking land and seascapes, and a brilliant backdrop to the dark crimes about to occur. Ólafsson must deal with family difficulties as a blizzard approaches, and if that wasn’t bad enough, a mutilated body washes up on the village shores. And as so often happens in small towns, the fingers start pointing. The hugely popular show ran from 2015 to 2022.
9 Beyond Evil (South Korea)
Acclaimed Korean actor Shin Ha-kyun (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Save the Green Planet!) takes the lead as Sergeant Lee Dong-sik, an eccentric whose best days as a detective may be behind him. He’s partnered with the younger, well-connected Han Joo-won (Yeo Jin-goo), and together they must hunt down a serial killer, and they may have to cut some corners to do so. The smart and savvy show sees the detectives questioning themselves and the very nature of evil in their pursuit. The critically acclaimed show was heavily influenced by Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder, and the show’s 16 episodes originally aired in 2021.
8 Stranger (South Korea)
A runaway international success premiering in 2017, Stranger is an intricate crime thriller whose main character is a peculiar prosecutor named Hwang Si-mok (Cho Seung-woo). A surgery in childhood left Hwang without the ability to feel empathy, which makes him a great prosecutor but a lousy colleague.
He must work with Lieutenant Han Yeo-jin (the always excellent Bae Doona) to solve a murder, but they find their efforts at investigation stymied by a complicated conspiracy involving the prosecutor’s office and a private corporation. The relationship that develops between the difficult Hwang and the emotional Han is at the heart of this intellectually engaging procedural.
7 Tatort (Germany)
Translating to ‘crime scene’, Germany’s longest-running drama is a police procedural that has been on the air since 1970. It’s an amazing concept: public broadcasting stations from all over Germany (and sometimes Austria and Switzerland) contribute a set number of episodes, and each season features stories of different police stations in a number of different regions.
As it stands, over 1,000 episodes of this innovative show have aired, featuring myriad crimes and investigators, with some stations recurring depending on the investigative thread. With 30 episodes of 90 minutes each per season, and starring a huge cast of renowned actors, you’d be hard-pressed to run out of episodes to get your procedural fix.
6 Braquo (France)
The creator of this series is Olivier Marchal, a writer, actor and director who spent 12 years in the French police force. The plot involves three Pairisian policemen and one policewoman, whose lives are thrown into chaos when one of their colleagues commits suicide under the suspicion of misconduct.
The four left behind decide they must clear his name, even if they have to work outside the law to do it, trying to avoid the prying eyes of internal affairs. The four do not shy away from tactics of violence and intimidation to achieve their ends, and the grim and gritty series (which ran for four seasons from 2009 to 2016) has been compared to American classics like The Wire.
5 Bordertown (Finland)
This quirky yet incredibly dark Finnish drama has been a huge hit for Netflix, even featuring a film sequel after its three seasons. The protagonist is Kari Sorjonen (Ville Virtanen), a detective inspector with extraordinary investigative skills. He also has a wife who is ill with cancer, and a teenage daughter with struggles of her own.
He works closely with detective constable Lena Jaakkola (Anu Sinisalo), whose shadowy past often rears its head in the present. The dark and frozen landscape is a stark setting for the gruesome crimes that Sorjonen and his team are tasked with investigating, which include the deaths of sex workers and politicians, and encounters with snipers and bombers, all while Sorjonen tries to maintain the delicate balance of family life, often becoming consumed by work.
4 Cardinal (Canada)
Reserved police detective John Cardinal (Billy Campbell) is used to working alone in the small town of Algonquin Bay, so his newly arrived partner, Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse) has her work cut out for her. Each of the four seasons focuses on one major crime, and all are adapted from the novels of Giles Blunt. Cardinal struggles to help his mentally ill wife while Delorme’s own marriage crumbles, and their police chief has problems at home as well.
Audiences become well acquainted with the criminals, who include an insecure young woman with facial scars manipulated by her boyfriend, a self-proclaimed shaman who turns out to be scarier than the biker gang originally suspected of the crime, and someone much closer to home than Cardinal ever expected.
3 Criminal (U.K., France, Spain, Germany)
Netflix made this innovative show: an anthology series that had three episodes set in a police station in four different countries. In a meta move, the set is the same for each variation; mostly taking place in a sterile interrogation room, we also see the investigators watching through a two-way mirror, and sometimes there are scenes taking place in the outside hallway, but stopping short of the elevators.
Each variation also boasted some impressive guest stars at the suspected criminals being interviewed, including Jérémie Renier, Nina Hoss, David Tennant, Sharon Horgan, Hayley Atwell, and Kit Harington. The tense, psychologically driven episodes feature enjoyable twists and turns as the investigators aim to catch their suspects out.
2 Deadloch (Australia)
This highly enjoyable black comedy from Down Under is set in a slightly backwards little town in Tasmania, which happens to have a somewhat newly arrived community of lesbians who often find themselves at odds with the rest of the town. Senior Sergeant Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) and her ragtag staff are wholly unprepared when the body of a local man washes up on the beach, and the arrival of backup in the form of the uninhibited Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Smith) doesn’t really help matters.
And it’s not the only body: corpses with similar injuries are starting to pile up, and the discovery that they’re dealing with a serial killer coincides with the town’s annual Winter Festival, with tourists descending right in the middle of the chaos. It’s hilarious, it’s dark, it’s touching, with an engaging cast of endearingly weird characters.
1 Mystery Road
Aboriginal detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) has been brought to a small western Australian town to help out the local police chief, Emma James (Judy Davis), after two farmhands at a cattle station go missing. They uncover a drug trafficking ring, and must also wrestle with the racism that has long plagued the town.
A second series sees Swan sent to another remote town, which turns more personal than Swan had anticipated, and the third goes back in time to a younger Swan finding his feet as a detective (played by Mark Coles Smith). The dusty, sun-bleached show is a continuation of a feature film of the same title, and precedes another film called Goldstone.
