Over the last few years, the true crime genre has seen something of a renaissance in popular culture. It was only time until someone stepped up to parody the tropes of a true crime series, and that's exactly whatAmerican Vandalintends to do. Shot as a mockumentary,Vandal tells the story of a high school prank gone wrong, with several faculty cars tagged and vandalized. Despite critical praise and high popularity on social media, Netflix cancelled the show after its second season. Here's where we get a little international with this list.
"Tin Star" is a British crime drama that revolves around a London detective tasked with becoming the police chief of a Canadian town in the Rocky Mountains. It's "Old West" meets "Old World" — not exactly a common combination, but, as it turns out, a fascinating one. Tim Roth stars as James "Jim" Worth, the detective who moves his family to Canada to escape his troubled past. The weird thing about this show is that when Jim drinks, he becomes his violent alter-ego, Jack Devlin.
Hyde scenario, set in the Canadian west with British characters. It's intense, surprisingly fun, and a bit weird, all at the same time. And now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one man who had no choice but to keep them all together. No, it's notArrested Development—it's Ozark, a new crime drama from Netflix starring Jason Bateman. He plays Marty, a self-employed financial adviser who lives with his family in Chicago.
While there, he and his partner begin laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel. Marty is forced to relocate his family to the Missouri Ozarks after one of his money laundering schemes goes south. The show was probably best known for its original name,Scrotal Recall, which picked up a lot of flack when the first season premiered in 2014. Definitely check this one out; it's the definition of a hidden gem. Banshee is a lesser-known crime drama because of its home on Cinemax. The series takes place in a small Amish town in Banshee, Pennsylvania, giving it a similar feel to Justified in location setting.
Antony Starr stars as an ex-convict who assumes the identity of Sheriff Lucas Hood, after the lawman's death. Hood then has to balance his life as a law enforcement officer and his criminal activities.Banshee lasted for four seasons. Craig Johnson's mystery novels about Walt Longmire came to life in this A&E Western crime drama. Longmire, the sheriff of Absaroka County in Wyoming, recently faced the death of his wife. His daughter and female deputy help him slowly put his life back together.
A&E canceled the series after just three seasons, but a small-yet-vocal following caused a ruckus, and Netflix picked it up, wrote Cynthia Littleton in Variety. The show follows a crew of black students at a historically-white university, where they must deal with social injustice, finding their way in life, romance, and yes, a bit of racism from some of the other students. Starring Logan Browning as college-radio host Samantha White , the entire cast here is excellent, as is the cinematography and editing.
Three seasons are streaming, with a fourth and final season on the way. At this point,Grey's Anatomy has almost become the ultimate binge experience. With 293 episodes streaming over thirteen full seasons,Grey's is something of a legend at this point. The show takes place at fictional Seattle Grace Hospital, following the life and career of Meredith Grey from her time at the hospital as an intern, who eventually becomes a resident and rises through the ranks through the hospital.
The show is filled with with drama, crushing life choices, and dozens of characters who come and go.Grey's isn't a perfect show, occasionally diving a bit too-much into saccharine plotlines and a lot of character deaths. But the show is well made, with great performances from nearly every actor. Plenty of the cast has gone onto bigger and better things after leaving Seattle Grace, and Shonda Rhimes, the creator and showrunner, has found massive success following the creation ofGrey's Anatomy. Overall, it may not be a show for everyone, but it's probably the binge-iest show on the platform today. Based on the Walt Longmire mystery novels by best-selling author Craig Johnson, this contemporary crime drama stars Australian actor Robert Taylor in the title role, the charismatic and dedicated sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyo. Longmire patrols the county with a brave face and sense of humour, but deep inside he hides the pain of his wife's recent death.
With the urging of his daughter, Cady, and the help of Vic, a new female deputy, Longmire gains a new appreciation of his job and decides to run for re-election. He's committed to putting his life back together, one piece at a time, and he often calls on best friend and confidant Henry Standing Bear for support. If you're a Justified fan, there's a good chance you've already watched HBO's incredible Western Deadwood, but if not, this is the most obvious choice for your next binge.
Running for three seasons and recently receiving the follow-up movie treatment, the acclaimed drama also stars Olyphant as yet another complex lawman. Here he plays Seth Bullock, the reluctant sheriff of Deadwood, which starts out as a lawless camp and evolves into a thriving town over the course of the narrative. For extra credit, there's also the Deadwood movie, which came out in 2019. Longmire is a modern west crime drama based on the mystery novels of the same name by Craig Johnson. Starring Robert Taylor in the title role of Walt Longmire, the charming sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, Longmire must keep his county safe while mourning his wife's death in secret. One of CBS's longest-running procedural dramas,Criminal Minds has aired for 14 full seasons on CBS, telling the story of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based out of Quantico, Virginia.
Unlike most crime shows, Criminal Minds focuses almost exclusively on the criminal rather than the crime, telling the story behind what they're doing and focusing on psychoanalyzing the criminal at hand. The series has a long history of rotating actors and characters, making it difficult to pin down the exact lead of the series. Actors featured in the show have included Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Gibson, A.J. Cook, Paget Brewster, Joe Mantegna, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Aisha Tyler, and many more. With more than 300 episodes under its belt, the show has plenty for new and old viewers alike, with the first twelve seasons currently streaming on Netflix. The fifteenth and final season wrapped up on CBS in 2020.
Peaky Blinders tells the story of Tommy Shelby , the brilliant leader behind the Peaky Blinders, an Irish-Gypsy gang in 1920s England. World War One casts a fascinating shadow over this show, as everyone was damaged in some way by the war, and the criminal underworld is still returning to "normal" after the men have come home. Shelby climbs the ranks of Birmingham's underworld, making big plays while evading a police inspector dispatched by Winston Churchill himself to clean up the town. Tom Hardy joined the cast in season two, and Adrien Brody jumped on in season four. Perhaps appropriate for a series with the word "Fire" in the title,Halt and Catch Fireis a slow-burn series, one that starts slow but ramps up as the series continues down its four full seasons.
A period drama set in the 1980s and 1990s,Halt and Catch Firefollows a fictionalized account of the computer revolution at the end of the 20th century. The first two seasons are set in the Silicon Prairie in Dallas-Fort Worth, while the third and final season move to Silicon Valley. Lee Pace stars as Joe MacMillan, a technology entrepreneur and former IBM employee who joins Cardiff Electric at the start of the show. Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis also star as Gordon Clark and Cameron Howe, respectively, and Davis in particular has been critically-acclaimed for her performance. Charlie Brooker might be best known as a presenter and broadcaster on British television, but Brooker is also the creator of one of the best science-fiction shows on television.
A modern day Twilight Zone, Black Mirror first started airing in 2011 in Britain, but it wasn't until the series moved to Netflix in 2014 that it began to grow in popularity Stateside. The show takes place in a not-so-distant future, exploring our paranoia, our modern society, and how the future of technology might lead us down terrifying paths. Most of the show isn't meant to be watched lightly, typically featuring a sense of cynicism and dark satire, but a few episodes—"San Junipero" in particular—highlight their happy endings in a way that subverts expectations. If you're a fan of science-fiction or anthology series, you'll fall in love with Black Mirror. I hear Netflix and Amazon are expected to hear the pitch, with Amazon expressing early interest.
Subscription-based services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu would be perfect for a show like Longmire, which has a large but somewhat older-skewing audience. Longmire was A&E's most watched original scripted series of all time, averaging 5.6 million viewers in Season 3's most current ratings, a slight dip from Season 2's nearly 6 million average despite a much weaker lead-in. Ad-supported networks depend heavily on advertisers, who are after younger audiences, practically dooming popular series like Longmire or NBC's Harry's Law whose viewership is a little greyer. Netflix is the most logical destination for the series as the streaming service already has the rights to the series' existing seasons as part of its multi-series streaming deal with Warner Bros.
Interestingly, I heard there were no plans for Hulu to hear the pitch. Hulu also had been considered a strong possibility as its new head of content, Craig Erwich, developed and sold Longmire while running Warner Horizon. That could change, with Yahoo, which recently rescued cancelled NBC comedy Community, also a remote possibility though it is not subscription-based and relies on advertisers. However, even subscription digital services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu tend to cater to younger viewers who are generally quicker to adopt new technologies. 'Longmire' is a TV series that has kept alive the tradition of western shows on American television.
The series centers around the eponymous sheriff of Absaroka County who tackles tough criminals, one after the other, and also deals with major problems in his personal life. Although 'Longmire' is a western TV series, it has clear influences of a modern-day crime drama. If you have enjoyed watching 'Longmire', here are some other shows you might want to check out. Many of them are available on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime.
"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" was a television series credited with reviving the story of one of the now-iconic personalities of cowboy culture, according to Courtney Campbell in Wide Open Country. Airing in 1955, premiering just four days before "Gunsmoke," it is the very first television Western that was written for adults. For six seasons, the 30-minute program told the story of Wyatt's adult life, from his role of town marshal in Kansas to the final episodes based in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. Another western crime drama, Justified is one of the most critically-acclaimed series on this list and certainly worth watching even if you haven't seen Yellowstone! It's a fantastic series that stars Timothy Olyphant as Deputy Raylan Givens, who uses some rather Wild Wild West tactics to keep folks in line.
I love watching Netflix but have trouble finding a series I really enjoy because of the reasons you listed. I started watching How I Met Your Mother but every episode left traces of that icky feeling you talked about. Friends is great but there is still too much "birds and bees" for me. I watched the first season and a half of Young and Hungry because I got addicted to it but I realized it was the same way and I didn't like the kind of drama it involved. I went on Google this morning and typed in "clean sitcoms" and your post was the first thing that came up.
I am so glad I found it and am excited to get started on some of these shows! I have always wanted to watch Downton Abbey and didn't realize it was available for free streaming with Amazon Prime! The first of many Marvel-Netflix partnerships,Daredevilfollows the adventures of Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer by day and masked vigilante by night. Along with theDefenders crossover season, there are three seasons ofDaredevilnow streaming on Netflix. Unfortunately, the series was officially cancelled after its third season.
It's a slow-paced drama, and though watching the pieces on this chessboard move slowly throughout three full seasons, it can be a bit of a slog for someone looking for action-based entertainment. Still, this Netflix original thriller follows a dysfunctional family of hotel owners in Monroe County, Florida, and if you can get over the slow pace of the story, is really quite good. When Danny, the black sheep of the family, comes home, no one is happy to see him. Skeletons will be brought out of closets, and family will consider unthinkable crimes. The series stars Kyle Chandler ofFriday Night Lightsfame, which earned him an Emmy nomination for his performance in season one. The series, which has three full seasons streaming, also stars Ben Mendelsohn and Linda Cardellini ofFreaks and Geeksfame.
One of the hottest new series from the past few years, NBC's The Good Place tells the story of Eleanor Shellstrop, a woman who's woken up to find she's dead and in heaven—or rather, "The Good Place," as it's called. Kristen Bell plays Eleanor, a woman who finds herself in a place she doesn't deserve to be. Also starring is Cheers' alumni Ted Danson as Michael, the creator of "The Good Place," a man trying to make his residents as happy as possible in the afterlife. This series comes from creator Michael Schur, fresh off co-creating both Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn-99. Any fans of his previous work—he also wrote and acted on The Office, where he played Dwight's cousin Mose Schrute—will find plenty to love here. Just don't read too much into the plot online—serious spoilers abound.
A few minutes watching the pilot of this musical-dramedy and you'll be hooked. This incredibly original series was written by screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna and sketch-comedy and YouTube star Rachel Bloom, who stars as Rebecca Bunch in a role that has garnered Bloom a Golden Globe for Best Actress in 2016. Rebecca leaves an amazing career in New York after she runs into an ex-boyfriend, Josh Chan , who she went to summer camp with when she was 16. All four seasons are streaming are streaming on Netflix. At the end of season three, Walt discovered who was behind his wife's murder, a nefarious local businessman named Jacob Nighthorse (A. Martinez). Season four picks up right there, with an angry Longmire going after Nighthorse, while Henry tries to stop him from doing something he'll regret.
Over the next three episodes, the Longmire-Nighthorse drama serves as backdrop to a tragedy, a real mystery that will push Longmire even deeper into obsession and depression. The writers do a marvelous job of pushing their multi-episode arc forward while also taking time for new cases, such as a brilliantly executed one in episode two in which a body is found at an old Japanese Internment Camp. That mystery even thematically ties into the rest of the series in that it's about how we don't really know the people we think we do. Based on characters created by author Joe R. Landsdale, Sundance TV's atmospheric crime drama Hap and Leonard, which ran for three seasons, follows the eponymous characters played by James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams, respectively. Set in the 1980s in East Texas, the swampy noir finds the two best friends, recently out of work, embroiled in a money-making scheme after Hap's ex-wife returns and asks for help to find the loot from a bank heist that was lost years ago. Things naturally quickly spiral out of control, and Hap and Leonard have to find a way to make it out alive.
Although the pacing can be slow at times, the ambience, dark, wry humor, and excellent performances combine for a rich story with a real sense of place. The series, which is packed with sex and violence, is great fun, and looks great too. Co-created by Johnathan Tropper and David Schickler, the pulpy drama is known for featuring some of television's best action and fight sequences as Hood walks the line between criminal and cop, doling out his own special brand of justice. The narrative is often driven by an antagonistic relationship between Hood and the local crime boss, Kai Proctor , who was raised in the local Amish community and who frequently butts heads with the local Native American population. This isn't to say that the series, created by a pair of producers from "The Closer," is a complete procedural throwback.
Three episodes were given to critics, and they provide further closure, though it seems likely that the repercussions will continue throughout the season. There's a lot of animation on the streaming services, but few do adult storylines with the aplomb and wit of BoJack, where half the adults are talking human/animal hybrids for no reason whatsoever other than it's funny. Bojack Horseman himself is a former sitcom star (from the 80s show Horsin' Around) trying to cash back in, and also find love. Voiced by Will Arnett, he's the epitome of anxious, obnoxious, and sympathetic—perfect for a satire on Hollywoo (there's no D, it was stolen on the show) and beyond.
Six seasons are streaming, with part two of the final season coming Jan. 31, 2020. I've got "The Paradise" at the tippy top of my list for a very good reason. If I could only watch one show for the rest of my life – this would be it. It is the most breathtaking little love story found in England's first department store set in the 1870s. I just love all the fashion and architectural detail and the actors – UNBELIEVABLE!
I've watched all they have available on Netflix, twice – and I never watch a show twice. Not one I would watch with the kids because it is so love-y dove-y but this is a wonderful put-the-kids-to-bed-and-watch kind of show. Luciferoriginally aired three seasons on Fox, but in May 2019, the series returned for a fourth season on Netflix to continue the saga.
The show follows Lucifer Morningstar, better known as the Devil, who grows bored and unhappy with his life in Hell. After resigning his throne and relinquishing his kingdom, he moves to Los Angeles, where he finds himself running a new nightclub known as Lux. When Lucifer becomes involved in a murder case with Detective Chloe Decker, he is subsequently invited to be a consultant to the LAPD, working behind the scenes on crimes.
Though the show received mixed reviews when it first premiered, it has since developed a cult following, leading to Netflix reviving the show a month after cancellation. A romantic comedy developed by Judd Apatow, Lesley Arfin, and Paul Rust, Love is a down-to-earth look at dating that explores the nature of romantic relationships through a variety of characters. Stars Rust andCommunity's Gillian Jacobs are forced to navigate their newly-formed relationship. Three seasons, are currently streaming on Netflix, with the third season also having served as the final season of the show. Netflix similarly rescued another cancelled cable drama, The Killing. It commissioned a final season of the mystery series on top of the existing seasons it had rights to.
