12 Great Shows Like HBO’s True Detective And How To Watch Them
While one’s mileage may vary when it does to each season as a whole, HBO’s True Detective is undoubtedly one of TV’s most talked about shows when it’s airing, and that first season with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson will likely forever be viewed as a Peak TV gem. With the fourth season, subtitled Night Country, having resolved its Alaska-set murders early in 2024 ahead of the Season 5 renewal, the wait is on to see where showrunner Issa López takes the dark and occult-ish series next.
But that doesn’t mean TV audiences have to completely miss out on intense murder mysteries, attention-grabbing investigators, and all the string-covered suspect boards one can handle. Here are more than a dozen TV shows that are like True Detective enough to warrant watching an episode or two to test the waters.
Fargo
When it comes to brainy and quirky anthology series that keep audiences on their toes, True Detective shares common ground with the film-to-TV transition of Noah Hawley’s Fargo. And I don’t mean the snowy ground seen in the FX drama’s midwestern settings. Of course, Fargo works on a slightly different wavelength than the hyper-serious HBO series, incorporating far more dark and offbeat comedy into its crime-filled plots, while also utilizing star-studded ensemble casts, as opposed to focusing so squarely on a central pair of detectives. Not to mention featuring flashbacks that go back further into the past than the timeline shifts in T.D.
Stream Fargo Seasons 1-5 on Hulu.
The Missing
The two-season series The Missing, as well as the Tchéky Karyo-starring spinoff Baptiste, take a step back from murder investigations to focus on cases involving missing children, and are thus that much more emotionally charged in such ways. With James Nesbitt and Frances O’Connor leading the first, and David Morrissey and Keeley Hawes taking over for Season 2, The Missing is as gripping and shocking as it is disturbing, and tells slightly more personal stories than the HBO Emmy winner. That said, it would be amazing if Tchéky Karyo’s crime solver Baptiste was somehow able to crossover into the True Detective-verse.
Stream The Missing Seasons 1-2 on Starz.
The Outsider
Stephen King miniseries used to be a TV mainstay, but recent years have given way to longer limited series that better suit the loquacious author’s storytelling. HBO delivered a doozy with The Outsider, based on King’s 2018 novel. Starring Ben Mendehlson, Mare Winningham and Paddy Considine, among others, The Outsider runs largely parallel to True Detective’s more occult-embracing nature, in that this horror tale actually does go full-on into supernatural territory, rather than keeping its most bonkers moments steeped in mystery. It only helps that it was created by novelist Richard Price, with the also esteemed author Dennis Lehane as part of the writing staff.
Stream The Outsider’s lone season on Max.
Only Murders In The Building
Not everything about figuring out homicides has to be 100% dour and depraved, and Only Murders in the Building is easily one of the breeziest whodunnits imaginable, led by the comedic talents of stars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, with a slew of other actors making their way through the Arconia apartment building that seems to attract corpses like a magnet. (What other shows here can boast guest stars like Sting, Shirley MacLaine and Mel Brooks?) The resolutions to Only Murders’ investigations aren’t quite as vital for the narrative’s sense of worth in the way it goes with True Detective, given all the comedy. But the plethora of clues, red herrings and gotcha moments definitely spice things up.
Stream Only Murders in the Building Seasons 1-3 on Hulu.
Dexter
One of TV”s marquee serial killer TV shows, at least for most of its TV run, Showtime’s Dexter takes a different approach to corpse-filled investigations in the sense that its main character, as portrayed with self-narrating stoicism by Michael C. Hall, is both a respected Miami police officer (with an expertise in blood spatter) and a vigilante of sorts. Dexter Morgan is no angel in any respect as he attempts to rid the city of evil murderers and villains the only way he knows how: by murdering them himself. Though the show initially wrapped with one of the worst final seasons and series finales of all time, Hall’s Dark Passenger was redeemed in part by the one-and-done revival season Dexter: New Blood.
Stream Dexter Seasons 1-8 and the New Blood revival on Paramount+.
Mindhunter
Based on the 1995 book of the same name written by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, Mindhunter shares a similarly studious approach to investigations with True Detective, albeit while focusing on cases that actually happened in real life. With acclaimed filmmaker David Fincher as one of its creative forces, Mindhunter centers on a trio of brainiacs in FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Trench (Holt McCallany) and psychology professor Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), with such killers as Cameron Britton’s Ed Kemper, Jack Erdie’s Richard Speck and Oliver Cooper’s David Berkowitz among the many killers whose infamous crimes were showcased. Unfortunately, while HBO has kept the door open for more of its mystery thriller after each season, Netflix won’t foot the bill for Mindhunter Season 3.
Stream Mindhunter Seasons 1-2 on Netflix.
Sherlock
Anyone aiming to watch a gripping mystery would be remiss to skip over the most famous detective who’s ever existed (at least in a fictional sense): Sherlock Holmes. While a countless number of series, specials and films have been crafted over the years, arguably the crown jewel belongs to Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular brainiac and Martin Freeman as his equally adept sidekick Watson. To date, four three-part (three-case) seasons have aired, and though hopes for a fifth season have gone unheeded so far, fans will no doubt continue hoping for a return to 221B Baker Street.
Stream Sherlock Seasons 1-4 on BritBox.
Mare Of Easttown
Obviously not all of HBO’s prestige mystery dramas are the exact same, but viewers can take assured comfort in knowing that most are of an equal level of quality. Such as it goes with the single season of Mare of Easttown, with Kate Winslet earning an Emmy as the titular Pennsylvania detective who tries to keep her personal and professional life afloat after the death of her son, while investigating the questionable murder of a young local woman. With excellent performances from co-stars like Jean Smart, Evan Peters and Julianne Nicholson, Mare of Easttown digs into the mindsets that creep through smaller communities, taking a more localized approach to the murder-mystery genre.
Stream Mare of Easttown’s lone season on Max.
The Woman In The Wall
A flip from the usual investigative narrative, The Woman in the Wall features Ruth Wilson as Lorna Brady, an Irish woman whose life is upended after she finds another woman’s dead body inside her home. In trying to figure out what happened, the show travels back in time to Lorna’s past, where some of her sleepwalking-sparking traumas took place, specifically how it all relates to the country’s notorious Magdalene “laundries,” which were essentially prison-esque workhouses for impoverished females and sex workers. Its dark and brooding nature, mixed with the mysteries and timeline shifts, make it a great watch for True Detective fans.
Stream The Woman in the Wall on Paramount+ with Showtime.
Broadchurch
Those Brits really know how to turn on the emotionally debilitating plot points when putting together its mystery-driven crime dramas, and Broadchurch is no exception. Starring the always excellent duo of David Tennant and Olivia Colman as its core detectives, the series revolves around the death of an 11-year-old boy, and the negative effects it has on the surrounding community, in part due to all the media attention. Though the second season’s court case and third season’s rape investigation are solid enough, it’s that first season’s heavy whodunnit tale that feels the most like a True Detective installment.
Stream Broadchurch on Plex (as well as on Tubi and PBS Passport).
The Afterparty
One of the most intriguingly crafted murder-mysteries is easily Apple TV+’s genre-hopping comedy The Afterparty, co-created by the superb duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller of LEGO Movie and Clone High royalty. Across its two seasons — led by stars Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson and Zo? Chao — The Afterparty centered on deadly events that took place after a high school reunion (Season 1) and after a billionaire’s wedding (Season 2). Unlike True Detective, this show features wacky comedy, musical moments, animation, themed episodes and more unique details, while also still managing to deliver pulp-style murders and explanations.
Stream The Afterparty Seasons 1-2 on Apple TV+.
Twin Peaks
It’s rather impossible to voice the words “kinda weird murder mystery” without immediately thinking about David Lynch and Mark Frost’s seminal and relatively short-lived phenomenon Twin Peaks. Like True Detective, the Kyle McLachlan-starring drama gets a lot of its personality from its setting, the Pacific Northwest, and the details surrounding the main case. For Twin Peaks, the core mystery surrounded the death of Laura Palmer, portrayed by Sheryl Lee, but tied back into deeper and darker characters and events that I’m sure True Detective’s Tuttle family would voluntarily get mixed up in. Though the network-forced resolution midway through Season 2 doomed its initial network run, this twisted universe returned anew 26 years later for Showtime’s Twin Peaks: The Return.
Stream Twin Peaks Seasons 1-2 and Twin Peaks: The Return on Paramount+
