Shows Like
Shows Like True Detective: Crime Dramas With an Ending
By Jordan A. · · Updated · 5 min read
True Detective season one is eight episodes, one case, two men across seventeen years, and a Louisiana that feels like it is rotting in real time. Cary Joji Fukunaga directed every episode, which is why it looks like one film rather than eight hours of television.
Most lists that promise more of this hand you generic crime shows. The picks below are chosen for the specific combination: a closed case with an ending, a single directorial eye, and detectives whose private lives are the actual subject. Each entry gets its network, years and season count. Where each streams changes, so the title page on BingeNext shows current US options.
The closest matches
The Outsider (HBO, 2020, one season of ten episodes) is the nearest relative on television. A Stephen King adaptation about a child murder where the evidence points two ways at once, led by Ben Mendelsohn as the detective and Cynthia Erivo as the investigator who sees what he cannot. Jason Bateman directs the first two episodes and plays a supporting role, which is worth stating plainly because it is often reported the other way round. It shares the dread, the Southern setting and the supernatural edge that season one only flirted with. The difference is that it commits to the supernatural. Choose it if the Carcosa material was your favorite part.
Mare of Easttown (HBO, 2021, one season of seven episodes) is Kate Winslet as a small-town Pennsylvania detective with a case she is too close to. It shares the structure exactly: one crime, one town, a detective coming apart. The difference is that it is warmer and it is about a community rather than about cosmic horror. Choose it if the Rust Cohle monologues were the part you skipped.
Sharp Objects (HBO, 2018, one season of eight episodes) sends a journalist back to her Missouri hometown to cover two killings and forces her to live with her mother while she does it. Jean-Marc Vallee directed all eight. It shares the heat, the alcoholism and the sense that the landscape is the antagonist. The difference is that it is a psychological study first and a mystery second. Choose it if atmosphere is what you are after.
The Night Of (HBO, 2016, one season of eight episodes) follows a college student after a night that ends with a body, and it is as much about the machinery of the courts and Rikers as about who did it. It shares the slow accretion of detail. The difference is that it is procedural rather than metaphysical. Choose it if you want the most tightly written thing on this list.
Anthologies with the same ambition
Fargo (FX, 2014 to present, five seasons so far) is the other great American crime anthology, and it does what True Detective does with the cast: a new story each season, a new part of the country, a new moral test. It shares the swing between deadpan comedy and sudden violence. The difference is that it is much funnier and the seasons vary wildly in quality. Choose it if you want the format rather than the mood, and start with season two.
Top of the Lake (2013 to 2017, two seasons) is Jane Campion directing Elisabeth Moss as a detective investigating a pregnant twelve-year-old in a New Zealand town full of men who do not want her there. It shares the wilderness, the corrupt community and the ruined lead. The difference is that its interest is in how women are treated by the institutions doing the investigating. Choose it if season one's gender politics annoyed you and you want them done properly.
Long-running crime with real characters
Happy Valley (BBC One, 2014 to 2023, three seasons of six episodes) is Sarah Lancashire as a Yorkshire police sergeant whose personal history is knotted into an ongoing case across nine years of story. It shares the detective-as-subject structure and the moral exhaustion. The difference is that it is about a grandmother rather than a philosopher, and it is better for it. Choose it if you want the best-acted show here. It ended on its own terms.
Broadchurch (ITV, 2013 to 2017, three seasons) opens with a boy's body on a beach and spends a season on the effect rather than the puzzle. It shares the small-town dynamic and the two-detective pairing with incompatible methods. The difference is that it is far more interested in the grieving family. Choose it if Marty's family life was more compelling to you than the case.
The Killing (AMC, 2011 to 2014, four seasons) is the American version of the Danish series, and its first two seasons take one murder at a walking pace through Seattle rain. It shares the mood and the pair of detectives. The difference is that the pacing frustrated a lot of viewers at the time. Choose it if you want to sit in the atmosphere for a long while.
Dark Winds (AMC, 2022 to present, four seasons) follows Navajo tribal police in 1970s New Mexico, adapted from Tony Hillerman's novels, with Zahn McClarnon in the lead. It shares the landscape-as-character approach and the jurisdictional friction. The difference is that it moves faster and each season closes its case. Choose it if you want something current with the same texture.
Rectify (SundanceTV, 2013 to 2016, four seasons) is not a detective show. A man leaves death row after nineteen years when DNA evidence is thrown out, and nobody in town believes he is innocent. It shares the Southern gothic register and the refusal to hurry. The difference is that the mystery is almost beside the point. Choose it if you want the quietest and most humane show on this list.
Where to start
If you want the closest match, start with The Outsider. If you want a self-contained seven hours that will not disappoint you, start with Mare of Easttown. If you want something to live in for a month, Fargo. And if you want the one nobody talks about enough, it is Rectify.
If none of these are right, work from the show itself. Put True Detective and one other favorite into BingeNext TV recommendations and you will get a ranked shortlist based on what those two share, with a note on where each one streams. It takes about a minute.
Topics covered: crime, thriller, anthology, dark, mystery, hbo
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and is responsible for every guide published on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu. Dates, season counts and where-to-watch details in these guides are checked against official sources before publishing, and corrections are welcome at Jordan@Bingenext.com.