"Light vs. Darkness. Shocking series like "True Detective" continue to produce mind-blowing new stories, and in 2014, Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson's Rust Cohle and Marty Hart track a Louisiana serial killer for 17 years in screenwriter Nick HBO's anthology by Pizzolatto debuted and set a new standard.

Ten years later, under new showrunner Issa Lopez, the drama is back with its fourth installment, "TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY," about the fate of eight men who disappeared from an Arctic research station in Alaska, and the Inupiaq activist They become convinced that there is some connection to the unsolved brutal murder of homeowner Annie K. (Nivi Pedersen). As they search for answers, the questions that linger from their own past traumas prove to be as dangerous as the ice that surrounds them. If you've finished reading that story, here's a show like TRUE DETECTIVE to fill in the blanks.

After all the heartache, the biggest shock of this 2021 HBO limited series is that it, too, finds a way to feel comforting at the end. Kate Winslet nails it as Mare Sheehan, a blue-collar Pennsylvania detective with whom Danvers would definitely have a drink with. Unable to solve the disappearance of a young woman a year earlier, Mare is forced to work with her partner, the surprisingly friendly county detective Colin Zabel (Evan Peters), when the teenager's mother is found murdered. Whether or not the two cases are related is only one mystery.

Equally compelling is whether the divorced Mare can finally cope with her son's death and how Jean Smart, as Mare's live-in mother Helen and the show's occasional comic relief, steals many scenes. Winslet, Peters, and Julianne Nicholson (as Mare's friend Lori) won Emmys for their performances.

Watch on Max

Some prestige dramas bring Academy Award winners to television and make you correctly predict, "This guy will win an Oscar one day." Such is the case with the 2013-17 British import drama by creator/writer Chris Chibnall and eventual Oscar winner Olivia Colman. She stars alongside the always wonderful David Tennant as the newly paired detectives investigating the murder of 11-year-old Danny Latimer in the protagonist's coastal town. Ellie Miller, played by Colman, is a family friend who, when not clashing with her new boss, Alec Hardy, played by Tennant, holds back tears. He is as prickly as his beard and is driven by a past case that ended in scandal and health problems.

The Peabody Award-winning first season is the ultimate whodunit of eight episodes, with shifting suspicions, striking images of cliffs and ocean, and a painfully atmospheric score. Season 2 brings the killer to justice and forces Miller to reflect on Hardy's past. In Season 3, the platonic duo once again identify the rapist as the emotional carnage of Danny's death continues.

Watch the entire series on Roku Channel, Tubi, and PBS Passport. Stream Season 1 on Prime Video

Gillian Flynn's debut psycho thriller is adapted as a 2018 HBO limited series. Amy Adams stars as Camille Preaker, an alcoholic crime reporter recently released from a mental institution and assigned to her hometown in rural Missouri, where a girl was murdered a year ago and now another girl is missing. As she tries to solve the case in front of detective Richard Willis (Chris Messina), she flashes back to her own disturbing childhood, a past of self-harm, and a trauma of which she is unaware.

Patricia Clarkson plays Adora, the glib socialite mother of Camille and her half-sister Amma (Eliza Scanlen). Watch it through the end credits and you'll fully appreciate the level of manipulation and jealousy.

Watch in Max

An impregnable fortress covered in soft silk: Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson, supremely hypnotic) is not the type of female detective we usually see on television; at the beginning of this dark series that ran from 2013-16, she arrives in Belfast to review the handling of an unsolved murder case, and when the case turns out to be the work of a serial killer, she goes straight to lead the investigation. Viewers know that she is after Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan, the role that led to her breakthrough). But the cat-and-mouse game takes an unexpected turn, especially in seasons 2 and 3, when the two finally share the same scene, their respective reasons for becoming hunters are revealed, and their fates are revealed.

The acting and writing by creator Alan Cubitt nails every word and close-up of the 20-minute interrogation scene. It will change the way you look at Dornan.

Watch on Prime Video

Idris Elba said he would forever play the career-defining role of John Luther, and in this gritty British drama, which premiered in 2010, he meets Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson). It was the beginning of what would turn into a beautifully twisted friendship, and perhaps more, in all 20 episodes of this Neil Cross-scripted series. Along the way, we meet a villain who makes us check our keys before we go to bed, and witness the death of a shocking supporting character while keeping the possibility of Luther crossing the line high.

The 2023 Netflix film Luther: The Fallen Sun.

Watch it on Pluto, Tubi, and BritBox

AMC's brilliant adaptation of Tony Hillerman's best-selling Navajo police novel was originally developed for HBO. The year is 1971, and the laconic Lieutenant Joe Lehhorn (a seductive Zahn McClarnon) is about to jump into tribal lands after solving a double murder that stirs a sense of loss in the past and locating a helicopter used in an armored truck robbery in Gallup, New Mexico. Veteran sergeant Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) is trustworthy, but she is still unsure about ambitious rookie lieutenant Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon).

With a cast and crew that is predominantly Native American (and Hillerman fans Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin as executive producers), the series, which debuted in 2022, mysteriously weaves tribal customs, oppression, and resilience The series weaves tribal customs, oppression, and resilience into the The landscape is breathtakingly beautiful and the isolation is unsettling. And McLarnon shines even brighter in the more personal and action-packed second season. He returns in uniform in 2025.

Watch on AMC Plus

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the FX anthology series directed by Noah Hawley. Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman play a hitman and the insurance salesman he corrupts, while Allison Tolman and Colin Hanks play the cops chasing them. Or, if you found the justice portrayed in "True Detective" particularly satisfying, try "Night Country:" If you found "Night Country" particularly satisfying, I recommend the fifth and most recent season. Juno Temple, who plays Dorothy "Dot" Lyons, a Minnesota housewife who foils a John McClane-style kidnapping but has to fight even harder after being cornered by her past, Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm), who leads a North Dakota militia group Dorothy "Dot" Lyons is superbly played.

The show's signature dark comedy tone doesn't stop it from being a suspenseful, moving, and mysterious examination of the concepts of debt and sin-eating. Jennifer Jason Leigh gives a fine performance as Lorraine, Dot's ice queen mother-in-law.

Watch on Hulu