

TV Maze โ Breaking Bad
Crime drama is television's oldest and most enduring genre, and also its most varied. At one end of the spectrum sits the procedural โ methodical, reassuring, built around the restoration of order. At the other end, the anti-hero crime narrative, in which the criminal's perspective becomes the point and moral clarity dissolves entirely. These are the highest-rated crime TV series in the TV Maze database: shows that use the genre's conventions to do something more ambitious โ to examine justice, power, identity, and the stories societies tell themselves about violence and its consequences.
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Walter White's transformation from chemistry teacher to drug kingpin is the definitive crime TV narrative โ a comprehensive study of how ambition, pride, and self-deception can corrupt an ostensibly good man into a genuinely monstrous one. Vince Gilligan's five-season masterwork set the standard for prestige crime drama. Rating: 9.3/10.

David Simon's Baltimore epic follows the drug trade, police, docks, schools, and media across five masterful seasons. The Wire treats crime not as individual moral failure but as systemic dysfunction โ a portrait of institutions that grind people down regardless of their intentions. The greatest crime drama ever made. Rating: 9.3/10.

Harold Finch's all-seeing Machine spits out Social Security numbers of people about to be involved in violent crimes โ victims or perpetrators โ and it's up to his operatives to intervene. What started as procedural crime drama became, across five seasons, a profound meditation on surveillance and artificial intelligence. Rating: 8.8/10.

The Shelby family's criminal empire expands from Birmingham's backstreets to Parliament itself across six seasons of stylish, operatic gangster drama. Steven Knight combines vivid period detail with contemporary sensibility and anchors everything in Cillian Murphy's extraordinary physical performance as Tommy. Rating: 8.5/10.

Olivia Colman and David Tennant as the detectives investigating a child murder in a small Dorset town โ a case that devastates the community even as it is being solved. Broadchurch is the rare crime drama that foregrounds grief over procedure, asking what justice actually costs the people left behind. Rating: 8.4/10.

Yorkshire police sergeant Catherine Cawood pursues a local crime family while raising her grandson โ the son of the rapist who drove her daughter to suicide. Sally Wainwright's BBC crime drama is extraordinary in its portrayal of ordinary resilience against extraordinary evil. Rating: 8.0/10.

James St. Patrick runs a legitimate New York nightclub while also maintaining his identity as a major drug distributor. Courtney Kemp's Starz crime drama is a sleek, propulsive portrait of a man who believes he can operate in two worlds simultaneously โ and is wrong. Rating: 7.9/10.

Detective Grace Travis goes undercover to infiltrate the criminal organisation she believes murdered her son, only to find the truth is more complicated than any simple revenge plot. An underrated gem of the crime genre: taut, emotionally intelligent, and anchored by strong performances throughout. Rating: 7.6/10.

Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles scheme and stumble through increasingly elaborate criminal plans in a Nova Scotia trailer park. The mockumentary crime-comedy is beloved for its warm characterisation as much as its absurdist humour โ a show that treats its characters' delusions with remarkable affection. Rating: 7.6/10.

A Metropolitan Police commander runs a cold case unit staffed by three retired detectives โ each an eccentric, each with a colourful past. The BBC series ran for twelve seasons and found enormous audiences through its combination of warm character comedy and solid procedural crime. Rating: 7.8/10.
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Walter White's transformation from chemistry teacher to drug kingpin is the definitive crime TV narrative โ a comprehensive study of how ambition, pride, and self-deception can corrupt an ostensibly good man into a genuinely monstrous one. Vince Gilligan's five-season masterwork set the standard for prestige crime drama. Rating: 9.3/10.

David Simon's Baltimore epic follows the drug trade, police, docks, schools, and media across five masterful seasons. The Wire treats crime not as individual moral failure but as systemic dysfunction โ a portrait of institutions that grind people down regardless of their intentions. The greatest crime drama ever made. Rating: 9.3/10.

Harold Finch's all-seeing Machine spits out Social Security numbers of people about to be involved in violent crimes โ victims or perpetrators โ and it's up to his operatives to intervene. What started as procedural crime drama became, across five seasons, a profound meditation on surveillance and artificial intelligence. Rating: 8.8/10.

The Shelby family's criminal empire expands from Birmingham's backstreets to Parliament itself across six seasons of stylish, operatic gangster drama. Steven Knight combines vivid period detail with contemporary sensibility and anchors everything in Cillian Murphy's extraordinary physical performance as Tommy. Rating: 8.5/10.

Olivia Colman and David Tennant as the detectives investigating a child murder in a small Dorset town โ a case that devastates the community even as it is being solved. Broadchurch is the rare crime drama that foregrounds grief over procedure, asking what justice actually costs the people left behind. Rating: 8.4/10.

Yorkshire police sergeant Catherine Cawood pursues a local crime family while raising her grandson โ the son of the rapist who drove her daughter to suicide. Sally Wainwright's BBC crime drama is extraordinary in its portrayal of ordinary resilience against extraordinary evil. Rating: 8.0/10.

James St. Patrick runs a legitimate New York nightclub while also maintaining his identity as a major drug distributor. Courtney Kemp's Starz crime drama is a sleek, propulsive portrait of a man who believes he can operate in two worlds simultaneously โ and is wrong. Rating: 7.9/10.

Detective Grace Travis goes undercover to infiltrate the criminal organisation she believes murdered her son, only to find the truth is more complicated than any simple revenge plot. An underrated gem of the crime genre: taut, emotionally intelligent, and anchored by strong performances throughout. Rating: 7.6/10.

Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles scheme and stumble through increasingly elaborate criminal plans in a Nova Scotia trailer park. The mockumentary crime-comedy is beloved for its warm characterisation as much as its absurdist humour โ a show that treats its characters' delusions with remarkable affection. Rating: 7.6/10.

A Metropolitan Police commander runs a cold case unit staffed by three retired detectives โ each an eccentric, each with a colourful past. The BBC series ran for twelve seasons and found enormous audiences through its combination of warm character comedy and solid procedural crime. Rating: 7.8/10.
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