Published Aug 15, 2026, 9:33 PM EDT
Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it’s a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she’s not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.
Sign in to your Collider account
Lucky is a great new show on Apple TV. But when it comes to crime series, the streamer has a diverse selection of options beyond that. If you are looking for something else to watch in the genre while waiting for new episodes of Lucky, or once you’ve finished, you don’t have to go elsewhere: you can stick with the same service.
Some of the best crime shows on Apple TV are already several seasons in, while a few recently premiered. Each one has an incredible cast, often led by actors known for their Hollywood movie performances. You won’t be disappointed with any of these exciting and gripping crime shows.
The British spy thriller Slow Horses has become a massive hit for Apple TV, earning countless nominations and awards. It’s already renewed through seven seasons, with the sixth scheduled to premiere in September 2026. Gary Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the grumpy lead of the Slough House department of MI5, where lackluster agents are sent to push papers instead of getting fired. When one massive case after another arises, however, they are unexpectedly given the chance to prove their worth.
The near-perfect Apple TV series is a fun flip on the traditional spy genre, praised for its fast-paced storytelling and incredible acting. The main characters are underdogs rather than typical heroes, with Lamb the antithesis of a charming James Bond type. You can’t help but love him anyway, however, as he speaks for the everyman, approaching the job his own way and poking fun at the very organization that employs him. It’s a wonderful story about outcasts rising up, and the short six-episode seasons make it an easy binge.
Admittedly, Hijack’s first season is much stronger than its second, and the show probably should have ended with that. Nonetheless, Season 1 will draw you in and keep you at the edge of your seat the entire time. Most of the action takes place aboard a flight from Dubai to London, where lawyer and corporate business negotiator Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) becomes the de facto leader of the passengers when they discover the plane has been hijacked.
Sam figuring out who these hijackers are, what they want, and how to navigate the situation is what drives most of the plot. There’s also a parallel and connected storyline as those on the ground try to understand why communication has been lost on this plane and the best course of action to save the most lives. Seeing Sam put his negotiation skills to use in a way he never has puts Elba in the hot seat and makes him an expected hero. It’s tense, gripping, and a wild ride through the first seven episodes. Even if you don’t bother with Season 2, *Hijack *Season 1 is worth checking out.
In this British crime thriller, Peter Capaldi is veteran detective DCI Daniel Hegarty, and Cush Jumbo is rookie DS/DI June Lenker when an older murder case comes back into the conversation. Daniel wants to let sleeping dogs lie, and you can’t help but wonder why. But June’s passion for the job and suspicions about the case mean she won’t stop looking into the new evidence, presented by an anonymous phone caller.
Everything in Criminal Record comes together wonderfully, from the fantastic performances to the psychological tension and the not-so-subtle look at institutional corruption. It’s the type of story that has been told many times before, but the plot doesn’t fall into the usual good cop, bad cop dynamic, allowing for a much more nuanced story.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Colin Farrell is captivating in this neo-noir mystery drama with a huge twist revealed halfway through Season 1 that will throw you for a loop if you haven’t yet heard about it. He’s John Sugar in Sugar**, a private detective in Los Angeles who is a quiet loner with a unique personality and a deep desire to help others.
Sugar presents with a lovely throwback old Hollywood aesthetic, a plot that intrigues you, and a lead character who’s so likable and magnetic that you can’t help but want to follow him along on his journey. The detective show subverts typical tropes, choosing instead to beat to its own drum. The story poses deep questions about the state of humanity, too.
A remake of the 1990 film of the same name, which is also based on the Scott Turow novel, Presumed Innocent takes the story in its own unique direction with a few unexpected twists. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor who finds himself on the other side of the courtroom when he is accused of committing a heinous murder.
The story develops into a steamy tale of affairs, lies, secrets, and vendettas. With a plot that keeps you guessing and a twist you won’t see coming, Presumed Innocent is a solid eight episodes of storytelling. With confirmation that a second season is coming, based on the Jo Murray book Dissection of a Murder, the legal thriller is perhaps one of Apple TV’s most underrated gems.
Your Friends & Neighbors is a delightfully funny dark comedy crime drama about a wealthy man who resorts to thieving from his neighbors when he loses his job. He can’t work due to a non-compete and is desperate to continue keeping up with the Joneses. But in this new state of observing his so-called friends and the excess of material items they possess, Coop (Jon Hamm) develops a disdain for the very one-percent club to which he has long been a member.
The series, one of the greatest crime shows on Apple TV, is thoughtfully written, with Hamm’s narration of his character giving viewers an insider look at the absurdity of wealth. As Coop becomes drawn to the adrenaline rush and ups his theft game, he gets himself into increasingly dangerous situations. Your Friends & Neighbors is a show that oddly makes you sympathize with the criminal and despise the supposed victims in a way few other shows have managed to achieve.
If you love Vince Vaughn, you’ll love Bad Monkey since he plays exactly the type of character you think he would. The Bill Lawrence black comedy crime drama centers around his character Andrew Yancy, a former police detective who has been demoted. When he learns that a tourist found a severed arm in the ocean, however, he thinks investigating and solving this case could get him back in his boss’s good graces.
As the gripping case unfolds, the backdrop of South Florida and Vaughn’s signature comedic style draws you in. Meredith Hagner is a stand-out playing a well-to-do woman with big plans, while Jodie Turner-Smith brings an air of mystery to the plot as Gracie, an Obeah woman from the Bahamas who goes by the name of Dragon Queen. The show is the personification of breezy charm, so it’s no surprise that Bad Monkey is coming back for a second season.
Arguably Tatiana Maslany’s best performance since Orphan Black (nothing will ever top her performance in that sci-fi series), she plays Paula Saunders in Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, a recently divorced single mom trying to put her life back together. When she witnesses what she believes is a murder on camera while chatting with a webcam model, she feels compelled to look into it. He appeared to have been scamming her, but even so, a young man is possibly dead. How could she ignore that?
The plot in this comedy thriller crime takes Paula down a dangerous rabbit hole she has no business being in, especially while in a custody battle with her ex-husband Karl (Jake Johnson). Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is indeed maximum pleasure — a wild and fun ride through its 10-episode first season. The ending is satisfying but also opens the door for a potential second season should Apple TV be so inclined.
This remake of the 1962 and 1991 movies, both based on the John D. MacDonald novel The Executioners, creates a modern-day tale that has a throwback feel. Javier Bardem is intoxicating as this new version of Max Cady in Cape Fear, an ex-convict who is released after 17 years. With his newfound freedom, Max sets out to get revenge on the lawyers he blames for having him put away for a crime he claims he did not commit.
The psychological thriller is a masterclass in manipulation, a depiction of a family being torn apart at the seams, slowly and methodically. Yes, Cape Fear takes some wild turns and is even campy at times. But so was the 1991 movie starring Robert De Niro as Cady. Despite polarizing views on the finale, Cape Fear will keep you curious, invested, and drawn to the plot through all 10 episodes.
](/tag/tv-show/cape-fear-2026/)
](/tag/thriller/)
2026 - 2026-00-00
Amanda Marsalis, Morten Tyldum, Stephen Williams, Jon S. Baird, Jonathan van Tulleken, Reed Morano, S.J. Clarkson, Trey Edward Shults