Your five favourite police/cop/detective shows

[I am not exposed]

Mine in no particular order:

Midsomer Murders (original Barnaby years)
Vera
The Shield
The Wire
Line of Duty

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[Killer Orcas]

Random order as well.

Line of Duty
The Shield
The Wire
Homeland
Bosch

Bonus,

Luther
Broadchurch

 

[frisco]

Most of these are old school/obscure:
High Tide (Rick Springfield/Yannick Bisson mid 90's syndication)
Hawaii 5-O (original)
T.J. Hooker
Wanted Dead or Alive (Steve McQueen early 60's western)
Blue Bloods
Life (Damien Lewis 2005-06 vehicle--short-lived)

I guess I'm not a huge fan of the genre. I'd add Homeland, Millennium (late 90's) or even X-Files but they don't seem to fit in this category in my mind.

My Best-Carey

 

[Winger98]

Homicide: Life on the Street
Barney Miller
Shetland
Father Brown
Wallander
Poirot before Suchet went off the deep end.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Any list without Southland automatically fails.

Southland, The Wire and The Shield are probably the top 3 in no order.
There are a bunch of other good ones but i’d have to think about it.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Homicide
The Wire
Hill Street Blues
Cracker (UK)

 

[Eco]

19-2 (Quebec's Version) is one of the best and has one of the most intense episodes I've ever seen. Almost gave me PTSD.

19-2 (TV Series 2011–2015) - IMDb

 

[reckoning]

The Wire
Hill Street Blues
Broadchurch
Barney Miller
Cagney and Lacey

I haven't watched it since it originally aired in the 80s, so I'm not sure how well it holds up, but Hill Street Blues was considered the best drama series on TV in the 80s. At the time most drama series were single episode plots with small casts. HSB was a large ensemble that had a lot of layers and subplots that progressed throughout the seasons.

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

the shield-first 3 seasons
law and order: svu - angry cop chris meloni years
colombo

 

[Bowie22]

Twin Peaks
True Detective S1
Mindhunter
The Wire

 

[MVP of West Hollywd]

The Wire
The Shield
Slow Horses
early CSI
Reacher

 

[I am not exposed]

Any list without Southland automatically fails.

Southland, The Wire and The Shield are probably the top 3 in no order.
There are a bunch of other good ones but i’d have to think about it.

Never even heard of it. You listed two of my favourites with it so I'll add it to my never ending watchlist.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Too Old to Die Young
Twin Peaks

 

[Babe Ruth]

The Wire
Hill Street Blues
Broadchurch
Barney Miller
Cagney and Lacey

I haven't watched it since it originally aired in the 80s, so I'm not sure how well it holds up, but Hill Street Blues was considered the best drama series on TV in the 80s. At the time most drama series were single episode plots with small casts. HSB was a large ensemble that had a lot of layers and subplots that progressed throughout the seasons.

Another good cop show from the 8os was Wiseguy. Do you remember that one? Ken Wahl was an undercover FBI agent.. and Mike (from Breaking Bad) was his handler..

 

[Dubi Doo]

Including reality shows:
The Wire
The First 48

If we can include all first responder shows, then I'd put Rescue Me ahead of The First 48. ER is growing on me, too.

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

Another good cop show from the 8os was Wiseguy. Do you remember that one? Ken Wahl was an undercover FBI agent.. and Mike (from Breaking Bad) was his handler..

ken wahl-the dude with the perfect haircut.

 

[tacogeoff]

The Wire
Justified. any list without this automatically fails
21 Jump street

 

[Unholy Diver]

Monk
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Scooby Doo

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Law & Order: SVU
Death Note
The X-Files

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

The Wire
Law and Order (the real Law and Order with Jerry Orback and Sam Watterston)
Chips
NYPD Blue
Criminal Minds (1st 2 seasons with Gideon when it was really dark)

 

[DaaaaB's]

The Wire
Homicide: Life on the Streets
Justified
Fargo (does this count)
Bosch (only watched two seasons so far)

Miniseries:
Unbelievable
Mare of East Town

 

[NyQuil]

I've watched quite a few that were serviceable and solid. What would I recommend to people that have never seen any police/cop shows?

The Wire
Columbo
Broadchurch
Brooklyn 99
Twin Peaks

Lots of great ones in this thread, hard to narrow it down.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Gonna skip cop stuff since it's well covered and just focus on one of my favorite types of shows -- fun (usually), comforting detective stuff (usually British).

The David Suchet Poirots, obviously.

The Cumberbatch Sherlocks started to loose their steam, but I really loved the first few seasons.

Miss. Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Good setting. Good cast. I have an incredible crush on Essie Davis.

Psych. Goofy fun. Good guest stars. Great cast chemistry.

Loved Poker Face. Quirky. Another great use of guest stars.

OH and Veronica Mars. Another one that's better early than latter, but the vibe and tone of that show is perfect even when the story telling gets a little messy. I'd be happy if they popped up every few years and did another movie or series. Really good job (similar to Justified) of juggling TV-style "case of the week" with season-long mystery arcs.

Occurring to me now ... each of these shows have really strong leads.

 

[NyQuil]

Gonna skip cop stuff since it's well covered and just focus on one of my favorite types of shows -- fun (usually), comforting detective stuff (usually British).

The David Suchet Poirots, obviously.

The Cumberbatch Sherlocks started to loose their steam, but I really loved the first few seasons.

Jeremy Brett's Holmes was very impressive.

 

[The Marquis]

In order:

1. Twin Peaks - obviously... if you know.













2. Psych
3. X-Files
4. Broadchurch
5. True Detective (would be #2 if every season were as good as the first)