Everyone! The holiday fortnight is upon us! Whether you’re taking an official winter break or not, this time of year guarantees sleepier days and cozier nights. What better way to fill that time than by catching up on the year’s best crimey TV? I’ve assembled, for your convenience, a list of 2025’s best TV seasons in the mystery, crime, thriller, and espionage genres!
Now, these shows are not in any particular order. I’ve included where you can stream them, for your ease of access.
What are you waiting for? Get thee to a couch!
Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez in the penultimate episode of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ season five. Hulu
Only Murders in the Building, Season 5 (Hulu)
The world is a terrible place, but it looks like we’ll have a season of Only Murders in the Building every year to help us make it to the next one. This season explored the murder of a beloved, recurring side character, Lester the doorman, and took our intrepid trio of sleuths (Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez) to unexpected corners of the city.
BEN BLACKALL/NETFLIX
Adolescence, Season 1 (Netflix)
Perhaps the most talked-about show of 2025, Adolescence is a British Netflix production about the most terrifying and heartbreaking scenario: a thirteen-year-old boy seems to have murdered his female classmate.
(Image credit: Christopher Saunders/Netflix)
The Night Agent, Season 2 (Netflix)
Season 2 of The Night Agent is just as gripping and fun as the first season. It’s a spy thriller, not too gritty but still suspenseful. It’s the kind of thing you’d like if you wanted Air Force One to be a little less silly. AKA, it’s the perfect show to binge in between meals of glorious leftovers… and you’d better finish, because Season 3 comes out in February 2026!
Sarah Shatz/HBO
The Chair Company, Season 1 (HBO Max)
Tim Robinson scares me, but he’s supposed to. That’s his schtick. He plays ordinary people who go completely postal, but over somewhat relatable inconveniences or problems. When watching Tim Robinson’s characters, I think everyone finds themselves squirming, nervously wondering “I hope I don’t seem like that, to other people, I hope I’m not like him” while identifying with his frustrations or fears a little bit. In this fascinating series, Tim Robinson plays an upper-middle-class executive who deals with a professional accident that he turns into an obsession; a chair collapses under him during a presentation, prompting him to go down a customer-service rabbit hole to get the chair company to apologize to him for their poor construction. Except… for all his insane, angry paranoia, he actually stumbles on a real conspiracy.
Slow Horses, Season 5 (Apple TV+)
Slow Horses, the Apple TV adaptation of Mick Herron’s beloved Slough House series, honestly keeps getting better and better.
Malin Akerman and Brittany Snow star in “The Hunting Wives” on Netflix. (Kent Smith)
The Hunting Wives, Season 1 (Netflix)
May Cobb’s The Hunting Wives got the Netflix miniseries treatment this year, and became a major hit. Malin Ackerman and Brittany Snow helm the series, respectively, as a captivating Southern housewife and her new Northern-transplant ingenue, who are embroiled in some sort of dark murder mystery.
Poker Face, Season 2 (Peacock)
Poker Face ended abruptly after Season 2. This surprised many of us, since, while not as novel as Season 1, Season 2 was still very fun and full of memorable episodes. I’d have happily watched many more seasons in this exact format, but it seems that, although it’s over for now, Poker Face isn’t quite done yet.
Karen Pirie, Season 2 (BritBox)
Karen Pirie came back to us after a three year hiatus!!! And thank goodness it did!!! This series (and the novels it’s based on, by Val McDermid) are clever, twisty mysteries that will satisfy your hunger for British procedurals without putting you through a lot of cliches about crass or cranky male genius DCIs. (For those of you who do not subscribe to BritBox, it’s free on the Roku channel.)
The Lowdown, Season 1 (FX/Hulu)
The Lowdown! Sterlin Harjo’s follow-up series to Reservation Dogs is a punchy, pulpy vintage, Travis McGee-obsessed noir series featuring Ethan Hawke and Keith David as two investigators (one a “truthstorian,” the other a federal agent) who wind up looking into local corruption in Tulsa.
Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn – Dark Winds _ Season 3 – Photo Credit: Michael Moriatis/AMC
Dark Winds, Season 3 (Netflix)
For fans of Longmire!!! This engrossing series about officers of the Navajo Tribal Police solving violent crimes in the 1970s stars the great Zahn McClarnon. I love a Western, and Dark Winds is an excellent intervention into this genre.
Jack Alcott as Harrison Morgan and Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan in ‘Dexter: Resurrection’ (Photo Credit: Zach Dilgard / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME)
Dexter: Resurrection, Season 1 (Paramount +)
It’s hard to say what season this is, because every time Dexter comes back, it’s as a new show. First we had eight seasons of Dexter from 2006 to 2013, then 8 years later in 2021, we got Dexter: New Blood, then in 2024, we got Dexter: Original Sin, and now we have Dexter: Resurrection. (Both Original Sin and Resurrection are scheduled to return for second seasons, by the way.) Dexter: Resurrection is excellent; our man finds himself in New York City chasing new foes, old ghosts, nervous successors, and for the first time, genuine rivals.
Death Valley, Season 1 (BritBox)
In this adorable series, Timothy Spall plays a retired actor who used to play a beloved detective on TV! And he and a young, ambitious detective sergeant team up to solve mysteries together, in the Welsh Countryside. You know what they say: the show must go on! And if this show doesn’t go on, I will fling myself off the highest mountain in Snowdonia. (That’s in Wales.)
Task, Season 1 (HBO Max)
It’s the boy Mare of Easttown! Well, sort of. From the creators of Mare of Easttown, it’s about an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) who leads a task force investigating a string of violent robberies in Philadelphia. Of course, the case turns out to be bigger than that.
