THIS IS THE 2015 VERSION OF THIS STORY – CLICK HERE FOR THE 2020 EDITION

Fun fact:  last year’s edition of our TV Murder Mysteries to Binge Watch NOW was the #1 clicked story on BYT. And no wonder. Some of the best shows on TV in 2014 (True Detective, How to Get Away With Murder, Hannibal etc) were mysteries and your Netflix/Amazon Prime /Hulu/ Acorn recommendations/queues are BRIMMING with murder, mayhem, AND amazing accents solving those murders and mayhem. SO, HERE IS THE 2015 EDITION FOR YOUR PERUSAL, with dozens of new shows added.

What is ahead of you is a very extensive, deeply researched (trust me, I HAVE seen every single one of these), immersive guide to the rabbit hole that TV thriller universe is. Besides, it is FREEZING outside so you have some television marathon time to fill.

Lets dig in. We separated them into the following categories, for ease of your perusal:

• STRONG, INDEPENDENT FEMALE LEADS
• DARK, MOODY MALE LEADS
• BRITISH CLASSICS
• AMERICAN CLASSICS
• SUBTITLED!
• IN ENGLISH BUT NEEDS SUBTITLES!
• LESS-THAN-A-6-HOUR COMMITMENT (aka MINI-SERIES)

STRONG, INDEPENDENT FEMALE LEADS

PRIME SUSPECT– BEFORE any of this became something resembling a pop-culture phenomenon, there was Helen Mirren as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennyson taking on the worst crimes the Greater London area had to tackle. She was smart, she was tough, she looked great in her blouses, she got into a lot of mental face-offs with both criminals and (male) co-workers and without her we’d probably still be stuck in a world where female detectives were just mere sidekicks. Watch the original, and skip the Maria Bello hat fiasco American network TV tried to shove down our throats a few seasons back. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Amazon, and AcornTV

THE FALL (SEASON 2 PREMIERES JANUARY 16TH!!!) – Gillian Anderson does a great job of creating yet another iconic detective that, if this show takes off after first season (and it should), will maybe help us all not think of her as Agent Dana Scully 4ever. Set in Northern Ireland, it follows her Stella Gibson, who tries to track down a murderer and stalker of women before time runs out. The interesting turn here is that we meet the killer as fast as we meet Stella, and while his identity never being in question (at least to the viewer) could have been a downfall of the show, the cat-and-mouse dynamic that emerges from it is palpably nail-biting. Casting bonus: the killer is played by the very handsome Jamie Dornan, who is about to star in the movie adaptation of “50 Shades of Gray” making female viewers uncomfortable on several levels: dread, yes, but also feeling unavoidably attracted to someone who is not just bad for you, but legitimately dangerous.   AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix.

SCOTT & BAILEY – While women police officers are not that rare on TV these days, it is nice to see a police office where the senior officers are majority female. Scott & Bailey are partners, solving some pretty messed up murders and dealing with their equally messy private lives (the messiness of which ranges from adultery to YES, MURDER EVEN IN THAT ASPECT OF THEIR EXISTENCE) but the true show stealer here is Amelia Bullmore as their DCI Gill Murray. Fast talking, hilarious and very non-nonsense, she is one of those characters you wish existed on every show.  AVAILABLE ON: Hulu

VERA – Brenda Blethyn stars as Vera Stanhope, a hard-as-nails detective with more emotional issues than one could humanly handle. Most of the cases are well plotted traditional whoddunnits set against the moody moors and bleak cityscapes of Northern England but Blethyn’s acting caliber, Stanhope’s troubled past and thorny-but-caring relationship with her DS Joe Asworth keep the viewer coming back. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Hulu, Acorn, PBS.

ABOVE SUSPICION – Kelly Reilly stars as DC Anna Travis, a police legacy now working under (and trying to prove herself to) one of her father’s ex colleague (played by the ever intimidating, amazing and reliable Ciaran Hinds). There are several cycles and the murders are adequately gruesome (including a Black Dahlia copycat, and some truly messed up Oedipal action), while Reilly never loses her English Rose pink cheeks, even in the worst of situations. AVAILABLE ON: Amazon Prime, AcornTV

THE KILLING  – The Killing took a little bit of a beating in Season 2 what with that unfortunate decision to stretch out the first “Who Killed Rosie Larsen?” mystery into overtime, but it is worth a revisit because Season 3 is as creepy as they come. Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman star as the mismatched detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder and in the final AMC season they face teenage runaways, prostitution, some of the most horrifying mass graves I’ve seen and a killer, played by the flawless Peter Sarsgaard, who may not be all that he seems. The six episode arc of Final Season 4 was produced exclusively for Netflix. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix.

THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE: A group of lady code-breakers find themselves at their wit’s end with boredom when the war ends and so they do what had to be done: they pretend to be in a book club while solving a horrible, dastardly murder. It sounds hokey, but it is truly dark, wonderfully acted, and heartbreaking from a certain feminist standpoint too. Season 2 available now too (imo, not quite as good as season 1 but…). AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix.

NEW TRICKS – A  group of old school detectives (the OLD DOGS)  is brought back to a special force to investigate cold cases. They are a bunch of mysoginistic, set-in-their-ways assholes and now have to contend with a woman being their boss, which 11 seasons in has somehow still not been something they fully adjusted to. Amanda Redman started heading up the cast, but has been replaced by Tamzin Outhwaite as the younger, blonder, more progressive DCI Sasha Miller. AVAILABLE ON: Hulu

BODY FARM – An offshot of the wildly popular Waking the Dead show (see below in “Dark, Moody Male Leads”) the show stars forensic scientist Eve Lockhart (played by Tara Fitzgerald who you may remember from 90s movies like Sirens and Brassed Off, looking now better than ever) and her team who use science and whatever they can find on rapidly decomposing bodies to  solve crimes for Keith Allen’s DI Hale. Fair Warning: NOT for the squeemish. AVAILABLE ON: Hulu

MISS FISHER’S MURDER MYSTERIES – If you’re in the mood for your murders a little more stylish and jaunty (and, lets face it, sometimes we all are) – Miss Fisher, a very modern, very independent women of the 20s, with a social calendar filled with glamorous parties AND MURDER is your gal. Bonus: Miss Fisher is played by Essie Davis who is uncannily reminiscent of a young Diana Rigg, a fact that should not be lost of at least some of the men reading this (I hope). AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix and Season 2 NOW on AcornTV (who are offering a month’s free trial btw).

DARK, MOODY MALE LEADS

SHERLOCK – Last year Cumberbatch and Freeman are back for season 3 and we could not have been more excited. Rumors are that Season 4 will happen sooner rather than later but all three seasons are WELL worth revisiting ongoingly(The Scandal in Belgravia is probably one of the best things to air on TV in the last half decade). All season: Hulu, Instant Netflix, Amazon Prime.

LUTHER – Idris Elba owns the screen as Detective John Luther, an intensely smart, tortured, beyond handsome and intimidating presence in the Serious Crimes Unit. All three seasons are fantastic, but my personal favorite is Season 1, mainly because of Ruth Wilson (who JUST won a Golden Globe for The Affair), whose Alice Morgan is, aside from Hannibal Lecter, one of the most captivating villains TV or movies have ever seen. Brilliant, beautiful, and with a genuinely evil glint in her eye, her sparring with Luther walks the thin line between danger and flirtation, as something reminiscent of a friendship emerges. You have to see it to believe it. And then probably re-see it. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime

GEORGE GENTLY -In the 1960s, an old-school detective is paired with a potentially shady new partner and has to come to terms with the fact that the lines between the police and the criminals have tentatively been blurred. AVAILABLE ON: piecemeal seasons on Netflix, Hulu, AcornTV

BROADCHURCH:  FINALLY STREAMING FOR FREE. The British phenomenon (it is the most viewed drama in England, aside from Downton Abbey) stars David Tenant as a tortured detective arriving to a sleepy English beachside hamlet to hopefully not be in the middle of mayhem and get a moment’s rest, and naturally, a murder happens on his first day at the job. The town is turned upside down, tensions run sky high, EVERYONE is a suspect, and the amount of secrets that emerge are headspinning enough by themselves, while the final reveal is both heartbreaking and incredibly human. The show is shot gorgeously and meant to be enjoyed in HD so spring for that extra $1 per episode, and while FOX has made a remake (also starring Tennant) and season 2 on the British side is in the works, watch this first. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix

INSPECTOR MORSE (and Inspector Lewis & Endeavour in extension) – John Thaw’s portrayal of the classical music loving, no-first-name-sharing, borderline-alcoholic, sugar addicted Morse is a cornerstone of detective television. Over 33 episodes, he solves some seriously grisly crimes in Oxford, a city he once denounced after university, and for whose academic residents he harbors a healthy mix of complete disdain and occasional reverence. Since Morse is pretty hard to handle by himself, the viewer was handed the smart but affable Inspector Lewis as his sidekick, who later got a show of his own (which I personally prefer to Morse) and a young, intellectual, tortured partner all his own. BONUS: There is a prequel to Morse (ENDEAVOR) available on Instant Netflix now, telling us a little more about his origins story and yes, his first name. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime.

WAKING THE DEAD – I sort of imagine this cold case/forensics drama is the British equivalent of Law & Order or Criminal Minds because it has been running FOR 9 SEASONS, with the difference that this show probably would not have survived for nine seasons in the US. The reasons are as follows: Peter Boyd, the head detective of the Cold Case Squad (played by Trevor Eve) is one of the gruffest, most unpleasant, completely untactful human beings to ever be on the small screen (even several seasons in, his interview bedside manner made me want to cover my face more often than the murders themselves), and the murders, well the murders involve some true unsavoriness, from raping a girl and having her 9 year old brother watch and then throwing them both of a bridge to psychiatric hospitals with secret gravesites to awful child abuse scenarios, it is all here. Thankfully Boyd has some great team members to balance his insanity out and the guest stars (everyone from Toby Stephens to Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery) are all top notch. Add to that some very memorable villains (including Linda Cummings, played by Ruth Grammel, who almost matches Luther’s Alice Morgan in genius and glee) and you are hooked. For nine seasons. Sorry. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix (but not all of them), Hulu (all of them).

JACK IRISH – Guy Pearce stars as the titular ex-criminal lawyer who now spends his time as a part-time private eye, debt collector, cabinet maker who keeps finding himself in more and more and MORE trouble. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Hulu, AcornTV

WIRE IN THE BLOOD – Robson Greene stars as Dr. Tony Hill a psychologist who finds himself entangled in some seriously gruesome crimes and even more gruesome people behind them. There are six seasons and the first episode of season 1 perfectly sets the tone for just how unsavory these crimes are going to be. The fact that Dr. Hill is somewhere on the autism spectrum adds a new layer of interest to the show, and his fragile relationships with the people around them are often more intriguing than the (very) intriguing cases they’re solving. AVAILABLE ON: Hulu

WALLANDER – I prefer the Kenneth Branagh version to the original Scandinavian show, but you know, each to their own. Branagh has a certain kind of water colored torture permanently imprinted on his face that makes him perfect for the recently divorced, very sad, yet emotionally disconnected detective he plays. The crimes are typically Scandinavian (meaning decidedly more creepy than your standard American fare) and the villains a little more desperate than usual, but the cinematography is GORGEOUS, Branagh obviously a very intelligent actor and the sum of all parts makes for a good rainy afternoon with a hot toddy viewing. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Hulu.

WHITECHAPEL – Whitechapel is catnip for those into historic crimes. First season finds DI Joseph Chandler (a very handsome, completely emotionally unavailable, definitely OCD Rupert Penry-Jones) on the trail of a series of murders which resemble Jack The Ripper. Season 2 deals with the Brothers Kray, and season 3 is less focused on obvious sensationalist cold cases (and therefore, to me, the most effective). AVAILABLE ON: Hulu

BRITISH CLASSICS

Now, it should be noted that I understand that the definition of a classic is sort of loose in this day and age  but below I will tackle what I consider, well, essentials.

THE AGATHA CHRISTIE OUVRE – Obviously, first and foremost-we are talking about David Suchet’s POIROT here. For numerous seasons, Poirot, Captain Hastings and Miss Lemon have had their little grey cells working in overdrive,  solving one elegant murder after another. Final season is now finally available. For Poirot completists though, please check out the Peter Ustinov movies too: Evil Under the Sun, Murder on the Orient Express (which features one of the most impressive all star casts ever, with Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman and more), and Murder on the Nile. Then, of course, there is Miss Marple. The TV show is fun, but I was always a fan of the Angela Lansbury movies myself (especially The Mirror Crack’d, which stars Kim Novak and Liz Taylor as the competing aging movie stars who will stop at nothing to emerge on top, plus Tony Curtis, Geraldine Chaplin AND Rock Hudson to boot). ON TOP OF THAT- Acorn has a a very complete series of lesser known mysteries like The Seven Dials Mystery and Sparkling Cyanide, starring such English heavyweights as Pauline Collins, John Gielgud and Francesca Annis.

FOYLE’S WAR – A Masterpiece Mystery classic that deals with the question not many dare tackle: crime doesn’t stop during war. AVAILABLE AT: Hulu, Instant Netflix, PBS and AcornTV (including the latest, season 8 which is premiering on it)

INSPECTOR LYNLEY – Nathaniel Parker and Shannon Small starred in six seasons of this mystery series as the upper class Oxford-educated Thomas Lynley and his working class right hand Barbara Havers. Crimes happen at Oxford colleges, elite boy schools, fancy mansions, and the like.   AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix and AcornTV.

MIDSOMER MURDERS – Over 81 episodes, this Caroline Graham novel inspired series finds cousin detectives John and Tom Barnaby solve crimes across Midsomer. The show equivalent of your favorite low fuss dinner-always satisfying, never too demanding. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix and AcornTV.

MURDOCH MYSTERIES – This period drama has been a success for eight seasons now and follows investigator William Murdoch as he uses radical forensic techniques for the time, including fingerprinting and trace evidence, to solve some of the city’s most gruesome murders, in the 1890s. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Hulu, AcornTV

A TOUCH OF FROST – Starring the great David Jason (Only Fools and Horses!), the casebook of the disgruntled, gruff, yet oddly lovable Inspector Frost (and his rotating cast of short-suffering partners) covers everything from kidnappings to murders truly most foul. 40+ episodes of British small-town puzzle solving.

ROSEMARY & THYME – Two ladies with green thumbs Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme join their knowledge of botany and gardening to solve some classy murders set amongst England’s stunning greenery. There are only three seasons of this show, but it is just SO quintessentially British, funny and sly and stiff upper lipped, we can’t help but list it under classics.  AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, AcornTV

AMERICAN CLASSICS

X FILES – Mulder and Scully’s whole story arc may be too much to revisit in one sitting, but it is a GREAT pick-and-choose procedural too. Everyone has their favorite episode, and mine will forever be the FAMILY one. Nothing supernatural happening here necessarily, but it is all the more deeply, profoundly disturbing for it. Also, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson look SO YOUNG. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime.

TWIN PEAKS – David Lynch’s network masterpiece turns (sort of) 25 this year and while some may argue it doesn’t hold up, it is still a deliciously weird box of chocolates to dive into, especially season two, where the One Eyed Jack mystery takes over for Laura Palmer’s mystery. Bonus: Agent Cooper is truly the only purely good leading man that is also not boring at all. Until he isn’t (good that is). Just think about it.  AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime.

HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS – Barry Levinson’s Baltimore crime drama starring Andre Braugher is the only show on this list you can’t readily stream on something. BUT IT IS WORTH ordering those DVDs from Netflix from, I promise. Still SO GOOD.

COLUMBO – Peter Falk played Lieutenant Columbo as a man that was very easy to underestimate: always polite, always a little rumpled, always unassuming. But under all that disarming exterior was a sharp-as-a-tack deduction brain and no one should ever have been happy to hear his famous “Oh, and just one more thing…” line. We, as the viewer, always knew who the killer was from the very beginning (because they WOULD show it to us), but watching Columbo get his man (or woman, or both) was never any less fun because of it. Also: some of the most amazing guest appearances this side of “Murder she Wrote”. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix

MCMILLAN & WIFE – Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James star as Stuart (Mac) McMillan, Navy vet, attorney and now San Francisco police comissioner and his wife Sally, daughter of a former SFPD detective who has a knack of helping her husband solve crimes almost as often as they pop up. Good, murderous Northern California fun in the early 1970s. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix

LAW & ORDER: SVU & CRIMINAL INTENT– All of it is streaming on Instant Netflix and HULU, so you can relive those classic college days of being hungover on a Sunday and doing nothing but watching reruns of it ad nauseum. With the important difference than now it DOESN’T have to be Sunday for you to do that.

REMINGTON STEELE– Can you believe it has been 33 years since Remington Steele premiered? The show that first put Pierce Brosnan (and his baby blues) into the spotlight is a his’n’hers classic in which Brosnan plays a former thief who joins forces with a crime-solving female private eye (the equally lovely Stephanie Zimbalist) and adds credibility to her operations. Bonus: Doris Roberts. It doesn’t get much more 80s than this. AVAILABLE ON: Hulu

MURDER SHE WROTE – For TWELVE seasons Angela Lansbury solved civilized crimes on this CBS drama. People enjoy making fun of it (in a sort of a well meaning, loving way, naturally) but think about it-this is a smart, funny, wink-worthy, wildly popular TV carried on the shoulders of not a young actress or some hunk-o-the-month, but a charming, life-loving, cocktail drinking, slightly saucy middle-aged widow, something that yes, has been a staple of British TV for a while (and Lansbury herself played Miss Marple on occasion) but almost unheard of on American TV. Plus, the cases are almost gleefully delicious. A perfect murder mystery to relax to before going to sweet, sweet slumber. For extra nostalgia points, revisit the Magnum PI crossover episode too, for sure:

SUBTITLED!

DICTE – Iben Hjejle (remember her from “High Fidelity?) stars as a newly divorced investigative journalist who moves from Copenhagen to a smaller town she grew up in (and has MANY A PAINFUL memory from) only to find herself ongoingly embroiled in murders (often involving children, which is a theme that ties to those painful memories of her past) and other crimes, and constantly both helping AND being in the way of Inspector Wagner whom she’s forced to liaise with. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix

ANNIKA BENTZGON: CRIME REPORTER – Continuing the theme of Scandinavian investigative female reporters we started here, Annika Bentzgon (and her overnight bag) solve murders all over Sweden: from a crime at the Nobel Prize Ball to illegal immigrants in trouble, every case is worth her time. A healthy does of family drama on the side. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix.

SPIRAL – The French have a great tradition in the compelling thriller department and this series is a great example of that. At the center is Detective Laure Berthaud, who knows her way around both a grisly murder case and a perfectly layered t-shirt situation and the prosecutor Pierre Clement as they deal with assorted (and often, well, messily kinky) crimes, corruption and their increasingly sticky personal lives. I understand that to a lot of people watching crime drama with subtitles is a chore (you can’t be emailing during it! you can’t be playing on your phone during it! you have to pay attention! WHAT?) but this one is definitely worth the time. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix

THE BRIDGE: FX pretty famously pulled their content from Hulu a little while a go and Hulu now went and stuck a middle finger up FX’s face by releasing the original The Bridge in all moody Swedish/Danish glory. FX is back now but the show is still great. The premise is still the same: a body is found on a bridge connecting the two countries, but the mood is well, more Scandinavian.  AVAILABLE ON: HULU

WALLANDER – The Original Swedish superdetective solves crimes in his tiny town on the Baltic Coast. Pair it with the Kenneth Branagh British special and you’re set for days. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Hulu

IN ENGLISH BUT YOU COULD PROBABLY USE SUBTITLES!

HINTERLAND – Set in the depths of Wales (with thick accents to match, and some straight-up Welsh on top) Hinterland is a great, if almost too bone chilling drama centering on Detective Tom Mathias solving some truly bleak (often hate related) crimes while looking for redemption of his own. AVAILABALE ON: Instant Netflix

HAPPY VALLEY– Sarah Lancashire stars as sergent Catherine Cawood, overseeing a sleepy, rural, drug addled valley in Yorkshire. Haunted by an irreversible family tragedy and dealing simultaneously with a gruesome kidnapping AND her own revenge issues, she faces all her demons and then some. The acting is all around amazing, and hints of Fargo (only with really thick, working class British accents) are more than lightly noticable (and that is a good thing)  AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix

BLUE MURDER– Caroline Quentin stars as single mom and DCI Janine Lewis, balancing her newly divorced status, four children, and some pretty gruesome murders in the (thickly accented) North of England. Stories involving youth or children are by far the most resonant ones. AVAILABLE ON: Hulu, AcornTV

THE FIELD OF BLOOD -A superb ensemble cast anchors this new BBC drama set in Glasgow in the 1980s. Based on the hit book by Denise Mina, The FIeld of Blood follows a low-level newspaper employee (a girl in a man’s world, of course) whose world is turned upside down when a murder story involves her family. The outstanding ensemble cast includes BAFTA winner Jayd Johnson, David Morrissey (The Walking Dead’s Governor) and Peter Capaldi ( aka “Doctor Who’s current incarnation”).  AVAILABLE ON: AcornTV

ZEN – Masterpiece Mysteries can be also set in Rome. Who knew? Bonus: Rufus Sewell as the eponymous detective makes everything better, even if the show is already near perfect itself. Get ready for: British Accents, Italian Accents, a healthy dose of Catholic guilt and male chauvinism, and everything in between though. AVAILABLE ON: Hulu

LESS-THAN-A-6-HOUR COMMITMENT (aka MINI-SERIES)

MASTERPIECE: THE ESCAPE ARTIST – We’d watch pretty much anything with David Tennant in it and this Masterpiece Mystery about a lawyer who manages to get a psychopath off only to regret it almost instantly is fantastic. Toby Kebbel who plays his adversary is a revelation (catch him in Black Mirror too, which is now FINALLY streaming on Instant Netflix).  AVAILABLE ON: Amazon Prime

DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY  – PD James’ mystery novel of the same name took on an interesting and seemingly irresistible premise: Six years after Pride & Prejudice took place, Darcy and Elisabeth Bennet, now married and all that, are readying for their annual ball when, well, DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY. Starring people with some SERIOUS thriller chops: Matthew Rhys (The Americans), Anna Maxwell Martin (Bletchley Circle) and Matthew Goode (Stoker and Match Point) plus enough corsets and brooding by the moors to make the Austen original jealous, this one’s winner, no questions asked.- AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix

APPROPRIATE ADULT– Dominic West has been having quite a moment in the US with The Affair but this based-on-a-true-story drama in which he plays Fred West, who was accused with his wife Rose of murdering and torturing dozens of young people in their home. Emily Watson, as terrific as ever, plays an “appropriate adult” assigned to sit in on Fred’s police interviews. Their relationship goes from baffling to troubling to downright heartbreaking and the two stars never miss a beat. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix

LIFE OF CRIME -Hayley Atwell is currently getting ALL THE BUZZ as Marvel’s Agent Carter (the show is super fun, btw, and you should watch it) but before that she did this spanning-the-decades crime mini-series about a young cop tracking the killer of a 15-year-old girl  and the new chapters in the mystery which keep opening up years after she though she finally solved it. Frustrating? Yes. But then, so is real life. AVAILABLE ON: Hulu

JESSE STONE – Tom Selleck plays a small town police chief (who, of course, was once a big city detective) immersed in a series of mysteries in made-for-TV movies dating from 2006-2012. Guest stars are outstanding (Viola Davis, Saul Rubinek, Jane Adams…) and Selleck’s alpha male persona has aged surprisingly well. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix, Amazon Prime.

THORNE – David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) plays a tortured (is there any other kind?), police officer with a secret (of course) who goes and solves some pretty killer killings while helping Sandra Oh get off cocaine, dealing with some serious Father issues and looking like a less beat up version of Liam Neeson. Highly recommended all around. 2 reiterations are available: Sleepyhead and ScaredyCat. Watch them both. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix

MASTERPIECE: Place of Execution – There is obviously an insane amount of Masterpiece Mystery productions out there and most of these are covered in this story but PLACE OF EXECUTION,  a 2 hour Masterpiece Contemporary made-for-TV movie is a hidden, chilling gem. On a freezing December night in 1963, 13-year-old Alison Carter took her dog for a walk on the moors in Scardale, a secluded Derbyshire hamlet, and was never seen again. 45 years later a new detective and a filmmaker (the always wonderful Juliet Stevenson) both revisit the case and the results are well… almost unfathomable. AVAILABLE ON: Hulu, Amazon

AMNESIA – A 2004 two-parter starting John Hannah as DS Mackenzie Stone and Brandon Coyle (aka Downton Abbey’s Mr. Bates) as his partner Ian Reid who have spent the last five years searching for  Stone’s wife who went missing on their wedding anniversary. All the roads seem  to be leading to a man suffering from severe amnesia, who is now leaving a brand new life in a quiet coastal town where they all live. Solid pacing, strong performances and Hannah’s forever likable everyman face make this underseen show worth catching. Pretty thick accents and no closed captioning available though, so bear that in mind.  AVAILABLE ON: Hulu

VEXED –  If all these sex crimes and insanity have left you wanting some light relief, may we point you to this British comedy-murder-drama mini-series which has aired 2 seasons with hopefully more to come.  The show stars Toby Stephens (aka son of Maggie Smith!) as a lazy but very charming DI Jack Armstrong and his rotating cast of increasingly stressed out female partners (Season one had the always amazing Lucy Punch, while season two brough along the regal Miranda Raison) while they solve crimes, drink cappuccinos and fight over who gets to drive the car. Fluffy yes, but delicious and still very smart. AVAILABLE ON: Hulu and AcornTV.

TOP OF THE LAKE– Jane Campion directed this Sundance mini-series (her first TV endeavor since 1990) starring Elizabeth Moss and things in it ARE WEIRD. Moss’s Robin Griffin arrives back to her hometown to investigate the case surrounding the disappearance of Tui Mitchum, who happens to be 12 AND pregnant. Griffin herself is dealing with a lot of residual issues connected to this place and the dynamics between everyone involved seem so deeply fucked up that the viewer can’t help but hope at least ONE PERSON makes it out of this whole thing unscathed. Holly Hunter pops up as well. Moss won a Golden Globe for this last year, so if you’re looking for a good excuse to see this, consider that an extra incentive. AVAILABLE ON: Instant Netflix.

So, there’s that. Feel free to discuss YOUR favorites in the comments and happy watching and puzzle solving everyone!

In the meantime, we leave you with this MURDER, SHE WROTE supercut. You’re welcome: