Best tv shows like Desperate Measures
Last updated March 2024
Looking for tv shows like Desperate Measures? Provide your knowledge to lead others to films and tv series you've previously watched that might also engage them. Assist in expanding the group of people raising videos between each other. We value your participation!
Plot Summary:
Rowan's life spirals when Finn is coerced into a botched drug deal by a local gang. With Finn's life on the line and a violent gang leader encroaching on her life, Rowan is faced with recouping the money that Finn lost.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Desperate Measures (2022):
Similar in 81%
Mobile (2007)
Plot Summary:
A tale in three parts that unfolds against the backdrop of the Iraq war and the world of the multi billion pound mobile phone industry, flashing back and forth to retrace events from three very different perspectives: the engineer, the soldier and the boss.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 383
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 207 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Togo (2022)
Plot Summary:
Togo just wants to watch his neighbors' homes, wash their cars and clean up their sidewalks. But the drug traffickers want more from him.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 653
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Uruguay
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Vella Raja (2018)
Plot Summary:
Deva gets introduced as an arrogant beast. An advocate fighting for proper judgment to shut down the corrupt industry, two struggling villagers who are trying their luck, a doctor and his loneliness and an ambitious PT teacher who plans to arrange money to build the unsteady school building by sending students to a reality show are introduced.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 923
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 24 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Friends (2000)
Plot Summary:
.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 182
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Frank Riva (2003)
Plot Summary:
After 25 years in exile, undercover cop Frank Riva comes back in Paris. He faces mob boss Norbert Loggia and his son Maxime, who put a bounty on his head during the French Connection days.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 298
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 285 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Cannabis (2016)
Plot Summary:
When a boatload of cannabis belonging to Moroccan drug lord El Feo is hijacked, the robbery has repercussions stretching across three countries.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 628
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France, Spain
Duration: 312 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Vice (1999)
Plot Summary:
The Vice is an ITV police drama about the Metropolitan Police Vice Unit. It ran for five short series between 1999 and 2003. It tells the story of the London Metropolitan police force's vice squad, where prostitution, underage sex, and other such organized crime are regular occurrences. Most episodes end in such a way where the main villain is caught but often not in a 'naturally' concluded way that you would expect with other TV dramas, and often ending an episode with more questions unanswered than answered. The small dedicated team is led by Detective Inspector Pat Chappel who struggles to manage the balance between his home life and his work life - as do the other members of the team. Working in the seedy underworld leads to a continual dilemma for the team - the tension between the Vice Squad and the vice-related crimes that they investigate runs throughout the series and gives the show a rich viewing experience. The programme often blurs the line of the team staying on the right side of the law, as almost every member of the team at different points submits briefly or permanently to the temptations of either sex, drugs, money or honey traps. Sometimes with drastic consequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 586
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama
Similar in 78%
The Baker (2022)
Plot Summary:
A quiet, stoic man, lives a monk-like existence in self-imposed exile. When his estranged son is killed in a drug deal gone bad, he is left to look after a granddaughter he never knew existed, and he is forced back into a life he tried to put behind him.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Devil's Dandruff (2022)
Plot Summary:
When you grow up poor on the streets of London you have 2 choices. Stay poor or get Rich. We follow the True Story of the rise of a petty drug dealer to his eventual involvement in some of the most notorious and infamous real life Robberies and Gangland Executions and Drug Deals of recent times. Seduced by the underworld, glamour, girls, danger our hero is soon over his head and fighting for his life in a world filled with violence and where so many pay the ultimate price. The Devils Dandruff shows an unflinching look at the London underworld where crime does not pay and no one ends up a winner.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Worst of Evil (2023)
Plot Summary:
Set in the 1980s, The Worst Evil follows undercover police investigators who infiltrate a massive criminal organization responsible for the illegal drug trade between Korea, China and Japan.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration:
Plot tags: crime drama
Similar in 86%
Underworld Trilogy: The Cop (2011)
Plot Summary:
A detective working with the narcotics unit of the Stockholm police, PEKKA MANNINEN is called to Finland with the task of charting the route via which heroin is smuggled from St. Petersburg to Finland and the rest of the world. The Helsinki police department's narcotics unit has already been on the case with no results, and so the rough-and-ready Manninen goes undercover into a Russian drug operation. Treading the fine line between the legal and the illegal, Manninen begins to confuse the roles of police officer and criminal, until he goes too far and there's no turning back.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Finland
Duration: 158 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Inmortal (2022)
Plot Summary:
Consists of the fictionalization of the story of 'Los Miami's', a criminal organization led by 'El inmortal' that controlled the cocaine trade in Madrid in the 1990s.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 389
Genere: Thriller
Country: Spain
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Verdict (2022)
Plot Summary:
When a renowned criminal lawyer sees one of the people she loves most become a victim of the Brazilian penitentiary system, she must decide whether to cross the line that separates her between looking for justice or committing an unforgivable crime.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Uruguay, Brazil
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 78%
Hooked (2015)
Plot Summary:
Drug Crime Detective Oskari is the envy of his colleagues. His connections to underworld and informants is unrivaled. What they don't know is the mother of his child, Krista, is a drug addict who lives in that world. And now she's back in his life, shaking his home life on one hand, and offering new connections to knocking down the rise of drug imports. If only he could trust her.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 438
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Finland
Duration: 487 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, noir, detective
Similar in 76%
Killer Net (1998)
Plot Summary:
Students get involved in a violent Internet-based game, around the same time as a series of murders - is there a connection?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 493
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 201 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Beat (2018)
Plot Summary:
Robert Schlag, nicknamed "Beat", is a Berlin club promoter who lives for the excesses of sex, drugs and the city nightlife. His connections to the underworld lead the police to use Beat to try and infiltrate a notorious organ smuggling ring.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, erotic
Similar in 89%
The Responder (2022)
Plot Summary:
Under pressure, fraying at the edges. In relentless night-time Liverpool, copper Chris is paired with a rookie. Will they save or destroy each other?.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 57 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, dramatic, detective, thrilling
Similar in 76%
Before We Die (2021)
Plot Summary:
Detective Hannah Laing becomes deeply conflicted when she discovers her son is playing a crucial role as an undercover informant in a brutal murder investigation.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, detective
Similar in 88%
Safe (2018)
Plot Summary:
After his daughter goes missing, a widower begins uncovering the dark secrets of the people closest to him.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 356 min
Plot tags: suspense, captivating, witty, crime drama, thrilling, tense, talky, compassionate, psychological thriller, atmospheric
Similar in 84%
The Level (2016)
Plot Summary:
A police detective finds herself at the centre of the most dangerous case of her life when she is seconded on to the investigation into the murder of a drugs trafficker. What nobody around her knows is that she is the missing witness that the police and the killer are searching for.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, tense, captivating, suspense
Similar in 86%
Fenix (2018)
Plot Summary:
A dark world of well-organised drug crime is hidden behind the calm life of Brabant. Jara and Rens both come to discover that when upon return to their birth province after a long time. She wants to clear the name of her father, he wants to distance himself from his criminal family - but they both get terribly entangled in the web of the upper and underworld, whose boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 455
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Netherlands, Belgium
Duration: 47 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, thrilling
Similar in 85%
Coyote (2021)
Plot Summary:
The story of Ben Clemens, who after 32 years as a border patrol agent is forced to work for the very people he spent his career trying to keep out of the United States. Now exposed to life on the other side of the wall, Ben will start to question his black and white views of the world, challenging his ideology and his loyalties.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 289 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspense, realistic, detective
Similar in 83%
Hache (2019)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by real events, Hache is the story of Helena, a woman catapulted to the heroin trafficking business in the Barcelona of the 60s.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Spain
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, captivating, emotional, realistic, romantic, sincere, erotic, detective, sensual
Similar in 86%
ZeroZeroZero (2019)
Plot Summary:
Based on the book of the same name by bestselling author Roberto Saviano, ZeroZeroZero is an unforgettable exploration of the inner workings of the global cocaine trade.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, brutal, serious, psychological, suspense, suspenseful, sadistic, hood, neo western, crime thriller
Similar in 82%
Inside Men (2012)
Plot Summary:
The story of three employees of a security depot who plan and execute a multi-million pound cash heist.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, mind bending, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, dark, psychological, clever, non-linear
Similar in 84%
Ozark (2017)
Plot Summary:
A financial adviser drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder $500 million in five years to appease a drug boss.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 337000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspense, suspenseful, spectacular, psychological, thrilling, atmospheric, intellectual, mysterious
Similar in 85%
The Fall (2013)
Plot Summary:
When the Police Service of Northern Ireland are unable to close a case after 28 days, Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson of the Metropolitan Police Service is called in to review the case. Under her new leadership, the local detectives must track down and stop a serial killer who is terrorising the city of Belfast.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 116000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: psychological thriller, psychological, captivating, serious, tense, detective, crime drama, suspenseful, atmospheric, noir
Similar in 76%
Romanzo criminale - La serie (2008)
Plot Summary:
Romanzo Criminale – La serie - is a television series Italian based on the eponymous novel by judge Giancarlo De Cataldo, and it is the second adaptation of the film Romanzo Criminale directed by Michele Placido. The first series quickly achieved cult status in Italy. This is the second fiction series after Quo Vadis, Baby? that was produced by Sky and broadcast on Fox Crime, Sky One and on Sky Arts with English subtitles in 2012. The series is set in about 1977-89 and follows a criminal gang in Rome that has a near monopoly of the city's heroin trade. Most of the characters use the Romanesco dialect. The gang is led by three old friends, Libanese, Freddo and Dandi. As well as its internal feuding, the gang has to deal with the Camorra and Sicilian Mafia that both supply its heroin, the police led by Commissioner Scialoja and the Italian secret services. The plotline is based on the Banda della Magliana of the 1970s-90s.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration:
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, suspense, realistic, suspenseful, interesting
Similar in 90%
Cocaine Coast (2018)
Plot Summary:
It takes place in the Galicia (Spain) of the 80s, when the fishing sector was transformed and many of the shipowners became indebted. This situation will be favorable for the start of activities such as contraband and drug trafficking.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Spain
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: realistic, intense, atmospheric, serious, captivating, erotic, detective, interesting
Similar in 80%
Top Boy (2011)
Plot Summary:
A thrilling and raw crime drama following a gang of drug dealers in Hackney, London - an honest and gripping rendition of inner-city drug and gang culture.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, sincere, suspenseful, rough, crime drama, dramatic, anime, hood, tense, bleak