Best tv shows like River
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
John River, a brilliant police officer whose genius and fault-line is the fragility of his mind - a man haunted by the murder victims whose cases he must lay to rest.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, detective, crime drama, surprise ending, melancholic, atmospheric, enigmatic, tense, captivating
Best tv shows and movies like River (2015):
Similar in 86%
No Offence (2015)
Plot Summary:
Keeping these streets clean is a Herculean task, enough to demoralize even the keenest rookie – but there’s a reason why this hotchpotch of committed cops are on this force, on this side of town. Drug labs, arsonists, neo-Nazis and notorious murderers are all in a day’s work for this close-knit team, led by the dizzyingly capable but unquestionably unhinged DI Vivienne Deering. But when a particularly twisted serial killer emerges it leaves even the most hardened of these seasoned coppers reeling.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, detective, dark comedy, crime drama, black comedy
Similar in 83%
Life on Mars (2006)
Plot Summary:
Life on Mars is a British television series broadcast on BBC One between January 2006 and April 2007. The series combines elements of science fiction and police procedural, featuring an officer from the Greater Manchester Police who travels back in time after being involved in a road accident. The title is a reference to David Bowie's 1973 single "Life on Mars?" An American adaptation of the series was produced by ABC and ran for one season from October 2008 to April 2009. A Spanish adaptation of the series was broadcast from April to June 2009. A Russian adaptation of the series The Dark Side of the Moon was broadcast in November 2012. A sequel to the series, Ashes to Ashes, also referencing another David Bowie song, began airing on BBC One in February 2008, followed by a second series in 2009 and a third and final series in 2010.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 32000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, surreal, tense, rough, captivating, stylized, crime drama, enigmatic, futuristic, serious
Similar in 78%
Bancroft (2017)
Plot Summary:
A dark and compelling thriller centering on Detective Superintendent Elizabeth Bancroft, a female detective with an explosive secret.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: detective, exciting, intellectual, captivating, hardboiled detective, psychological, detective series
Similar in 84%
Case Histories (2011)
Plot Summary:
Case Histories is a British drama television series based on the Jackson Brodie detective novels by Kate Atkinson. It stars Jason Isaacs as Jackson Brodie.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, tense, touching, serious, suspenseful, crime drama, atmospheric, anime, hardboiled detective, realistic
Similar in 77%
Jordskott (2015)
Plot Summary:
Detective Inspector Eva Thörnblad returns to Silver Height seven years after her daughter Josefine disappeared by a lake in the woods. The body was never found and the girl was believed to have drowned. Now a boy has vanished without a trace and Thörnblad wants to find out if there is a link to her daughter's disappearance. At the same time , she will take care of the legacy of her father, the great entrepreneur Johan Thörnblad, who built an empire of timber and timber processing on the large forest owned by his ancestors. As the plot deepens more children are kidnapped and what initially seems like a police drama takes a more sinister and stranger twist with each episode.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Sweden, Finland, UK, Norway
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, tense, suspenseful, gloomy, enigmatic, detective, noir, stylized, bleak, realistic
Similar in 87%
Lewis (2006)
Plot Summary:
Inspector Robert Lewis and Sergeant James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: clever, realistic, detective, serious, crime drama, suspenseful, atmospheric
Similar in 90%
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2001)
Plot Summary:
Inspector Lynley TV Series.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crime drama, tense, captivating, disturbing, dark, sincere
Similar in 85%
Waking the Dead (2000)
Plot Summary:
Waking the Dead is a British television police procedural crime drama series produced by the BBC featuring a fictional Cold Case unit composed of CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A pilot episode aired in September 2000, and there have been a total of nine series since. Each story is split into two hour-long episodes, shown on consecutive nights on BBC One. A third series episode won an International Emmy Award in 2004. The programme was also shown on BBC America in the United States, though these screenings are edited to allow for advertising breaks, as well as UKTV in Australia and New Zealand and ABC1 in Australia. The show aired its final episode on 11 April 2011. A spin-off from the series, titled The Body Farm, revolving around forensic scientist Eve Lockhart, was announced by the BBC in January 2011 and ran for just one series.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, realistic, detective, crime drama, rough, serious, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Rebus (2000)
Plot Summary:
Rebus is the title of the detective drama TV series based on the Inspector Rebus novels by the Scottish author Ian Rankin set in and around Edinburgh. The series was produced by STV Productions for the ITV network. Four seasons have been aired; series 1 starred John Hannah and was made for STV by his own production company, Clerkenwell Films. A new cast featuring Ken Stott as DI John Rebus was introduced for the second and subsequent series.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic, crime drama, detective, suspense, clever
Similar in 80%
Taggart (1983)
Plot Summary:
Taggart is a Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has written many of the episodes, and made by STV Productions for the ITV network. The series revolves around a group of detectives initially in the Maryhill CID of Strathclyde Police, though various storylines have happened in other parts of the Greater Glasgow area, and as of the most recent series the team have operated out of the fictional John Street police station across the street from the City Chambers. It is one of the UK's longest-running dramas and is the longest-running police drama after the cancellation of The Bill. The show's 100th story aired on Christmas Eve 2009 on the ITV network. In May 2011, it was reported that the ITV network had decided to axe Taggart from the network after 28 years. The series may continue to be screened in Scotland on the STV network and on overseas broadcasters.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, tense, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 88%
Wallander (2008)
Plot Summary:
This drama follows Inspector Kurt Wallander – a middle-aged everyman – as he struggles against a rising tide of violence in the apparently sleepy backwaters in and around Ystad in Skane, southern Sweden. Based on the international best-selling books by Henning Mankell.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, Sweden, Germany, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: bleak, detective, psychological, tense, serious, suspenseful, crime drama, realistic, atmospheric, noir
Similar in 76%
Shetland (2013)
Plot Summary:
Created from the novels by award winning crime writer Ann Cleeves, Shetland follows DI Jimmy Perez and his team as they investigate crime within the close knit island community. In this isolated and sometimes inhospitable environment, the team have to rely on a uniquely resourceful style of policing.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, tense, crime drama, serious, stylized, detective, suspense, realistic, noir, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
Vera (2011)
Plot Summary:
A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, detective, crime drama, captivating, costume drama, hardboiled detective, suspenseful, stylized, tense
Similar in 87%
Unforgotten (2015)
Plot Summary:
'Unforgotten' follows modern police team DCI Cassie Stuart and DI Sunny Khan, who gradually unravel long-forgotten secrets which have a dramatic impact on their investigation and the four potential suspects. The slow revelation of the secrets will also affect the personal lives of both Sunny and Cassie.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, realistic, crime drama, tense, suspenseful, clever, captivating, disturbing, atmospheric
Similar in 83%
Marcella (2016)
Plot Summary:
Marcella is shocked to the core of her being when her husband Jason leaves her unexpectedly, confessing he no longer loves her. Heartbroken, Marcella returns to the Met’s Murder Squad. Ten years ago Marcella gave up her fast-tracked police career to marry and devote her life to her family. With the abrupt end to her marriage and isolated from her 13 year old daughter and 10 year old son, Marcella throws herself into work to stop herself from falling apart.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, tense, enigmatic, captivating, neo noir, psychological, suspense, psychological thriller, noir
Similar in 78%
Thorne: Sleepyhead (2010)
Plot Summary:
Thorne Sleepyhead: follows DI Tom Thornes investigation into a mysterious serial killer. His first three victims ended up dead. His fourth was not so fortunate. Alison Willetts is unlucky to be alive. She has survived a stroke, deliberately induced by manipulation of pressure points on the head and neck. She can see, hear and feel, she is aware of everything going on around her, but she is unable to move or communicate. In leaving Alison alive, the police believe the killer's made his first mistake.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, Australia, Canada, USA
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, psychological, captivating, suspense, dark, detective, scary, realistic
Similar in 90%
The Forest (2017)
Plot Summary:
In a small quiet village in the Ardennes, a sixteen-year-old girl disappears into the forest after calling her teacher in the middle of the night. Captain Gaspard Deker, a former soldier and newly arrived single father is conducting the investigation with Virginie Musso, the local cop. Also helping is the teacher, Eve Mendel, a solitary young woman with a mysterious past: she was found as a child by the villiage doctor wandering silently in the same forest.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 313 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, tense, suspense, twist ending, dark, psychological, atmospheric, mysterious, detective
Similar in 90%
Cold Squad (1998)
Plot Summary:
Cold Squad is a Canadian police procedural television series first broadcast in 1998 that followed the investigations of a part of the Vancouver Police Department Homicide Division tasked with solving cold cases, the titular Cold Squad, as led by Sergeant Ali McCormick. The cast of Cold Squad was diverse and changing, McCormick being the only character to appear in all 7 seasons. Some notable series regulars include Detective Tony Logozzo in seasons 1-2, Sgt. Frank Coscarella in seasons 3-4, Sgt. Len Harper in seasons 5-7, Insp. Vince Schneider season 1, Insp. Simon Ross season 2, Insp. Andrew Pawlachuk seasons 3-7, Det. Mickey Kollander seasons 3-6, Det. Nicco Sevallis seasons 3-6, Christine Wren seasons 4-7, as well as Det. Samantha Walters and Const. Ray Chase in season 7. Between the second and third seasons, almost the entire on-screen cast other than Julie Stewart were replaced. This along with the new sets, a significant revamp of the credits and theme music, and even having McCormick's hair change from auburn to dirty-blonde all contributed to a considerable reworking of the series.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
DCI Banks (2010)
Plot Summary:
A thrilling drama based on the novels by Peter Robinson. Stephen Tompkinson and Andrea Lowe star as the tenacious and stubborn Chief Inspector Alan Banks and the feisty and headstrong Detective Sergeant Annie Cabbot.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: detective, realistic, crime drama, tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, dark, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Foyle's War (2002)
Plot Summary:
As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Foyle's War opens in southern England in the year 1940. Later series sees the retired detective working as an MI5 agent operating in the aftermath of the war.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, War
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, captivating, detective, suspenseful, realistic, crime drama, atmospheric, dark, period piece
Similar in 75%
Midsomer Murders (1997)
Plot Summary:
The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, detective, crime drama, realistic, serious, suspenseful, clever, dark, slasher, thrilling
Similar in 84%
The Tunnel (2013)
Plot Summary:
The plot follows detectives Karl Roebuck and Elise Wasserman working together to find a serial killer who left the upper-half body of a French politician and the lower-half of a British prostitute in the Channel Tunnel, at the midpoint between France and the UK. They later learn that the killer—who comes to be nicknamed the "Truth Terrorist"—is on a moral crusade to highlight many social problems, terrorising both countries in the process.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, France
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, detective, crime drama, dark, crime thriller, bilingual
Similar in 87%
Above Suspicion (2009)
Plot Summary:
Above Suspicion is a British TV series based on Lynda La Plante's novels Above Suspicion, The Red Dahlia, Deadly Intent and Silent Scream. It stars Kelly Reilly and Ciarán Hinds, and features the career of La Plante's latest heroine DC Anna Travis. The first series, Above Suspicion, was shown on the fourth and fifth of January 2009; the second series, Above Suspicion: The Red Dahlia, was shown on the fourth, fifth and sixth of January 2010. The third series, Above Suspicion: Deadly Intent, was shown on the third, fourth and fifth of January 2011. The fourth series, Above Suspicion – Silent Scream was shown on the ninth, sixteenth and twenty-third of January 2012; in a break from the previous broadcasts, which were broadcast on consecutive days, this latest tale was serialised weekly. ITV cancelled Above Suspicion on May 28, 2012.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: detective, realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious, crime drama, dark
Similar in 77%
Line of Duty (2012)
Plot Summary:
Steve Arnott is a young officer who’s fallen foul of his superiors for refusing to help in the cover-up of an operation that ended in the shooting of an innocent father. He seems ideal to join AC-12, an anti-corruption police unit, just as it starts to investigate Detective Chief Inspector Tony Gates, the regional force’s Officer of the Year.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 68000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, suspenseful, serious, detective, crime drama, atmospheric, dark, sitcom, deep
Similar in 87%
Broadchurch (2013)
Plot Summary:
The murder of a young boy in a small coastal town brings a media frenzy, which threatens to tear the community apart.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 124000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 48 min
Plot tags: emotional, tense, clever, realistic, serious, detective, crime drama, gloomy, dramatic, crime thriller
Similar in 82%
Hinterland (2013)
Plot Summary:
Tom Mathias comes to Aberystwyth having abandoned his life in London. He's a brilliant but troubled man. Despite his faults he is an excellent detective, who knows that the key to solving the crime lies not in where you look for truth, but how you look. From the windswept sand dunes of the coastline to the badlands of the hinterland, Y Gwyll is a series of four two-hour stories that are original and local, yet timeless and universal.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, detective, serious, tense, bleak, crime drama, dark, suspense, noir, grindhouse
Similar in 75%
The Missing (2014)
Plot Summary:
A gripping anthological relationship thriller series exploring the emotional fallout of a child's abduction not only on the family but on the wider community, told over two time frames.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, France, Belgium, USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, realistic, emotional, suspenseful, crime drama, tense, captivating, gloomy, psychological thriller
Similar in 85%
Chasing Shadows (2014)
Plot Summary:
Chasing Shadows' follows a team of special operatives who are tracking down serial killers.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, detective, crime drama, captivating, suspense
Similar in 86%
Grantchester (2014)
Plot Summary:
Drama series set in 1953, against the backdrop of the real hamlet of Grantchester. The drama focuses upon the life of Sidney Chambers, a charismatic, charming clergyman who turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, detective, crime drama, period piece, slasher, costume drama, historical drama, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 88%
Ripper Street (2012)
Plot Summary:
A drama set in the East End of London in 1889, during the aftermath of the "Ripper" murders. The action centres around the notorious H Division – the police precinct from hell – which is charged with keeping order in the chaotic streets of Whitechapel. Ripper Street explores the lives of characters trying to recover from the Ripper's legacy, from crimes that have not only irretrievably altered their lives, but the very fabric of their city. At the drama's heart our detectives try to bring a little light into the dark world they inhabit.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, Ireland
Duration: 59 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, tense, suspenseful, stylized, detective, costume drama, historical drama, crime drama, realistic