Best tv shows like Shetland
Last updated March 2024
Looking for tv shows related to Shetland? Contribute your knowledge to guide others to tv shows and films you've watched previously that might interest them as well. Facilitate widening the network of individuals introducing videos to each other. We value your involvement!
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
Best tv shows and movies like Shetland (2013):
Similar in 75%
Dalziel and Pascoe (1996)
Plot Summary:
A British crime drama based on the "Dalziel and Pascoe" series of books by Reginald Hill, set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Wetherton. The unlikely duo of politically incorrect elephant-in-a-china-shop-copper Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell) and his more sensitive and university educated sidekick Detective Sargent, later Detective Inspector, Peter Pascoe is always on hand to solve the classic murder mystery, while maintaining a down to earth wit and humour.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Mystery, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, detective, crime drama, tense, realistic, witty, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
The Bay (2019)
Plot Summary:
Family Liaison Officer Lisa Armstrong becomes a little too emotionally involved with a case (to the point where she might compromise it) concerning a pair of missing Morecambe twins to whose distraught parents she is assigned.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, tense, clever, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
What Remains (2013)
Plot Summary:
When the decomposed body of Melissa Young is found by a couple in their new flat, Detective Len Harper is determined to discover what happened to her and why nobody noticed she was missing.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, tense, suspenseful, detective, dark, crime drama, realistic
Similar in 76%
Death in Paradise (2011)
Plot Summary:
Detective Inspector Richard Poole is transferred to Sainte Marie, an island in the Caribbean. Totally unsuited to the Caribbean way of life, Richard hates the sun, sea and sand and isn't used to the Sainte Marie style of policing. Working with the exotic Camille each week Richard investigates intricate and intriguing murders.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 26000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, France
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, stylized, semi serious, detective, crime drama, light, exciting, funny, dark
Similar in 78%
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 87%
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 82%
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 90%
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 82%
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 82%
Inspector George Gently (2007)
Plot Summary:
Crime drama set in the 1960s about an old-school detective trying to come to terms with a time when the lines between the police and criminals have become blurred.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, Ireland
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, suspenseful, crime drama, clever, realistic, dark, period drama
Similar in 76%
Spiral (2005)
Plot Summary:
Spiral is a French television police drama series created by the TV production company Son et Lumière. The first eight episodes series started on Canal+ in France on 13 December 2005. It returned for a second series, partly funded by the BBC, of eight episodes on 12 May 2008, a third series of twelve episodes on 3 May 2010 and a fourth series of twelve episodes on 3 September 2012. A fifth and sixth series have been ordered. Spiral has been a great export success, with sales to broadcasters in some 70 countries, among them Australia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The series was first shown in the UK on BBC Four during the summer of 2006. It was the channel's first French-language drama series, attracting a modest but loyal audience and firm critical approval. On 13 September 2009, BBC Four started showing the second series, on 2 April 2011 the third series and on 9 February 2013 the fourth series. In Australia, the first series was broadcast in 2008 on SBS One, the second series on SBS Two from September 2009 and the third series on SBS Two from mid-2012. Spiral debuted in North America via Netflix in September 2012; in November 2012, the small public-broadcasting network MHz Worldview began transmitting the series in the US.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: France
Duration: 52 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, detective, noir, crime drama, bleak, realistic, stylized
Similar in 90%
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 75%
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 84%
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 77%
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 88%
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 82%
Dublin Murders (2019)
Plot Summary:
Two detectives are dispatched to investigate the murder of a young girl on the outskirts of Dublin, but as the case of the missing children intensifies, both are forced to confront the darkness that lies in their past.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, detective, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, tense, crime drama, enigmatic, disturbing, psychological thriller
Similar in 84%
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 84%
River (2015)
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
Similar in 85%
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 86%
Inspector Morse (1987)
Plot Summary:
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis, as well as a large cast of notable actors and actresses.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, sincere, realistic, atmospheric, suspense, sitcom, clever, serious, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
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 86%
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder at Road Hill House (2011)
Plot Summary:
In 1860 Scotland Yard's 'Prince of Sleuths' Jack Whicher is sent to rural Wiltshire to investigate the murder of three-year-old Saville Kent,snatched from his bed at night and killed.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, suspenseful, stylized, historical drama, detective, serious, realistic, factual, period drama
Similar in 87%
Murdoch Mysteries (2008)
Plot Summary:
A Victorian-era Toronto detective uses then-cutting edge forensic techniques to solve crimes, with the assistance of a female coroner who is also struggling for recognition in the face of tradition, based on the books by Maureen Jennings.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Canada, UK
Duration: 48 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, clever, stylized, detective, sad, costume drama, crime drama, historical drama, serious, mind bending
Similar in 84%
Endeavour (2012)
Plot Summary:
The early days of a young Endeavour Morse, whose experiences as a detective constable with the Oxford City Police will ultimately shape his future.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 32000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, detective, intellectual, realistic, atmospheric, crime drama, period piece, captivating, melancholic, costume drama
Similar in 77%
The Bridge (2011)
Plot Summary:
When a body is found on the bridge between Denmark and Sweden, right on the border, Danish inspector Martin Rohde and Swedish Saga Norén have to share jurisdiction and work together to find the killer.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 75000
Genere: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Norway
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, captivating, tense, suspenseful, gloomy, serious, detective, realistic, crime drama, noir
Similar in 82%
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 79%
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 90%
Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)
Plot Summary:
From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 50000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: clever, realistic, captivating, detective, serious, suspenseful, exciting, stylized, crime drama, spiritual
Similar in 78%
The Killing (2011)
Plot Summary:
The Killing is an American crime drama television series based upon the Danish television series Forbrydelsen. Set in Seattle, Washington, the series follows the various murder investigations by homicide detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 120000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: psychological, gloomy, neo noir, tense, serious, detective, suspenseful, atmospheric, realistic, dark