Best tv shows like Witnesses
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A young female detective is put in charge of a case and must delve into her partner's mysterious past in order to solve it.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 52 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, tense, serious, suspenseful, noir, detective, bleak, crime drama, realistic, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Witnesses (2014):
Similar in 81%
Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act (2006)
Plot Summary:
Helen Mirren returns for the final time as Jane Tennison in the long-awaited Prime Suspect 7. Retirement looms for Detective Superintendent Tennison, but as her career draws to a close, the body of a missing schoolgirl is found, and the hunt for her killer begins. However, as Jane and her colleagues work to identify their prime suspect, the emotional fallout from the murder begins to take its toll on the battle-scarred detective. As the investigation gets underway, Jane is not only dealing with the imminent death of her father, but also an addiction to alcohol which she is desperately trying to keep hidden. There are plenty of twists and turns as Jane confronts her toughest challenge yet: herself, as the popular award-winning series reaches its devastating finale.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 182 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, detective, bleak, detective series
Similar in 88%
Sirens (2014)
Plot Summary:
An Israeli cop is faced with the shocking discovery of her missing twin sister's body being washed-up on the seashore. The case opens old wounds and draws her deep into a roller-coaster ride of cryptic secrets and mysterious discoveries.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 210
Genere: Mystery, Thriller
Country: Israel
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, tense, serious, captivating, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 85%
Single-Handed (2007)
Plot Summary:
Single-Handed is an Irish television drama series, first broadcast on RTÉ Television in 2007. Set and filmed in the west of Ireland, it focuses on the life of a member of the Garda Síochána, Sergeant Jack Driscoll. Three two-episode, single-story series aired one each on consecutive nights in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Series Four, consisting of three stories told over six episodes, began in RTÉ One November 2010. The series is partially inspired by garda corruption in County Donegal.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Ireland
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: detective, tense, captivating, crime drama, psychological, suspense, sincere, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 75%
Beck (1997)
Plot Summary:
Beck follows the Swedish police officer Martin Beck and his partner Gunvald Larson investigating various crimes.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Sweden
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: detective, tense, serious, realistic, noir, anime, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
Collision (2009)
Plot Summary:
Collision is a five-part television drama miniseries, which debuted on ITV & UTV in November 2009. In the same month, it was also on PBS as a series in two parts. It tells the story of a group of strangers whose lives intertwine following a devastating car crash. The crash opens a number of startling revelations as stories of everything from government cover-ups and smuggling, to embezzlement and murder start to unravel. The series is open-ended, with a number of unresolved issues; moreover, the story is ostensibly resolved in a metafictional manner with a flashback to an incident in the service station and the swatting of a wasp, which precipitates the initial crash, thus allowing the characters to carry on on their journeys. The wasp as a motif and theme is frequently in evidence throughout the series. The original British broadcast of Collision was edited from the original 5 hours down to three and a half hours. The American broadcast on PBS's Masterpiece Contemporary, the Australian broadcast on ABC1 and the Region 1 DVD release all featured the shortened version. In Australia, Foxtel and Austar's W Channel aired Collision in its original format of five 45-minute episodes, Tuesday, 15 March 2011.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 201 min
Plot tags: detective, realistic, tense, serious, suspenseful, dark, crime drama
Similar in 76%
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 88%
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 84%
The Fifth Woman (2002)
Plot Summary:
The 5th woman unfolds autumn 1994. An elderly man found in a gillrad pitfall impaled to death on the sharp sharpened bamboo poles, ecstatic praise of crows. Shortly afterwards disappears a florist without a trace and he also found executed in the forest. Kurt Wallander and his colleagues will soon understand that the attacks is all about revenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 620
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland
Duration: 229 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, suspenseful, detective, bleak, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Criminal: UK (2019)
Plot Summary:
Within the walls of an interrogation room and with time running out, London investigators go after three suspects, each accused of a grievous crime.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, France, Germany, Spain
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, contemplative, anthology, tense, clever, bleak, serious, suspenseful, exciting, detective
Similar in 87%
Wallander (2005)
Plot Summary:
Wallander is a Swedish television series adapted from Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels and starring Krister Henriksson in the title role. The 1st series of 13 films was produced in 2005 and 2006, with one taken directly from a novel and the remainder with new storylines suggested by Mankell. The 2nd series of 13 films was shown between 2009 and 2010. The stories are set in Ystad near the southern tip of Sweden. The three films Before the Frost, Mastermind, and The Secret were premiered in cinemas, with the rest first released as direct-to-DVD movies. The first episode of the second series, Hämnden, was released in Swedish cinemas in January 2009; the rest of the series was made for television. The BBC aired all 26 episodes of the Swedish television versions on BBC Four. A third and final season, containing six 90 minute episodes, will air in 2013 with Charlotta Jonsson as Linda Wallander. The first episode, adapted from the novel The Troubled Man, was released in cinemas in January 2013.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, detective, serious, realistic, suspenseful, captivating, suspense, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Monster (2017)
Plot Summary:
In the dark and remote landscape of northern Norway, a brutal murder reveals a mass grave which links old cases to missing people. Local police woman Hedda is put on the case with special investigator Joel Dreyer who comes from the metropolitan south. Their different backgrounds, personalities and methods immediately set them against each other. But when the investigation begins to spiral out of control, both detectives resort to questionable moves in order to stay on the case and protect their secrets.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Norway
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: tense, detective, psychological, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 89%
100 Code (2015)
Plot Summary:
New York, USA. Stockholm, Sweden. Over the past twelve months young, blonde, blue-eyed women have been found dead in a meadow where Asphodel flowers grow. New York Detective Tommy Conley gets a special dispensation from the NYPD to go observe and act as an adviser to the Stockholm Police Department in order to help solve these crimes.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Thriller
Country: Sweden, Germany
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, atmospheric, rough, psychological, detective, bleak, neo noir
Similar in 87%
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 85%
Borderliner (2017)
Plot Summary:
To protect his family, police detective Nikolai covers up a murder case. But when his co-investigator Anniken suspects foul play, he is trapped in a dangerous game on duty, blurring the line between right and wrong.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Norway, Germany, Sweden
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, detective, tense, bleak, realistic, suspenseful, dark
Similar in 81%
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 78%
Those Who Kill (2011)
Plot Summary:
Those Who Kill is a Danish crime TV series from 2011, which follows a fictitious unit within Copenhagen Police which specialises in investigating serial murders. The series was aired as five two-part stories in Denmark, but has aired as five feature film length episodes in most other countries. A separate 92 minutes feature film, Fortidens skygge, which forms a continuation and ending of the series, premiered in Danish cinemas on 15 March 2012, and is being aired as a final, sixth episode of the series in many other countries, such as the UK and Germany. The series is created and written by Elsebeth Egholm and Stefan Jaworski, with various other screenwriters helping out as episode writers, among them Siv Rajendram, Rikke De Fine Licht and Morten Dragsted. Directors have been Birger Larsen, Niels Nørløv and Kasper Barfoed. The series is a Danish-German-Swedish-Norwegian co-production. Although originally planned to run for several seasons, Danish TV2 announced in October 2011 that there would be no further seasons made, due to falling viewer shares after the first few episodes. TV2 programming manager Keld Reinicke stated that, "We have no plans to continue the series as it never gave us the audience share we expected in Denmark.".
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Denmark
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, bleak, serious, suspenseful, noir, captivating, detective, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Scott & Bailey (2011)
Plot Summary:
D.C. Rachel Bailey and D.C. Janet Scott have a robust and engaging friendship which enables them to draw upon each other’s strengths and investigate murders for the Manchester Metropolitan Police.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, realistic, detective, crime drama
Similar in 77%
Prime Suspect (1991)
Plot Summary:
A female police detective investigates a series of serial murders while dealing with sexist hostility from her male comrades.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 207 min
Plot tags: detective, suspense, suspenseful, tense, atmospheric, enigmatic, emotional, intense, crime drama, realistic
Similar in 81%
Happy Valley (2014)
Plot Summary:
Happy Valley is a dark, funny, multi-layered thriller revolving around the personal and professional life of Catherine, a dedicated, experienced, hard-working copper. She is also a bereaved mother who looks after her orphaned grandchild.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 62000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 58 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, tense, detective, crime drama, realistic, captivating, atmospheric, noir, bleak
Similar in 83%
New Tricks (2003)
Plot Summary:
New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, serious, realistic, tense, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 75%
The Killing (2007)
Plot Summary:
The Killing is a Danish police procedural set in the Copenhagen main police department and revolves around Detective Inspector Sarah Lund and her team, with each season series following a different murder case day-by-day and a one-hour episode covering twenty-four hours of the investigation. The series is noted for its plot twists, season-long storylines, dark tone and for giving equal emphasis to the story of the murdered victim's family alongside the police investigation. It has also been singled out for the photography of its Danish setting, and for the acting ability of its cast.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany
Duration: 57 min
Plot tags: psychological, gloomy, tense, detective, serious, suspenseful, crime drama, captivating, atmospheric, noir
Similar in 77%
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 77%
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 84%
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 79%
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 89%
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 86%
Whitechapel (2009)
Plot Summary:
Whitechapel is a British television drama series produced by Carnival Films, in which detectives in London's Whitechapel district deal with murders which replicate historical crimes. The first series was first broadcast in the UK on 2 February 2009 and depicted the search for a modern copycat killer replicating the murders of Jack the Ripper. A second series was commissioned by ITV in September 2009 with the focus on the Kray twins. The first episode of this second series was broadcast on 11 October 2010. A third series was commissioned by ITV in March 2011, which was extended to six episodes as three two-part stories. The first and second series were broadcast in the United States on six consecutive Wednesday evenings beginning 26 October 2011 on the BBC America cable network. The third was broadcast in the US starting on Wednesday 28 March 2012, also on BBC America. On 24 September 2012, ITV renewed Whitechapel for a fourth series consisting of 6 episodes. The first episode was broadcast on 4 September 2013.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, rough, tense, suspenseful, detective, realistic, crime drama, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 87%
Luther (2010)
Plot Summary:
A dark psychological crime drama starring Idris Elba as Luther, a man struggling with his own terrible demons, who might be as dangerous as the depraved murderers he hunts.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 152000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, psychological thriller, tense, detective, rough, serious, crime drama, exciting, dramatic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
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
Similar in 76%
True Detective (2014)
Plot Summary:
An American anthology police detective series utilizing multiple timelines in which investigations seem to unearth personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within or outside the law.
IMDB Rating: 8.9
IMDB Votes: 618000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: neo noir, serious, atmospheric, anthology, gloomy, realistic, southern gothic, clever, stylized, captivating