Best tv shows like Zen
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Zen is a British television mini series produced by Left Bank Pictures for the BBC, co-produced with WGBH Boston for its Masterpiece anthology series, Mediaset and ZDF. It stars Rufus Sewell and Caterina Murino and is based on the Aurelio Zen detective novels by Michael Dibdin. The series was filmed on location in Italy, but the dialogue is in English. The series, which comprises three 90-minute films, was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sunday evenings from 2 January 2011 on BBC One. The three films were based on the books Vendetta, Cabal and Ratking.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, Italy, Germany
Duration: 270 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, sexy, detective, serious, suspenseful, dark, crime drama, clever, realistic, stylized
Best tv shows and movies like Zen (2011):
Similar in 82%
The Young Montalbano (2012)
Plot Summary:
The young "Commisario" detective Salve Montalbano, based in a village, solves mysterious crimes in Sicilia.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Mystery
Country: Italy
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, witty, detective
Similar in 89%
The Black Tower (1985)
Plot Summary:
Frustrated with his career, Commander Dalgliesh is invited to Toynton Grange, a home for the disabled, by his old teacher, Father Baddeley, who is resident there. But unbeknown to Dalgliesh, something happening at the Grange is making the Father uneasy, and Dalgliesh quickly finds himself investigating a series of mysterious deaths.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 363
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: detective, atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Falcón (2012)
Plot Summary:
Falcón is a brilliant detective whose personal and professional life is compromised by dark secrets from the past.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 794
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, detective, atmospheric, gloomy, hardboiled detective, detective series
Similar in 83%
Jo (2013)
Plot Summary:
Jo is an English-language French police procedural television series created by Canadian/USA screenwriter René Balcer of Law & Order fame with French writing team Franck Ollivier & Malina Detcheva, known for the mini-series Lost Signs. It is co-produced by the French Atlantique Productions and the Belgian Stromboli Pictures companies in association with broadcast partners TF1, RTBF, Sat.1, ORF and RTS.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: France, UK
Duration:
Plot tags: serious, rough, realistic, suspenseful, detective
Similar in 88%
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 79%
A Touch of Frost (1992)
Plot Summary:
A Touch of Frost is a television detective series produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV from 1992 until 2010, initially based on the Frost novels by R.D. Wingfield. Writing credit for the three episodes in the first 1992 series went to Richard Harris, with screenplays credited to Wingfield. The series stars David Jason as Detective Inspector William Edward "Jack" Frost, an experienced and dedicated detective who frequently clashes with his superiors. In his cases, Frost is assisted by a variety of different detective sergeants, with each bringing a different slant to the particular case. Comic relief is provided by Frost's interactions with the bureaucratically minded Superintendent Norman Mullett, played by Bruce Alexander. A number of young actors had their major debut as supporting cast in the show, including Matt Bardock, Ben Daniels, Neil Stuke, Nathaniel Parker, Mark Letheren, Colin Buchanan, Jason Maza, Damian Lewis and Marc Warren.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, sincere, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, witty
Similar in 79%
The Murder Room (2004)
Plot Summary:
The lease on the Dupayne Museum is almost up and under the terms of their father's will, all three of the Dupayne children must agree to continue or the museum is to close. Neville Dupayne is dead set against continuing the museum when the money could be used for a much better purpose. One of the museum's key attractions is the Murder Room, displaying information on a series of notorious murders from between the two World Wars. When Neville dies in a way reminiscent of one of the murders on display in the Murder Room, Commander Adam Dalgleish is asked to investigate. There are any number of suspects: his siblings, several museum employees who will lose their job, his secretary with whom he once had an affair and his daughter who felt he was an absentee father. A second murder reveals some of the activities of the upper classes and the solution lies in a long-ago wrong that someone is seeking to right.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 544
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, detective, tense, mind bending, realistic
Similar in 76%
Death of an Expert Witness (1983)
Plot Summary:
When Dr. Edwin Lorrimer, a forensic scientist working at a private laboratory is found killed, Detective Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh is sent to investigate. Dalgliesh had been in the area a few months previously investigating the murder of a young woman found in an abandoned car. There are several suspects: Lorrimer's subordinate, Clifford Bradley, who despises him; the new head of the laboratory, Maxim Howarth, who is jealous of his sister's relationship with him; a colleague, Paul Middlemass, who had a fight with Lorrimer. There is also a gruff and likely unethical policeman who was on the grounds of the laboratory at the time of the killing and a local pathologist who is raising his two young children after his wife leaves him for another man. When one of the suspects is also murdered, Dalgliesh learns a key piece of information.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 374
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
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 79%
The Last Detective (2003)
Plot Summary:
The Last Detective is an ITV drama starring Peter Davison as Dangerous Davies. The first series aired in 2003 with three more seasons succeeding this. The first consisted of a pilot and three episodes, the second and the third series both consisted of four normal episodes and the fourth series increased the run to five episodes and the duration of each individual episode to 90 minutes as opposed to the previous 70-minute format. As of 2007 this series had 17 episodes in total.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: detective, clever, realistic, suspenseful, dark, crime drama, semi serious
Similar in 84%
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 75%
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 77%
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 79%
Cracker (1993)
Plot Summary:
The wise-cracking Fitz is a brilliant but flawed criminal psychologist with a remarkable insight into the criminal mind.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: clever, detective, crime drama, rough, witty, dark, psychological, tense, sincere, realistic
Similar in 75%
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 83%
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%
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 80%
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 87%
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 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 77%
Motive (2013)
Plot Summary:
A cat-and-mouse series with a twist on the everyday whodunit, "Motive" centers on Angie Flynn, a detective on a backwards chase for clues to a killer that has already been revealed to viewers. The series, filmed in Vancouver, is an unconventional way to watch a crime unfold. Each episode begins by revealing to the audience, not only the victim, but the killer as well. The homicide detective then begins to piece together clues. How did they do it? How are the victim and killer connected? What's the motive? As the mystery unfolds, the audience navigates the twisted and complicated maze of each murder and solves the puzzle alongside Det. Flynn and her team.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, detective, realistic, captivating, suspense, disturbing, thrilling
Similar in 75%
Blue Murder (2003)
Plot Summary:
Blue Murder is a British crime drama television series based in Manchester. Shown on ITV from 2003 until 2009 when it was cancelled by the network, it starred Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: detective, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crime drama
Similar in 84%
Aspe (2004)
Plot Summary:
In each episode of this Flemish whodunit based on the books of Pieter Aspe, a serious crime - usually one or more murders in the author's home town Bruges - gets investigated by the grumpy but brilliant chief inspector Pieter Van In and his team.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, detective
Similar in 80%
Blind Justice (2005)
Plot Summary:
Blind Justice is an American television series created by Steven Bochco about a blind New York City police detective. It was introduced mid-season in March 8, 2005 to fill the time slot left by Bochco's highly successful NYPD Blue, which had just aired its final episode after a 12-year run. The show ran for only one season, with 13 episodes broadcast.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 465
Genere: Drama, Crime, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, rough, serious, realistic, detective
Similar in 84%
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 78%
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 84%
Identity (2010)
Plot Summary:
Identity is a British police procedural drama television series starring Aidan Gillen and Keeley Hawes, airing in the UK during July–August 2010. Concerning identity theft, the series was created and written by Ed Whitmore, a writer most noted for his work on the BBC's Waking The Dead and the acclaimed ITV mini-series He Kills Coppers. The remake rights have been sold to the ABC Network in America who are developing their own version of the show. ITV confirmed that the show had been cancelled on 19 October 2010, after a single series.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 717
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, psychological, serious, realistic, captivating, detective, crime drama, suspenseful, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 86%
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