Police procedural TV shows used to dominate the bulk of network dramas during the 1980s and '90s since there's a natural formula that fits the ins and outs of police work. Naturally, these shows lean more toward serious topics and dark themes.
Plenty of police procedurals don't try to rock the boat and comfortably reset the status quo by the time that the credits roll. However, there is also no shortage of cop shows that indulge in dark ideas and use their procedural structure to surprise and scare their audience. Popular series like Criminal Minds and Hannibal have a huge fanbase who can look past the grim and often disturbing topics.
10 The Shield Highlights A Broken, Corrupt System
7 Seasons, 88 Episodes
A lot of police procedurals brazenly highlight their city's corruption. Many FX original dramas don't hold back, but The Shield established this gritty reputation for the cable network. The Shield follows the LAPD’s Strike Team, which means that drugs and death are par for the course.
Michael Chiklis' Vic Mackey slowly self-destructs over the course of seven seasons until he's a hollow husk. However, the first episode ends with Mackey unjustly shooting someone in the face and getting his team to cover up his actions. This reckless behavior is a terrifying portrayal of abuses of power.
9 Homicide: Life On The Street Presents A Bleak World Of Crime
7 Seasons, 122 Episodes
David Simon's The Wire continues to come up as one of the greatest dramas of all time, but the show plays out like a layered novel rather than procedural crime stories. Simon previously created Homicide: Life on the Street, which distills The Wire's anger and apathy into a more conventional network drama.
Homicide still punches above its weight and it offers substantially darker cases than other police procedurals, like NYPD Blue. Homicide reflects the chaotic nature of life where evil can randomly strike.
8 Hannibal Is Dark And Gritty
3 Seasons, 39 Episodes
Hannibal is a heightened horror series, but it also fits the bill for one of the strangest police procedurals ever made, let alone to air on NBC. Hannibal is at its best when Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter are tangled in each other's toxic webs. Audiences know that Hannibal is an exaggerated villain, but this series operates as if every budding murderer is a creative genius who could double as a fine artist.
Hannibal lingers on truly nightmarish murder scenarios that successfully disturb the audience. The show can be so dark that cannibalism is one of the tamer elements on display in Hannibal.
7 Dexter Is A Serial Killer Cop Who Follows A Murky Moral Code
8 Seasons, 96 Episodes; 10 Episodes Of Dexter: New Blood
A lot of audiences are quick to think of Dexter as a serial killer show because a murderer is its protagonist. Dexter is a killer who's taken dozens of lives, but he attempts to adhere to a moral code where he only hurts other serial killers.
This subject matter is inherently dark since it asks the audience to progressively sympathize with a killer. Dexter's specialty is also blood spatter analysis, which means that crime scenes are usually messy spectacles that are hard to look at. Dexter has diminishing returns as it goes on, but it never stops provoking and making innocent people pay.
6 Criminal Minds' BAU Looks Into The Mind Of Murderers
16 Seasons, 334 Episodes (Ongoing)
Criminal Minds has spent decades telling disturbing stories, which has accustomed audiences to endless death and torture. Criminal Minds is a police procedural that specifically targets the psychology of serial killers, who evidently are as prevalent as the common cold.
Criminal Minds has produced hundreds of dark crime stories across multiple series, including its recent Paramount+ revival. The series revels in such disturbing territory that its original lead, Mandy Patinkin, left the show because it felt too exploitative with its cavalier depiction of killers.
5 Justified Creates A Colorful Cast Of Criminals Who Aren’t Afraid To Go For Broke
6 Seasons, 78 Episodes
Justified is set to return with Justified: City Primeval, where Timothy Olyphant and his cowboy hat will be back to fight crime. Justified is at its best when it's deep in serialized storytelling, but it begins with an affinity for episodic cases. These reflect the full spectrum of Elmore Leonard's unconventionally frightening criminals.
There's a scrappiness to all of Harlan, Kentucky’s outlaws who act like they're criminal masterminds. Character development is never in short supply in Justified, but many of these individuals are at the end of their ropes and ready to explode.
4 True Detective Is One Of HBO's Best Shows
3 Seasons, 24 Episodes
The fourth season of HBO's anthology police procedural, True Detective, is ready to once again subvert expectations through more sophisticated mysteries that investigate the helpless. True Detective is best remembered for its committed performances, ambitious cinematography, and philosophical debates about the nature of good, evil, and everything in between.
Underneath this artifice are grisly murders with unnerving connections to the occult. True Detective is confident enough to immerse its audience in darkness and not give them clear answers on what it all means and how to escape this dread.
3 Fringe Uses Scary Science To Empower Its Villains
5 Seasons, 100 Episodes
Fringe effectively toes the line between police procedural and science fiction with its investigation of perplexing "fringe science events" that hint at a world of terrifying supernatural possibilities. Fringe brilliantly incorporates standalone cases into its grander parallel universe narrative.
This police series loves to delight in incredible science, but Fringe is also full of malevolent geniuses who create living marionettes or weaponize the universe's physics to cause widespread chaos for personal gain. Plenty of the cases in Fringe reach darker depths than the likes of The X-Files.
2 The Killing Discusses A Small-Town Murder That Has Big Ramifications
4 Seasons, 44 Episodes
The Killing is based on a Danish crime drama, and it initially found life on AMC before it was revived on Netflix for its third and fourth seasons. The Killing begins with the investigation of a missing girl, but this tragedy becomes the catalyst for multiple horrors that begin to unravel a quiet community.
The Killing is a hard-boiled detective series. The show's blunt violence really stands out among other police procedurals, especially in the context of its two maladjusted lead cop characters. The darkest turns in The Killing involve the identity of Rosie Larsen’s killer, which breaks hearts and proves that anyone is capable of murder.
1 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Has Presented Hundreds Of Horrific Crimes
24 Seasons, 531 Episodes (Ongoing)
Dick Wolf's Law & Order is one of television's longest-running procedurals, having amassed more than 1000 episodes across multiple interconnecting series. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was designed to be an edgier entry in the series with a focus on assaults.
However, it's gone on to become the anchor of the Law & Order universe and audiences have grown numb toward these increasingly dark crimes. Law & Order: SVU crafts original crimes and stories that are ripped from the headlines, but they always paint the world as a dangerous place where an attack, from anyone, is imminent.