Investigation dramas are tricky because not every series (or film) can do justice to the set-up in the pay-off or neatly balance the gripping procedural aspects and the character detailing. But when they get it right, it's one helluva ride! Here are a few reccos.
It's a pity the quality of the first season of this series, created by Nic Pizzolatto, wasn't replicated in the subsequent seasons. Mathew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson fronted a story with enough existential dilemmas and spine-chilling revelations.
The combined storytelling might of Avinash Arun and Sudip Sharma powered two seasons of this sufficiently haunting and stupendously executed mystery drama elevated by Jaideep Ahlawat's superb turn as an incorruptible policeman.
Also known by its English title, Woman of the Dead, this German series with stunning locations revolves around a driven female protagonist who, while chasing her husband's murderers, opens another can of worms.
This gripping and informative Michael Keaton-fronted series based on actual events has much in common with other time-hopping, real event-based stories like Oppenheimer, The Social Network, The Insider, and All the President's Men.
Nordic thrillers operate on a whole different level. The Chestnut Man, based on Søren Sveistrup's book, would appeal to those who loved the first season of True Detective or films like Se7en or The Silence of the Lambs.
Here's another Nordic investigative drama, albeit based on true events, directed by Tobias Lindholm, who has directed two episodes of Mindhunter and co-wrote the critically acclaimed Mads Mikkelsen films The Hunt and Another Round.
A consistently engaging and well-acted adaptation of Michael Connelly's crime novels featuring the titular Harry Bosch, the Prime Video series, headlined by Titus Welliver, spawned seven seasons and a couple of spin-offs.
Samuel L Jackson, Don Cheadle, Kevin Hart and others play characters on opposite sides of the law engaged in parallel investigations of a botched real-life robbery that leaves a few bodies in its wake.