Top 10 Detective Shows on TV

Of all the television genres, the detective shows are my favorite. A well-written crime drama keeps us on the edge of our seats for the entire show. Dick Wolf, creator of the Law & Order empire, has it down to an art form. There are only a few others that made my list of the best detective TV shows in history. By the way, these are listed in no particular order.

Law&Order

The writing and acting on Law & Order has combined to make this TV franchise the best of the best for detective shows. On this original drama the detectives of the NYC police department were only the focus of half the show, but still managed to be the best. Actors Jerry Orbach, S. Epatha Merkerson, and Chris Noth had us rooting for them weekly, even after 20 long seasons. The "ripped from the headlines" stories often gave us the justice we hoped for in reality, but rarely get. The detectives, even through a myriad of actor changes, remained real in appearances right to the end of the series.