Recommended Shows for the Crime Buff in You

What is it with my fascination with crime? As a mother of three kids, you wouldn’t think that I would like and not just like but be borderline obsessed with crime novels, movies and TV shows. I’m such a crime buff that when I asked my youngest what my favorite TV show was he said the one with the swing. If you love crime shows you’ll know that it’s Law and Order SVU!.

I’ve been reading crime novels since I was in my tweens, not the most appropriate age but since then it has became my most favorite of genres. With TV shows if it’s a crime show you better bet that I’ve watched it. Now, there are many crime shows out there and since I’ve been honing my “feeling” detective skills and filtering shows that educate and go into such depths of the psyche that it sometimes leaves me in a mixture of shock and wonder.

Now for my recommended shows for the crime buff in you!

MindHunters

What I liked: The fact that it shows the baby steps into the psychology of serial killers is already an interesting concept. To have a glimpse of real life serials killers and what it must have been like trying to understand the heinous crimes and minds.

Summary: In the late 1970s two FBI agents expand criminal science by delving into the psychology of murder and getting uneasily close to all-too-real monsters.

The Sinner

What I liked: This series kept me thinking and waiting and waiting till I could unpeel layer after layer and realize what the secret was. Jessica Biel is truly wonderful here. You feel half sympathy and half frustration as she tries to come to grips with what happened to her.

Summary: An eight episode close-ended series, The Sinner follows a young mother (Jessica Biel) who, when overcome by an inexplicable fit of rage, commits a startling act of violence and to her horror has no idea why. The event launches an inverted and utterly surprising crime thriller whose driving force is not the “who” or the “what” — but the “why” — as an investigator (Bill Pullman) finds himself obsessed with uncovering the woman’s buried motive. Together they travel a harrowing journey into the depths of her psyche and the violent secrets hidden in her past.

The Fall

If Jamie Dornan isn’t enough of a reason then the tenacity that Gillian Anderson brings to her character seeking the dangerous yet charming serial killer will have you wanting more.

Summary: A detective superintendent battles her own personal demons as she tries to get inside the head of a serial killer hiding behind a family-man facade.

Bletchly Park

What I like: What an interesting series, imagine women in the 50s with smarts and courage solving crimes better than their male counterparts.

Summary: With an extraordinary flair for code breaking and razor-sharp intelligence skills, four seemingly ordinary women become the unlikely investigators of a string of grisly murders in this original thriller, set against the backdrop of post-war London.

It’s 1951 and Susan, played by two-time BAFTA award-winner Anna Maxwell Martin, Millie (Rachael Stirling, Women in Love), Lucy (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate Sophie Rundle) and Jean (Julie Graham, William & Mary, Survivors) have returned to post-war domesticity, modestly setting aside the part they played in the Allied victory. Their brilliant work at top security HQ Bletchley Park helped crack the codes used by the German military, producing crucial intelligence that shortened the war.

Big Little Lies

What I like: The dynamic between the three female leads fits so well and works so well that you wonder why more women aren’t as diverse in their friendships as this.

Summary: Based on Liane Moriarity’s bestselling book, and featuring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Shailene Woodley, this darkly comedic series tells the tale of three mothers whose seemingly perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.