The best crime TV shows on Amazon Prime Video

After a slow start, Bosch has steadily grown across nine seasons (to date), and is now viewed in certain quarters as one of the finest police procedurals ever made. Titus Welliver stars as the improbably named Hieronymus Bosch (just call him Harry), an LAPD detective with a serious attitude problem. It’s a predictable enough set-up, and Bosch holds few surprises for fans of the format, but it’s such impeccably made stuff that it’s impossible to quibble. The casting is a highlight, with the city of LA itself warranting something close to top billing.

Forget the Tom Cruise movies – this is Jack Reacher as author Lee Child intended him: a physically imposing man of few words, whose military police training and vagrant lifestyle sees him drifting into various criminal cases where law enforcement either can’t or won’t effectively intervene. Actor Alan Ritchson nails the character’s brutal physicality and watchful intellect, while the two seasons to have aired so far have faithfully translated Child’s original material. Watching Reacher crack heads and cases alike is some of the most fun you can have on Prime Video.

Goliath is a curious hybrid between a courtroom drama, a police procedural, a slice of film noir, and a weird artsy indie movie. Its quirky cast is led by the inimitable Billy Bob Thornton, who plays former hotshot lawyer turned washed-up drunk Billy McBride. At the outset of season one we find Billy working low-end cases out of his motel room, but across its four seasons Goliath takes us to some unexpected places – all centred on the little guy taking on major corporate interests.

The original Danish-Swedish production of The Bridge was one of the foundational texts of the Nordic noir explosion from around the turn of millennium. This American remake is a very good show in its own right. Diane Kruger steps ably into the lead role as a socially awkward detective forced into partnership with a more chaotic counterpart from a neighbouring country after a body is found on the border crossing. Here the switch to a US/Mexico setting adds a more starkly politic spin to proceedings.

This brilliantly entertaining Australian series injects a dose of humour into the cop show formula, without ever losing sight of the darkness inherent to all that murdering. When the body of a local man washes up on the beach of a small Tasmanian coastal town, it’s up to the local police force – and a memorably brash interloper from the mainland – to solve the case. If you’re still curious about the tone, just know that it was written by a pair of comedians under the working title of “Funny Broadchurch”.

Sneaky Pete is on the slightly lighter, more capery end of crime TV shows, with a welcome dose of humour mixed into the law-breaking drama. Giovanni Ribisi plays Marius, a con man who leaves prison only to find himself on the run from a vicious criminal (played by series co-creator Bryan Cranston) he owes money to. In taking on the identity of his former cellmate, the titular Pete, our shifty protagonist opens up an unexpectedly precarious new life for himself.

If Three Pines offers nothing else, it’s a solid opportunity for the shape-shifting English character actor Alfred Molina to take centre stage. Here he plays Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of a small town Quebec police force. Interestingly, this eight-episode police procedural splits itself into four distinct cases for our hero to solve across two hours of impeccably produced television. Naturally, there’s a core mystery underpinning them all, but it’s Molina’s sheer charisma that carries you through to the series conclusion.

Peter Capaldi puts his fearsome brow and sunken eyes to good use in this creepy six-part drama from Tom Moran, which is set for two more seasons. The former Dr Who plays Gideon Shepherd, a mysterious man who appears to see the future, while Jessica Raine plays a social worker beset by domestic issues and disturbing night visions. The two are inevitably brought together by a string of brutal murders. As crime TV shows go, The Devil’s Hour doesn’t do things by the book, with hints of the supernatural flecked throughout all the sleuthing.

Who says adults have to have all the crime TV show fun? Harlan Coben’s Shelter is a young adult-oriented show about a small group of high school kids in 1980s suburban New Jersey, who set about tracking down a missing friend. It’s a show packed full of deliciously interlocking mysteries, with excellent chemistry between its trio of young sleuths. Unfortunately, Harlan Coben’s Shelter was cancelled after just one season, but it remains a compelling and mostly self-contained chunk of crime TV that all the family can enjoy.

Based on a brilliant 2010 Australian independent movie of the same name, Animal Kingdom transplants the suburban crime drama to California, but crucially places the same dysfunctional crime family dynamics at its core. Following the death of his mother, young Joshua “J” Cody moves in with his extended family, who might not be entirely on the level, to put it mildly. This chaotic but close-knit family is made up of a series of dangerously colourful characters, not least the family matriarch, Janine “Smurf” Cody, played by the brilliant Ellen Barkin.