These TV shows flew under the radar, maybe because they didn't have the big names or the flashy marketing. But inside, they're gold – stories that grip you, characters that stick with you long after the credits roll.
It's raw, it's real, and it's got that edge you've been looking for, minus the usual cliches that Hollywood loves to recycle.
1. "Spotless" (2015) Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
Set in London, this darkly comic series follows Jean, a crime scene cleaner, whose life spirals out of control when his outlaw brother, Martin, involves him in a deadly underworld of criminals and corrupt cops.
2. "River" (2015) Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
Detective John River, haunted by visions of his recently murdered colleague, navigates through London's complex tapestry of crime and punishment, while grappling with his own fragile mental state and the ghosts of his past.
In West Yorkshire, Sergeant Catherine Cawood pursues the man who assaulted her late daughter, only to find herself embroiled in a kidnapping gone wrong, revealing the dark underbelly of her community and her personal vendettas.
4. "Top Boy" (2011) Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
Set in a public housing estate in East London, this crime drama centers around the lives of Dushane and Sully, two young men deeply entrenched in the world of drugs and violence; their dream? To become the area's "Top Boy".
5. "Hap and Leonard" (2016) Rotten Tomatoes score: 94%
In the late 1980s East Texas, an unlikely duo of a working-class white man and a gay black Vietnam vet find themselves caught in a web of mystery and violence while navigating racial tensions and their own pasts.
In a small British coastal town, the murder of a young boy exposes the community's fractured relationships, secrets, and lies, as two detectives, each with their own demons, work to solve the emotionally charged case.
7. "Banshee" (2013) Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%
A master thief assumes the identity of a murdered sheriff in the small town of Banshee, Pennsylvania, where he continues his criminal activities while upholding his duties as sheriff, entangling himself with local gangsters and his own past.
8. "The Break" (also known as "La Trêve", 2016) Rotten Tomatoes score: 89%
In a small Belgian village, a police detective, Yoann Peeters, relocated from Brussels, finds himself embroiled in the investigation of a young African footballer's apparent suicide, uncovering deep-rooted secrets and lies within the community.
9. "Cardinal" (2017) Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%
In the icy landscape of Algonquin Bay, Detective John Cardinal, haunted by his own personal history, investigates complex and gruesome crimes, uncovering disturbing secrets about the community and himself.
10. "Gomorrah" (2014) Rotten Tomatoes score: 85%
Set in the suburbs of Naples, this unflinching series delves into the brutal and ruthless world of the Camorra mafia, depicting the power struggles and bloody conflicts within the crime syndicate.
11. "Fortitude" (2015) Rotten Tomatoes score: 84%
In the Arctic town of Fortitude, the discovery of a violent murder disrupts the community's tranquility, unveiling a tangled web of mysterious pasts, ecological research, and the supernatural amidst its icy landscape.
12. "Trapped" (also known as "Ófærð", 2015) Rotten Tomatoes score: 83%
In a remote Icelandic town, a dismembered body is discovered as a ferocious blizzard cuts off the community, with the local police chief leading an increasingly complex investigation that uncovers dark secrets.
13. "Quarry" (2016) Rotten Tomatoes score: 78%
In 1972 Memphis, a disillusioned Vietnam War veteran, Mac Conway, becomes entangled in a network of killing and corruption as a hitman, while struggling with the traumas of war and his estranged relationships.
14. "The Shadow Line" (2011) Rotten Tomatoes score: 71%
A complex thriller delving into the moral ambiguity of the criminal underworld, where detective Jonah Gabriel, returning from a shooting incident, unravels a convoluted drug conspiracy interlinking crime lords, shady businessmen, and possibly corrupt colleagues.
15. "The Red Road" (2014) Rotten Tomatoes score: 67%
A tense drama where a local police officer in a small town makes a dangerous alliance with a member of a Native American tribe, intertwining their lives in a web of secrets, lies, and a past murder.
16. "The Code" (2014) Rotten Tomatoes score: 64%
In the Australian outback, a journalist and his hacker brother uncover a political conspiracy involving high-level government officials, forcing them into a dangerous world of cybercrime and political intrigue.
Two Detroit detectives find their lives entangled in criminality and corruption after they murder a fellow cop, leading them through a dark underworld as they seek redemption while being engulfed by their own deceit and guilt.
18. "100 Code" (2015) Rotten Tomatoes score: 0%
In Stockholm, a New York detective teams up with a Swedish cop to investigate a series of gruesome murders of young women, uncovering a disturbing pattern that spans continents.
19. "Braquo" (2009) Rotten Tomatoes score: 0% A raw and intense French series that follows a group of Parisian cops who cross the line into criminality, driven by personal tragedy, as they seek their own form of justice in a corrupt system.
A gripping three-part drama focusing on Eddie, a recently released murderer struggling to adjust to life on the outside, and his probation officer, Paula, who must navigate the thin line between public protection and Eddie's rehabilitation.
