5 Best Detective Shows Based On True Stories

This article contains discussions of sexual assault.

True crime is bigger than ever these days, and even though there are definitely some ethical gray areas to deal with in this genre, there's no question that it's here to stay. At this point, demand feels like it's at an all-time high, especially when you consider that a salacious new true crime documentary seems to drop every week on one of the major streamers. As it happens, you also can't fully escape true crime in shows purported to be fictional, because there are quite a few TV dramas based on very real felonies and misdemeanors.

Sure, there are plenty of procedural series like "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" that take inspiration from real-life headlines and crimes, but this isn't true of that show's entire narrative; there are plenty of independently concocted crimes on that show, to say nothing of installments that focus on things affecting main characters like Mariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson. There are also plenty of great true crime documentaries, but those obviously don't feature any actors or anything beyond the completely straight-up story. This list is full of miniseries (and one famously "unfinished" series) that, yes, might feature some fictional characters, but they all refer to extremely real crimes and use real names of both killers and victims when possible. Are you on a true crime journey and want to go even deeper down the rabbit hole? Check out these five detective shows based on real crimes. (Also, please be sure to check trigger warnings for these shows; they're all intense, dark, and committed to realism whenever possible.)

After David Fincher helped launch Netflix's stable of original content by directing the pilot of "House of Cards," he returned to the streamer, albeit briefly, for "Mindhunter," which adapts the true story found in the 1995 nonfiction book "Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit" by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker. The series stars Jonathan Groff as Holden Ford, whom we first meet as he negotiates a hostage situation as a special agent for the FBI before he starts teaching and, eventually, helps launch the Behavioral Science Unit (or BSU) at the FBI Academy in Virginia. There, Holden is joined by fellow agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) and psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), and together, the three investigate the inner workings of the minds of serial killers, going beyond their heinous crimes to fully understand their motives.

The cool thing about "Mindhunter" is that Fincher absolutely could have created crimes from whole cloth. (We've all seen "Se7en." If anyone could do it, it's him.) Instead, he depicts real-life killers like Ed Kemper (a brilliant Cameron Britton in Season 1) and, tantalizingly, Dennis Rader (Sonny Valicenti), better known by his murderous moniker "BTK" (which stands for "bind, torture, kill"), who wanders on the periphery of the action.

Sadly, "Mindhunter" wrapped up unceremoniously after Season 2 concluded in 2019, and a third season is just straight-up not happening. Thankfully, you can still stream "Mindhunter" on Netflix, relive its glory days, and learn about the origins of the BSU at the FBI.

Based on the ProPublica article "An Unbelievable Story of Rape," which was written by Ken Armstrong and T. Christian Miller and won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, the 2019 Netflix miniseries "Unbelievable" tackles a deeply disturbing spate of sexual assaults that took place in Colorado and Washington between 2008 and 2011. In that article, a young woman using the pseudonym "Marie" reports an assault to the police, and not only do they not believe her, but she ends up facing a charge for false reporting; ultimately, different detectives realize that this victim was targeted by a serial rapist and help find the perpetrator.

Susannah Grant, Ayelet Waldman, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon stayed extremely faithful to this real life story in "Unbelievable," which casts Kaitlyn Dever as Washington resident Marie Adler, a now-grown former foster child who tells her former foster mother that she was assaulted. When police don't believe her, Marie is devastated, but thankfully, three years later in Colorado, detectives Grace Rasmussen and Karen Duvall (Toni Collette and Merritt Wever, both absolutely brilliant) decide to take on a case involving a string of assaults.

Eventually, Grace and Karen are finally introduced to Marie's case — and they're able to help this young woman get justice for her attack. I'm sure this isn't shocking, but the trio of Dever, Collette, and Wever here is extraordinary, and even though "Unbelievable" is an undeniably difficult watch, it's necessary, wonderfully executed, and led by three of the most versatile performers working today.

Adapted from investigative writer Jon Krakauer's 2003 book of the same name, "Under the Banner of Heaven" aired on FX on Hulu in 2022 and featured some serious pedigree behind the camera — specifically, showrunner Dustin Lance Black, who won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for the Sean Penn-led biopic "Milk." So what does this true crime story focus on? This is really dark, so buckle up: The horrifying murder of a woman in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon faith) and her baby. Krakauer's book carefully charts how brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty murdered their sister-in-law Brenda Rafferty and her 15-month-old child Erica in 1984, and the series faithfully recounts this story, casting Andrew Garfield and Gil Birmingham as Jeb Pyre and Bill Taba, the detectives investigating the case.

"Under the Banner of Heaven" presents a fascinating push and pull as far as Jeb and Bill are concerned — Jeb, a member of the Mormon church, is struggling with his faith, and Bill, a Native American who's part of the Southern Paiute tribe, tries to reason with Jeb in moments of crisis — but it also depicts what allegedly happened between Ron, Dan, and Brenda Lafferty. (Those roles, by the way, are played by Sam Worthington, Wyatt Russell, and Daisy Edgar-Jones, all of whom are sublime.) "Under the Banner of Heaven" is an underrated miniseries that tells the story of a devastating murder that happened within a notoriously insular community, and it does so with weight, gravity, and respect, while featuring some unbelievable performances to boot.

Something I don't think we talk about enough — like, as a society — is that when showrunners and casting directors hire Jessica Biel for a seriously dark dramatic role, she delivers. This is true of the first season of the anthology crime show "The Sinner," and it's especially true of "Candy," which stars Biel as the very real alleged Texas killer Candy Montgomery. Here's what supposedly went down with Candy: While living her humdrum life as a stay-at-home mom and housewife in Wylie, Texas in the 1980s, Candy decides she might enjoy having an illicit affair with Allan Gore (Pablo Schreiber), who happens to be her neighbor and the husband of Candy's friend Betty Gore (Melanie Lynskey). Even though Allan and Candy do manage to sneak around successfully at first, their tryst is eventually uncovered ... and when that happens, Candy may or may not murder Betty with an axe, ultimately claiming that she attacked Betty in self-defense. Stranded in the middle of this mess is Candy's hapless husband Pat Montgomery ("Veep" standout Timothy Simons), who stands by his wife while also trying to figure out what the heck just happened.

A neat trick that creators Nick Antosca and Robin Veith pull in "Candy," in my opinion, is that the show isn't actually interested in whether she "did it" or not, but what got her to this point. Biel is, again, really great here, and with the utmost due respect to the almost-identical HBO Max series "Love & Death" that casts Elisabeth Moss as Candy and Jesse Plemons as Allan, "Candy" is the superior offering if you're looking for a take on this true crime story.

In 1989, five young Black and Latino men were wrongfully accused of sexually assaulting a woman named Trisha Melli as she jogged through Central Park; when they were convicted and subsequently jailed for a crime none of them committed, they earned the nickname the "Central Park Five," and were finally freed in 2002 when serial assaulter Matias Reyes confessed and was linked to the crime using DNA. In 2019, "Selma" director Ava DuVernay decided to tackle the men's story in "When They See Us," a searing, harrowing, and vital four-episode miniseries produced by Robert De Niro and Oprah Winfrey for Netflix.

With actors Asante Blackk, Caleel Harris, Jharrel Jerome, Ethan Herisse, and Marquis Rodriguez as Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Korey Wise, Yusuf Salaam, and Raymond Santana — and performers like Jovan Adepo playing some of the men in their older years — "When They See Us" spares no details of how this horrific miscarriage of justice occurred. (It even features a scene where we see a newspaper ad placed by a certain former New York real estate "magnate" insisting that the boys should receive the death penalty, an ad that very much did run in the New York Times in real life.) Thankfully, the Central Park Five have subsequently become known as the Exonerated Five and live as free men today, but it's important to remember how this all happened, especially if it ensures that we won't see outcomes like this again.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).