The media is filled with hundreds of thousands of movies and tv shows. Many of them are good, some not so much. But my personal favorite genre are Crime Dramas and Crime Comedies. So, I’m going to present a list of my top favorite crime series.

Number 5 on the list, Sherlock. Based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s intriguing detective stories, in this version, Sherlock is played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Holmes’ partner, John Watson, is a doctor who spent time in military service in Afghanistan. He assists Sherlock in his adventures, or rather his journeys, to find murderers and criminals… Not having a very developed police or investigative force, Sherlock became a great asset to the police and the British government. It was, of course, set in the era of Victorian England around the late 1800s or early 1900s, which means the police around that area had just started to progress. Sherlock has some incredible abilities that help both progress the plot and makes the series interesting, those include: acute observation, deduction, and reasoning, and he is said to have an IQ of around 190, theoretically placing him in at least the top ten smartest people.

Number 4 on my list is Leverage. A series about 5 incredibly able and intelligent criminals who use their combined genius to carry out extreme heists no other criminals would even think to attempt. They did this to fight corporate, government corruption, and injustices against regular people. The team was made up of a grifter, a hacker, a thief, a retrieval specialist, and a former insurance investigator who was wronged. The series itself is quite entertaining but slow at some points, which is why it is not higher on my list.

The 3rd show on the list, is called White Collar. This one is also about a criminal. His name is Neal Caffrey, sort of… Neal was put in prison for bond forgery, however, he has committed an enumerable number of crimes, none of which can be unequivocally proven. He is a master criminal; his usual crimes include: forgery and thieving. He uses these skills, most of the time legally, to aid the FBI in solving White Collar crimes, hence the title. The FBI had been chasing him for 3 years prior to his arrest. After his arrest, he was sentenced to 4 years in prison. During his 4th year, he escaped to look for his girlfriend, but after not finding her, he gave up and went back to prison. That’s when he made a deal with the FBI to aid them.

Next up on the list, number 2: The Mentalist. This show is absolutely written so well and has the right amount of seriousness to comedy ratio. Once again, a very skilled person aids the FBI, this time, the main character is less of a criminal. It has such an intense and engaging storyline that continues throughout the entire 7 season series, with other storylines each episode. The main character, Patrick Jane, grew up at the circus as a charlatan who had skills such as sleight of hand, pick pocketing, and lock picking. His first major career was being a fake psychic. He later was humbled into changing careers after a serial killer named Red John, killed his wife and daughter. Ever after, he silently vowed to himself to work until he found and killed the man who murdered his family. So, he aided the FBI as a very skilled consultant. He decided not to pretend to be psychic ever again after his family was killed.

Last up on the list and number 1, Psych! Psych is mainly about comedy with some serious stuff sprinkled in every once in a while. The main character, Shawn Spencer, has some very similar skills to the last main character. He has very sharp observation skills along with an eidetic or photographic memory. He pretends to be a psychic consultant for the SBPD for an entire eight seasons of the show. His partner and a second comedic relief and main character is Burton Guster or Gus. The two make a great pair and solve enumerable cases together. Most episodes open with a scene from Shawn’s past that explain his abilities or backstory and set up the episode. Overall, Psych is definitely worth watching and is incredibly funny which is why it’s number one on the list.