Our 2023 list of best crime, mystery and thriller shows on PBS Masterpiece includes must-watch series such as Miss Scarlet and The Duke as well as Vienna Blood. PBS Masterpiece is always known for introducing high quality crime and mystery shows to American audience, so we’re quite excited to bring you this year’s edition.
Note: Mystery Tribune’s Watch Lists provide a comprehensive coverage of all major streaming services and their notable shows and movies in crime, mystery and thriller space.
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Frankie Drake MysteriesÂ
This drama series, set in stylish 1920s Toronto, follows the female-only agency Drake Private Detectives, led by the eponymous Frankie Drake and her partner Trudy Clarke.
Incorporating a brand of justice that doesn’t always follow the law, Frankie and Trudy investigate mysteries and crimes that either the police refuse to take on, or that their clients cannot take to the police at all. Against a backdrop of social change, radical politics and jazz music, the series is immersed in both the real Toronto of the 1920s and the world of mystery and suspense conjured by creators Carol Hay and Michelle Ricci.
Miss Scarlet and The Duke
One of our PBS Masterpiece favorites: When her father dies, Eliza Scarlet finds herself facing a difficult choice. As an unmarried woman, she faces poverty without a husband to provide for her — unless she takes on the challenge of running her late father’s detective agency, which would be unthinkable for a respectable Victorian lady. Fortunately, she finds an unlikely partner in the unconventional Detective Inspector William Wellington of Scotland Yard, known as “The Duke,” and the pair begin to tackle the crimes and mysteries of Victorian London together.
Vienna Blood
Max Liebermann, a student of Sigmund Freud, helps Detective Rheinhardt in the investigation of a series of disturbing murders around the grand cafés and opera houses of 1900s Vienna.
Magpie Murders
A beguiling murder mystery with a solution that will both astonish and shock viewers, the plot of Magpie Murders revolves around the character Susan Ryeland, an editor who is given an unfinished manuscript of author Alan Conway’s latest novel, but has little idea it will change her life.
Adapted from Anthony Horowitz’s bestselling mystery by the author himself, Magpie Murders stars Lesley Manville (World on Fire, Phantom Thread, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris) as editor turned amateur sleuth Susan Ryeland and Tim McMullan (Patrick Melrose, Foyle’s War) as world-famous detective Atticus Pünd.
Unforgotten
This crime-drama stars Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar as the lead characters DCI Cassie Stuart and DS Sunil “Sunny” Khan. The detectives are on a mission to uncover the mystery behind an unsolved murder that occurred 39 years ago. Beneath the ground of a demolished house, the bones of the victim are found.
With this evidence, the modern police team open a case to unearth the history that has remained buried for decades. Four main suspects emerge, and as their dark past is unraveled, the truth behind the events of the crime are finally revealed.
Death Comes To Pemberly
Another interesting historical show on PBS Masterpiece: This three-part serial, based on the PD James novel of the same name that continues the events of Jane Austen’s `Pride and Prejudice’, takes place six years after the events of Austen’s story.
On the eve of the annual Lady Anne ball at the Darcys’ Pemberley home, post-supper festivities are brought to an abrupt halt with the arrival of an unexpected visitor and news of a murder in nearby Pemberley Woods. Sensing something is wrong, Fitzwilliam Darcy, the family’s patriarch, begins to retreat from wife Elizabeth as he tries to protect the household from a scandal.
Reilly, Ace of Spies
An exploration of the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian who became one of the greatest spies to work for the British.
Prime Suspect: Tennison
Based on the novel by Lynda La Plante, this series reveals how Jane Tennison came to be a formidable, unstoppable force for the police. The prequel to the original `Prime Suspect’ series, stars Stefanie Martini as Woman Police Constable Jane Tennison, made iconic by Dame Helen Mirren’s original portrayal.
In the 1970s, 22-year-old Jane is pulled into a brutal murder investigation and witnesses first-hand the pain and consequences that follow such violent crimes. Jane tries to prove herself in a field dominated by men, chauvinism and rule-bending.
Olivia
Olivia Alesandri having reconciled with her traumatic past, has opened a law firm to defend lost cases, redress injustice and bring justice.
Modus
This PBS Masterpiece thriller is highly recommended: In snowy Sweden, a talented ex-FBI profiler works with the police and her own autistic daughter to unravel the strange motives of a vicious killer.
Mrs. Wilson
Ruth Wilson stars as her own grandmother in the BBC drama based on her family’s dramatic history. The three-part-series, written by Anna Symon, follows the story of Wilson’s grandparents, Alison and Alexander Wilson, who met during the Second World War whilst working within MI6.
After Mr Wilson’s death in 1963, Alison discovers that he was leading multiple lives, which included both children and wives. Mrs Wilson then endeavours to uncover the secrets and complexities of her late husband’s past.
The Paris Murders
Intuitive profiler Chloe Saint-Laurent solves the most puzzling cases with the Paris homicide division in this suspenseful and fast-paced series based on actual criminal cases. Her exceptional sensitivity enables her to read the minds of killers and victims alike. From Walter Presents, in French with English subtitles.
Van der Valk
A cynical Dutch detective and his colleagues investigate criminal activities including violent murders, unsolved kidnappings and worrying political corruption in the city of Amsterdam.
The Crimson Rivers
No case is too shocking or bizarre as two formidable detectives investigate extraordinary crimes in remote areas of France steeped in regional myths and cults of belief. From Walter Presents, in French with English subtitles.
Dark Angel
A genetically enhanced superhuman prototype, Max, who, as a child, escaped from a covert government military facility along with 11 others who were all being raised and trained to be super-soldiers. Now an adult, Max joins forces with idealistic cyber journalist Logan to battle corruption in post-apocalypse America as he constantly tries to elude capture by government agents. While all that is going on, Max also searches for her genetically enhanced brothers and sisters, all of whom were scattered in the aftermath of their escape.
Inspector Lewis
DI Robert Lewis and DS James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them.
Before We Die
When her married lover and fellow police officer Sean Hardacre goes missing, DI Hannah Laing launches a manhunt.
Astrid
Astrid Nielsen works in the library of the judicial police. She has Asperger’s syndrome. With an incredible memory she excels at analyzing files of ongoing investigations. The district commander decides to use it to the fullest, entrusting her with very complex investigations which have remained unsolved to date.
Broadchurch
A great British crime show on PBS Masterpiece: When the corpse of an 11-year-old British boy, Danny Latimer, is found bloodied and dirty on an idyllic beach, a small Dorset community becomes the focus of a police investigation and media madness. Out-of-town Detective Inspector Alec Hardy gets the point position over Detective Sgt. Ellie Miller — who feels the job should have been hers.
Now she must engage in an efficient working relationship with taciturn Hardy. Slowly, more members of the community of Broadchurch are drawn into the investigation, with a telephone engineer drawing great attention when he admits to a special connection to the case. While dealing with so much unwelcome attention, Danny’s family tries to cope with its grief. When a suspect is named and charged, the ensuing trial sees the defendant promising to expose more of the townspeople’s secrets.
Rocco Schiavone (Ice Cold Murders)
An unorthodox Italian police commissioner finds himself far from his beloved Rome when he is transferred to a mountain station where a murderer is at large.
The TunnelÂ
Based on the original Swedish series “The Bridge,” this British crime drama centers on British and French detectives who are forced to work together when a French politician is found dead inside the Channel Tunnel, sparking a complex cross-Channel investigation. The series stars Clémence Poésey as Elise Wassermann and Stephen Dillane as Karl Roebuck, the detectives who are sent to investigate the case. “The Tunnel” also features Cédric Vieira as Philippe Viot, Angel Coulby as Laura Roebuck and Thibault de Montalembert as Olivier Pujol.
COBRA
In times of national emergency, a team comprised of Britain’s leading experts, crisis contingency planners and most senior politicians assemble under the name COBRA to form the committee entrusted to protect the people of Great Britain. Set in the heart of government during a major crisis, this six-part drama follows the prime minister and his chief of staff as they are forced to contend with impossible political decisions and their ferociously pressured personal lives, while also being mindful of political opponents who will use any sign of weakness as an opportunity to strike.
Apple Tree Yard
A PBS Masterpiece favorite: `Apple Tree Yard’ is an adaption of Louise Doughty’s best-selling novel of the same name. Written by Amanda Coe, the four-part psychological-thriller stars Emily Watson, Ben Chaplin, Mark Bonnar, Susan Lynch and Steven Elder. The story follows Yvonne Carmichael, a married woman with two grown-up children, who appears have everything a career, a home and loving family. However when she meets the charming and mysterious Mark Costley, she finds herself making choices that could cost her everything that she values.
