Even The Rookie lovers have to admit that these eight classic police procedurals are on another level. The Rookie is a modern police procedural, an ongoing ABC show with its ninth season on the way, and like a lot of great procedurals, The Rookie offers a spin on one of the most well-trod formats.
In the series, John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) is in his 40s, newly divorced, and looking for a new start after moving from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles. John decides to join the LAPD, becoming the oldest rookie on the force. It’s an exciting series led by the always likable Fillion, but there are even better police procedurals for those looking for something else.
The best police procedurals offer up a great new story every week, but still make sure the characters and the worlds they inhabit grow across the seasons. There needs to be something unique about the series, and if there isn’t anything specific, then the show needs to do all the little things perfectly.
Dragnet (1951-1959)
Dragnet began as a radio show in 1949, but it only took two years for the series to be made into a TV show in 1951. The show, which takes its name from a police term that refers to a coordinated system used for apprehending criminals, stars Jack Webb, Dragnet‘s creator, as police Sergeant Joe Friday.
Friday is a straight-arrow officer, dedicated to his job, who displays rare instances of dry humor at times. He empathizes with criminals, but that doesn’t stop him from doggedly pursuing those he suspects. The show is a classic of the genre, and you can see its inspiration in just about every police procedural there is.
Kojak (1973-1978)
Kojak debuted on CBS in 1973 and ran for five seasons, following the titular NYPD Detective Lieutenant Theophilus “Theo” Kojak. The tough and incorruptible Kojak is a smirking ham of an officer who likes to suck on Dum-Dum lollipops and spout off witty one-liners to perps and suspects.
A drama to be sure, Kojak had a humorous bent to it at times, sometimes behaving almost like a workplace comedy with the other officers in the precinct. The series captures 1970s New York City in a bottle and makes the grimy, mean streets seem positively enchanting.
Hill Street Blues (1981-1987)
Hill Street Blues is a police procedural that premiered on NBC and chronicles the working lives of the Metropolitan Police Department station located on Hill Street, which is a fictional district in a large, fictional U.S. city. The “Blues” of the title refers to the blue uniforms the officers in the show wear.
The series balances workplace comedy with the surprisingly dramatic stakes of the crimes the precinct has to solve. Hill Street Blues also emphasized the moral quandaries of police work, with episodes devoted to corruption, racism, alcoholism, and many more difficult topics that other shows weren’t always willing to talk about.
Cagney & Lacey (1982-1988)
Cagney & Lacey stars Sharon Gless as Christine Cagney and Tyne Daly as Beth Lacey. Cagney and Lacey are police detectives for the NYPD and while they’re both similar in how they do their jobs, they are very different when it comes to their personal lives, with Cagney being a career-minded single woman and Lacey a married working mother.
The series was part family drama and part cop show, with both storylines often revolving around the disrespect the pair receives as female detectives working and living in a man’s world. There are few shows out there, even now, with as nuanced and detailed a female relationship as the one you can find in Cagney & Lacey.
Law & Order (1990-Present)
The series that spawned one of the biggest TV franchises ever, Law & Order is where Dick Wolf’s police procedural and legal drama began. The original show ran from 1990 to 2010, before being brought back in 2022. Every episode of Law & Order begins the same; the first half is the investigation of the crime and apprehension of a suspect, and the second half is the courtroom business.
Law & Order is one of the shows that all police procedurals are held up against. The series often takes its plot points straight from the headlines and features notable actors and celebrities in one-off roles, making the series a time capsule of what was going on in the year in which each season aired.
Homicide: Life On The Street (1993-1999)
Before The Wire, and even before The Wire‘s predecessor, The Corner, David Simon was a producer on NBC’s police procedural, Homicide: Life on the Street, based on Simon’s non-fiction novel, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, which came out in 1991.
The 10 Best Movie Detectives Of All Time
While there are excellent examples peppered through the glorious history of the crime genre, the best movie detectives always stand out in the crowd.
The series follows a fictional police homicide unit in Baltimore, featuring an ensemble cast that includes Daniel Baldwin, Richard Belzer, Melissa Leo, Ned Beatty, Giancarlo Esposito, and Andre Braugher in his breakout role. Much less dark than either The Wire or The Corner, Homicide still has all the cutting societal exploration of those HBO shows, with gripping performances at its center.
NYPD Blue (1993-2005)
NYPD Blue is an ANC police procedural focusing on the fictional 15th Precinct detective squad in Manhattan. Dennis Franz stars as Andy Sipowicz, a talented cop who is often fighting his own demons, the same of which can be said for just about everyone in the precinct, and the series often shows how their personal failings tend to affect their work.
The series explores the fine lines between what is right and what is legal, and often takes deep dives into the complicated, unanswerable questions of police work. Though it’s very much a network television show, the series has some seriously emotional and gripping drama reminiscent of HBO shows.
Bones (2005-2017)
Bones is one of the great modern police procedurals. The series is concerned with forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode centered on an FBI case regarding human remains. Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) leads the investigation while Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is the forensic anthropologist in charge.
Together, the FBI and the forensics team solve long-forgotten murders and cases using Booth’s on-the-ground know-how and Bones’ unending wealth of forensic knowledge. It’s exciting, funny, ropes you in with great mysteries, and features one of the best TV romances of the 21st century.
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