Without a Trace

The Penguin charts Oz Cobb's ruthless ascent through Gotham's criminal underworld following the events of The Batman. This HBO Max spinoff delivers a gritty, character-driven crime saga anchored by Colin Farrell's transformative performance.

"The Chicago Code" has nothing to do with deep-dish pizzas or the cruelly cursed Cubbies. "The Chicago Code" openly, unabashedly, plain and simple, is all about good versus evil. The good guys following "The Chicago Code" are very very good, and the bad guys breaking the code are very very bad. The windy city itself, definitely a critical element in the drama's development, lives somewhere in-between. Chicago may be "the second city," but it stands out as America's number one oxymoron. "Hog-butcher to the world," Chicago also brought us Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright. Home to Picasso's breathtaking artistic monument, Chicago also has been home to some monumental con artists: Rod Blagojevich comes immediately to mind. "Blaggo" is to Chicago scams as the Picasso is to the city's art and architecture. More to the point of "The Chicago Code," in just over thirty years, thirty-one second city aldermen have been convicted of violent crimes or corruption. In Chicago, graft greases the wheels and gets your streets ploughed. Although corruption may be common as camel-hair coats on the Magnificent Mile, Chicago cops still want to collar the bad guys. "The Chicago Code" attempts to dramatize how and why they do it, and it packs a pretty good punch for a network production. Critics and home-grown Chicago viewers strongly suspect "The Chicago Code" would achieve its completely gritty potential on cable, but it's hard to complain about Jennifer Beals, still fit and fabulous all these years after Flashdance, going balls-to-the-wall against the bad guys in Monday night primetime.

"Forensic Files" is an American documentary television series that originally aired from 1996 to 2011. The show features real-life forensic investigations, including murder cases, accidents, and other crimes. The series uses interviews with experts, re-enactments, and actual crime scene footage to provide a detailed look into the investigation process.

Mayans M.C. is a TV series that premiered in 2018 as a spin-off of the popular show Sons of Anarchy. The show is set in a fictional town on the border between California and Mexico and follows the story of Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes, a former convict who becomes a prospect in the Mayans Motorcycle Club, a rival gang to Sons of Anarchy's club, as he tries to navigate his way through the club's world while also seeking revenge for past wrongs.

When Eddie Horniman inherits his family estate, he discovers a criminal empire beneath it in this stylish Guy Ritchie crime-comedy series full of wit, glamour, and danger.

Like fine red wines, pate de foie gras, and escargot, Criminal Minds probably is an acquired taste: The crime drama psychoanalyzes the psychoanalysts, definitely building tense drama, but ironically downplaying the crimes. The New York Times has described Criminal Minds as "cerebral," a euphemism for "nerds with guns." Brilliant writing and compelling characters, however, make it work. The stories represent an elite team of specialists"”the FBI's "Behavioral Analysis Unit" "” who, in just forty-four minutes, can deconstruct a crime, profile a criminal, and bring everything to a profound resolution complete with quotation from literature. Naturally, the feds encounter resistance from local enforcers eager to protect their turf. Just as naturally, many of the stories spark viewers' recognition, because they are "ripped from the headlines." Two features sustain viewers' interest in this sometimes too-heady-for-primetime series: First, every audience loves a good hunt for a psychotic serial killer; and, second, in Criminal Minds, many of the good guys are almost as twisted as the bad guys.