Best Thriller Shows of the 2000s (Ranked)

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All time Still airing 2020s 2010s 2000s 1990s

Breaking Bad

★9.5Ended(2008–2013)

#1Score 9.502.7M IMDb votes

A high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer turns to manufacturing and selling methamphetamine in order to secure his family's future.

The Wire

★9.3Ended(2002–2008)

#2Score 9.29442.1k IMDb votes

The Baltimore drug scene, as seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement.

Death Note

★8.9Ended

#3Score 8.89503.2k IMDb votes

An intelligent high school student goes on a secret crusade to eliminate criminals from the world after discovering a notebook capable of killing anyone whose name is written into it.

Shield

★8.7Ended(2002–2008)

#4Score 8.6798.9k IMDb votes

Drama series following the lives and cases of dirty cop Vic Mackey and the LAPD unit under his command.

Dexter

★8.6Ended(2006–2013)

#5Score 8.60959.7k IMDb votes

He's smart. He's lovable. He's Dexter Morgan, America's favorite serial killer, who spends his days solving crimes and nights committing them. Golden Globe winner Michael C. Hall stars in the hit SHOWTIME Original Series.

Sons of Anarchy

★8.5Ended(2008–2014)

#6Score 8.49361.4k IMDb votes

A biker struggles to balance being a father and being involved in an outlaw motorcycle club.

Samurai Jack

★8.5Ended

#7Score 8.4667.9k IMDb votes

A samurai, sent through time, fights to return home and save the world.

Southland

★8.5Ended(2009–2013)

#8Score 8.4335.4k IMDb votes

The lives of Police Officers working for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Supernatural

★8.4Ended

#9Score 8.40551k IMDb votes

Two brothers follow their father's footsteps as hunters, fighting evil supernatural beings of many kinds, including monsters, demons, and gods that roam the earth.

24 - Live Another Day

★8.4Ended

#10Score 8.39208.6k IMDb votes

Counter Terrorism Agent Jack Bauer races against the clock to subvert terrorist plots and save his nation from ultimate disaster.

Fringe

★8.4Ended

#11Score 8.39273.2k IMDb votes

An F.B.I. agent is forced to work with an institutionalized scientist and his son in order to rationalize a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena.

Prison Break

★8.3Ended

#12Score 8.30682.7k IMDb votes

Due to a political conspiracy, an innocent man is sent to death row and his only hope is his brother, who makes it his mission to deliberately get himself sent to the same prison in order to break the both of them out, from the in...

Lost

★8.3Ended

#13Score 8.30684.4k IMDb votes

The survivors of a plane crash are forced to work together in order to survive on a seemingly deserted tropical island.

Veronica Mars

★8.3Ended(2004– )

#14Score 8.2784.4k IMDb votes

After her best friend is murdered, and her father is removed as county Sheriff, Veronica Mars dedicates her life to cracking the toughest mysteries in the affluent town of Neptune.

Spooks

★8.3Ended

#15Score 8.2020.5k IMDb votes

The missions of MI-5, the UK's domestic intelligence organization.

The Mentalist

★8.2Ended(2008–2015)

#16Score 8.19257k IMDb votes

A famous "psychic" outs himself as a fake, and starts working as a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation so he can find "Red John", the madman who killed his wife and daughter.

Criminal Minds

★8.1Ongoing(2005– )

#17Score 8.09244k IMDb votes

The cases of the F.B.I. Behavioral Analysis Unit (B.A.U.), an elite group of profilers who analyze the nation's most dangerous serial killers and individual heinous crimes in an effort to anticipate their next moves before they st...

Damages

★8.1Ended

#18Score 8.0533.4k IMDb votes

A law school graduate becomes the protÃ©gÃ©e of a successful high-stakes litigator.

Lie To Me

★8.0Ended(2009–2011)

#19Score 7.99136.6k IMDb votes

About Cal Lightman, the world's leading deception expert who studies facial expressions and involuntary body language to expose the truth behind the lies.

Burn Notice

★8.0Ended(2007–2013)

#20Score 7.9883.9k IMDb votes

A spy recently disavowed by the U.S. government uses his special ops training to help others in trouble.

The Unit

★8.0Ended

#21Score 7.9424.9k IMDb votes

Hour long show which looks at the life of American super-secret operators.

True Blood

★7.9Ended(2008–2014)

#22Score 7.90273.7k IMDb votes

Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse encounters a strange new supernatural world when she meets the mysterious Bill Compton, a southern Louisiana gentleman and vampire.

Leverage

★7.9Ended(2008–2012)

#23Score 7.8857.5k IMDb votes

A crew of high-tech crooks attempt to steal from wealthy criminals and corrupt businessmen.

New Tricks

★8.0Ended

#24Score 7.8710.3k IMDb votes

Three retired police officers are drafted in to solve cold cases, with a touch of comedy and drama

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003

★7.9Ended

#25Score 7.8215.4k IMDb votes

The continuing adventures of a quartet of turtle superheroes.

NCIS

New

NCIS

★7.8Ongoing(2003– )

#26Score 7.79178.6k IMDb votes

The cases of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service's Washington, D.C. Major Case Response Team, led by Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Bored To Death

★7.8Ended(2009–2011)

#27Score 7.7736.4k IMDb votes

A well-meaning but struggling writer decides to lead a sort of double life by pretending to be a private detective using the methods he read about in old detective novels.

Flashpoint

★7.8Ended(2008–2012)

#28Score 7.7519.7k IMDb votes

The missions and trials of a Toronto police tactical unit.

Whitechapel

★7.8Ended(2009–2013)

#29Score 7.7416.6k IMDb votes

A fast-tracked inspector, a hardened detective sergeant, and an expert in historical homicides investigate modern crimes with connections to the past in the Whitechapel district of London.

The Vampire Diaries

★7.7Ended(2009–2017)

#30Score 7.70390.5k IMDb votes

The lives, loves, dangers and disasters in the town, Mystic Falls, Virginia. Creatures of unspeakable horror lurk beneath this town as a teenage girl is suddenly torn between two vampire brothers.

CSI

★7.7Ended

#31Score 7.6995k IMDb votes

Series following an elite team of police forensic evidence investigation experts as they work their cases in Las Vegas.

Dollhouse

★7.7Ended(2009–2010)

#32Score 7.6854k IMDb votes

A futuristic laboratory has erased the identities of lost young people, and now imprints them with the temporary identities they need to fulfill assignments for clients.

Torchwood

★7.7Ended(2006–2011)

#33Score 7.6846k IMDb votes

The members of the Torchwood Institute, a secret organization founded by the British Crown, fight to protect the Earth from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats.

Reaper

★7.7Ended

#34Score 7.6726.1k IMDb votes

On his 21st birthday, Sam discovers his parents sold his soul to the devil before birth and he must now be a bounty hunter for the devil until he dies.

Alias

★7.6Ended(2001–2006)

#35Score 7.5958.4k IMDb votes

Sydney Bristow is an international spy recruited out of college, trained for espionage and self-defense.

FlashForward

★7.6Ended(2009–2010)

#36Score 7.5963.6k IMDb votes

A special task force in the FBI investigates after every person on Earth simultaneously blacks out and awakens with a short vision of their future.

Warehouse13

★7.6Ended(2009–2014)

#37Score 7.5961.9k IMDb votes

Pete and Myka, U.S Secret Service agents, are deployed in South Dakota's Warehouse 13 with a new assignment from an authority above and outside the government.

Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles

★7.6Ended

#38Score 7.5966k IMDb votes

Set after the events in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Sarah Connor and her son, John, try to stay under-the-radar from the government, as they plot to destroy the computer network, Skynet, in hopes of preventing Armageddon.

Law and Order Criminal Intent

★7.6Ended

#39Score 7.5830.3k IMDb votes

This series focuses on the NYPD's Major Case Squad, a force of detectives who investigate high-profile cases, while also showing parts of the crime from the perpetrator's point of view.

Moonlight

★7.6Ended

#40Score 7.5726.1k IMDb votes

A vampire lands work as a private investigator and falls for a mortal woman.

Wallander

★7.6Ended

#41Score 7.516.7k IMDb votes

A Swedish cop in a small town by the Baltic coast.

Heroes

★7.5Ended(II) (2006–2010)

#42Score 7.50267.1k IMDb votes

Common people discover that they have super powers. Their lives intertwine as a devastating event must be prevented.

Invasion 2005

★7.5Ended

#43Score 7.4613.9k IMDb votes

A Florida Park Ranger and his family deal with strange occurrences in the aftermath of a hurricane.

Tru Calling

★7.4Ended

#44Score 7.3818.1k IMDb votes

A university graduate working in the city morgue is able to repeat the same day over again to prevent murders or other disasters.

In Plain Sight

★7.4Ended(2008–2012)

#45Score 7.3814k IMDb votes

U.S. Marshal Mary Shannon must hunt down witnesses for federal cases in the witness protection program while also managing a rather dysfunctional family and her own personal life.

The Invisible Man 2000

★7.4Ended

#46Score 7.343.7k IMDb votes

A thief and conman is given the means to become invisible, and ends up working for a government agency.

Dark Blue

★7.4Ended(2009–2010)

#47Score 7.344.4k IMDb votes

Officer Carter Shaw and his team go undercover - sometimes too deep, among the criminals of modern-day Los Angeles.

The 4400

★7.3Ended

#48Score 7.3048.8k IMDb votes

As the reappearance of 4,400 missing persons on a single day confounds the global community, federal agents on the case slowly discover the ways in which the victims have been changed.

The Cleaner

★7.2Ended

#49Score 7.211.9k IMDb votes

A guy transforms his life by taking control over his addictions and using his story to help others.

Surface 2005

★7.2Ended

#50Score 7.2010.8k IMDb votes

A marine biologist, an insurance salesman and a teen-aged boy find their lives fundamentally changed by the emergence of a new, and often dangerous, species of sea life, while government agents work to keep the affair under wraps.

Score = IMDb rating weighted by vote count (Bayesian average). Shows need at least 1,000 votes to be ranked.

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Best Thriller Shows of the 2000s