Key Takeaways
- Rotten Tomatoes scores provide insight into the quality of crime shows, but they can be misleading.
- Several crime series with mid-range scores are worth a second look despite critics’ opinions.
- Shows like Low Winter Sun and Your Honor offer compelling narratives that may not align with their ratings.
- Rewatching underrated series can reveal hidden depths and character development.
What is a Rotten Tomatoes score anyway? A series of numbers and percentages that’s supposed to tell us what to like and not like? Nice try. Jokes aside, it’s always nice to consult critics and their reviews of a certain TV show or movie; that’s how we see if something is worth investing our time in. We often lean on these scores to help us determine our next watch, but that shouldn’t stop us from giving a chance to some lower-rated shows, too.
There are crime shows with mid Rotten Tomatoes scores that deserve a rewatch anyway, and they’re not as bad as those scores and critics’ consensus make them seem. A mid score would be somewhere between 40% and 80%, and there are plenty of series in the crime genre that fit that criterion perfectly. If you’re the type who’s not bothered by critically acclaimed shows and prefer to discover something that was sidelined, these crime TV shows are right for you.
6
‘Low Winter Sun’ (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 41%
Low Winter Sun is an underrated crime drama starring Mark Strong and Lennie James, but it’s actually set in America, more precisely, in Detroit. The American version was based on the 2006 British two-part miniseries of the same name, which also stars Strong. Low Winter Sun is a noir thriller with a 41% RT score, and it earned such a rating because critics deemed it poorly paced, overly bleak, and brooding, but praised Strong’s performance and main character energy.
Low Winter Sun follows Detroit Homicide detectives Frank Agnew (Strong) and Joe Geddes (James), who kill one of their corrupt colleagues and stage it to look like a suicide. When they hear that Internal Affairs is investigating him, other bodies and old crimes resurface, and their lives become more complicated. Despite the low RT score, Low Winter Sun is worth the rewatch for anyone who enjoys bleak and gloomy shows with antiheroes as the leads. The show isn’t just gloomy for gloom’s sake, though; the payoff is in ethical and moral justice rather than action, still being quite watchable and interesting.
5
‘Your Honor’ (2020–2023)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 49%
Your Honor is one of the most-watched crime dramas of the 2020s, and audiences liked it more than critics; this is more than likely due to Bryan Cranston, who is a captivating lead and carries the show with his restrained performance. Critics gave Season 1 a 49% rating, and 50% for Season 2, so not a great improvement, but both seasons have a sort of heaviness and grimness that felt unwarranted and unnecessary to critics. They praised Cranston’s and other performances, but ultimately, the actors couldn’t save Your Honor from getting dragged by the critics’ consensus on Rotten Tomatoes.
Your Honor follows a respected New Orleans judge, Michael Desiato (Cranston), whose son, Adam (Hunter Doohan), hits a biker with his car and runs away. Michael encourages Adam to turn himself in, but changes his mind when he realizes the boy Adam killed in the accident is the son of the local mobster, Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg). This plot is enough to hook people into the series, and the rest of the show is just as hard to stomach, sometimes too much. Despite sometimes being over-plotted and melodramatic, Your Honor is worth rewatching because it’s a pretty good character study, Cranston makes it captivating, and it has some brutal, unflinching moments that would make fans of crime shows satisfied.
4
‘Forever’ (2014–2015)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 57%
Image via ABC
Forever is worth another look because it’s an interesting blend of genres—from a police procedural to a supernatural drama, the genres fall in together well and create an interesting twist on each. This is one of those shows that critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes heavily disagree on, with the critics’ score reaching 57% and the audience’s 92%. People loved Forever because of its charm and brilliant character chemistry; critics found the premise gimmicky and unrealized, though there’s probably the showrunners’ Season 2 plans to blame for that.
Forever follows an immortal medical examiner from NYC, Dr. Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd), who still works in New York, solving murder mysteries, and the mystery of his own immortality. The show focuses on new cases in each episode but gives greater attention to Henry, whose lore is more than interesting enough to carry the show. However, the details of his flashbacks mirror current cases in the episodes so it’s not all completely unconnected. In a way modern cases prompt Henry to think about his past more. Forever is also worth a rewatch for the recurring characters and how their stories deepen across episodes. Forever was canceled after one season, despite some excitement from the showrunners and cast around Season 2. ABC wasn’t falling for it so they decided to say never more to Forever.
3
‘The Killing’ (2011–2014)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%
The Killing, based on Danish television series The Crime , offers stellar performances by Mireille Enos , Joel Kinnaman , making it captivating.
The overall average score for the show is 68% on Rotten Tomatoes but Season One has a certified fresh rating at94%; however quality declined by Season Four (which has47%) but it’s all worth watching as it circles around two leads.
The Killing follows Seattle-based Homicide detectives Sarah Linden (Enos)and Stephen Holder(Kinnaman). They’re longtime partners struggling with personal issues outside work while investigating teenage girl’s murder case requiring them to put all private matters on hold.
The Catch (2016–2017)
Rotten Tomatoes Score:
The Catch follows Alice Vaughan (Enos), who is private investigator in Los Angeles determined find her fiancé Benjamin(Peter Krause) after he turns out be master con artist defrauding her.
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