If you’re a fan of mystery television, you can take the guesswork out of whether or not a subscription fee is worth it and stick to free TV. While the ads can be a slog to get through, we’re completely content as long as the platform has good options. Here are the best mystery series on Pluto TV.
What are the best mystery series on Pluto TV?
For our list, we opted for series that give us a variety of procedural mysteries, supernatural Lynchian fever-dream stories, and bleak serial killer thrillers, all of which put solving a crime at the center of the plot. These are just a few, but you can easily access plenty of other long-running hits, like CSI (Las Vegas, Miami, and New York — you’ll be busy for a while!), Murdoch Mysteries, or procedurals like Blue Bloods and Law & Order.
Twin Peaks (1990)
This strange mystery series is about as Lynchian as you can get while still being mainstream enough to end up on TV. It wasn’t easy to convince a network to put this vastly different kind of drama on air, but the response was well worth the risk. Even today, the series is a classic. If you haven’t seen Twin Peaks, we suggest you give it a watch.
Twin Peaks starts when the body of Laura Palmer is found. She’s the quintessential high school girl — beautiful, successful, well-liked, a volunteer in her community, the homecoming queen. There is a lot more to Laura than meets the eye. Soon, the investigation cracks open the seedy underbelly of this idyllic northwestern town. When FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) shows up to lead the investigation, the case turns into something far more unsettling (and confusing) than a standard murder mystery.
The Fall (2013)
One of the best thrillers on Pluto TV, as well as a mystery series, The Fall pits two hunters against one another. The first hunter is a seemingly normal family man (Jamie Dornan), a father and husband who is also a serial killer on the loose in Belfast. The second is the exceptionally sharp, driven investigative detective Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson), who is pulled from the London Metropolitan Police and sets out to catch him. While the writing on this show is already great, the phenomenal performances elevate it to a higher tier. There are three seasons, which are all equally strong.
Broadchurch (2013)
At a recent dinner, this writer was asked whether they’d seen Broadchurch. If I could capture the reaction to admitting I hadn’t — anyway, to spare any mystery fans from that particular experience, you can watch Broadchurch on Pluto TV. This UK mystery series centers on the investigation into the death of an 11-year-old boy in a small coastal town. The town, once a picturesque coastal tourist town, is now hit by a media frenzy surrounding the tragedy. Detectives Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) — absolutely the dream team in terms of casting— are assigned to the case. As the investigation unfolds, it becomes clear that nearly everyone in Broadchurch has some connection to the victim, turning friends, neighbors, and even family members into potential suspects.
Criminal Minds (2005)
One of those long-running police procedurals (Criminal Minds is currently in production for its 19th season), this series still holds up as an easy watch. That’s especially the case if you’re the type of viewer who can’t resist a deep dive into the psychology of criminals. The showcenters on the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, a team of profilers tasked with tracking down some of the most complex and disturbing criminals imaginable. Rather than focusing purely on physical evidence, the BAU works by getting inside the minds of the perpetrators, piecing together patterns of behavior, trauma, motive, and method to predict what they’ll do next.
Like other shows of this subgenre, Criminal Minds is designed as a “case of the week” setup. Though this sort of thing can get repetitive (we won’t say the total plot really builds that much), the writers do a great job of making the investigations feel like a puzzle being assembled in real time.
Luther (2010)
We’ll watch Idris Elba in pretty much anything, but Luther is a series that flies under the radar more than it should, just by Elba’s performance alone. The show follows DCI John Luther (Idris Elba), a brilliant London detective known for his intense dedication to solving violent crimes. He’s also got a reputation for pushing against departmental rules in pursuit of the criminals responsible for a variety of cases, from missing persons to organized crime to heinous murders. As Luther continues taking on increasingly dangerous cases, the series tracks the personal and professional consequences of his methods
How we picked the best mystery series on Pluto TV
Though Pluto TV may not have made a name for itself as the platform with the most critically acclaimed series, we had no trouble finding shows worth watching. We focused on mystery series with strong audience feedback, lasting impact, or a notable legacy in the genre. We also included shows that tend to get the biggest reactions from other mystery fans when you admit you haven’t seen them.