20 best shows like Oldboy (2003)

When a gruesomely staged body is found, propped up on a mountain pass in the Alps close to the German-Austrian border, two detectives are sent to investigate. For German detective Ellie, this is the first real challenge of her career; her Austrian counterpart Gedeon though seems to have lost any ambitions in his job. Very soon, they discover more crime scenes with symbolically posed victims, reminiscent of pagan rituals. It all seems to be part of a bigger, sinister plan. Ellie finds herself under increasing pressure to understand the deranged killer's motives so she can stop him. The hunt leads them ever deeper in the dark valleys and archaic Alpine customs - and the paranoid world of the killer.

A former Marine out to punish the criminals responsible for his family's murder finds himself ensnared in a military conspiracy.

Alex Godman, the English-raised son of Russian mafia exiles, has spent his life trying to escape the shadow of their past, building his own legitimate business and forging a life with his girlfriend Rebecca. But when a murder forces his family's past to return to threaten them, Alex is drawn into the criminal underworld and must confront his values to protect those he loves.

The story of Jim Worth, an expat British police officer starting a new life with his family as police chief in Little Big Bear, an idyllic town near the Rocky Mountains. When his small town is overrun by migrant workers from a massive new oil refinery – the wave of drugs, prostitution and organised crime that follows them threatens to sweep away everything in its wake.

A woman haunted by her past, Detective Robin Griffin, investigates complex and unsettling cases.

The daily lives of prisoners in Emerald City, an experimental unit of the Oswald Maximum Security Prison where ingroups - Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans - stick close to their mutual friends and terrorizes their mutual enemies.

A hyper-noir story that follows a relentless femme fatale who, after being left for dead, sets out to take revenge against her brother and his bombastic gang of gear-heads.

An ex-cop entered a prison as convicted under a false identity in order to infiltrate within a group of prisoners that has just kidnapped the teenage daughter of an important national judge.

Determined to escape a dead-end life, a gifted high school student turns to a world of serious crime to ensure he can pay for college.

When there is a mysterious disappearance on an outback cattle station, Detective Jay Swan is assigned to investigate. Working with local cop Emma James, Jay’s investigation uncovers a past injustice that threatens the fabric of the whole community.

Raymond "Red" Reddington, one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, surrenders in person at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He claims that he and the FBI have the same interests: bringing down dangerous criminals and terrorists. In the last two decades, he's made a list of criminals and terrorists that matter the most but the FBI cannot find because it does not know they exist. Reddington calls this "The Blacklist". Reddington will co-operate, but insists that he will speak only to Elizabeth Keen, a rookie FBI profiler.

An American anthology police detective series utilizing multiple timelines in which investigations seem to unearth personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within or outside the law.

Former British soldier Jonathan Pine navigates the shadowy recesses of Whitehall and Washington where an unholy alliance operates between the intelligence community and the secret arms trade. To infiltrate the inner circle of lethal arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper, Pine must himself become a criminal.

An intense and fictionalized account of actual events and people surrounding Lizzie’s life after her controversial acquittal of the horrific double murder of her father and stepmother in 1892.

After surrendering to Bogotá police, an ex-guerrilla avoids prison by working undercover to investigate a ruthless enforcer of government corruption.

A sexy, suspense-driven legal thriller about a group of ambitious law students and their brilliant, mysterious criminal defense professor. They become entangled in a murder plot and will shake the entire university and change the course of their lives.

Two homicide detectives, Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim, are assigned to investigate cases involving people with superhuman abilities, referred to as “Powers.” Set amidst today’s paparazzi culture, Powers asks the questions, what if the world was full of superheroes who aren't actually heroic at all? What if all that power was just one more excuse for mischief, mayhem, murder, and endorsement deals?

When Sofia Karppi, a detective in her 30's who is trying to get over her husband's death, discovers the body of a young woman on a construction site, she triggers a chain of events that threatens to destroy her life again.

Three-part crime thriller. When detective Marcus Farrow looks into a seemingly forgotten case, he has no idea of the chaos and heartache that will soon follow. He is found at the scene of a murder, and with all the evidence pointing towards him, he is arrested and charged.

On the surface Kitty, Margot, Bree and Olivia appear to have nothing in common - but there’s one passion which unites them: to expose injustice. They form their own secret society, DGM - they Don’t Get Mad, they Get Even - playing anonymous pranks to expose bullies.

Reporter Camille Preaker confronts the psychological demons from her past when she returns to her hometown to investigate the murders of two young girls.

A scandal erupts in Brazil during an investigation of alleged government corruption via oil and construction companies. Loosely inspired by true events.

James, a disgraced firefighter turned grifter, seizes a chance, illicit opportunity to reverse his life’s worsening course as he attempts to prey upon Pastor Byron Brown, who turns out to be far more dangerous than he appears.

'Black Work' is the story of Jo Gillespie, a woman who's husband is shot dead in the line of action, in his job as a undercover cop. Jo, a police officer herself soon has to confront issues in her marriage and family life in order to discover who really killed her husband.

FBI agent Audrey Parker arrives in the small town of Haven, Maine to solve a murder and soon discovers the town's many secrets—which also hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of her lost past.

Detective Jane Timoney finds that being a homicide detective in New York City is tough enough and having to contend with a male-dominated police department to get respect makes it that much tougher. She's an outsider who has just transferred to a new precinct dominated by an impenetrable clique of a boys' club. Timoney has her own vices too – with a questionable past – and she tends to be forceful, rude and reckless. But she's also a brilliant cop who keeps her eye on one thing: the prime suspect.

Emma Banville, a human rights lawyer known for defending lost causes, sets out to prove the innocence of Kevin Russell, who was convicted for the murder of a school girl 14 years earlier.

A serial killer thriller told in reverse, unravelling the truth behind a series of murders as DCI Gabriel Markham hunts down a brutal killer.

When day becomes night, a strict curfew forces ordinary people to go pedal to the metal in a deadly race for freedom. During this contest, alliances and friendships are both made and lost.

A web of secrets sends family man Adam Price on a desperate quest to uncover the truth about the people closest to him.

Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior was a short-lived American police procedural drama that aired on CBS. The show debuted in 2011 as a spin-off from the successful Criminal Minds, which had premiered in 2005. This edition's profiling team also worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia. In an April 2010 episode of Criminal Minds, during the show's fifth season, the original team met the new team and worked with them to find a San Francisco serial killer. This episode served as the new series' backdoor pilot. Just like the parent series, CBS owned the underlying North American rights, while ABC owned the international rights. The series premiered on February 16, 2011, and filled the Wednesday 10 pm time slot, airing immediately after the original Criminal Minds. CBS cancelled the series on May 17, 2011. The series ends with a cliffhanger. On September 6, 2011 CBS DVD released the complete series as a 4 disc-set. It is packaged as "The DVD Edition". There are numerous special features and two episode commentaries with the cast and crew. The set includes the backdoor pilot from season five of the original show.

Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

The iron-fisted Akhandanand Tripathi is a millionaire carpet exporter and the mafia don of Mirzapur. His son, Munna, is an unworthy, power-hungry heir who will stop at nothing to inherit his father's legacy. An incident at a wedding procession forces him to cross paths with Ramakant Pandit, an upstanding lawyer, and his sons, Guddu and Bablu. It snowballs into a game of ambition, power and greed that threatens the fabric of this lawless city.

New Orleans judge Michael Desiato is forced to confront his own deepest convictions when his son is involved in a hit and run that embroils an organized crime family.

In Beacon Heights, a seemingly perfect town, a group of three college friends struggle with the stress of being overachievers. In the aftermath of the town’s first murder, each Perfectionist hides behind a secret, a lie and an alibi.

The black sheep of the Argyll family, Jack Argyll, was accused of murdering their matriarch a year ago, but now a man shows up on their doorstep claiming Jack’s innocence. The family must come to terms with this news and the fact that the real killer might still be among them.

Person of Interest follows former CIA paramilitary operative, John Reese, who is presumed dead and teams up with reclusive billionaire Finch to prevent violent crimes in New York City by initiating their own type of justice. With the special training that Reese has had in Covert Operations and Finch's genius software inventing mind, the two are a perfect match for the job that they have to complete. With the help of surveillance equipment, they work "outside the law" and get the right criminal behind bars. 

Quirke is the chief pathologist in the Dublin city morgue – a charismatic loner whose job takes him into fascinating places as he investigates sudden deaths in 1950s Dublin. His pleasures in life are raw and deep, a drink, a smoke, good food, a woman: With one woman in particular – his adoptive brother's wife Sarah and the forbidden love that has shaped and dominated Quirke's life.

In 1993, six months after the events of The Silence of the Lambs, FBI Agent Clarice Starling returns to the field to pursue serial murderers and sexual predators while navigating the high stakes political world of Washington, D.C.

The town is shocked with a brutal double murder. The "Courier" hands the case to an experienced journalist - Witold Wanycz. At the same time, he learns about the mysterious suicide of two teenagers. Together with Piotr, a young journalist, they start their own investigation.

Set in the aftermath of Jax Teller’s death, Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes is fresh out of prison and a prospect in the Mayans M.C. charter on the Cali/Mexi border. Now, EZ must carve out his new identity in a town where he was once the golden boy with the American Dream in his grasp.

The Killing is an American crime drama television series based upon the Danish television series Forbrydelsen. Set in Seattle, Washington, the series follows the various murder investigations by homicide detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder.

When Emily Thorne moves to the Hamptons, everyone wonders about the new girl, but she knows everything about them, including what they did to her family. Years ago, they took everything from her. Now, one by one, she's going to make them pay.

Grace, a morally and emotionally-conflicted undercover detective, is tormented by the possibility that her own actions contributed to her son’s death. Grace’s search for the truth is further complicated by her forbidden relationship with Jimmy, the crime boss who may have played a hand in the crime.

An accidental killing leads a man down a dark hole of intrigue and murder. Just as he finds love and freedom, one phone call brings back the nightmare.

When a pizza delivery driver is shot dead in south London, a tenacious detective goes after the people traffickers behind his murder and unravels a conspiracy that goes to the top.

An action-packed Las Vegas thriller about a former military operative turned security expert who is drawn into a high-stakes game where an organization of wealthy individuals gamble on his ability to stop some of the biggest crimes imaginable from playing out. Can he take them down from the inside and get revenge for the death of his wife, or is it true what they say: the House always wins.

Six months after deciding to pull herself together and get sober, Bridget witnesses a murder. Realizing her life is in danger and not trusting the FBI to protect her, she runs to her wealthy twin sister, Siobhan, in New York. Things start out well -- with the two patching up a fractured relationship -- when Siobhan suddenly goes missing. Bridget assumes her sister's identity, but soon learns that Siobhan's life is not as perfect as it looks and she is no safer than she was before

CIA officer Carrie Mathison is tops in her field despite being bipolar, which makes her volatile and unpredictable. With the help of her long-time mentor Saul Berenson, Carrie fearlessly risks everything, including her personal well-being and even sanity, at every turn.

Hell-bent on exacting revenge and proving he was framed for his sister's murder, Álex sets out to unearth much more than the crime's real culprit.