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Best Mystery TV Series of the 1980s

195 Mystery series that started in the 1980s, ranked by popularity

All Mystery series All series from the 1980s
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Genres as assigned by IMDb. Selecting several means a show must match all of them.

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Rating patterns, computed from IMDb episode-rating trajectories. Deliberately strict: only shows with an unmistakable pattern carry one, so expect small numbers.

Rating patterns

Taste tags, judged by our AI taste model. They cover the 5,000 most-rated shows.

Tone & mood
Pacing & structure
Humor style
Themes & subject matter
Characters & perspective
Emotional payoff
Craft & style
Format & audience
Viewing-culture clusters
Intensity & content character
195 series

Wiseguy

★ 7.8
3K 74 1987–1990
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Twentieth Century Approaches

★ 7.9
3K 2 1987–1987
Adventure · Crime · Mystery

Miss Marple: The Body in the Library

★ 7.7
3K 3 1984–1984
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Miss Marple: Nemesis

★ 7.9
3K 2 1987–1987
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced

★ 8.0
3K 3 1985–1985
Crime · Drama · Mystery

The Martian Chronicles

★ 6.5
3K 3 1980–1980
Drama · Mystery · Sci-Fi

Bergerac

★ 6.9
3K 87 1981–1991
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye

★ 7.6
3K 2 1985–1985
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Miss Marple: The Moving Finger

★ 7.6
2K 2 1985–1985
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Miss Marple: At Bertram's Hotel

★ 7.6
2K 2 1987–1987
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Taggart

★ 7.4
2K 176 1983–2010
Crime · Drama · Mystery

If Tomorrow Comes

★ 7.7
2K 3 1986–1986
Crime · Drama · Mystery

The Hitchhiker

★ 6.7
2K 85 1983–1997
Drama · Horror · Mystery

Chiefs

★ 8.1
2K 3 1983–1983
Crime · Drama · Mystery

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

★ 8.5
2K 3 1980–1980
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Traffik

★ 8.4
2K 6 1989–1989
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna

★ 6.6
1K 2 1986–1986
Biography · Drama · Mystery

Booker

★ 6.3
1K 22 1989–1990
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Partners in Crime

★ 7.4
1K 11 1983–1984
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Masterpiece Mystery

★ 8.9
991 311 1980–present
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Crazy Like a Fox

★ 7.0
915 35 1984–1986
Comedy · Crime · Mystery

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries

★ 6.9
856 86 1987–2000
Crime · Drama · Mystery

Miss Marple

★ 8.5
832 23 1984–1992
Crime · Mystery

Deceptions

★ 7.1
695 2 1985–1985
Drama · Mystery · Romance
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