TV Shows Like Criminal Minds
If you like Criminal Minds, here are 12 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
CBS · Crime · Criminal Minds is renewed
Criminal Minds works because it takes the procedural format seriously without letting it become mechanical. Each episode is built around a specific unsub, a specific psychology, and the BAU team has to get inside that psychology before the body count rises. The show is genuinely interested in why people do terrible things, not just that they do them. David Rossi is a useful anchor here: a founding member of the BAU who has seen enough to be cynical but still shows up. That tension between experience and horror is part of what keeps the show running across its many seasons.
The best shows like Criminal Minds
1. Dexter
Criminal Minds spends a lot of time trying to understand how a killer thinks, and Dexter puts you directly inside that perspective. Dexter Morgan works in forensic science for the Miami police by day and operates as a vigilante serial killer by night, and the show is curious, often disturbingly so, about what that double life costs a person. Fans of Criminal Minds who are drawn to the psychological depth of the unsub storylines will find Dexter takes that interest somewhere unexpected and unsettling.
Stream on fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Paramount+ Amazon Channel
Ended0%
2. The Blacklist
The Blacklist runs on the same FBI infrastructure as Criminal Minds and shares an obsession with criminal masterminds, but it builds its season-long arcs around Raymond Reddington, a wanted fugitive who becomes a criminal consultant for the Bureau. The dynamic between Reddington and rookie profiler Elizabeth Keen has some of the same push-and-pull energy as the BAU's best interrogation scenes. If you like Criminal Minds for its larger-than-life antagonists and the procedural machinery of the FBI, this show feeds both appetites.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Ended0%
3. CSI: NY
CSI: NY is rooted in forensic science rather than behavioral profiling, but the murder investigation structure will feel familiar to Criminal Minds fans, and the cases are taken seriously. The New York City setting gives it a distinctive texture, and the team dynamic has the same kind of specialist-ensemble quality that makes the BAU enjoyable to watch. It is a more forensics-focused experience, but the commitment to crime investigation as a discipline is clearly there.
Stream on Hulu, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel
Cancelled0%
4. 21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street is lighter in tone than Criminal Minds, but it has a real procedural foundation built around undercover police work targeting crimes involving young people. The cases carry genuine stakes even when the setup is unconventional, and fans who appreciate how Criminal Minds uses its team's individual skills will find a similar dynamic here among a group of cops using their youth as their main investigative tool. It is a different pitch, but the interest in how crimes get solved is consistent.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Peacock Premium, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Ended0%
5. Profiler
Profiler is probably the closest match on this list to Criminal Minds in terms of format and focus. Rachel Burke is a criminal profiler working with a specialized FBI task force in Atlanta, investigating difficult cases across the country, and the show takes police profiling as seriously as the BAU does. Fans who watch Criminal Minds specifically for the profiling methodology and the team-of-specialists structure should find Profiler immediately comfortable.
Ended0%
More on shows like Criminal Minds
Fans of Criminal Minds tend to want a few specific things from their next show. They want crime that has weight, where investigations feel like they matter and not just backdrop for lighter drama. They want some degree of psychological depth, either in how killers are portrayed or in how investigators process the work. And most of them have a tolerance, even a preference, for darkness. They are not easily shocked, but they do notice when a show earns its dark moments versus when it simply reaches for them.
The five recommendations here cover a good range of what Criminal Minds fans are likely to respond to. Profiler is the most direct analog, a female FBI criminal profiler leading a specialized team in Atlanta, and anyone who watches Criminal Minds for the profiling mechanics will find it immediately familiar. The Blacklist shares the FBI setting and goes deeper into the criminal-mastermind side of the equation, trading field psychology for elaborate cat-and-mouse plotting with a strange and watchable central character. Dexter approaches the serial killer material from the other side of the badge, which is a real tonal shift but one that Criminal Minds viewers, already accustomed to spending time inside a killer's logic, tend to handle well. CSI: NY is more forensics-forward and less profile-driven, but the murder investigation structure is solid and the New York setting gives it a texture of its own. 21 Jump Street is the lightest entry in this group, built around undercover work, and it sits at a different pitch than the others, but it has solid procedural bones and the coming-of-age angle gives its cases a different kind of emotional charge.
Taken together, these shows share a respect for the investigative process, even when they wrap it in very different atmospheres. Criminal Minds fans who want more profiling should go straight to Profiler. Those who want more cat-and-mouse complexity should try The Blacklist. Those who have always been curious about the unsub's perspective have Dexter waiting for them.
More shows like Criminal Minds
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Criminal Minds?
- Dexter is the most popular show similar to Criminal Minds in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Criminal Minds still on the air?
- Of the 12 shows similar to Criminal Minds listed here, 1 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Criminal Minds?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.