TV Shows Like Dexter
If you like Dexter, 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.
Showtime · Crime · Dexter is ended
Dexter works because it refuses to let you get comfortable. You are rooting for a serial killer, and the show knows it. Dexter Morgan's day job as a blood spatter analyst for Miami Metro is not just a clever plot device; it puts him at the center of every murder investigation, giving him access, cover, and a kind of dark irony that the show milks for eight seasons. What holds it together is the tension between his two lives: the charming, socially functional colleague and son and the methodical predator who has decided which criminals deserve to die. That moral ambiguity is the engine of the whole thing.
The best shows like Dexter
1. Miami Vice
If Dexter's Miami felt like an essential part of the show's identity, Miami Vice is where that version of the city was invented. The vice squad atmosphere, the drug crime, the heat running under every scene, it all rhymes with what Dexter built decades later. It is less psychological and more stylistic, but fans who love the city and the criminal world Dexter inhabits will feel at home.
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2. 56 Days
56 Days reconstructs a romance and a murder simultaneously, which gives it the same layered, dual-timeline quality that Dexter used to such good effect when building toward a reveal. The psychological thriller elements are strong, and the central mystery is as much about human behavior and dark secrets as it is about who committed the crime. Fans of Dexter's more suspenseful, character-driven episodes should find this one clicks quickly.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
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3. The Sinner
The Sinner shares Dexter's interest in the why of a crime far more than the who. Its detective is haunted and not entirely stable, which puts him in the same complicated territory as Dexter himself. The anthology structure means each season delivers a self-contained psychological puzzle, and the show is patient enough to let its darkness accumulate rather than rush to a resolution.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
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4. Cross
Alex Cross is a homicide detective who hunts serial killers with a focus that borders on obsession, which is a dynamic Dexter fans will recognize immediately, just from the other side of the investigation. The show is adapted from novels, as Dexter was, and it carries that same sense of a character with an inner life that the job cannot fully contain. Fans who liked watching Dexter navigate his double nature will find a different but related tension here.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel
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5. Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse is quieter and more British than Dexter in almost every way, but it has the same forensic intelligence at its core and a detective who operates by instincts that other people find difficult to follow or live with. The Oxford setting could not be further from Miami, but the criminal investigation and the sense of a deeply interior protagonist give it real common ground. Viewers who valued Dexter's sharper, more methodical episodes will find a lot to admire here.
Stream on Britbox Apple TV Channel , BritBox, BritBox Amazon Channel
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More on shows like Dexter
Fans of Dexter tend to want a few specific things when they go looking for their next show. They want crime that feels personal rather than procedural. They want a central character who is doing something morally complex, maybe something they should not be cheering for. A strong sense of place helps too. Miami is practically a character in Dexter, all heat and neon and sprawl, and shows that build their atmosphere with the same kind of specificity tend to land with the same audience. The psychological dimension matters as well. The best episodes of Dexter are not really about the kill; they are about what is going on inside Dexter's head.
The recommendations here hit different corners of that appeal. Miami Vice is the most obvious geographic match, planting you back in the same city with the same criminal underworld, though it trades psychological complexity for kinetic style and atmosphere. The Sinner and 56 Days both lean hard into the psychological thriller side, with mysteries that are less about whodunit and more about why, and detectives who are not entirely okay themselves. Cross pulls directly from the serial killer procedural tradition, following a homicide detective whose obsession with catching killers starts to consume him in ways that should feel familiar. Inspector Morse is the outlier in terms of tone, slower and more literary, but its forensic intelligence and morally textured detective make it a natural fit for viewers who liked Dexter's smarter episodes.
None of these shows are Dexter, and none of them try to be. What they share with it is the sense that crime drama can be about character first and plot second, and that the most interesting criminals, or the people chasing them, are rarely straightforward.
More shows like Dexter
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Dexter?
- Miami Vice is the most popular show similar to Dexter in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Dexter still on the air?
- Of the 12 shows similar to Dexter listed here, 0 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Dexter?
- 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.