TV Shows Like Sherlock
If you like Sherlock, here are 10 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
BBC One · Crime · Sherlock is ended
Sherlock works because it treats its audience as intelligent. The BBC series dropped Holmes and Watson into contemporary London without apology, and the modernisation stuck because the writing kept what actually matters: a detective whose mind operates several steps ahead of everyone else, a friendship built on mutual respect across a clear personality gap, and cases that reward close attention. Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes is difficult to like and difficult to look away from, and that tension drives the whole show. The procedural structure is almost a pretext; what fans are really watching is the relationship between two people who need each other more than either wants to admit.
The best shows like Sherlock
1. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Like Sherlock, this show centres on a driven, detail-obsessed investigator who refuses to accept the official version of events, and the mystery itself is carefully constructed enough to keep you uncertain about the answer until the end. Pip's partnership with Ravi echoes the Holmes-Watson dynamic in miniature: one relentless mind, one grounding presence. The teenage setting might seem like a shift in register, but the darkness underneath it is real and the plotting is tighter than the premise suggests.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Likely Renewed72%
2. Inspector Morse
Morse is one of the direct ancestors of the modern literary detective that Sherlock reimagined, and watching the original tradition is worthwhile in its own right. Like Holmes, Morse is brilliant, solitary, difficult and more emotionally complicated than he lets on, and the mysteries are rooted in English institutions and social textures that Sherlock fans will find familiar. The partnership with Lewis also gives the show some of the same push-and-pull between a mercurial genius and a more grounded colleague.
Stream on Britbox Apple TV Channel , BritBox, BritBox Amazon Channel
Ended0%
3. Luther
Also crime · shares the london, england theme · also on BBC One
Stream on Hulu, Philo, AMC Plus Apple TV Channel , Britbox Apple TV Channel
Ended0%
4. Strike
If Sherlock's London-based, war-marked, psychologically complex private detective appeals to you, Strike is the most obvious next stop. Cormoran Strike is physically and emotionally scarred by his military service, runs a small agency out of a cramped London office, and cracks cases the police have either missed or given up on, with a capable partner alongside him. The cases are intricate, the London atmosphere is consistent, and the central relationship develops slowly enough to stay interesting.
Stream on HBO Max Amazon Channel, YouTube TV, HBO Max
On the Bubble42%
5. Dalgliesh
Dalgliesh shares Sherlock's interest in a detective who operates through a kind of empathic intelligence that other people find unsettling, and the mysteries here are complex enough to demand real attention. Set in 1970s England, it trades the frenetic pace of Sherlock for something more measured, but the central figure is no less singular. Fans who responded to the idea of a detective as a kind of artist will find something unusual here.
Stream on YouTube TV, Acorn TV, AcornTV Amazon Channel, Spectrum On Demand
Likely Cancelled32%
More on shows like Sherlock
Fans of Sherlock tend to want a few specific things when they go looking for their next show. They want a detective who is sharper than the average, ideally with some personal damage underneath the competence. They want mysteries that do not insult the audience by telegraphing the solution, and they want some texture in the setting, whether that is London streets, English countryside or a quiet Oxford college. A charismatic central partnership helps too. The five shows below cover those bases from different angles, ranging from a teenage amateur in a Home Counties town to a poet-detective in 1970s Britain.
Strike is the most direct match. A damaged war veteran running a one-man detective agency in London, working alongside a capable partner, solving cases the police cannot crack: the DNA is unmistakable, even without the Baker Street address. Inspector Morse and Dalgliesh both offer the cerebral, literary English detective tradition that Sherlock draws from, with Morse's cynical Oxford don energy and Dalgliesh's poet-detective inscrutability each rewarding in their own way. Unforgotten takes a quieter approach, pairing two London detectives on cold cases where the human cost of old secrets is as important as the puzzle. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is the youngest-skewing entry here, but its stubborn amateur investigator and carefully layered mystery make it feel less like a departure and more like a variation on the same theme.
None of these is a carbon copy of Sherlock, which is the point. The show itself was not a carbon copy of anything. What they share is a seriousness about the mystery, a central character worth following into difficult places, and the sense that working out what really happened actually matters. That is a rarer combination than it sounds.
More shows like Sherlock
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Sherlock?
- A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is the most popular show similar to Sherlock in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Sherlock still on the air?
- Of the 10 shows similar to Sherlock listed here, 1 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Sherlock?
- 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.