Chinese crime & thriller dramas worth your time

Chinese crime TV had a renaissance after 2017: short seasons, novel adaptations (Zijin Chen is the Gillian Flynn of the genre), and a willingness to end badly. These are the ones international viewers rate highest.

1. The Bad Kids 隐秘的角落

202012 epMandarin · subs: English + 10 moreMystery

Three kids film a murder by accident. A 12-episode slow-burn thriller based on Zijin Chen's novel, and the series that made iQIYI's 'Mist Theater' label famous.

▶ iQIYI Netflix Details →

2. The Long Night 沉默的真相

202012 epMandarin · subs: English + 10 moreCrime Mystery Thriller

A prosecutor's suicide reopens a case everyone wants buried. Twelve episodes, three timelines, and the most emotionally brutal entry in iQIYI's Mist Theater. Zijin Chen again.

▶ iQIYI Netflix Details →

3. The Knockout 狂飆

202339 epMandarin · subs: English + 11 moreDrama

A bullied fish-market vendor becomes the city's crime kingpin over twenty years while the honest cop who once protected him hunts him. The TV event of 2023 in China; Zhang Songwen's Gao Qiqiang is an all-time villain.

iQIYI YouTube Details →

4. The Long Season 漫长的季节

202312 epNortheastern Mandarin, Mandarin · subs: English + 11 moreCrime Slice of Life

A quiet, devastating crime drama about three old men in a rusting northeastern factory town. Only 12 episodes; the best-reviewed Chinese series of the 2020s on Douban.

WeTV YouTube Details →

5. Day and Night 白夜追凶

201732 epMandarin · subs: English + 16 moreDrama

Twin brothers — one a cop, one a fugitive — share a single identity, swapping places between day and night to solve cases. Pan Yueming plays both. The web-crime drama that changed the genre in 2017.

▶ iQIYI Youku Viki Details →

6. Burning Ice 无证之罪

201712 epMandarin · subs: English + 10 moreCrime Mystery Thriller

Twelve episodes, a snowbound Harbin, a killer who signs his work. Adapted from Zijin Chen's novel; the bleak, grown-up forerunner of The Bad Kids.

iQIYI Netflix Details →

7. Under the Skin 猎罪图鉴

202220 epMandarin · subs: English + 14 moreCrime Thriller

A forensic sketch artist who can draw a face from a skull teams up with a blunt detective. Twenty tight episodes of case-of-the-week with a real emotional arc; Tan Jianci's breakout.

▶ Viki WeTV Details →

8. Reset 开端

202215 epMandarin · subs: English + 10 moreDrama

Two strangers stuck in a time loop on a city bus that keeps exploding. 15 tight episodes, no romance filler, and the show that proved Chinese TV could do high-concept thrillers.

WeTV Netflix Details →

9. The Untamed 陈情令

201950 epMandarin · subs: English + 17 moreAction Crime Danmei

The gateway C-drama for most international fans. A xianxia bromance adapted from the danmei novel Mo Dao Zu Shi (魔道祖师) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. Start here if you have never watched a Chinese drama.

▶ Viki WeTV Netflix YouTube Details →