The 50 greatest TV and movie detectives of all time

Where there's a crime, there's (hopefully) someone to solve it.

Mysteries have always been a staple of television and film, and based on recent clues, it's safe to say the whodunnit craze isn't looking to hang up its fedora anytime soon. From the success of Glass Onion to Poker Face (and other non-Rian Johnson projects), the classic format is alive and well. That's precisely why EW decided to dedicate a week to it, culminating in our list of the 50 greatest TV and movie detectives.

Now, before you get mad about someone we left off the list, allow us to explain a few rules we set for ourselves in the creation of this ranking: You will not find any spies, vigilantes, superheroes, monster hunters, or investigative journalists on this list. (Not all podcasters are journalists.) You will, however, find a couple of normal folks who just so happen to solve a lot of crimes.

We considered everything from the early classics (Joe Friday) to modern marvels (Jessica Jones), and even a handful of animated contenders (we love Basil, the Great Mouse Detective)! Alas, none of those three made the final cut — but that's not to say you won't get an animation moment.

It's important to note that this list says "greatest" not "best," which means we considered not just skill but charisma, entertainment value, pop culture impact, and more when making these selections. That's why each entry includes a separate skill level ranking, which is purely about said person's ability to solve crimes.

Last but not least, if you see a character without a show or film identified, it's because there have been many iterations of the character over the years, and we took all of them into consideration. (Also, this is a list of TV and movie detectives, not books!)

Okay, now that you have all the clues, unravel the mystery below!

50. Lew Harper

Give a character to Paul Newman and he will make the guy impossibly cool. That's the case with Ross MacDonald's hardboiled detective, Lew Archer, transformed into Lew Harper by Newman. They changed his last name because Newman had a string of good luck with "H" titles like Hud and The Hustler (yes, really, Hollywood doesn't know anything either, folks). In Newman's hands, Harper is a figure of the counterculture. The actor played Harper in two films, 1966's Harper and 1975's The Drowning Pool, in both instances plunging the detective into situations way over his head where people get hurt. Still, with Newman's twinkling blue eyes, roguish charm, and deceptive resourcefulness, Harper, at least, comes out on top. Harper is what happens when you take the private detectives of film noir and bathe them in '60s and '70s disaffection — and that's groovy as hell. —Maureen Lee Lenker

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

49. John "Scottie" Ferguson (Vertigo)

A middle-aged ex-cop afraid of heights, James Stewart's love dope successfully fails one assignment three times. He's no Joe Friday, and that's the point. When an old college pal hires Scottie to follow his troubled wife Madeleine (Kim Novak), Stewart's genteel trustworthiness lures you into a false sense of security. Then Scottie falls for Madeleine; then tragedy strikes; then things get real weird. Alfred Hitchcock's towering obsession thriller showcases a detective who's also a victim and a perpetrator, so Stewart's psychologically tattered performance anticipates generations of enigma-wrapped meta-detectives, from Guy Pearce's Memento amnesiac to Kyle MacLachlan in anything Lynchian. ­—Darren Franich

Skill level: 🔍

48. Jake Peralta (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

Under the tutelage of a guy who looks an awful lot like Frank Pembleton (see: No. 17) — and doing it all for the approval of that guy, who wasn't a substitute dad at all — Jake Peralta was the Nine-Nine's ace detective. His vibe, though? More like Ace… Ventura. A gregarious goofball who cosmically cosplayed as John McClane, Peralta was a juvenile offender: When it came to immature jokes, he went in hard ("Title of your sex tape"). But he was equal parts perceptive and competitive, pulling all-nighters to solve cases small (who had whom in the precinct's Secret Santa) and unsolvable (thanks to his knowledge of '95 Jordans and The Backstreet Boys). Heck, he once deduced that a murderer and a murderee had switcherooed. The amazing detective/genius Jake Peralta on the case? We want it that way. —Dan Snierson

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

47. Gil Grissom (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation)

David Caruso's Miami sunglasses loom larger as parody, and decades of spun-off bloodwork have de-specialized CSI's forensics fetish. However, the CSI idea owes its longevity to the cerebral whimsy William Petersen brought the mothership series. Years after he played unhinged law enforcement in To Live and Die in L.A. and Manhunter, a more seasoned Petersen exuded kinder-gentler obsessive detachment, with a bottomless toolkit of splatter-analysis high technology. That made Grissom the ideal brainiac for a new decade of non-toxic nerd cool, arriving in 2000 with serene laboratory confidence that big brains would fix everything. ("There is always a clue," Grissom declares in the pilot.) Him in Las Vegas was a clever contrast: Witness science in the den of sin. Petersen departed CSI in 2009 but never totally left, recently reprising the part for the CSI: Vegas reboot. —D.F.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

46. Richard Castle and Kate Beckett (Castle)

When mystery writer Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and NYPD Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) first team up for the purpose of Castle's research for his Nikki Heat series, they seem an unlikely pair. Castle is a charming novelist whose wild theories on cases reflect his inventive day job, while Beckett is a hard-nosed cop obsessed with her mother's unsolved murder. But Castle's outlandish exuberance paired with Beckett's meticulous instincts make for an iconic duo. Beckett may begin as Castle's muse, but the two become a couple and an outright force to be reckoned with, taking down serial killers like 3XK and solving cases within bizarre subcultures involving everything from vampires to reality television. With the will they-won't they chemistry of Moonlighting and offbeat cases reminiscent of The X-Files, it's no mystery why Castle and Beckett captured the hearts of viewers (and each other). —Maureen Lee Lenker

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

45. Mabel, Oliver, and Charles (Only Murders in the Building)

On the surface, semi-retired actor Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), former Broadway director Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and mysterious young artist Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) don't seem to have anything in common aside from living in the same Upper West Side apartment building. But after a chance encounter makes them realize they're all obsessed with the same true crime podcast, they decide to start their own to investigate a neighbor's suspicious death. Their podcast goes viral, and they eventually solve the murder … albeit thanks to many lucky breaks and bumbling discoveries of new clues and evidence. Season 2 puts the trio in the hot seat when Mabel is framed for another murder, and once again they stumble their way into solving the case. (Okay, it's mostly Oliver stumbling while the other two fix his mistakes.) Despite their overall success rate, it's safe to say these three are much more skilled true crime podcasters than real detectives. But man are they entertaining. —Sydney Bucksbaum

Skill level: 🔍🔍

44. Jonathan and Jennifer Hart (Hart to Hart)

Based on The Thin Man and originally intended for screen icon Cary Grant, this frothy romantic mystery series featured Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers as the millionaire crime-solving couple Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, whose jet-setting lifestyle led to a side gig as amateur detectives. Outside of one of the best TV credit-sequences ever made (and later parodied to great effect by Amy Poehler and Adam Scott), the product of legendary creator Sidney Sheldon and super producer Aaron Spelling was nothing if not soapy fun with the self-made millionaire Jonathan and journalist Jennifer using their various skills to crack the case while never letting it get in the way of their romance. It's a little eerie to watch it now considering the unresolved mystery surrounding the drowning death of Wagner's real-life wife Natalie Wood (Wagner has always been steadfast that it was a tragic accident) but Hart to Hart epitomized the kind of glossy romantic mysteries of the time and its tone influenced later shows like Remington Steele and Moonlighting. —Lauren Morgan

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

43. Peter Maldonado and Sam Ecklund (American Vandal)

One of the best mystery shows of the last decade isn't about solving murders or thwarting thefts. No, the teen heroes of Netflix's American Vandal are investigating a far more ludicrous (but no less compelling) crime: Who spray painted dicks on every car in the faculty parking lot? Aspiring investigators Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez) and Sam Ecklund (Griffin Gluck) approach this puzzle with a wisdom beyond their years, poring over clues, interviewing suspects, and doggedly pursuing the truth. (The first season is set at their public high school, and in their second season, they investigate a mysterious private school culprit who spiked the cafeteria's lemonade with laxatives.) Peter and Sam's cases may be silly, but their methods are meticulous, as they reconstruct party scenes through Snapchat footage or piece together old text messages. (One suspect's alibi comes down to whether the extra Y in a "heyy" text proves romantic interest.) The result is one of the most delightful duos in years. —Devan Coggan

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

42. Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man films)

The best smug married couple there ever was — so secure and assured in their happiness that it seeps from every pore (and smells a lot like gin). First created on the page by Dashiell Hammett and brought to deliciously witty life by William Powell and Myrna Loy in six films, Nick and Nora Charles are a rich, boozy couple who solve crimes in between dinner parties and heaps of witty banter. Nick is reluctantly pulled into cases, egged on by Nora who delights in the thrill of the chase. Alas, their cases and their detecting skills are not what make them memorable so much as their copious consumption of martinis, their divine repartee, their scene-stealing dog Asta, and the abundant love and respect they have for each other. If only solving crime was always this stylish. —M.L.L.

Skill level: 🔍🔍

41. Eddie Valiant (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?)

As a man among cartoons, Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is a fish out of water. After his brother, Teddy, was killed by a Toon, Eddie hates the lot of them — but he has to set aside his prejudice when recruited to prove that movie star Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer) has been framed for murder. Eddie Valiant is cut from the same cloth as many iconic hardboiled detectives, cynical and world-weary. As brought to life by Bob Hoskins, he's delightfully deadpan in contrast to the zany Toons — and Hoskins deserved an Oscar for his sterling acting opposite the animated beings. Hoskins elevates the trope of the irascible private detective, while grounding his performance amidst the sheer outlandishness of the Toons. Eddie isn't a very good detective, constantly fingering the wrong suspects and forced to fight for his and Roger's life in a slapstick routine of epic proportions once the truth comes out. But hey, he's not bad, he's just drawn that way. —M.L.L.

Skill level: 🔍

40. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew

Is your lighthouse haunted? Did you recently find a priceless jade statue while scuba diving? Is your quaint seaside town being terrorized by a malevolent spirit or a spooky talisman called The Eye? Then you need to call the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew! These telegenic teens — based on characters from Edward Stratemeyer's wholesome book series — have been solving mildly scary mysteries on the big and small screen since the 1930s. Recent iterations on The CW and Hulu had trouble captivating viewers, but our favorite is still ABC's The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. This supremely '70s adaptation (streaming now on Peacock) featured the perfectly coiffed Frank (Parker Stevenson), Joe (Shaun Cassidy), and Nancy (Pamela Sue Anderson) bamboozling bad guys alongside some of the era's grooviest guest stars, from Paul Williams to Maureen McCormack. —Kristen Baldwin

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

39. Raylan Givens (Justified)

Maybe it's because he looks great in a cowboy hat but Timothy Olyphant just seems born to play a straight-talking lawman. While he first cut his teeth as U.S. Marshal Seth Bullock on Deadwood, it was his role as Elmore Leonard's sharp-shooting Raylan Givens in Justified that fit Olyphant like a custom Stetson. Whether chasing after his wily coal-digging frenemy Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) or local criminal matriarch Mags Bennett (Margo Martindale), Raylan's ties to his Harlan County past made his detective work so rich and complicated.To the frustration of his fellow marshals who had to either keep an eye on him or get him out of a pinch, Raylan often pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable to make his collar but if there was a quick draw to be had, no one could beat this crime-solving gunslinger. —L.M.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

38. Theo Kojak (Kojak)

Solving crimes is fine, but why just solve crimes when you can solve crimes with style? And no one in the '70s had more style than Theodopolis "Theo" Kojak. Velour fedora on the chrome dome? Check. Tootsie Pop dangling out of the mouth? Check. Randomly asking "Who loves ya, baby?" to relative strangers in a completely rhetorical manner? Check. For 5 seasons on Kojak (and a series of TV movies), the New York City Detective Lieutenant/fashion icon kept the streets safe with a gruff, no-nonsense attitude and a plethora of classic one-liners, like that one time he warned an enemy: "You like poetry? If I ever see you near me or my fam-a-lee, I'm going to scatter your brains from here to White Plains… sweetheart." —Dalton Ross

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

37. Will Graham (Hannibal)

Before we had the Emmy-winning lesbian serial killer cat-and-mouse game, we had Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter. NBC's Hannibal walked so that BBC's Killing Eve could run. There was so much gay subtext between the FBI profiler (Hugh Dancy) and the most famous TV cannibal of all time (Mads Mikkelsen) that the show single-handedly kept the fan-fiction lights on at Tumblr. But we're supposed to talk about Will as a detective. His unique ability allows him to step into the perspective of the killers that he hunts, which is a handy but cursed talent. However, it took him forever to realize the best friend he'd been eye-banging and exchanging sweet nothings with for seasons was the ultimate serial killer. So he's not that good. —Nicholas Romano

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

36. Mike Hammer (Kiss Me Deadly)

No private eye boils harder than this vintage tough guy. Author Mickey Spillane introduced his most famous creation right after World War II, and Hammer's literary popularity inspired multiple movies (one starring Spillane himself) and a playfully macho Stacey Keach TV series. Mike's a solve-the-mystery-with-my-fists kind of guy, but we're pulling a dirty commie trick and putting him on the list entirely for the Kiss Me Deadly film. Robert Aldrich's 1995 nightmare noir is an outright traitorous adaptation, ditching New York for Los Angeles and reimagining the books' two-fisted hero as a sleaze bottom-feeding low-rent divorce cases. Ralph Meeker gives the books' brutality an edge of genuine nastiness; he's a little too good at pummeling people. His Hammer's also freakily out of his depth when a dead-woman case leads to a radioactive conspiracy. Here's the defining antihero investigator, smart enough to realize he's too dumb for this. —D.F.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

35. James "Sonny" Crockett and Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs (Miami Vice)

When the Michael Mann-produced Miami Vice debuted on NBC in 1984, Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas epitomized a new kind of screen detective, pastel-suited anti-Columbos who busted perps to an MTV-influenced soundtrack. It was one of the most dominant cop shows of the time period for not only its visual style but the cynical, gritty air that infused the series. As sartorially flashy as Crockett and Tubbs were, the show's tone wound up being the more lasting element in the long haul and prefaced the more realistic cop shows to come in the '90s. In 2006, Mann adapted the series into a movie starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx and while it wasn't quite the cultural blockbuster the show was, its critical reputation continues to grow with time. —L.M.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

34. Shawn and Gus (Psych)

Blessed with a photographic memory and a piercing eye for detail, Shawn Spencer (James Roday Rodriguez) kicks off Psych by running a con. Instead of going through rigorous police training like his father (Corbin Bernsen) and becoming a detective the old-fashioned way, Shawn pretends to be a psychic. His crime-solving results make that outlandish claim just believable enough to the local cops to keep using him, but it would never work without Shawn's lifelong best friend Gus (Dulé Hill). Gus has his own suite of skills, including tap-dancing and a "Super Sniffer" nose, but most importantly his faith in Shawn makes it that much easier for everyone else to take the unrepentant smartass seriously. Together, they can solve any mystery short of the legitimately supernatural. —Christian Holub

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

33. Clarice Starling (The Silence of the Lambs)

Though we're not sure if the lambs ever stopped screaming for Clarice (Jodie Foster), we're pretty sure Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) himself would agree with our assertion that she's one of film's greatest detectives. From the get, the young FBI trainee defies expectations. She's sent in up against the legendary cannibal, essentially as bait, to get him to provide insight on a serial killer the FBI is hunting. She deftly maneuvers his mind games, all the while using his knowledge to suss out the real identity and motives of Buffalo Bill. And, when she inevitably goes toe to toe with the perp, her quick thinking and faster reflexes end with the killer dead, and Buffalo Bill's next would-be victim safe and sound. It's no wonder by film's end that an escaped Lecter tells her he won't try and kill her — she's rightfully earned his respect. —Lauren Huff

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

32. Maddie and David (Moonlighting)

With influences from The Taming of the Shrew to the classic screwball comedies of the '30s, Moonlighting mixed romance, mystery and sharp dialogue into a pioneering dramedy whose will-they-won't-they chemistry between Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis became both a template and a cautionary tale for many TV romances to come. While their inevitable hook-up broke not only glass tables but the show itself in some ways. In the first few seasons, Maddie and David bantered their way from solving one crime to another while their latent attraction provided a delightful sizzle to their scenes. —L.M.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

31. Precious Ramstowe (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency)

In a landscape of hardened and rugged gumshoes, Precious Ramotswe (Jill Scott) is one with a lot of heart. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, a series based on Alexander McCall Smith's book series, centered around Botswana's first female private investigator. Leading with intuition and a desire to help the people in her community, Precious was the kind of person you wanted to go to in tough times because she soothes as well as solves the case. Alongside the clever women of her agency, Precious brings charm and lighthearted energy to the canon of crime solvers, which is a welcome, refreshing change of tone. —Alamin Yohannes

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

30. Adrian Monk (Monk)

Adrian Monk's preternatural crime-solving capabilities are both a gift and a curse. Crippled by OCD, multiple phobias, and grief over the death of his wife, Monk is a man who struggles to get through a day. But he's also a genius when it comes to detective work, his obsession with details and photographic memory enabling him to parse a crime scene with uncanny acuity. Inspired by the likes of Columbo and Sherlock Holmes, Monk became an entity unto himself, particularly as portrayed by Tony Shalhoub, who earned three Emmys for his work. With each case, Monk brought a unique blend of pathos and humor to the proceedings, his antics serving up fodder for laughs and tears alike. Whether fretting over whether he left his oven on or touching every parking meter, the devil was in the details when it came to Monk, the "defective detective," who won our hearts with his idiosyncrasies and ability to crack even the most impossible cases. —M.L.L.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍🔍

29. Andy Sipowitz and Bobby Simone (NYPD Blue)

After his longtime partner, John Kelly (David Caruso), was pushed out of the force, Detective Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) had no interest in pairing up with the new guy, Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits). "It's no good," the boorish and bigoted detective complained to his boss, Lieutenant Fancy (James McDaniel). "It's not gonna work out." Hey, we said he was a detective, not a psychic. Sipowicz and Simone were, in fact, a capital crime-fighting match, despite (or because of) their divergent dispositions. Bobby was the calm to Andy's crusty, and by the time they solved their first murder (a "mobbed-up stiff" in the East Village), Simone earned Sipowicz's not-so-grudging respect. Sure, they had some blow-ups (usually about Andy's simmering racism), but the pair's good cop-grumpy cop dynamic helped the 15th precinct clear homicides for years, until Bobby's heart-rending death in season 6. And when a distraught Andy needed help in NYPD Blue's final season, it was the spirit of Bobby Simone who appeared to officer solace and advice. —K.B.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

28. Christine Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey (Cagney & Lacey)

Originally conceived as the first female buddy film, Cagney & Lacey instead became TV's first female buddy cops. Movies studios passed on the film, but a made-for-TV movie on CBS was a success, leading to a rough start for the series. It took two cancellations and some cast shake-ups before Sharon Gless' Christine Cagney and Tyne Daly's Mary Beth Lacey became television's most celebrated — and decorated — lady detectives. Onscreen they always got their man, and off-screen they always got their trophies. For six consecutive years, Tyne and Gless alternated winning the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama, with Tyne winning four and Gless two. —Lester Brathwaite

Skill level: 🔍🔍

27. Kalinda Sharma (The Good Wife)

Let's get one thing straight: The very good lawyers at Stern, Lockhart, & Gardner would not have won a single case if it weren't for their badass in-house private investigator Kalinda (Archie Panjabi). Whenever a case wasn't going well, it was Kalinda who came in with the (often last-minute) save, pulling out her tiny notebook of answers. Why was she so good? Because she simply wouldn't accept anything else. Kalinda knew she was the best, and she was never going to be beaten. She didn't always reveal her sources — and people often knew not to ask — but she did, just about always, save the day. —Samantha Highfill

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍🔍

26. Benoit Blanc (Knives Out films)

Known as "the world's greatest detective," Rian Johnson's Benoit Blanc is one of the newer sleuths to enter the pantheon of P.I's. As brought to life by Daniel Craig with a "Kentucky Fried Foghorn Leghorn Drawl," Blanc is both disarming in his gentility and deceptively brilliant. Craig leans into the folksier aspects of Blanc's persona to hilarious effect, which also enables him to use his "Southern hokum" as a means to enmesh himself with the suspects of a case. He's dry, a snappy dresser (seersucker bathing suits anyone?), deeply kind to those he trusts, and inadvertently hilarious in his more bumbling aspects. But Blanc is also a Renaissance man, who counts Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury among his friends, and can dissect a case with the precision of a surgeon. Whether he's spinning a metaphor about a donut hole or consuming Jared Leto's hard kombucha, Blanc's quirky personality and sleuthing skills always leave us proclaiming "Halle Berry!" —M.L.L

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍🔍

25. Frank Drebin (The Naked Gun)

He was the type of old-school gumshoe with metaphorical gum stuck on his shoe. Lt. Frank Drebin had the clumsiest touch in Los Angeles, but he delivered Midas results, lucking into the big break of whatever case he was bumbling his way through, collateral damage shooting out in all directions behind him. (Insert GIF of Frank announcing to a crowd of on-lookers, "Nothing to see here!" as a fireworks factory exploded behind him.) Evolving from the straight man in the Police Squad! series to the clueless, clownish, and insensitive grizzled dick (as in detective!), Frank Drebin was always oblivious to the era — and trouble — that he was in. Played to absurdist deadpan sublimity by the late Leslie Nielsen and his raised eyebrow, our man of law and disorder scored not with brilliant deductions but by upending cliches ("Truth hurts. Maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with the seat missing, but it hurts.") He may not have been the sharpest lightbulb in the toolbox, but Frank Drebin was pure Squad goals. —D.S.

Skill level: 🔍

24. Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon)

Before Dashiell Hammett created hard-nosed Sam Spade, mystery fiction was dominated by persnickety geniuses like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Spade gave birth to a new type of detective, a cynical, shifty fellow who lives by his own sense of justice and knows his way around a gun. Predominantly concerned with his own self-preservation, Spade also lives by his own moral code, believing that when his partner, Miles Archer, dies, he's supposed to do something about it. Though Hollywood adapted The Maltese Falcon to the screen twice in the 1930s, Sam Spade was immortalized by Humphrey Bogart in the 1941 John Huston adaptation of the novel that finally found a sweet-spot for Bogart's world-weary persona. Sam Spade is a detective who has seen it all, his moral ambiguities shading his strong internal compass in a way that complicates and deepens the character of the detective. In short, he's the stuff that dreams are made of. —M.L.L

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

23. Stella Gibson (The Fall)

When a murder investigation in Belfast stalls, it's no wonder they call in Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson of London's Metropolitan Police. She's dogged, determined, and like most good detectives, completely obsessed with getting her suspect. She's smart and experienced, and she uses those advantages to very quickly do what others could not: figure out who the killer is. As played by the always pitch perfect Gillian Anderson, Stella's pursuit of ultimate justice and the cat and mouse between her and Jamie Dornan's Paul Spector is absolutely mesmerizing (and at times nail-biting) to watch. —L.H.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍🔍

22. Hercule Poirot

Choose your fighter, Hercule Poirot edition. Is it Austin Trevor, the very first actor to play the debonaire Belgian sleuth in 1931's Alibi? Is it Albert Finney, the mustachioed fancy man from 1971's Murder on the Orient Express? What about the dude from the other Murder on the Orient Express, Alfred Molina, or the one from the other other Murder on the Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh? The guy is like the Hamlet of whodunnits. Just as many old white European gentlemen want to play him. Whatever form he takes, Hercule is royalty of the genre. Expect all the classics from him: a bloody handkerchief reveal or some kind of equivalent; a gaggle of outrageous suspects, at least one of which waving a hand fan; and a pondering-the-facts moment over a lavish cocktail or cigar. —N.R.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

21. Marge Gunderson (Fargo)

Some detectives have problems. The Chief of Police of Brainerd, Minnesota has morning sickness. That won't stop Marge (Frances McDormand) from untangling criminal webs of midwestern malevolence. McDormand won an Oscar for bringing heart and humor to Fargo's moral desolation, and while Marge is confounded by what men will do for "a little bit of money," her Minnesota Nice personality masks dizzying procedural genius. That's most obvious in when she sorts out a baffling triple homicide moments after arriving at the crime scene. Her low-key clue-chasing brilliance hovers over the TV spinoff, where Allison Tolman and Carrie Coon both played wintry Marge-y crimesolvers. —D.F.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

20. Mystery Inc. (Scooby-Doo)

Mystery Incorporated are, without a doubt, the hardest working teen paranormal detectives in the business. The motley crew — comprised of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and their talking canine companion Scooby-Doo — have been successfully cracking some of the spookiest cases across film and television for more than 50 years now, and they've done it all with their signature quick wit, clever traps, and a few Scooby Snacks along the way. From fish monsters to phantoms, the Mystery Gang has gone head-to-head against various supernatural phenomena and unmasked the often-human culprit behind them, which range from disgruntled neighbors to jewel thieves. But, more than their achievements, it's their teamwork, hilarious hijinks, and willingness to lend a helping hand to those in need — including the Harlem Globetrotters, Simple Plan, and Supernatural's Sam and Dean Winchester — that continues to charm audiences old and new. Entire generations of mystery fans wouldn't have been properly clued into the genre if it weren't for those meddling kids. —Emlyn Travis

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

19. Lennie Briscoe (Law & Order)

Out of all the detectives that have worn out their shoe leather on Law & Order, none were more iconic than Jerry Orbach's Lennie Briscoe, who seemed like he walked right off the streets of a New York police precinct and onto set. Starting in L&O's third season as a replacement for the departing Paul Sorvino, Orbach played the senior police detective for 12 seasons until his death in December 2004. World-weary and as sharp as his one-liners, Briscoe had more regrets than would fill a bottle of bourbon but was trying to make honest amends in being the best detective he could after so many years off the wagon. As cynical as he could be about crime in the big city, he never lost his desire to see justice served or the guilty punished. —L.M.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

18. Jake Gittes (Chinatown)

The most neo of noirs fits '70s wildman Jack Nicholson in a smart '30s suit, then tears his smug self-regard to pieces. When engineer Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling) winds up dead in the water, Jake investigates the death — and the water. The mystery connects historic California corruption to the primordial horror local tycoon Noah Cross (John Huston) perpetrates on his daughter Evelyn (Faye Dunaway). Which makes Jake one of cinema's great citywide detectives, tracing elaborate crimes from downtown through lush Pasadena mansions all the way to Catalina. He's not much of a physical threat, though man he is funny: "I goddamn near lost my nose, and I like it, I like breathing through it." Nicholson also vividly portrays Jake's expanding conscience, which the movie utterly demolishes. The actor reprised the part in The Two Jakes, which barely hints at screenwriter Robert Towne's ambition to craft a secret history of Los Angeles across Gittes' career. —D.F.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

17. Frank Pembleton (Homicide: Life on the Street)

Before there was The Wire, there was the other great Baltimore police procedural Homicide: Life on the Street, featuring Emmy-winner Andre Braugher as Detective Frank Pembleton. Based on a real-life detective in Wire creator David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Street, Braugher brought Pembleton to searing life and won his first Emmy in the process. Driven and fiercely intelligent, Pembleton's dedication to his job caused rifts not only with his family but his colleagues as well. There was no one better at interrogation and many a criminal cracked under his penetrating stare. And it's Braugher's reputation as the no-nonsense Pembleton that later made his deadpan turn as Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Captain Ray Holt such an unexpected joy. —L.M.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍🔍

16. Easy Rawlins (Devil in a Blue Dress)

"It was summer 1948, and I needed money." That's Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins (Denzel Washington) narrating at the start of 1995's Walter Mosley adaptation. Easy might be financially desperate, but he's uniquely adept at navigating the racial borderlands of Los Angeles. He's also, like, Denzel Washington: Bemused, simmering, thoughtful, charismatic, murder in a fedora. Devil enfolds him in a baffling swirl of sordid hallways-of-power intrigue. Washington makes Easy both an incredibly likable everyman and the smartest guy in any room — especially the rooms the racist power structure usually closes to Black men. Disappointing box office doomed hopes of more movies, though an in-development TV series may give Mosely's book series new life onscreen. Devil now slides into history as both a stylish vintage noir and a critical reconsideration of the genre, and the postwar tensions revealed by Easy's savvy sleuthing feel more topical than ever. —D.F.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

15. Jane Tennison (Prime Suspect)

Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) did not suffer fools and became an integral part of the TV detective canon. Prime Suspect, which ran from 1991-2006, added the archetype of a bold woman who had no interest in accepting the misogynist status quo of her institution. The character rose to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector (one of the first women at that level) by solving hard cases in the face of institutionalized sexism in the department, but is still not given big cases when the series begins. Jane has to fight to get cases before doing the actual job of solving the crimes. Mirren's detective has a steel backbone yet doesn't shy away from moments of vulnerability, which turns what could have been a hollow gender-swapped character into one that is brilliant to watch. —A.Y.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍🔍

14. Inspector Jacques Clouseau (The Pink Panther movies)

Is Clouseau good at his job? Of course not. Is he a delight to watch? Absolutely. This iconic Frenchman is the definition of a bumbling detective, whose ineptitude is only outmatched by his penchant for destruction. Sure, he might solve your case, but first, he'll ignore obvious clues, annoy his superiors, and shatter any breakable object within a one-mile radius. (God help you if you have a priceless Steinway.) With his neatly trimmed mustache and indecipherable French accent, Inspector Clouseau has taken many forms over the years, stretching from the animated Pink Panther cartoons to multiple live-action iterations. Steve Martin, Alan Arkin, and Roger Moore have all donned Clouseau's iconic trench coat and trilby, but Peter Sellers will always be the best — and the silliest. —D.C.

Skill level: 🔍

13. Luther (Luther)

How far would you go to catch a monster, and in such pursuit, where does the line between right and wrong begin to blur? These are questions Idris Elba's Luther comes up against time and time again, and being the self-destructive detective that he is, he often finds himself in some morally or ethically ambiguous positions. He has some unorthodox ways and a penchant for breaking protocol, but, Luther is always brilliant, and once he figures out the killer's identity, it becomes all-out war until they're brought to justice. He has a legendary reputation on the police force for a reason, after all. In part because of this, and in part because of Elba's ineffable charm, Luther is one hell of a fun detective to watch, questionable methods aside. —L.H.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

12. Thomas Magnum (Magnum P.I.)

If you happened to find yourself on Oahu in the 1980s, there was a sleuth-for-hire that put the must in mustache. A former Navy SEAL and Vietnam vet turned tropical hedonist and private investigator, Tom Selleck's Magnum saved various days with a smile on his face and a beer in his hand. Few detectives could handle his range of cases: One week he was protecting a vase or racing horse or British general; the next week, he was locating a missing ex-wife or fiancé or father or dolphin. Magnum also tracked down ancient scrolls, investigated suicides, helped people defect from Russia, and fended off assassins from Russia. He boasted the coolest modes of transport (helicopter and Ferrari, neither of them his own), the coolest residence (guest house on an oceanfront mansion), and the coolest bar tab (all the way open, at the King Kamehameha Club). Magnum lives on through NBC's Jay Hernandez-fronted reboot, but it's the 80s-era, pre-reverse mortgage-hawking Selleck that truly was the sun and fun into the who-dun. —D.S.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

11. Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks)

In a genre littered with hard-boiled P.I.s and gruff police detectives, there's something delightful about Kyle MacLachlan's boyish FBI agent. Even as he uncovers sinister secrets and attempts to untangle the murder of Laura Palmer, Dale Cooper keeps a warm heart and a cool head, finding joy in a slice of cherry pie or a damn fine cup of coffee. Sure, Coop's methods can be a little unorthodox: Throwing rocks at glass bottles isn't exactly hard police science, and he may spend a little too much time talking about Tibet. But his kind demeanor and dogged determination serve him well, as he journeys from the seemingly bucolic streets of Twin Peaks into otherworldly realms. He may not always know where his case will lead him, but he knows it'll be a place both wonderful and strange. —D.C.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

10. Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars)

For a teen sleuth moonlighting in between class at high school (and later, college), Veronica (Kristen Bell) puts all other private investigators (of all ages!) to shame. Nothing can stop her from cracking a case, not even when it's personal — she literally solves her best friend's murder, and uncovers the truth behind her own rape. No matter how big or small the mystery is, she constantly defies everyone's expectations of her and would put her own safety on the line to help others. She even solved the most difficult case: Her torrid, decade-long, on-again-off-again "LoVe" romance with Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) ... even if it ended in tragedy. —S.B.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍🔍

9. Jim Rockford (The Rockford Files)

Poor Jim Rockford. His contacts at the LAPD hate him, his clients can rarely afford to pay him, and half the time, he closes his cases with a black eye or a bruised rib. But if you need help, just leave a message on his answering machine; he'll always get back to you. James Garner headlined The Rockford Files as its titular P.I., who ran his business out of a shabby Malibu trailer and could execute a J-turn like you've never seen. An ex-con himself, Rockford always went above and beyond for his clients — and he was often willing to bend the rules when his police counterparts wouldn't. For $200 a day (plus expenses), there's no better P.I. in the business. Also, his theme song is a banger. —D.C.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍

8. Virgil Tibbs (In the Heat of the Night)

Of all the iterations of Virgil Tibbs (including seven novels, three films, and a TV series), the most iconic (and important) is Sidney Poitier's 1967 performance in Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night. After being mistaken for a murder suspect, Tibbs is then enlisted to help solve the crime, a task made even more difficult by the bigotry of the town and police force of Sparta, Miss. Hailing from Philadelphia, Tibbs is used to a certain level of respect, but in Sparta, a white man slaps him for asking too many questions — and Tiibbs, to the surprise of audiences in 1967, slapped him right back. By the time Tibbs skips town, he's found the real suspect and everyone learns why they call him MISTER TIBBS! —L.B.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍🔍

7. Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)

When it comes to Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), there's nobody better at solving crimes in New York City that are ... especially heinous. As two members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit, they spend their days chasing down some of the city's worst criminals. Beginning in 1999 (and running for nearly 300 episodes), Benson and Stabler created a mesmerizing partnership. She led with heart and compassion. He led with anger and a hunger for justice. Together, they balanced each other out (and delivered the kind of romantic chemistry that fans have held onto for more than 20 years). Although Stabler left (and is now back on Organized Crime), the pair of them go down as one of the most frustrating will-they-won't-they couples ... and one of the best crime-solving duos. —S.H.

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6. Lester Freamon (The Wire)

Who knew the quiet guy in the back busy working on dollhouse furniture miniatures would be the one to ultimately take down Baltimore's biggest drug kingpin? Lester Freamon — played with cool confidence by Clarke Peters — may have been a forgotten man in the BDP after running afoul of department politics, but his mastery of wiretaps and financial records made him the force's secret weapon against the likes of Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) and Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector). And like all great detectives, Lester was not one to play by the rules — as evidenced by his helping Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) concoct a fake serial killer to get more funding for other legitimate police cases. It ultimately cost Lester his job, but what a job he did. —D.R.

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5. Mulder and Scully (The X-Files)

He's the believer, the dogged investigator willing to risk his life in pursuit of the truth. She's the skeptic, the tough-as-nails pragmatist with a medical degree and zero tolerance for nonsense. Together, they make up the FBI's most unwanted, trekking around the country as they hunt myths, legends, and the occasional alien. There's a reason that nearly every show since has copied their dynamic: Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are the perfect investigative pair, elevated by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson's crackling chemistry. Sure, their respective biases sometimes get in the way: He always jumps to extraterrestrial conclusions, and she'll stubbornly search for scientific proof, even when an alien's staring her in the face. But even when facing down serial killers, sasquatches, and shadowy government conspiracies, Mulder and Scully always had faith in each other. —D.C.

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4. Philip Marlowe

If Sam Spade invented the hardboiled detective, Philip Marlowe perfected it. As wisecracking and hard-drinking as Spade, Marlowe also has a touch of something gentler about him, as a philosophical creature with a soft spot for chess and poetry. Though a flirt when it's called for, Marlowe is easily able to avoid the wiles of femme fatales, Still, he manages to find himself drugged or in difficult scrapes more often than not. Perhaps because he possesses a greater sense of moral rectitude than many other fictional private investigators. First created on the page by Raymond Chandler, Marlowe has been played on screen by a murderer's row of Hollywood stars, including Dick Powell, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Montgomery, James Garner, Elliott Gould, Robert Mitchum, and Liam Neeson. Though audiences loved Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944), and Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), many credit Gould with the most memorable portrayal of the detective for his work in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973), which takes the hardboiled trappings of Chandler's character and douses them with a groovy, 1970s neo-noir cynicism. But Marlowe's endurance as a detective in popular culture, a result of his unique blend of quippy retorts and soulful search for justice, ensures we'll never have to say a long goodbye. —M.L.L.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍

3. Sherlock and Watson

No list of pop culture detectives would be complete without the boys of Baker Street. In the last century, Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary heroes have been adapted so many times, they're practically synonymous with the word "mystery." We briefly considered letting Sherlock stand alone, and he's certainly one of fiction's most iconic creations — a violin-playing, morphine-injecting brainiac who can identify a murderer from the speck of mud on his shoes. But it's his friendship with the loyal Dr. John Watson that elevates the pair from good to great. If Sherlock is the brain, then Watson is the beating heart, and together, they make up the world's greatest detective duo.

Now in the public domain, the two have popped up in countless adaptations across film and television. Every generation has their preferred pairing — including Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, Peter Cushing and André Morell, Jeremy Brett and David Burke, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, and Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. There also plenty of unorthodox adaptations, too — like The Great Mouse Detective (Sherlock's a mouse!), Sherlock Gnomes (Sherlock's a garden gnome!), and House (Sherlock's a grumpy doctor played by Hugh Laurie!). But whatever form these Baker Street BFFs take, they're always better together. That's just elementary. —D.C.

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2. Columbo

He could be anybody or nobody. Shabby hair, jacket big enough to swim in, one of those faces, a voice that mumbles a low tobacco rasp. The killers barely notice the unkempt LAPD detective. They fancy themselves a better sort of people: Businessmen, celebrities, politicians, the schoolmaster, the conductor, the wine snob. Monsters all — and these vain predators never realize how quickly they've become his prey. Peter Falk's performance is an endless joy, partly because it shows you Columbo performing, playing up his aw-shucks act while he finds the tiniest flaw in perfect crimes. Murder on Columbo is usually a premeditated diorama of down-to-the-second alibis. Solving those cases demands close attention to every minor detail, and you get the sense Columbo memorizes encyclopedias for fun. He's also the all-time greatest interrogator, using his agreeable regular-guy charm to tighten the noose around his suspects' necks. And just one more thing: A cop who doesn't carry a gun might sound like a liberal fantasy, but Columbo's real political vitality comes from how the show contrasts the self-cannibalizing mansion class against Falk's just-doing-my-job integrity. —D.F.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍🔍

1. Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote)

From the catchy intro to the cavalcade of guest stars with delightfully daffy Maine accents, rewatching Murder, She Wrote now is as cozy as sipping a warm cup of tea on a snowy night. But it wouldn't have run for as long as it did – a whopping 12 seasons – without the performance of the incandescent Angela Lansbury as mystery writer Jessica Fletcher, a one-woman murder-solving machine and EW's pick for the no. 1 slot. Outside of the fact that Jessica had some truly terrible luck in tripping into a never-ending parade of homicides, she's indefatigable in solving them, picking up clues the less observant, often incompetent professional investigators around her miss. Naturally curious and charming to the bone, Jessica used her unassuming manner to disguise a steely intelligence, ingratiating herself into the scene of a crime so she could spot the tiny details and strange behaviors that inevitably gave the real culprit away. No matter if it was in her strangely murder-plagued Maine hometown or one of the glamorous locations where her life as a best-selling author took her, if a murder happened anywhere in Jessica's vicinity, she was sure to solve it before the ink dried on her first draft. —L.M.

Skill level: 🔍🔍🔍🔍🔍

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