Best New Zealand crime series

In the near future, creatures from ancient Aboriginal mythology endowed with extraordinary physical traits have emerged and must coexist with humans. Known as 'Hairypeople' they battle for survival in a world that wants to exploit and destroy them. One young man – The Cleverman – struggles with his own power and the responsibility to unite this divided world, but he must first overcome a deep estrangement from his older brother.

In a seemingly quiet country town the newest resident, Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd, finds that murder lurks in even the most homely location.

By day, Joe is a cleaner at the police station. But by night, he has another line of work - he's a serial killer who's been dubbed The Christchurch Carver. When another woman is murdered, the police suspect The Carver, but Joe knows it wasn't him.

A detective recovering from amnesia caused by a shocking car accident begins to suspect not everything is as it seems, following the reappearance of a young boy.

Set against the backdrop of the stunning Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand, Maggie and Tom arrive to escape his oppressive family and start a business. When Tom disappears, buried secrets and family plots make paradise less than perfect.

Anaís Mallory is a smart and savvy homicide investigator who after returning to her hometown, and taking the lead detective position, faces a series of startlingly complex murders with links to her family's tragic history.

The story of legendary safe cracker and career criminal Ted West and his firecracker of a wife, Rita. Combining real events and the rich folklore of the West family and associates, this is rollicking history, and a tempestuous romance, set at a time of great social upheaval.

Uncover New Zealand’s most extreme religious cult, Gloriavale, and the true stories of people attempting to break free, including current and former members that have never gone on record before. Made with support from NZ on Air. WARNING: Deals with the issue of sexual abuse.

A team of specialist detectives re-look at some of New Zealand’s most chilling unsolved murders.

On June 20, 1994, five members of the Bain family were found dead in their Dunedin home. The atrocity captured the nation, and it remains one of New Zealand’s most controversial cases. This dramatised version tells the story of each of the family members in the months leading up to their deaths.

Take a look behind the bars at some of New Zealand's most famous cases of people being wrongly convicted of heinous crimes.

A business owner is thrust into New Zealand's dark underbelly after a million-dollar drug deal goes wrong on a blood-stained night, setting off a chain of events between dangerous factions.

Harry is a single story, six-part crime drama series set in Auckland which follows the intense psychological journey of Detective Harry Anglesea.

Follows ten New Zealand families over six months as they grapple with the challenges of living with a loved one behind bars. From suburban housewives to notorious families of crime, each episode documents one family's unique story of law-breaking, justice, and redemption.

An eight part children's thriller involving stolen jewels and BMX bike riders. With the help of her brother, and new friends as diverse as a computer whizz-kid and a BMX stunt rider, Sandra must somehow outwit a ruthless motorbike phantom.

Each episode follows a multi-layered investigation in which police officers, Civil Aviation or Maritime New Zealand investigators and ESR scientists have worked together to unravel the truth. A New Zealand diplomat is discovered dying from a single stab wound, in a supposedly secure residential compound in Honiara – leaving a crime scene that baffles investigators. Two people lose their lives when a home built plane plummets into the Kaipara Harbour minutes after take off – but why was the experienced pilot so disoriented he couldn't pinpoint his location the night before? A young Japanese student is found floating in a river in Christchurch metres from his home stay address – tragic mischance or foul play?

Nabbed is a New Zealand reality television show, produced with the assistance of the New Zealand Police Traffic Division for Television New Zealand's TV2. The show profiles and follows the work of traffic police officers in their patrols and other police duties.

Six-part drama Ride with the Devil explores Auckland's boy racer culture — as experienced by a young Chinese car fanatic. Lin (Andy Wong) befriends ex-con car expert Kurt (Westside's Xavier Horan), but they both end up in court after a street race crash. Longtime petrolhead Murray Keane created the show (which won a Qantas TV Award for its camerawork). Keane first made a pilot called Burnout, but the project won funding from NZ On Air's Innovation Initiative after he added an Asian family into the story.

Follow South Auckland’s finest as they go after the gangsters, dealers and thieves with the latest in crime science, intelligence gathering and crime prevention strategies. The mission: to drive down crime and make New Zealand’s meanest streets safer. Narrated by Jesse Mulligan, Crime Exposed is the first New Zealand series to look beyond the thin, blue frontline of policing and delve deep into the inner workings of our police force, to discover the strategies, technologies, men and women that are the new wave of law enforcement. Crime Exposed is a new kind of cop show for a new kind of policing. Our cameras follow a diverse range of crime fighting tales including a massive drug seizure operation and the intelligence behind it, we see how cutting edge surveillance technology is used to take down members of a prolific street gang and how the latest in crime prevention strategies leads to a colourful night amongst rowdy partygoers. With unprecedented access to police officers and procedures, Crime Exposed tells the real story of how New Zealand police are waging the war on crime.

"Some of it is hard to believe, some of it is laughable... and some just plain crazy..." These are the opening words to Road Madness, and the best way to sum up this brand new series, premiering on Wednesday, February 29 th at 8pm on 3. Hosted by comedian, Ewen Gilmour, Road Madness uses footage collected from cameras mounted in the cabs of trucks and on poles at trouble spots around the country to reveal some of the crazy and frightening driving happening on New Zealand roads every day and every night. Ewen's a self-confessed petrol head, owning two cars and five motorbikes, including a much-prized Triumph Bonneville; he once worked as a car wrecker and radiator repairman and has a trade certificate in auto parts and drives more than 50, 000 kilometers a year doing gigs around the country. With experience like that, one would think Ewen would be somewhat hardened to seeing and hearing stories of bad driving, but even he's surprised by the driving he sees on Road Madness. "I can't get over the risks people take - overtaking in dangerous places, speeding, asleep at the wheel - it's mad, mad, mad," he says. Like the foreign tourists here for a camper-van holiday who overtake a line of four trucks on a blind bend; the local bus drivers who run red lights; the cyclists who hitch a ride by hanging onto a high speed vehicle; or the drivers who take on the barriers at level crossings - the Road Madness cameras capture the behavior behind our road crash statistics. "In fact, it makes you wonder why there aren't more people dying on our roads when you see the lunacy of some drivers," says Ewen. But it's not just confined to New Zealand - over the course of the Road Madness viewers will witness bad driving footage from countries like Australia and the U.S..

Mangere Vice follows Detectives Kingi and Va'a as they police the streets of Mangere. Starring Rachel House, Cohen Holloway, Iaheto Ah Hi, Ana Scotney, Italia Hunt, Haanz Fa'avae-Jackson, Lauie Sila. Director - Damon Fepuleai, Producer - Sarah Cook

TV ONE’s new local series, Women in Blue, follows the lives of seven Kiwi female police officers, working the beat in cities and towns across the country. In New Zealand, policewomen have lower rates of citizen complaints and are acknowledged as being better at gaining the trust of victims of crime. They are relied on to improve community relations and foster a less aggressive approach to keeping the peace than their male counterparts. Is it a battle of the sexes? Or do policewomen bring a different skill set to the force? Women in Blue turns the camera on policewomen and the wide range of work they cover - from detective work to search and rescue, from body identification and recovery, to search warrants and domestic violence, to dealing with drunks. The series chronicles how they deal with the job, both personally and professionally. See the stories of some of our most courageous New Zealanders, told in their own voices, in Women in Blue.