These past months have reignited my love for legal drama tv shows as my true crime podcasts just aren’t cutting it anymore and I decided to put together my personal list that I think are worthy enough for some couch time. Whatever type of legal drama you’re looking for, I’ve included a little something for everyone, so grab some popcorn, kick your feet up, and let’s see which legal drama tv shows have me ready to become a couch detective!
What are the best legal drama TV shows of all time? Here’s our picks:
1) Law and Order
While the original series aired from 1990-2010, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit began in 1999 and is the most popular of the Law and Order franchise boasting 22 seasons, 434 episodes, and continues to maintain steam in 2020.
2) Suits
Suits is a clever series featuring Mike Ross who is a college dropout. To help pay for personal issues at home, he makes the bold move of taking the Law School Admission Test for others. It’s through this very illegal self-employment plan and escaping a sting where he stumbles upon a job interview being held by “the best closer in town”, Harvey Specter. Thanks to his knowledge of the law and an eidetic memory (not to be confused with photographic memory), he’s taken under the wing of Harvey as his associate where they try cases together while trying to hide the truth about Mike’s lack of credentials.
3) Medium
Medium isn’t exactly like the others, but it hits all the right spots for me when it comes to marrying traditional legal drama tv shows with my love for the paranormal. If you enjoyed the magical trio in Charmed, then Medium is right up your alley and should give it a try.
Based on a real life woman by the name of Allison DuBois, a medium who claimed to have helped U.S. law officials in solving crimes through psychic abilities, this show revolves around the life of a woman and her immediate family. The show’s Allison DuBois has been hired on by the Phoenix, Arizona district attorney as a consultant, but not many know about the special abilities she uses to help solve cases.
4) How to Get Away With Murder
Annalise Keating is a domineering powerhouse in the courtroom as a defense attorney. She’s a mysterious woman with charisma and a load of brilliance to go with it. Each year she selects five students to work at her law firm, but this year’s promising candidates and the enigmatic Annalise Keating aren’t aware that a missing person’s case is about to unfold into something far worse – and they will be dragged into the eye of the storm causing their lives to change forever. Twists, turns, and secrets alike, How to Get Away With Murder is a riveting rabbit hole you need to explore.
5) Better Call Saul
With it’s first airdate of February 8, 2015, Better Call Saul has a total of 5 seasons under its belt and the promise of a 6th, which will be it’s final. This show has a cult following which may be attributed to it’s heavy association with Breaking Bad. So far they have racked up 39 Emmy Award nominations throughout their past 5 seasons and each season has been nominated for the Outstanding Drama Series award.
6) Damages
While the series didn’t last as long as I’d like, it still satisfied my love of legal thrillers. The series finale answered a lot of questions, but feels to have strayed away from the things I love about it, seemingly stuffing as much information and facts as possible to make sure everything is wrapped up in a nice little package before it’s final goodbye. That said, it’s still a fantastic series you won’t want to pass up.
7) The Good Wife
The series itself is robust in size; 7 seasons between the years of 2009 into 2016, and each season contains 22 episodes. The Good Wife also spawned a spin off, The Good Fight, in 2017 which continues to run present day, though production of their most recent season had to be cut short due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
8) Bones
The completely bingeable Bones has an amazing 12 seasons and is loosely based on the life and novels of forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs. What I recently learned that’s really neat is in Kathy Reichs’ crime novels, Temperance Brennan is the main character, but Temperance Brennan in the show writes mystery novels with the main character being Kathy Reichs. Bones is another legal drama that has a spin off, The Finger, but it only aired from January 12, 2012 to May 11, 2012 with a total of 13 episodes.
Conclusion – Best Legal Drama TV Shows of all Time
Whether you’re a fan of thriller, comedy, the paranormal, or straight up drama, this selection of legal dramas provides hours of non-stop, edge of your seat entertainment. If you’re looking for something spicy and mysterious or dark and humorous, everyone will be able to find something from this list that they’re sure to love. Have you gathered enough evidence to pinpoint which you’d like to watch first?
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Debra Haynes is a content writer filled with imagination and endless creativity. She has been writing personally for 20+ years and has recently begun the journey of doing what she loves professionally. A lover of all things strange and weird, she also flourishes in niches about pets, mental health, body positivity, and writing in the first person.
