Happy Friday! This week’s “global TV to watch” is about ten crime drama series, each from a different country, that you can stream for free in the US (and elsewhere in some cases).
All of this week’s titles are available in the on-demand sections of the AVOD streaming platforms listed below. They may or may not be available on any of the platforms’ FAST channels. (For information about AVOD and FAST, read this article.)
Bad Guys (South Korea)
In this action-crime thriller, senior police officer Nam Goo-hyun (Kang Shin-il, When the Weather is Fine) enlists the help of suspended Detective Oh Gu-tak (Sang-Jung Kim, The Banker), nicknamed “Crazy Dog,” to find the person who murdered his son, a young detective. Gu-tak is no stranger to parental grief; his daughter was murdered, too. So he agrees, but conditionally: Goo-hyun must get three convicts released from jail to be on his team. With violent crimes on the rise in their district, Goo-hyun acquiesces.
The convicts are gangland boss Park Woong-Cheol (Ma Dong-seok, Train to Busan), hitman Jung Tae-soo (Dong-Hyuk Cho, Rugal), and genius and serial killer Lee Jung-moon (Park Hae-Jin, Cheese in the Trap). Gu-tak assures Goo-hyun and fellow cop Yu Mi-young (Ye-won Kang, Part-Time Spy) that, with Woong-Cheol’s strength, Tae-soo’s skills, and Jung-moon’s intelligence, the “Crazy Dogs” team will be able to catch any criminal.
Bad Guys is currently streaming for free in the US on The Roku Channel and Tubi. (You can watch the entire series without ads on Hulu or Disney+ with a subscription.) (Fyi, Bad Guys on Netflix US is the Thai remake.)
Black Sun (Serbia)
One of the most popular Euro TV shows on free streaming services in the US, Black Sun is a period crime thriller set in the Balkans between the end of WWI and the start of WWII. Season 1 is set in the late 1920s, prior to the January 1929 establishment of the dictatorship in what is now Yugoslavia, and follows two Belgrade police inspectors — Andra “Tane” Tanasijević (Dragan Bjelogrlić, South Wind), a war veteran-turned-police officer, and Stanko Pletikosić (Andrija Kuzmanović, Golden Boy), a young forensic scientist — as they investigate a series of brutal murders connected to a coveted religious relic.
Of Black Sun‘s two seasons, only Season 1 is currently streaming for free in the US on Freevee, Plex, and Tubi.
Da Vinci’s Inquest (Canada)
This October marks the 25th anniversary of the multi-award-winning Da Vinci’s Inquest, one of the absolute best mystery-crime drama series that ever aired. Set in Vancouver, it stars Nicholas Campbell (Coroner, Haven) as Dominic Da Vinci, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police undercover officer-turned-coroner who investigates crimes in the city with Detectives Leo Shannon (Donnelly Rhodes, Battlestar Galactica), Angela Kosmo (Venus Terzo, Arrow), and Mick Leary (Ian Tracey, Intelligence). There is nothing flash about this show — just well-crafted stories that draw you in episode after episode, and top-notch acting by Campbell and the rest of the cast. If you’ve never seen it before, do check it out.
The first four (of seven) seasons of Da Vinci’s Inquest are currently streaming for free in the US on Pluto TV. (Fyi, the sequel series, Da Vinci’s City Hall, in which Dominic Da Vinci is the mayor of Vancouver, is also streaming for free, not on Pluto TV but on Plex, The Roku Channel, and Tubi.)
Deadly Seasons (France)
Based on the detective novels by Gilda Piersanti, this dark crime drama consists of four feature-length telefilms that follow the criminal investigations of the Paris Police murder squad, led by Commissioner Rousseau (Patrick Chesnais, Missing Angel, No Limit) and his assistant, criminal profiler Mariella de Luca (Camille Panonacle, Sex, Love & Therapy). As they delve into the grisly murders to find the killers, Rousseau is haunted by the disappearance of his son five years ago.
Deadly Seasons is currently streaming for free in the US on Crackle, Plex, and Tubi. (All four episodes are streaming ad-free in the US on Prime Video.)
Dry Water (Spain-Portugal)
In the first season of this bilingual (Portuguese and Galician) crime thriller, neither the police nor Teresa Duarte (Victoria Guerra, Glória, Santo) believe that her brother, Paolo, committed suicide. Impatient for answers, Teresa relocates from Lisbon to Vigo and gets a job at the shipping company where Paolo had worked, while launching her own investigation into his death. Leading the official police inquiry is Inspector Viñas (Sergio Pazos, Serramoura, Cuéntame Cómo Pasó), who, like Teresa, also believes it was murder. Details about the gun used become the first lead in the case, which soon escalates and uncovers an arms trafficking network operating between Europe and Africa.
Part of that network is Galdón Group CEO Mauro Galdón (Monti Castiñeiras, Néboa, Cocaine Coast), a successful businessman, a renowned philanthropist, and one of the most influential people in Vigo — and Teresa’s godfather. He owns that shipping company. And his and Teresa’s paths will soon collide, and neither of them realizes how hard it will hit them.
Dry Water: Season 1 is currently streaming for free in the US on Tubi.
The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries (UK)
For a good old-fashioned whodunit series, there’s The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, whose episodes are based on titles in Ngaio Marsh’s “Inspector Roderick Alleyn” book series from the Golden Age of British Mystery. It consists of nine total episodes; the pilot stars Simon Williams (Doctor Who) as the titular detective, with Patrick Malahide (Luther, Game of Thrones) taking on the role of Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn in the other eight feature-length episodes.
The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries is currently streaming for free in the US on Tubi.
Line Walker (Hong Kong)
This action-crime thriller series is the first title in the “Line Walker” franchise, which also includes prequel series Line Walker: The Prelude and sequel series Line Walker: Bull Fight, as well as the films Line Walker and Line Walker 2: Invisible Spy.
The series Line Walker follows the lives of undercover agents in the Criminal Intelligence Bureau of the Hong Kong Police, who risk being found out by the criminals they have infiltrated. Shortly before a police superintendent dies under mysterious circumstances, he tells Chief Inspector Cheuk Hoi (Michael Miu, Flying Tiger) that he was the handler for five undercover agents, all of whom seem to have gone missing. Before taking his last breath, the senior officer also informs Hoi that there are moles in the police force who are working for the triads (organized crime syndicates), and tasks him with finding the five undercover agents to protect them before their covers are blown — a job Hoi will have to do without help from any of his colleagues, as he doesn’t know who amongst them he can trust.
All three series and both films in the “Line Walker” franchise are currently streaming for free in the US on Tubi.
The Prague Mysteries (Czech Republic/Czechia)
Set in 1922, this historical crime drama features stories that are inspired by real-life cases from this period in Prague’s history. The ten-episode series follows the investigations of Chief Inspector Budik (Jaroslav Plesl, An Innocent Man), an experienced Austro-Hungarian criminologist, and his colleagues, Inspector Havlik (Jirí Langmajer, The Labyrinth) and Detective Martin Novacek (Denis Safarík, Vedma), of the Prague State Police. With the establishment of the Greater Prague region, formed by the merger of central Prague with the surrounding urban areas and nearby villages, forests, factories and farms, comes an increase of crime — and new environments that the citified detectives must learn to work in. But murder is murder, whether it is committed in the posh city center or amidst the muddy outskirts of Greater Prague, and it is up to Budik and his team to solve them.
The Prague Mysteries is currently streaming for free in the US on Freevee, The Roku Channel, and Tubi, and in the UK on Freevee.
Strike Force (Netherlands)
One of the most successful Dutch series, action-crime drama Strike Force centers on the criminal investigations of a pair of cops who are polar opposites: Theo Kamp (Jeroen van Koningsbrugge, Riphagen), an impetuous homicide detective with a history of crossing the line between law and crime, and Willem Niessen (Dennis van de Ven, The Passion), the straightest, most by-the-book detective on the police force. The two become partners after Theo steps out of line one too many times and is reassigned to the drugs squad, under the watchful eye of Willem, as punishment.
Over the course of the show’s five seasons, the storylines detail the risks Theo and Willem take and the problems they encounter in their jobs every day while they fight crime in Tilburg and Amsterdam (in Season 2) — from investigating shootings and kidnappings, to rooting out police moles and trying to prevent a gang war — while also exploring their psychologies and personalities and the development of their working relationship.
Seasons 1-4 (of 5) of Strike Force are currently streaming for free in the US on Plex.
Troppo (US-Australia)
Based on the best-selling novel Crimson Lake by Candice Fox, this crime thriller centers on the mismatched mystery-solving team of Amanda Pharrell (Nicole Chamoun, The Gloaming, Safe Harbour, Romper Stomper) and Ted Conkaffey (Thomas Jane, The Expanse, Hung, The Thin Red Line). She’s an eccentric private investigator with a criminal past; he’s a disgraced ex-cop who escaped to Far North Queensland after being falsely accused of a disturbing crime. Amanda’s first real case is the disappearance of a Korean family man and tech pioneer, and she recruits Ted to help her solve it. As the pair set about to find the missing man, they discover a series of strange deaths and end up in a fight for both their survival and their sanity.
Troppo is currently streaming for free in the US and UK exclusively on Freevee.
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