Everyone loves a good cop show. From the early days of television detective shows have been one of the most popular genres on the air. They have ranged everywhere from goofy slapstick in Police Squad to dark and gritty in the BBC’s Luther. One thing that always remains consistent though is the brilliant detective at the heart of the show.

There has been no shortage of iconic TV detectives over the years, from Magnum P.I. to Scooby-Doo, and what each has in common is some level of intelligence – after all, it’s needed for the job. However, some TV detectives prove their smarts more clearly than others.

Updated on December 3rd, 2022 by Amanda Bruce: Thanks to the rise of true crime podcasts and documentaries, even fictional takes on crime and mystery are more popular than ever. TV fans love to see the mind of a good detective at work. There is such a wide range of styles among the most famous of TV detectives, but one thing is for sure – they’re very good at puzzles. With the aid of streaming sites, there’s no shortage of TV detectives for fans to learn from. There’s the enduring legacy of the Law & Order franchise, a classic reinvented in the CW’s Nancy Drew, and even the revival of the long-running Criminal Minds for fans to solve mysteries alongside.

Frank Drebin (Police Squad)

Police Squad may have only run for six episodes, but those episodes, and the three movies based on them, have cemented Frank Drebin as one of the funniest detectives to ever appear on-screen. While his original show portrayed him as much more capable than the movies later would, Drebin is still a textbook case of the bumbling cop.

Frank Drebin is clumsy and has a knack for getting himself into ridiculous situations, but he always manages to catch the crook in the end. Drebin may not be the smartest cop on TV, but he still manages to be pretty good at his job.

Jake Peralta (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

With as much chaos as Jake Peralta causes on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it is easy to forget that he is actually a talented detective. While he may not quite be on par with some of the greatest TV detectives, Peralta is still a capable investigator and manages to be both the best and worst detective in Brooklyn Nine-Nine at the same time.

Peralta’s immaturity and habitual pop-culture references keep him from reaching the upper echelons of television’s crime fighters, but his quick wit and dedication to the job mean he is still someone most criminals probably wouldn’t want on their trail.

Velma Dinkley (Scooby-Doo)

When it comes to the members of Mystery Inc., Velma Dinkley is clearly the most intelligent of the bunch. Fred might be the team leader, but it’s Velma’s plans and tendency to pick up on hidden clues that really help her friends solve the mysteries.

Of course, if Velma was a really great detective, she probably wouldn’t let Fred lead the way every time, and she would probably keep a better eye on Shaggy and Scooby-Doo every time the friends decided to split up to search for evidence. At least she always knows just which criminal is under the mask even if all of Velma’s decisions in the series don’t make sense.

Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars)

For someone who is still in high school, Veronica Mars proved herself to be quite the intelligent sleuth in her self-titled show, Veronica Mars. Despite being significantly younger than the protagonists of most police procedurals detective shows, the show sees Mars deal with some incredibly heavy topics and dark themes that would be at home in a gritty police procedural.

Mars is clever enough to help her detective father out on his cases while also investigating her own at school or around town. Her age and inexperience hold her back a little, but Veronica Mars is still a force to be reckoned with and is one of pop culture’s great female detectives.

Thomas Magnum (Magnum P.I.)

Magnum P.I. was a show that was occasionally more concerned with style than substance, but that hasn’t stopped its lead Thomas Magnum from becoming an iconic detective in his own right. Magnum is a private investigator living a life of luxury in Hawaii who operates on his own terms.

Magnum isn’t the brooding and dogged detective that most of his contemporaries are, but he is still more than capable of keeping order in his little corner of paradise. Magnum has the undeniable cool factor, but he also has the brains to figure out the occasionally absurd cases he takes, like stopping an assassin dressed as a nun for working on a Sunday.

Olivia Benson (Law & Order: SVU)

Olivia Benson is a fairly typical TV detective in a lot of ways. Her time is spent questioning suspects, but a lot of the actual solving of the mysteries is down to DNA evidence and crime scene technicians. Where Olivia excels, however, is working with survivors of violent crimes.

She’s one of the most empathetic TV detectives to ever exist. Olivia understands survivors and traumatized witnesses in a way that not many people do. That allows her to get them to open up to her when they might not want to relive the things that have happened to him, and that allows her access to more information than most TV detectives would have.

Shawn Spencer (Psych)

Psych’s Shawn Spencer was quite literally raised to be a detective since he was a child. Coached by his father on the police force, Shawn has developed an incredible memory and an eye for detail most people could only dream of. Like Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Jake Peralta, Shawn has maintained a lovable level of immaturity that sometimes puts him at odds with the more serious police detectives.

Shawn may be one of the most unconventional detectives on TV, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t also one of the smartest. Shawn’s unique way of investigating gets him into almost as much trouble as it does evidence, and his eccentricities are a lot to handle, but he is still an incredible detective. Shawn Spencer may not really be psychic, but he might as well be.

Crockett and Tubbs (Miami Vice)

Miami Vice is not only one of the best cop shows of the ’80s, it was an absolute cultural phenomenon that is still referenced and copied today. One of the main reasons for its popularity was its two leads, vice detectives James Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs.

In addition to their iconic style, Crockett and Tubbs are also very interesting and complex characters who are willing to do just about anything to crack the case. Their frequent undercover work and endless street smarts make the pair one of the most capable police duos on TV, able to unravel even the most twisted criminal conspiracies.

Nancy Drew (Nancy Drew)

Nancy Drew is one of the most famous fictional detectives of all time. She’s had books, movies, and TV shows dedicated to her solving mysteries, and in most of those, she remains the perennial teenager. She might not have the experience of all the other TV detectives since she’s still a teen, but she’s certainly got the smarts.

In the CW’s adaptation of Nancy Drew, Nancy unravels the threads of more ghost stories than she does real-life crimes. She also rarely works alone as she has a strong support system of friends with a variety of skills. Nancy is the one to form plans and ultimately put the pieces together to figure out the complete puzzle though, running circles around local law enforcement as she does.

John Luther (Luther)

John Luther is famous among the London Metropolitan Police Service for being one the best cops on the force, but unfortunately, his inner demons often get in the way of his police work. Phenomenally played by Idris Elba, Luther is unquestionably a genius when it comes to solving crimes, but the horrible things that he has seen and done in his years as a detective haunt him.

Luther is reckless, violent, and prone to breaking as many rules as he can in his pursuit of justice, which often gets him into some serious trouble. Despite his flaws, John Luther is still one of the smartest detectives on television and proves this when he comes up against the cunning Alice time and time again.

Adrian Monk (Monk)

The title character of Monk, Adrian Monk, is a lot of things. He is awkward, shy, compulsive, and afraid of just about everything, but the most important aspect of his character is that he is an absolute crime-solving genius. Monk sees clues in things that every other police officer would write off as inconsequential and can piece together some of the most outlandish crimes on TV from nothing.

Monk is able to crack open the most convoluted cases from clues as small as the way a pen rolls off of a table or a broken gumball machine. His countless phobias, compulsions, and social ineptitudes may constantly impede his investigations, but Monk is still easily one of the smartest detectives in television history.

Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote)

An English teacher first and a mystery writer second, Jessica Fletcher never meant to become a detective. She might not be in law enforcement, and she might not even have an investigative license, but she could rival Columbo and Sherlock Holmes with her observation skills.

Jessica, no matter what vacation she goes on or what relative she visits, always manages to discover the truth behind small town gossip, find the smallest piece of evidence the police miss, and clear someone wrongfully accused of murder. She even has police officers seeking her out for her advice.

Columbo (Columbo)

Columbo is not only one of the most beloved and charismatic TV detectives of all time, he is also one of the smartest. On the surface, Columbo’s titular character seems like a regular, casual cop, far removed from the high society that he usually finds himself working around. In reality though, he pieces together the details of the crime before anyone even realizes it.

Columbo can solve entire cases over the course of a conversation with the suspect. Like some detectives can find clues in assuming places, Columbo can connect dots in multiple versions of a crime to find the truth. Through his iconic “Just one more thing” line, Columbo can outsmart even the cleverest of criminals.

Spencer Reid (Criminal Minds)

Spencer Reid has one of the most prestigious jobs associated with detective work – he is an agent for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit in Criminal Minds. That job doesn’t just require someone to piece together evidence like a puzzle, but also to read people and predict behavior of violent criminals.

While the entire team in the series brings fascinating skills to the table, Reid is the fastest learner of the bunch, and the best at pattern recognition, allowing him to do a lot of the more technical work that could take someone else days or weeks to accomplish. He’s able to understand the motivations of a criminal as quickly as he can establish the “hunting ground” of a serial killer, and there are few TV detectives who can rival his skill.

Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock)

The smartest TV detective of all time also has to be the most legendary fictional detective of all time. Sherlock Holmes has been adapted to the screen numerous times, but Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn as the sleuth in BBC’s Sherlock has become one of the most iconic Holmes adaptations in recent memory.

While there are some notable flaws in Sherlock, this version of Holmes puts his abilities on full display which always makes for a riveting watch. Holmes can bring together every detail of a case within his mind and is capable of reading a person’s entire identity just from meeting them. He has solved some of the most elaborate cases imaginable and is the clear choice for TV’s smartest detective.