TV Shows With Mismatched Detective Partners

Some crime shows are worth it for the cases. These are worth it for the two people working them. Every pick here is built on one investigating pair who do not naturally fit: a believer and a skeptic, a snob and a slob, a cop and a con man, a vicar and a detective inspector. The fun is in the friction, the bickering that slowly turns into trust, and the way two clashing methods crack a case neither would solve alone. The test for a place was simple: the partnership has to be the reason to keep watching, not just a feature of it. That leaves out big-team procedurals, solo-sleuth shows with a sidekick, and comedies where the jokes matter more than the mysteries. If you want a starting point, The X-Files and Lewis show the two ends of the range, from cosmic paranoia to polite Oxford murder.