Before forensics, DNA, and CSI we had dollhouses – an unimaginable collection of miniature crime scenes, known as the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Created in the 1930s and 1940s by a crime-fighting grandmother, Frances Glessner Lee created the Nutshells to help homicide detectives hone their investigative skills. These surreal dollhouses reveal a dystopic and disturbing slice of domestic life with doll corpses representing actual murder victims, or perhaps something that just looks like murder. Despite all the advances in forensics, the Nutshells are still used today to train detectives. Documentary film, Of Dolls and Murder, explores the dioramas, the woman who created them, and their relationship to modern day forensics. From the iconic CSI television show to the Body Farm and criminally minded college students, legendary filmmaker and true crime aficionado, John Waters narrates the tiny world of big time murder.

Passed the Door of Darkness: Two young children dead, floating face down in their family’s bathtub. Their mother, shot in the back of the head, lies next to the tub in a pool of her own blood. On the floor slumped against a blood covered wall is her husband, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. For rookie Homicide Detective Chris Malloy this grisly scene is more than he expected to see in his first week of working the graveyard shift. For his partner, grizzled yet poetic Detective Murphy MacCasey, this is but one tragedy among countless in his fifteen years in homicide. They haven’t seen anything yet.

The lives of three people intersect on a late bus ride that’s hijacked by a suicidal political flunky. Shingo is a miserable young desk cop bucking for homicide division. Tetsu is a restroom cleaning attendant who has a mentally ill father and a penchant for mischief. And Saki is a petulant druggist/chemist who was born without an eye and keeps her disfigurement hidden behind shades. Months after the hijacking, the trio lives re-intertwine as they playfully seek revenge for their unhappy lives, until the games become deadly serious.

Over the last year, a series of grisly murders has plagued the small town of Solace. Investigators are baffled because no cause of death can be determined. Local law enforcement is under suspicion and county detective Kyle Fishburn is sent undercover to find the killer. Investigator uncovers a frightening twist when he realizes that the murders are not your garden variety homicides.

Two hard-living best friends and aficionados of illegal racing contests find their bond tested when one of them goes to trial for vehicular homicide.

A courageous homicide detective falls into a treacherous web of depravity after plunging herself into the world of sexual fetish videos in pursuit of an elusive serial killer. A madman has been slicing up bridesmaids all over the city, and Detective Greer English (Laura Romeo) is determined to see that justice is served. As the wave of terror continues, Detective English focuses her investigation on Billy Tagg (Michael McGovern) – a fetish photographer who specializes in the extreme. But Billy isn’t who he appears to be, and by the time Detective English discovers he’s been taken over by an ancient entity known as “The Tickle Monster,” she may already be laughing her way to an early grave.

A veteran homicide detective who has witnessed his socialite girlfriend kill her husband sees his inexperienced brother assigned to the case.

An artist with a rather unusual art-style literally uses all the men she likes for her artworks. Bodies begin to pile up in abandoned alleyways and the case is handed out to a homicide detective to bring in the artistic serial killer.

Patty McCormack’s “Mommy” is psychotically obsessed with her 12-year-old daughter Jessica Ann — so much so that when she finds out Jessica didn’t get the “Student of the Year” award again, she solves the problem by murdering the teacher who didn’t recommend her for it. She dismisses the killing as inconsequential (“a minor accident”), but the homicide detective assigned to the case suspects her immediately, and an insurance investigator who also suspects her tries to get close to Jessica Ann to find out what really happened.

Perhaps their strikingly different personalities make the relationship between detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles so effective. Jane, the only female cop in Boston’s homicide division, is tough, relentless and rarely lets her guard down, while the impeccably dressed Maura displays a sometimes icy temperament — she is, after all, more comfortable among the dead than the living. Together, the best friends have forged a quirky and supportive relationship; they drop the protective shield in each other’s company, and combine their expertise to solve Boston’s most complex cases.

Ambitious young cops try to prove themselves in their high-stakes careers, in which the smallest mistake can have deadly consequences. At the core of the close-knit group is perfectionist Andy McNally, whose father was a homicide detective before he burned out on the job. The series follows Andy and her four colleagues — Dov Epstein, Gail Peck, Traci Nash and Chris Diaz — as they experience the trials, triumphs and tribulations of police work, as well as its effect on their personal lives.

Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

After a serial killer imitates the plots of his novels, successful mystery novelist Richard “Rick” Castle receives permission from the Mayor of New York City to tag along with an NYPD homicide investigation team for research purposes.

After Portland homicide detective Nick Burkhardt discovers he’s descended from an elite line of criminal profilers known as “Grimms,” he increasingly finds his responsibilities as a detective at odds with his new responsibilities as a Grimm.

Detective Catherine Chandler is a smart, no-nonsense homicide detective. When she was a teenager, she witnessed the murder of her mother at the hands of two gunmen and herself was saved by someone – or something. Years have passed and while investigating a murder, Catherine discovers a clue that leads her to Vincent Keller, who was reportedly killed in 2002. Catherine learns that Vincent is actually still alive and that it was he who saved her many years before. For mysterious reasons that have forced him to live outside of traditional society, Vincent has been in hiding for the past 10 years to guard his secret – when he is enraged, he becomes a terrifying beast, unable to control his super-strength and heightened senses.