Best Small Town Sheriff Movies & TV Shows

When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one strange little girl.

The body of Laura Palmer is washed up on a beach near the small Washington state town of Twin Peaks. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate her strange demise only to uncover a web of mystery that ultimately leads him deep into the heart of the surrounding woodland and his very own soul.

Unravel the mystery of a nightmarish town in middle America that traps all those who enter. As the unwilling residents fight to keep a sense of normalcy and search for a way out, they must also survive the threats of the surrounding forest – including the terrifying creatures that come out when the sun goes down.

Banshee is an American drama television series set in a small town in Pennsylvania Amish country and features an enigmatic ex-con posing as a murdered sheriff who imposes his own brand of justice while also cooking up plans that serve his own interests.

The sleepy Pacific Northwest town of Eureka is hiding a mysterious secret. The government has been relocating the world's geniuses and their families to this rustic town for years where innovation and chaos have lived hand in hand. U.S. Marshal Jack Carter stumbles upon this odd town after wrecking his car and becoming stranded there. When the denizens of the town unleash an unknown scientific creation, Carter jumps in to try to restore order and consequently learns of one of the country's best kept secrets.

A Wyoming sheriff rebuilds his life and career following the death of his wife. Based on the “Walt Longmire” series of mystery novels written by best-selling author Craig Johnson.

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore – and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.

When 2% of the world's population abruptly disappears without explanation, the world struggles to understand just what they're supposed to do about it. The drama series 'The Leftovers' is the story of the people who didn't make the cut.

Picket Fences is an American television drama about the residents of the town of Rome

The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised on CBS between October 3, 1960 and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays the widowed sheriff of the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina. His life is complicated by an inept, but well-meaning deputy, Barney Fife, a spinster aunt and housekeeper, Aunt Bee, and a precocious young son, Opie. Local ne'er-do-wells, bumbling pals, and temperamental girlfriends further complicate his life. Andy Griffith stated in a Today Show interview, with respect to the time period of the show: "Well, though we never said it, and though it was shot in the '60s, it had a feeling of the '30s. It was when we were doing it, of a time gone by." The series never placed lower than seventh in the Nielsen ratings and ended its final season at number one. It has been ranked by TV Guide as the 9th-best show in American television history. Though neither Griffith nor the show won awards during its eight-season run, series co-stars Knotts and Bavier accumulated a combined total of six Emmy Awards. The show, a semi-spin-off from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show titled "Danny Meets Andy Griffith", spawned its own spin-off series, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., a sequel series, Mayberry R.F.D., and a reunion telemovie, Return to Mayberry. The show's enduring popularity has generated a good deal of show-related merchandise. Reruns currently air on TV Land, and the complete series is available on DVD. All eight seasons are also now available by streaming video services such as Netflix.

Someone is shooting the residents of a mountain resort town. Sheriff McNeill (Andy Griffith) must figure out the connection that links the victims and find the sniper before he (or she) kills again, and before the town council relieves him of duty.

Everything is not what it seems in Trinity, South Carolina. Sheriff Lucas Buck develops a sinister interest in Caleb. Caleb's cousin Gail tries to protect him, but that's complicated since she has feelings for Sheriff Buck. And Caleb's dead sister, Merlyn, returns as an angel, warning him that Buck is an incarnation of evil - and may not be human.

Johnny Smith discovers he has developed psychic abilities after a coma.

The escape of Bubber Reeves from prison affects the inhabitants of a small Southern town.

Sam, a young man in a small town, is accused of being a thief. Unable to prove his innocence--and not knowing that he's being framed by a local villain to keep him away from pretty young Mary, the town beauty whom the villain wants for himself--he leaves town and goes to Hollywood to become an actor. He eventually returns home to town as a star, but once again finds himself the victim of the town villain, who this time abducts sweet young Mary. Sam must use all his acting skills to track down the villain and save Mary.

A rape case opens racial divisions in a small town. A black sheriff and his white deputy investigate allegations that a wealthy white businessman raped a black college student.

Dogged investigator Allegra Dill returns to her border-town Texas home after her sister is murdered. What begins as a search for a killer turns into an all-consuming fight to bring her corrupt hometown to its knees.

U.S. Navy veteran turned private investigator Jennifer Marshall investigates some of America's greatest unsolved mysteries.

A married woman and her lover plot to kill her husband to make off with the insurance money. However, their attempt to murder him using poisonous fish toxins backfires in surprising ways.

Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.

Racial tensions threaten to explode when a black man is elected sheriff of a small, racially divided town in the Deep South.

After he's continually harrassed and bullied by his town's citizens, the orphaned teenage son of a notorious gunslinger takes flight and joins a gang of youthful outlaws.

A father survives a plane crash in rural Appalachia, but becomes suspicious of the elderly couple who take him in to nurse him back to health with the ancient remedies.

Twenty years ago in the sleepy mining town of Valentine Bluffs, a fatal mining disaster occurred on Valentine's Day while some of the crew was decorating for a party. The sole survivor of the accident killed the remaining crewmembers and warned the town not to celebrate Valentine's Day again. When a group of teenagers decides to defy that order, a murderous maniac in mining gear begins dispatching townsfolk in bloody and creative ways.

Judge Jim Scott must contend with the vicious relatives of a murderer he's about to sentence...and his unfaithful fiancee.

Celebrated as supersleuth, Mr. Moto comes out fighting when a brutal boxing match turns into cold-blooded murder! Assisted by detective-in-training Lee Chan, Moto sets out to track down the killer based on a single ominous clue: a poisoned boxing glove! But when Moto's hunch points to a corrupt gambling syndicate, he's forced to wager his very life to unmask the culprit—or go down for the count...permanently!

When two youngsters meet and fall for each other, they must go on the run from the girl's corrupt father, who is also the sheriff of the town.

A sadistic small-town sheriff has a habit of deliberately forcing speeders to their deaths on the mountain roads leading into town. The brother of one of the victims rolls into town in his hot rod to investigate his brother's death.

Author & amateur astronomer John Putnam and schoolteacher Ellen Fields witness an enormous meteorite come down near a small town in Arizona, but Putnam becomes a local object of scorn when, after examining the object up close, he announces that it is a spacecraft, and that it is inhabited...

An oil engineer surrounded by foul play helps an heiress bring in a well.

A young woman returns to her small hometown intent on killing her abusive father only to discover someone murdered him the day before. As the girl searches for answers, she uncovers a family legacy more dangerous than she'd imagined.

After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a chainsaw-wielding killer and his family of equally psychopathic killers.

In Mystery, Alaska, life revolves around the legendary Saturday hockey game at the local pond. But everything changes when the hometown team unexpectedly gets booked in an exhibition match against the New York Rangers. When quirky small-towners, slick promoters and millionaire athletes come together.

LITTLE CHENIER: A CAJUN STORY is the story of a young man who lives a simple life on a houseboat in the Louisiana bayou with his mentally handicapped brother until one is accused of a crime in the small town.

When Bob Hart, a widowed police detective trying to raise a rebellious teenage daughter, inherits a Montana horse ranch, he jumps at the opportunity to leave Los Angeles for the open range. Soon after arriving, Bob accepts the position as county sheriff and discovers that the seemingly bucolic countryside is far from tranquil. His problems include wolves who attack his stock, ruthless developers trying to take over the town and a female veterinarian with a chip on her shoulder, while trying to build a new home.

Remy, a seemingly naive and devout young woman, finds herself cast out from her religious cult. With no place to turn, she immerses herself into the underground world of truck stop sex workers. Under the watchful eye of their matriarch and an enigmatic local lawman, Remy navigates between her strained belief system and the code to find her true calling in life.

Old Mexican-American sheriff Bob Valdez has always been a haven of sanity in a land of madmen when it came to defending law and order. But the weapon smuggler Frank Tanner is greedy and impulsive. When Tanner provokes a shooting that causes the death of an innocent man and Valdez asks him to financially compensate the widow, Tanner refuses to do so and severely humiliates Valdez, who will do justice and avenge his honor, no matter what it takes.

Dr. Steven Bishop is taken to the hideout of Frank Dillon and his gang to treat the wounded Joe Madison. Joe's nurse sister Nora Madison is also taken. Dillon tells Bishop that if Joe dies, he will be killed, but Bishop knows he will be either way. Joe dies, but Nora and Steve conceal it from Dillon and send a plea for help in a prescription that Bishop writes in Latin.

Sheriff Rockwell is settling into an unwanted retirement until his old war buddy and neighboring Sheriff is mysteriously shot. When overlooked evidence points to corruption, Alden must take the investigation into his own hands or else standby while a greater evil takes over the town.

A vengeful Southern sheriff is out for blood after his wife is brutally killed by a pair of drifters. Low-budget film set in Georgia in 1953 and at the time of release, purported to be based on a true story.

Clay is a young man in a small town who witnesses his friend, Earl kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the man's wife, Amanda. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists the widow when she presses him to continue with their sexual affairs. Clay inadvertently befriends a serial killer named Lester Long, who murders the widow in an attempt to "help" his "fishing buddy."

Chrissie and her friends set out on a road trip for a final fling before one is shipped off to Vietnam. Along the way, bikers harass the foursome and cause an accident that throws Chrissie from the vehicle. The lawman who arrives on the scene kills one of the bikers and brings Chrissie's friends to the Hewitt homestead, where young Leatherface is learning the tools of terror.

Intrepid teenage private eye Nancy Drew heads to Tinseltown with her father to investigate the unsolved murder of a movie star in this old-fashioned whodunit based on Carolyn Keene's popular series of books for young adults. But can the small-town girl cut through the Hollywood hype to solve the case?

After his wife and her blind sister have died under his care, a doctor's small daughter is kidnapped and reported as buried alive, and he is given just five hours to find and rescue her.

A detective becomes obsessed with solving a child's 50-year-old murder, uncovering striking similarities between the case and his son's disappearance.

Madoc County is a quiet and peaceful place until vagrant Kyle Hanson arrives. The people of Madoc County are repelled by his appearance and want to chase him out of the city. Unfortunately for them, Kyle Hanson is a former Vietnam elite soldier and he uses his skills to fight back.

Resort developer Madison Lane is tasked with finding a location for a new ski resort. Her boss tells her to take a trip to Christmas, Colorado, to consider the location. On her way into town, Madison has a minor fender-bender with the town’s welcome sign. Town Sheriff Gage McBride gives Madison a ride into town so she can attend her meeting with the mayor while the car is towed and repaired. Little does Madison know that the town is on a mission to convince Madison that Christmas is the best place for the new ski resort.

In the small town of Revelstoke, Alaska, local barber Dexter is surprised to learn that the body of Lucy Waters has been discovered. Having killed this woman, days ago, he hoped her body wouldn't be found until spring. Through the eyes of a serial killer, we discover the chilling layer of a weary town whose only concern is another long, dark winter.

Miraculously escaping a painful demise in the gallows, a notorious outlaw cons a crooked judge, an attractive saloon girl, and an old partner into carrying out the heist of a lifetime. As the plan gets underway, a small town sheriff makes it his personal mission to capture the outlaw and ensure that justice is served.

Los Reyes County, Arizona. Leland, a retired lawman, works with Wallace, the new sheriff who replaces him, when a vicious hit man, sent by a Mexican drug cartel, threatens their border small town.