Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery in 'Pretty Little Liars' Image via Freeform By Kareem Gantt Published Oct 3, 2026, 9:03 PM EDT Kareem is a veteran editor and writer with over 15 years of experience covering all forms of entertainment, from music to movies. He serves as a High Trending List Writer for Collider, covering all things TV. His work has been seen in numerous online publications such as FanSided, AXS, Examiner, Narcity, HuffPost, and ScreenRant. He first began his professional writing career in 2011 writing political columns for HubPages, gradualaly building his portfolio until he was rewarded with his first paid writing position with News Headquarters in 2013. Since then, Kareem has covered everything imaginable, from writing political news columns for Examiner, reviewing the latest albums for AXS.com, and giving a unique take on sports, food, and the entertainment industry for Fansided.com. He had another online stop at Narcity, covering travel and things to do in his native Florida, before finally bringing his uniquely immense writing talent and voice to Valnet in 2020, first as a List Writer for ScreenRant before taking his talents to Collider in 2021. During his time at Collider, Kareem has showcased his talented writing style on a number of beats, trailer previews ( DOTA: Dragon's Blood ) to season premiers ( Abbott Elementary ), to Lists ranking everything from 80s Sitcoms (which holds a special place in his heart), to classic Disney Channel shows. When he's not working, you can catch him bing-watching classic horror movies (he's a huge fan of Friday the 13th ), hitting bike trails, and playing UNO (and losing) during game nights with friends. He calls Orlando, FL home. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Thread 2 Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap Slow-burn mystery shows often get a bad rap for making the viewing audience do something that television wasn't invented to do: make you think. TV is often regarded as comfort food , something that you can turn to if you want to cut your brain off for a while. But that's not the case for mystery slow burns.
These shows are experts at making you put your thinking cap on to solve the pieces of a slowly involving puzzle. While some people may not see the value in that, slow-burn mystery shows have tremendous value , and if you stick around, the payoff at the end is usually satisfying. So, to try to convince you that slow burns are absolutely worth it, here are the mystery shows that are experts at making slow burns truly exciting.
Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller in 'Elementary' Image via CBS Sherlock Holmes doesn't do anything quick. Every mystery that he's found himself embroiled in has been a slow burn , requiring the viewer to take their time and help him unravel mysteries. That was the case for the CBS series Elementary , a modern-day take on the famous British detective with a slight twist.
Here, Holmes ( Jonny Lee MIller ), is recovering from drug addiction, and seeks out his sober companion, Dr. Joan Watson ( Lucy Liu ) to help him solve cases while also kicking his demon to the curb. Elementary doesn't start out fast. It uses a slow and prodding pace to build suspense . However, at the end of each episode, you will be rewarded with a satisfying payoff. That's what great mysteries do, and why Elementary is definit…