Summary
Criminal Record earns its place at Apple with impressive cinematography, standout performances, and a tense central rivalry. But it’s unable to deliver on its earlier promises with a central mystery that quickly loses steam, testing viewers’ patience along the way.
Peter Capaldi returns to our screens once again after a full year away, gracing us with his presence in the first season of Apple TV+’s latest crime drama series, Criminal Record. The streaming platform kick starts 2024 with a bang, offering up this brand-new original series from writer/producer Paul Rutman (Vera), focusing on the rivalry between two determined detectives in the heart of England’s capital.
These two detectives are from different eras and different backgrounds, but they share the same tenacity for results. Their rivalry becomes the focal point of the series, which succeeds in many places, mainly making the most of a small budget and a simplistic setup, but it also falls short in a few other key areas too. Let’s explore the ups and downs of this intriguing new drama series in more detail.
Criminal Record starts with an emergency phone call from an anonymous caller. In this phone call, the female caller explains how her boyfriend has threatened to kill her and has bragged about killing his previous partner. She then details how the boyfriend has said that he got away with that particular murder and an innocent man is currently serving 24 years in prison in his place.
This inciting incident becomes the starting point for a new investigation from Detective Sergeant June Lenker, played by Cush Jumbo, who happily reopens the old case, desperate for justice to be served. She believes that the inmate Errol Mathis (Tom Moutchi) is the person that the caller is referring to and she sets out to prove his innocence.
This investigation leads June to clash with old-school DCI Daniel Hegarty (Capaldi), who was the senior investigating officer in that specific case. He wants to protect his legacy when June comes snooping around and prove his arrest was the right decision, but he might also be covering up something much more sinister.
These central plot points gradually unravel as the series progresses, but the main investigation quickly loses steam and viewers may rapidly lose interest in this frustrating drip-feeding of information as the writers stretch out the storyline to cover 8 installments. The show has just enough intrigue though to keep audiences coming back each week, but this isn’t the most engaging of police procedurals out there.
Criminal Record is a standard crime drama series that doesn’t offer anything new to add to the genre. Instead, it focuses on making the most of its budget, script, and star power to consistently entertain viewers on a weekly basis with just enough of a spark in each episode. And as you’d expect, each installment ends with a surprise twist ending to drag you back the following week.
The show’s (presumably) small budget is masked particularly well. Criminal Record looks slick and surprisingly up-market, depicting a gritty and yet lived-in London. Meanwhile, the script wrings the utmost tension from every single setup, peppering the plotting with modern themes, which touch upon racism and cultural division.
The two lead actors keep the action engaging. Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) and Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife) are great as the rival detectives. Their rivalry intensifies throughout the season as the coverup unravels. It’s just a shame that the mysteries and the central investigation don’t work half as well as the detective’s ruthless feud does. If the investigation had a little more bite to it, then this series could have soared.
What did you think of Criminal Record Season 1? Comment below.
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