Critic Reviews
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Criminal Record doesn’t traffic in binary characterizations; neither June nor her nemesis are as good or as bad as they seem. Both make assumptions about the other and regularly circumvent the rules to further their agenda, and I toggled at least four times between believing one’s version of events over the other’s. The uncertainty adds a tantalizing layer of tension to June and Hegarty’s many clashes, as does the thrill of watching Jumbo and Capaldi face off.
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Answers are never given freely, not even in the finale, and it’s that lack of complete closure that earns the show its laurels for me, leaving a nagging feeling that makes it impossible to forget.
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More than a meticulous procedural as it exposes a legacy of layered coverups while exploring the emotional frailties of these two unlike but smart characters. Both Jumbo and Capaldi give extraordinary performances in a series that digs deep into the complicated home lives of both. “Criminal Record” deserves to become a hit and here’s hoping for a second season.
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Criminal Record’s central case doesn’t exactly break new ground in terms of its storytelling, though it does touch on several painfully timely issues around the larger failings and institutional problems of policing and justice generally. (Though, on the whole, it is better at asking questions than it is at answering them.) But as a two-hander between two powerhouse performers at the top of their respective games? It’s more than worth your time.
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Well directed and shot with plenty of night-time city lights bokeh, Criminal Record is perfectly paced over its hour-long instalments, and hits the right notes when it comes to issues of modern Britain (generational conflict; institutional failures; loneliness).
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Unglamorous in the extreme, the series explores the grubby gears of police bureaucracy — and the racist results they generate — through a psychodrama that develops between two detectives working for the Metropolitan police. That might sound predictable. The show is not. .... Jumbo and Capaldi are powerhouses.
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Cleverly walks this line throughout its solid first season, juggling the issues of race, bias, and ethics with dexterity as it builds its central puzzle. That juggling act is occasionally bungled a bit by the show’s heavy-handedness, but even amid its most forced winks at the audience, Criminal Record holds itself up with a tremendous pair of central performances.
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Don’t let the plodding title put you off: Criminal Record is anything but your average police drama by numbers.
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“Criminal Record” is a thrilling exploration of our preconceived notions, the human obsession with power and legacy and what we’re willing to do to cling to the narratives we’ve created about other people and the world around us.
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Plot-wise, there is no new ground being broken here, although the intertwining of the past and present cases and their eventual unpicking is interesting enough. But the cleverness and subtlety with which so many questions are posed and issues teased out through the main characters are more than worth the price of admission.
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All the elements needed for a great, compulsive police drama are there: undercurrents of wrongdoing by those in power, exposed by an underdog copper against all the odds… with lots of action added in for extra oomph. If it was on a more mainstream channel, its success would be inevitable.
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In choosing to focus its attention on its superbly well-drawn characters, rather than any plot machinations, the series made something of a gamble, but one which has more than paid off due to the strength of Capaldi and Jumbo's performances.
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As charismatic as Lenker is, and as instinctively leery we may be of Hegarty, it is the balance created between the two characters—one a dogged idealist, the other a case-hardened veteran, both carrying no end of personal baggage—that elevates the entire eight-part series.
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Criminal Record is as relevant as it is suspenseful, crackling whenever Jumbo and Capaldi share the screen. [8 - 28 Jan, p.8]
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The clash of old guard and new, through Lenker and Hegarty, is what drives the show, and it’s when they’re on screen—and especially when they’re facing off against each other—that Criminal Record is at its best.
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Not all of the plot threads get tied up satisfyingly by the end, which is frustrating and, given the careful writing up until that point, disappointing. Still, the ride to that end is dynamic, engaging, and effective, largely thanks to a pair of excellent lead performances and some relevant themes.
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Cush Jumbo and her character are the reasons why we’re going to keep watching Criminal Record. Not that we hate Peter Capaldi’s character, but at the outset he feels much more generic than Jumbo’s character, and given that the two of them face off during the entire season, that could end up being a big problem.
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The resolution, when it finally comes, is unsatisfying. After eight episodes, the thinness of the show’s ambitions are revealed.
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Despite boasting captivating performances from co-leads Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi, its writing, cinematography, and direction relegate it to Apple’s ever-growing pile of uninspired dramas.
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What might be a knotty enough case to sustain a two-hour movie or a four-episode arc within a longer drama starts to drag over eight hours. Which might be more forgivable if the world of the show were engaging enough to stand on its own merits — but despite creator Paul Rutman’s ear for natural-sounding dialogue, his characters hardly seem to deepen past the ideas they’re meant to represent.
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