Criminal: UK

Criminal uses its small canvas to ask big questions. The focus on these intricate dances means that after a while we begin to question the idea of objective truth, as well as the facts at hand. I have no idea if it is a realistic depiction of detective work, but it makes for gripping drama.

Attempts to create a running thread by fleshing out the police team’s relationships – office politics, post-work socialising, workplace affairs, unrequited crushes and competitive jostling to advance their careers – fall a little flat. You find yourself impatient to get back to the main battle of wits. Despite such flaws, though, Criminal grips, beguiles and keeps you guessing.

Every episode is a spare, precision-engineered hour without a wasted shot or beat. If it feels occasionally just slightly too slick or the writing slightly too clever, these are very much forgivable flaws. Overall it feels like Law & Order: Terence Rattigan Unit and I love it, even if I never thought I’d see the day.

While the cases themselves are strictly contained within each episode, over the course of the three in each volume, Kay and Smith give the audience tantalizing glimpses into what drives the detectives who are trying to enact justice.

That the episodes are largely standalone, with familiar types of crimes, helps. ... You don’t need to know much going in to get something out of it. But the rigidity of the format and the brevity of each three-episode season create stumbling blocks.

All told, Criminal plays well for a specific group. Fans of crime dramas will have fun sinking their teeth into every episode as they get a feel for the different kinds of procedures deployed to take down a suspect depending on the country they’re in. But be warned: This is not a bingeable show. Spend too much time with Criminal and you risk getting bored stiff.

Sometimes the idea for a series is better than the execution. ... The repetition of the will-the-suspect-break idea begins to nag. Worse, and perhaps this is an American-based red flag, the legal counsel in all four countries leaves a lot to be desired. ... Criminal is an interesting if not necessarily original idea, and you can see the appeal for Netflix, but viewers are likely to want something more expansive.

Netflix’s Criminal is a thought experiment that’s been turned into a TV show. ... Fans of formal experiments will eat the show up — at least at first. At a certain point, though, the lack of narrative and visual variety starts to leach away the novelty.

Criminal’s two sides, interrogator and interrogatee, simply don’t have the characterization or passion to keep its hyper-realistic war waging. The actors do their best with their scripts, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-esque twists answer each too-subtle premise. A tactical disconnect hamstrings a competent cast and makes each case’s resolution feel as transparent as the right side of the one-way glass.