“12 unique crime stories, four countries, one chance to uncover the truth,” teases the logline of Netflix's new crime procedural Criminal, tempting every crime drama fan in just a few words. Consider our interest piqued.
The show exclusively features one of our favorite parts of any crime anthology: the interrogation room complete with all of its psychological chess. But first, we have some questions of our own. Namely, are the stories in Criminal true crime or works of fiction?
While the experimental, psychological drama promises tantalizing character studies of both the suspects and the investigators from the likes of David Tennant and Hayley Atwell, you won’t be able to find the details of these crimes outside of these fictitious police precincts. It would come as no surprise if the writers of Criminal were inspired by true crimes; however, the crimes all four teams of investigators are attempting to solve are works of fiction. Each episode is written and directed by teams from the countries in which the series is set with the overall vision executed by showrunners from Killing Eve and Endeavour, George Kay and Jim Field Smith, reports Deadline.
The dynamic that really sets Criminal apart from other crime dramas is that it occurs entirely in the confines of the interrogation room and the room on the other side of the two-way mirror. It is an ideal series for anyone who loves to watch characters develop and play out under a microscope. Just know that you won’t be able to do your own internet investigation into the crimes while watching them play out on screen.
Criminal is quite an undertaking even for Netflix. The true crime procedural is comprised of 12 standalone episodes set across the world in four different countries, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Spain, and filmed in their four respective languages. If you are a fan of criminal psychology and series that focus almost exclusively on its characters as a study of human nature, this just might be the series of your binge-watching dreams.