Netflix has just launched a new crime series. The overall concept is interesting; four separate programmes made up of three episodes each, each set in police stations in different countries. There’s Criminal United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain - all are available to watch now.
While the concept definitely caught my attention, I’m not sure if I’m missing something with the first episode of Criminal United Kingdom. It has the feel of a mid series episode; we are launched straight in to the interrogation of a suspect, with police officers watching the interview behind glass. The room where the observing officers are sitting is super dramatic, full of red lights and flashing graphics. There are 45 minutes of the police interview left - there's a big clock with some lights that count down. The interrogation room itself looks like they're in a hotel. The characters not involved in interviewing the suspect talk about stuff we don’t know about, to people we aren’t properly introduced to. In fact, I honestly don’t think I could name a single character in the whole episode, save for the teenage murder victim Nicki at the centre of the investigation.
Episode One, titled Edgar, deals with the difficult subject of child rape and murder. David Tennant plays a man (a doctor who’s name I’m assuming is Edgar, but I'm not 100% on that) accused of the murder of his step daughter whilst accompanying her on a netball tour. He is interviewed by two male police officers, and represented by a female lawyer (honestly that is the only way I can describe the characters, I'm struggling to remember them well enough to write this review). That’s all I’ll say about the main plot, as the suspense of whether or not this man is guilty is really what keeps Criminal United Kingdom interesting.
The episodes are each around forty minutes long; it could really do with being an hour. The end of the interview and the conclusion of the first episode feels very rushed. The length of the episode wouldn't be a problem Criminals UK could just decide what it wants to do. Is it a drama about police interrogation and individual cases, or is it trying to have an equal focus on the personal lives of the police who are doing the work? The characters just aren't introduced well enough for this to work.
There are too many brief insights into the police officers’ personal lives that feel out of place and quite jarring at times. Of course, in other police dramas the personal lives of the coppers provide much of the drama. In this case, so little backstory is given that it just feels like a waste of time. There's slow build and then there's just no build at all. Every time the shot moved from the interview to the police observing it, I groaned a little as it was just so dull.
Here's what I got in episode one: someone has come back to work at the police station and that is making someone else - feel emotions? Honestly I couldn't point out in a line-up which character has come back, which character cares and who likes who. None of the characters seem to have any particular rapport with one another, but of course I might just be asking a bit too much of a first episode. The quick insights into workplace tension, personal lives etc are just that - so quick that you waste time trying to work out who they are and what they have to do with the story.
David Tennant (full disclosure - one of my favourite actors of all time) carries this episode. His performance as a stepfather accused of murder is excellent and is one of his strongest performances in the last ten years. He has an unnervingly calm quality about him and makes you question whether or not he is guilty right until the close of the episode. I don't think this is a spoiler, as each episode deals with a new case I would expect the story to be wrapped up. Again, I just wish there was an extra fifteen minutes to allow for the outside storylines to be expanded on just a little - this would allow the interrogation to be wrapped up properly.
This review is just for episode one - there are three episodes each focusing on a different interrogation - and of course the character set up could become less clunky in the next couple of episodes. However in this one, I just didn’t understand the conflict between characters and instead of being intriguing, it was just distracting.
Another problem I had with Criminal United Kingdom was establishing where it is actually set; it looks far too posh and high tech to be a bog standard London police station. Maybe that’s why I found it so hard to care about anything other than if the suspect (David Tennant) committed the crime of not - that was the only thing that felt real. Everything was too glossy, too pristine and too high tech to have a real sense of believability. Maybe I've just been watching too many 24 Hours In Police Custody, but I just expect a little bit of grit from police dramas.
Overall, I enjoyed the first episode of Criminal United Kingdom. It’s nothing ground-breaking - nor does it have the same mystery of some other crime dramas (Broadchurch springs to mind) as ultimately it is quite easy to guess the outcome about half way through, but the dialogue is well written and well acted, with permanent cast members including Katherine Kelly and Lee Ingleby (who has previously been seen in Line of Duty, a phenomenon which I feel Criminal UK is hoping to mirror) who are both excellent. Ingleby's calm, measured interrogation lets the drama build and keeps the viewer hooked.
This isn't a negative review at all - I think the concept is fantastic, and I will definitely check out the international versions of the format. I just hope that the storylines outside of the interrogation room improve, and that characters are given proper introductions.
My number one pet peeve is not knowing a character's name, and given that I can only name two people who featured in this episode off the top of my head (and I only know Edgar because it's the title of the episode, so I might be wrong), the characters just aren't introduced well enough. It is vital for a first episode to establish their characters in order to flesh them out later - especially with so little time to waste.
I will definitely keep watching Criminal UK but overall it feels like something that has been seen before. I look forward to watching the other countries series which are available with subtitles or dubbed in English.
Written by Caroline.
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