What is the first thing that comes in mind when we hear about a plot that is based on crime? Murder? Shoot-outs? Kidnappings? Rapes? Car crashes and accidents? Well, Netflix’s newest series that goes by the name of ‘Criminal’ is a crime story which is not like the ones we have witnessed till date.
Criminal is a crime drama that is centered around “intense mental conflict between detectives and suspects,” as Netflix explains it. The drama will continue over 12 episodes, each with 12 different stories. Almost all the scenes of the 12 episodes are shot inside the police interrogation rooms of the police stations located at four different countries, namely the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Spain. By pure mathematics, it is clear that each country has been shot for three episodes. The languages used during the shots are the regions of the four mentioned countries. Netflix tags ‘Criminal’ as ” stripped-down, cat-and-mouse drama.”
The casting of ‘Criminal’ is unique in its way, featuring stars from all the four countries. The cast for the shots based in the UK includes David Tennant, Hayley Atwell, Youssef Kerkour and Clare-Hope Ashitey as the guest cast and Katherine Kelly, Lee Ingleby, Nicholas Pinnock, Mark Stanley, Rochenda Sandall, and Shubham Saraf as the primary cast.
The same for the France shots include Nathalie Baye, Jérémie Renier, Sara Giraudeau as the guest cast and Margot Bancilhon, Laurent Lucas, Stéphane Jobert, Anne Azoulay, Mohamed Arezki as the primary ones.
The guests for Germany are Peter Kurth, Christian Berkel, Deniz Arora, and Nina Hoss, where the regular cast has Eva Meckbach, Sylvester Groth, Florence Kasumba, Christian Kuchenbuch and Jonathan Berlin in the series.
Carmen Machi, Inma Cuesta, Eduard Fernández, Emma Suárez, Álvaro Cervantes are the guest cast for the Spanish plot, whereas, Jorge Bosch, José Ángel Egido, Nuria Mencía, Daniel Chamorro, María Morales, Javi Coll, and Milo Taboada are the regular ones for the same.
No such crimes are shown in ‘Criminal.’ Hence it is left to the audience to create the scene of the crime in their heads based on what the suspects have to say about the incidents. “Because I think, without being too grand, you do not need any more than three rooms in any drama.” is what the writer of ‘Criminal,’ George Kay had to say about his work for which he is too very excited.
The other two rooms that have been shown in the episodes apart from the interrogation room is the observation room from where the other officers and detectives can observe the behavior and words of the suspect through a two-way mirror and the area where the detectives and officers have their coffee breaks.
The series is going to be aired on Netflix on 20th September 2019.