Apparently, Ygritte was wrong when she said, “you know nothing John Snow,” because if John Snow knows one thing, it is how to play a sleaze ball and entitled piece of…well, you know. Ok, we mean Kit Harrington, but they’re the same person in our eyes.
Last year Criminal caused a proper stir for being the first crime series that never leaves the interrogation room. But has the novelty worn off? Season one got off to a cracking start by giving David Tennant a trial run at playing a cocky killer, before his most recent role in Des. But despite an equally impressive cast, the second season has fallen as flat as Kit Harrington’s freshly chopped hair – no longer the full bodied, run your hands through it curls, but rather a simple and standard office job chop. The setup is the same: suspected crim gets rinsed by unlikeable cop whilst we all watch on deciding who we hate more. Nothing ground-breaking here. With that being said, it’s still worth a watch: the stories are interesting, and the tricks used to incite a confession are fun. Plus, those playing the accused do a superb job.
Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian describes Criminal as, “a podcast with bells and whistles and the frequent air of a Line of Duty interrogation scene.” An air of Line of Duty is always high praise in our book. However, Nicholson also thinks the show is “tying itself in knots in an attempt to be all things to all viewers.” Anita Singh in The Telegraph says if you take each episode by itself, “you will find things to appreciate,” but also comments on the show’s attempt to appeal to everyone, saying: “the surroundings have that oddly non-specific look that is the mark of a Netflix drama made for an international audience.”
First shown September 2020. You can watch the trailer by pressing play on the show image, or by clicking here.
