Criminal – Season 1 Review [Netflix]

CRIMINAL is a new anthology series on Netflix and it is extremely bingeworthy. Season 1 consists of 12 episodes that are essentially divided into four national segments. Each segment gets three episodes to cover their respective plots. Read more in our Criminal review here!

Criminal is a new anthology series on Netflix and it is extremely bingeworthy. Season 1 consists of 12 episodes that are essentially divided into four national segments. Each segment gets three episodes to cover their respective plots.

Obviously, a lot of you will probably head straight for the episodes in English (ie those that take place in the United Kingdom). However, please don’t miss out on the other three storylines. Sure, David Tennant (Doctor Who, Fright Night) and Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter and Black Mirror) are both awesome, but so are the non-English speaking actors!

Read more in our Criminal review of season 1 below or check out our reviews for each of the four segments:

• Germany
• Spain
• France
• United Kingdom

The general Season 1 review of Criminal will continue on this page.

Crime in four European countries

Season 1 of Criminal consists of 12 episodes divided into four groups of three. The four groups are listed on Netflix as four separate series, but are all a part of season 1 for this Netflix anthology series.

Each segment covers one country and Criminal Season 1 offers stories from Germany, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom.

These segments each have specifically national storylines and are (of course) told in their own spoken languages with native casts and directors.

We have Oliver Hirschbiegel for the episodes taking place in Germany. Oliver Hirschbiegel also directed the Academy Award nominated film Downfall (org. title Der Untergang) from 2004, so we’re dealing with a real heavy-hitter.

Mariano Barroso directs the three episodes that take place in Spain while Frederic Mermoud covers France. Finally, the co-creator of the Criminal series, Jim Field Smith, directed the three episodes for the United Kingdom segment of the anthology.

Read more about each national storyline

While this review is meant to give you a very general idea of what the Netflix series Criminal is all about, the actual 12-episodes of Season 1 are very much divided into four segment. It’s an anthology series with each segment focused on a national team of police investigators.

The storylines always take place at the police station and each episode features one crime and one (suspected) criminal. The plot is always tight and interrogation is the name of the game. Each detective has their own style and flair. As a viewer, you’ll quickly get an idea of how the police is using each of their detective’s strenghts depending on the suspect on the other side of the table.

In order for you to get an idea of what each national segment is all about (and which one is the best), we’ve made a review for each of the four in Season 1:

Here’s our review of the Criminal: Germany episodes >

Read our review of the episodes in Criminal: Spain here >

The review of all Criminal: France episodes can be found here >

And finally, our review of Criminal: United Kingdom is here >

Watch Criminal Season 1 on Netflix now!

Criminal was created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith. The two have worked on several projects in the past going back to the first production for them both. It was a short film from 2004 with the title Missing Moscow which they co-wrote and co-directed.

Since then, Jim Field Smith has directed more than he has written, while George Kay focused more on writing. Most recently, George Kay wrote on a few episodes of the brilliant series Killing Eve (which I highly recommend). 

Clearly, this concept can easily work with any other country, which means Criminal Season 2 should be announced fairly quickly, if this is a success. And really, why shouldn’t it be? If you love crime shows where the plot is focused on solving a case by interviewing suspects and going over facts, then Criminal is the perfect Netflix series for you!

Season 1 of Criminal is out on Netflix worldwide from September 20, 2019.