‘Criminal Record’ — An Overstuffed and Frustrating Crime Drama Dominated By an Excellent Peter Capaldi

A decent murder mystery that can’t quite live up to its great potential

On the surface, Apple TV+’s new crime drama, Criminal Record, created by Paul Rutman, is everything you’d want it to be: an intriguing murder mystery with a myriad of clues, social commentary on modern Britain, and a portrayal of two vastly opposed detectives, clashing over an old case that has more questions than answers. Yet it’s hard to dismiss how much of that potential is wasted by taking on a lot more than the show could realistically handle.

Out of the two officers, the young, ambitious one is DS June Lenker (Cush Jumbo), who wants to reinvestigate the conviction of Errol Mathis (Tom Moutchi) based on an anonymous phone call and determine whether he was wrongfully sentenced to 24 years for murdering his partner. In the other corner, there’s veteran DCI Dan Hegarty (Peter Capaldi), who put Mathis behind bars 10 years ago on a murky confession and questionable evidence, with a personal agenda to keep his file buried as deep as possible.

Criminal Record’s plot sounds like a classic “good cop, bad cop” scenario with a possibly unjust conviction, dirty secrets, and inherently prejudiced power dynamics in UK law enforcement. And to some extent, the series ticks those boxes — focusing on injustice and racial inequality — but Rutman also manages to dive deeper into a morally grey area, blurring the lines between right and wrong. That’s never a bad angle to start a crime show with, but Criminal Record is one of those frustrating examples that lets that promise flicker out and turn into something much less intriguing than it should be.

It's hard to pinpoint where the series stumbles exactly since it does a sound job of mixing various genre elements without letting us notice why they aren’t connecting the way they’re supposed to. However, that disconnect becomes more apparent with time as the writing attempts to address too many personal, moral, and societal dilemmas — from grief to domestic violence to racism to corruption to immigration — that take the primary focus away from its greatest asset.

I’d be lying if I said that the secrecy behind Capaldi’s fascinatingly layered chief inspector wasn’t the only reason that kept me watching instead of checking out early on. See, the real suspense comes from how much we don’t know about Hegarty (as the writing only gives snippets away of his past), and Capaldi leans into that aspect by radiating a mix of domineering and intimidating energy that rules every scene and furthers our curiosity. What has he done to Mathis? Was he covering something up? What’s his motive? Is he really a bad guy?

The lack of answers to those questions in the show’s first half, combined with a slowly unfolding mystery and the veteran actor’s mesmerizing screen presence, is what Criminal Record thrives on. But for the majority of its eight episodes (which were provided for review), Rutman is more interested in building Lenker’s character, concentrating on her intuition, growing obsession, and personal investment in Mathis’ case as she tries to untangle what went down between him and Hegarty a decade ago. In such a narrative, this character development is a rather conventional route, but Jumbo's Lenker is just not that interesting (and, at times, even obnoxious) to spend so much time with, and her scenes become a drag to get through after a while.

It also doesn’t help that the writers often employ ad hoc plot points to advance the story mechanically rather than letting these moments come naturally from the characters. A deftly written script shouldn’t have to resort to coincidences — which conveniently happen here exactly when required — to push things forward. This includes wasting time on the least engaging secondary characters that have little to do with the actual investigation, just to somehow wrap up their subplots to give the illusion of closure on all ends.

Ultimately, my frustration with Criminal Record comes down to its way too formulaic and lackluster approach (despite a competent cast and solid story). It's not a terrible series by any means but clearly lacks a distinctiveness that other better crime shows (Mare of Easttown, The Killing, Broadchurch) were able to create and capitalize on in addition to a set of appealing characters and captivating murder mystery. In the end, this British drama makes you question whether it was worth investing the time instead of contemplating all the moral and social issues it wanted to raise — and that's never a good sign.

The first two episodes of Criminal Record are streaming on Apple TV+ from today. New episodes arrive on Wednesdays.

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Last week, I revisited James Gunn’s cult classic, Super, an underappreciated superhero satire with a phenomenal Rainn Wilson.

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