Overview
If you find yourself thinking back on Law & Order re-runs, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs or Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight, you're probably thinking about one particular type of scene. There's an art to a good on-screen interrogation — to seeing characters verbally spar back and forth, as one probes for answers and the other tries to avoid their questions — that's riveting when it's done well. It's also hilarious when it's done comedically (see Brooklyn Nine-Nine); however, nothing beats a grim, serious, eyes-blazing, nostril-flaring confrontation between a suspected criminal and a savvy detective who are both confined to the same small room.
Netflix, in its seemingly never-ending quest to turn every single possible idea into highly binge-able streaming content, took this concept and ran with it in its anthology crime series Criminal — which first premiered last year. Love interrogations, but not so fussed about all the stuff around them? Then you'll want to glue your peepers to this, because it's all about heated chats in police interview suites. In fact, that's all it's about.
And, after a first season that spanned dozen different tales across just as many 45-minute episodes — spending three episodes each focusing on cases in France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom — Criminal is coming back for a four-episode UK-based second season. While the first batch of episodes featured David Tennant and Agent Carter's Hayley Atwell among its British cast, this time around the show has enlisted Game of Thrones' Kit Harington, Catastrophe and Game Night's Sharon Horgan, The Big Bang Theory's Kunal Nayyar and Wild Rose's Sophie Okonedo to answer a barrage of tense questions.
Once again, expect claustrophobic, cat-and-mouse-style confrontations — and twisty narratives that rarely go in the direction expected. The show's second season will hit Netflix on Wednesday, September 16.
Check out the season two trailer below:
Criminal's second season will release on Netflix on Wednesday, September 16.