''Criminal'' is a series of four

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...

anthology TV series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a diffe ...

set in four countries. The four series are '' Criminal: France'', '' Criminal: Germany'', '' Criminal: Spain'', and '' Criminal: UK''. The series was devised by its

showrunners A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...

George Kay George Kay (21 September 1891 – 18 April 1954) was an English football player and manager of Luton Town, Southampton and Liverpool. The highlight of his playing career was when he captained West Ham United in the first FA Cup final to be play ...

and

Jim Field Smith Jim Field Smith (born 20 February 1979) is an English film and television director, writer and producer. Early career Smith was a member of the British sketch comedy group Dutch Elm Conservatoire, who were nominated for the prestigious Perrier A ...

, and produced by their company

Idiotlamp Productions Idiotlamp Productions is an independent production company based in London, UK, founded by the creative partnership of Jim Field Smith and George Kay. Credits Idiotlamp is the creative entity behind the multi-national Netflix series '' Crimina ...

. Although the showrunners are based in the UK, each of the local three-part series is written and performed in that country's native language by native actors, but all four individual local series were shot on the same set in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Spain. All four series were released simultaneously in September 2019. A second series of ''Criminal: UK'', consisting of four episodes, was released on 16 September 2020. Each episode is a stand-alone

psychological drama Psychological drama or psychodrama is a sub-genre of drama that places emphasis on psychological elements. It often overlaps with other genres such as crime, fantasy, black comedy, and science fiction, and it is closely related with the psychologi ...

, consisting of the

interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

of an individual by a team of police investigators. Every scene is confined to just three areas in a single location; a police interrogation room, a darkened viewing room that looks into the interrogation room through a

one-way mirror A one-way mirror, also called two-way mirror (or one-way glass, half-silvered mirror, and semi-transparent mirror), is a reciprocal mirror that appears reflective on one side and transparent at the other. The perception of one-way transmission i ...

, and the hallway and stairwell outside the rooms.

Episodes

''Criminal: France''

''Criminal: Germany''

''Criminal: Spain''

''Criminal: UK''

Season 1 (2019)

Season 2 (2020)

References

{{authority control 2010s anthology television series 2019 British television series debuts 2019 French television series debuts 2019 German television series debuts 2019 Spanish television series debuts English-language television shows Netflix original programming Spanish-language television shows French-language television shows German-language television shows Psychological television series Television shows filmed in Spain