Binge-r #159: Criminal: UK + Godfather of Harlem
On the Record: David Tennant (Edgar Fallon) in Criminal: UK
CRIMINAL: UK
Streaming Service: Netflix
Availability: All three episodes now streaming
Innovative within precise parameters, this new Netflix drama takes a key element from the crime procedural – the formal police questioning of a suspect – and turns it into a trio of mostly self-contained stories. “No comment,” are the first words spoken in the lead episode, by a doctor, Edgar Fallon (David Tennant), whose 14-year-old stepdaughter has been found murdered after he took her on a trip, but it’s the dynamics of conversation, replete with power, nuance, and incrimination, that drive these 45 minute duets. The UK edition – there’s also subtitled French, German, and Spanish versions of the anthology, shot on the same Madrid sets – are mysteries that open themselves up to moral scrutiny on both sides of the interview table.
Written by George Kay and directed by Jim Field Smith, the three episodes cut between the two sides of the one-way glass separating the interview room from the observation room. Different officers from the same team are the leads across the various cases, with those watching offering their own take on what is transpiring. There are references to interrogation techniques (“The Bic Trick” involves a pen placed in front of the suspect) and a parallel interest in the officers’ relationships, but it’s the visual formalism that frames it so astutely. The camera stays away from Tennant’s Fallon until he makes a key decision, at which point he’s seen in a tight profile so that the set of his jaw is offering an answer of its own.
Hayley Atwell is equally good as a combative person of interest in a crime involving her sister’s partner, with a plot that unfolds in a completely different structure to the intricate pursuit of Tennant’s suspect. It’s that variety of approaches, along with a quietly effective way with grace notes, which lifts Criminal: UK above being a Law & Order face-off (the police station is pretty slick, too). You’re more likely to respond to it if you’re dedicated to the crime genre, but even if you don’t know the well-worn cues that launch these tales, they have an unadorned veracity. One suspect talks of bruises that resemble “petrol in a puddle”, and that bittersweet poetry rings true.
Uptown Funk: Nigel Thatch (Malcolm X) and Forest Whitaker (Bumpy) in Godfather of Harlem
GODFATHER OF HARLEM (Stan, new episode Tuesday evenings): The period crime epic can be driven by revisionist insight or in thrall to nostalgic clichés. The introductory episodes of Godfather of Harlem, a fraught face-off in 1963 Harlem, can hint at the latter, but they mostly adhere to the former in telling the widely dramatised story of Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker), an African-American crime boss returning to a vastly changed neighbourhood after serving 10 years for narcotics convictions. Creators Chris Brancato (Narcos) and Paul Eckstein keep the friction amped up, with Bumpy’s crew having to confront an ascendant mafia family, run by Vincent Gigante (Vincent D’Onofrio), even as new forces such as Malcolm X (Nigel Thatch) and the Nation of Islam assert themselves. Laced with public racism and unspoken segregation, the storylines are tightly wound if familiar, but the best move is to give Bumpy a measure of vulnerability beneath his smooth charisma. There’s always a hint of pain to Whitaker’s familiar rasp, and an early scene where Bumpy’s wife, Mayme (Ilfenesh Hadera), makes him confess the abuse he endured in jail unlocks unexpected insight.
>> Good Show/New Home: SBS on Demand has put up all seven seasons of Liz Meriwether’s New Girl, a solid update on the American sitcom tradition of the shared living space that found a silly/sweet vibe starting in 2011 thanks to leads Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson, and Max Greenfield.
NEWLY ADDED MOVIES
New on Netflix: Ingrid Goes West (2017, 98 minutes) is a mostly sharp take on influencer culture, with Aubrey Plaza as a social media addict who stalks Elizabeth Olsen’s online star; Denzel Washington gets his blind samurai on in the sombre post-apocalyptic action-drama The Book of Eli (2010, 118 minutes), where his lone wolf crosses paths with Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman.
New on SBS on Demand: Built around a shudderingly compelling central performance from Javier Bardem as a Barcelona street crime fixer facing up to his looming mortality, Biutiful (2010, 147 minutes) is a stringent yet spiritual drama from Mexican filmmaker Alejandro G. Inarritu (The Revenant, 21 Grams) that engages with global movements and personal faith.
New on Stan: Pretty in Pink (1986, 97 minutes) is one of the greatest teen movies ever made and I will not tolerate even a word to the contrary; Guillermo del Toro set a benchmark – sardonic, visually inventive, and fantastical – for the comic book adaptation that hasn’t been matched nearly enough since when he cast Ron Perlman as Hellboy (2004, 122 minutes).
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