Criminal Record season 2 draws fresh reviews

Apple TV+’s Criminal Record came back on April 22, and the first wave of season 2 reviews has been mostly strong. (primetimer.com) (rottentomatoes.com) Rotten Tomatoes showed a 100% critics score for season 2 this week, based on seven reviews, with several critics highlighting the show’s pacing, performances and moral tension. (rottentomatoes.com) Metacritic had not set a season score as of April 27, listing only two critic reviews: an 80 from The Guardian and a 40 from Decider. (metacritic.com) The new season reunites Cush Jumbo’s June Lenker and Peter Capaldi’s Daniel Hegarty after a stabbing at a political rally pulls them into a wider investigation. (metacritic.com) (fandomwire.com) That investigation expands into an undercover operation tied to a planned bombing in London, a sharper turn from season 1’s reopened murder case. (9to5mac.com) (fandomwire.com) Some of the strongest notices said creator Paul Rutman made the second season more ambitious without dropping the character work that anchored the first. (9to5mac.com) (thespool.net) The mixed reviews landed on the same shift in emphasis. Decider said the season did not hold its interest, while The Spool argued the story drifts as it spends more time on extremist men than the murdered boy. (metacritic.com) (thespool.net) Apple TV+ is releasing the eight-episode season weekly through June 10, with episode 2 scheduled for April 29. (metacritic.com) (9to5mac.com) For now, the reviews point in the same direction: Criminal Record is still being sold on the Capaldi-Jumbo pairing, but season 2 is testing how far that partnership can carry a bigger political thriller. (rottentomatoes.com) (metacritic.com)