Will There Be a 'Criminal Record' Season 2? The Show Certainly Leaves the Door Open
The finale of Apple TV+'s tense crime thriller Criminal Record certainly ended the series' run with a bang, both literally and figuratively speaking. The series which followed the story of two police detectives who find themselves at odds when an anonymous emergency call reignites questions about a decades-old murder case, wrestled with questions of systemic racism, institutional failure, generational conflict in the work place, and corruption within the police force throughout its eight episodes, so it probably shouldn't surprise anyone that it's conclusion isn't a completely tidy one.
The action-packed finale, titled "Clara," did manage to wrap up most of the season's outstanding storylines, from the story of the anonymous Hayes Lane caller suffering from domestic violence to the truth about Adelaide Burrowes' murder and Errol Mathis's involvement in it. The technical aspects of the story this show set out to tell are mostly resolved. But the emotional aftershocks are far from over, for both DCI Daniel Hegarty (Peter Capaldi) and DS June Lenker (Cush Jumbo). Plus, this is the year of our lord 2024, and the entire concept of a "limited series" appears to have gone out the window. So, we have to ask --- is this really the end of Criminal Record?
The show itself certainly doesn't seem to think so. In fact, even as it answers the bulk of questions this season raised, the finale also does its best to ramp up the complex, adversarial conflict between Hegarty and Lenker to a whole new level. The revelation that Hegarty knowingly manipulated witnesses and evidence in order to make sure that Mathis confessed to a crime he wasn't sure whether he committed is brutal enough on its own, but now that June herself has figured out he used the innocent words of Errol's son Patrick against him, it certainly seems as though she's ready to stop at nothing to bring him to justice.
