Culprits

I am honestly baffled as to what happened with this series. It started out so strong, with a compelling mystery and strong characters at its heart. Joe / David is phenomenal and his backstory compelling. The flashbacks of the heist were an excellent choice too, slowly piecing together what happened like a jigsaw puzzle.

Then from around the last half of episode 4 onwards, it's like the writers just headed out and they brought in the work experience B team to take over. Characters suddenly make ridiculous choices and act in stupid ways that completely defy who they were established to be at the start. Like David, who is shown to be assassin-level skilled, who then clumsily tries to hide away from the killer in a French farmhouse like he's a defenceless child. Also the killer incidently can't be killed either by an ACTUAL assassin (who can take out 10-15 private secrurity tacticians with ease, but not a skinny bro with a tracksuit and some fresh Reeboks) even with a full gun clip.

Oh and apparently you can find anyone anywhere in the world if you're skilled at using Facebook - even if they have gone off-grid to a snowy tundra in Germany. And others also in hiding will post pics of their signature artwork on Insta with clear landmark locations to help you out.

Also according to Culprits if you're black and approach fully in-use public storage lockers in a crowded London train station, the police will immediately single you out and treat you with suspicion.

Let's also not forget that stuffing a body into a car boot in the middle of a London Council estate will attract zero attention apart from the killer who will watch you from a high rise, while eating an apple. Because why not right?

We also have being shot in a fully white uniform, which is bad enough to literally cover a train bathroom in blood, but not enough to. Get it on your equally white trenchcoat, as that would arouse suspicion and concern, and not serve your silly plot. Oh and apparently the character literally 'didn't feel' it when it happened. You got SHOT in the stomach mate, get a grip.

Oh yeah and a suburban dad and his young kids ( the latter of whom also have no idea wtf is going on) can get away from a house full of trained killers in the middle of the night as long as they have David on the phone guiding them, getting them to hide behind doors and kitchen islands. Clearly the hitmen in this show needed a bit more training.

Lastly it just irked me that they did a bank job with silly half masks to look cool in promo shots, but that do zero to hide their identities. Like bro, you heard of balaclavas?

I really tried to love this and it started as an excellent 9/10, but it is honestly like the main writers took a vacation halfway through. As a writer by trade myself I can tell when new creatives have joined the fray, and in all seriousness I am convinced that others took over. That's the only way you can explain the baffling drop in quality.

Edit: I looked up the writers of each episode and actually episode 4 is when new writers joined the show's creator, and lead writer. So this explains it perfectly - the new writers clearly took over and diluted the quality.

Shame really.

Slickly produced, the first few episodes suck you in... only to deliver a plot so full of holes you can see right through it. No idea why it's billed as a comedy either... unless it's the laughable fact that the cast can instantaneously find each other across continents despite being off-grid and incognito. Don't get me started on the 'Brain' who is somehow impossible to find by the 'villain' despite not being incognito.

Regardless, standout acting from 'Muscle' & 'Psycho' who became the only reason I watched all the way through the series.

The finale is utterly preposterous and hammed up to the max by Eddie Izzard who seems to think he's in a pantomime.

It's pretty refreshing these days when you see characters in a thriller/drama acting rationally in intense situations. They don't make dumb choices, they take excessive measures and doesn't half ass anything.

This show is definitely not breaking any new grounds, but is very well executed and never feels boring or stagnant. Production is good, about on par with your typical British drama and all that entails.

Some really satisfying scenes early on, especially the one where main guy gets kidnapped but realizes it's not by the people he thought it was.

Overall, highly recommend for those that like British shows, and crime thrillers in general.

Enjoyable crime caper romp once you suspend disbelief and settle into compulsive viewing and treat yourself to 10 episodes of " what's gonna happen next " ? Excellent performances by all the cast , and particular credit to an actor playing " Muscle " who was previously unknown to me but who I would expect to see and hear alot about in the future . Marvellous cameo appearance by the ever reliable ( if OTT ) Eddie Izzard and Gemma Atherton played the anti-heroine beautifully, menacingly brilliantly. I would not be disappointed if there was a squel and it stands alone well as a one off but more of this would be welcome.

The naysayer who criticised the IMDb description of a comedy? You're quite right. A comedy, this ain't. But, and this is an important point, children, IMDb's idiocy isn't the show's fault. OK, this is a wonderful example of the heist/caper genre with all the usual twists and turns, characters and plot points - but done better than you've seen before. Characters are perfectly written and plot points are predictable but only after the event - I could have/should have seen that coming - but I didn't. This is an always engrossing and sometimes thrilling take on the genre which has been seriously underrated so far. I think I know why.