criminal. noun [ C ] /ˈkrɪm·ə·nəl/ a person who has committed a crime or been found guilty of committing a crime. (Definition of criminal from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

It would come as no surprise if the writers of Criminal were inspired by true crimes; however, the crimes all four teams of investigators are attempting to solve are works of fiction.

Criminal is a series of four Netflix police procedural anthology TV series set in four countries. The four series are Criminal: France, Criminal: Germany, Criminal: Spain, and Criminal: UK. The series was devised by its showrunners George Kay and Jim Field Smith, and produced by their company Idiotlamp Productions.

Principal photography began on September 4, 2014, in London. The film was produced by Campbell-Grobman Films and Millennium Films and was released on April 15, 2016.