General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Criminal: France

Criminal: France is a 2019 French-language police procedural miniseries released on Netflix, consisting of three episodes that each take place almost entirely inside a police interrogation room in Paris. It is the French installment of Criminal, a twelve-episode anthology split across four countries, alongside Criminal: UK, Criminal: Germany, and Criminal: Spain.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original release	September 20, 2019, on Netflix³
Format	3 episodes, each named after the suspect being interrogated; runtimes of 37 to 42 minutes¹
Creators	George Kay and Jim Field Smith, showrunners of the whole Criminal anthology³
French director	Frédéric Mermoud⁴
Regular cast	Margot Bancilhon, Laurent Lucas, Stéphane Jobert, Anne Azoulay, Mhamed Arezki³
Guest stars	Nathalie Baye, Jérémie Renier, Sara Giraudeau³
Ratings	IMDb 7.2/10 (about 5,000 votes); JustWatch user score 60%⁵
Streaming	Available on Netflix and Netflix Standard with Ads; not carried on Disney+, Prime Video, or Apple TV+⁶

Spoilers

Premise and format

The series belongs to an anthology whose defining constraint is that the interrogation is the only dramatic device. Each episode is set in a single interview room, over the course of one police custody period (garde à vue), where a new suspect accompanied by a lawyer faces two members of the same large police station; the rest of the team watches and comments from behind a one-way mirror in an adjoining room.⁷ The camera moves between the interview room and the officers observing on the other side of the mirror, occasionally into a corridor, but never leaves the police station.⁸

Netflix describes the format as a stripped-down, cat-and-mouse drama focused on the mental conflict between officer and suspect.³ The French synopsis frames it the same way: dark cases unravel in a Parisian police interrogation room as suspects and investigators face off in an intricate choreography.¹

Episodes

The three episodes are titled after the suspect in each case:¹

Émilie (39 min). As a victim recounts her experience of the Bataclan attack, which killed her boyfriend, the police become convinced she is not telling them everything. The episode draws on the November 2015 Bataclan concert hall massacre, a collective trauma the anthology's academic coverage identifies as the inspiration for the French opening episode.¹^•⁹ Sara Giraudeau plays the victim.¹⁰
Caroline (37 min). After a construction site accident, the team interrogates the project manager, a brilliant woman whom the victim had openly criticized. Nathalie Baye plays Caroline Solal.¹^•⁴
Jérôme (42 min). Well before dawn, the team interrogates a sales director suspected of a violent hate crime, and Audrey plays her last card to win the trust of her colleagues. Jérémie Renier plays Jérôme Lacombe.¹^•⁴

The twelve gardes à vue across the four country blocks were written around personal and societal issues including the Bataclan attack, workplace accidents, homophobic assaults, migrant trafficking, and domestic violence.⁷

Production

The anthology was created by the English showrunners George Kay, a writer on Killing Eve and The Hour, and Jim Field Smith, director of Endeavour and The Wrong Mans, who coordinated four separate crews of directors, screenwriters, and casts, one per country, with each country's stories written and directed by people from that country.³^•⁸^•⁹ Frédéric Mermoud directed the French block.⁴

Filming began in March 2019, and every episode of the anthology, whatever its country, was shot at the same location, Netflix's production hub at Ciudad de la Tele in Madrid, with an estimated 45-minute episode runtime.¹¹ The series was released on September 20, 2019.³

Cast

The regular French team consists of Margot Bancilhon as Audrey Larsen, Laurent Lucas as Olivier Hagen, Stéphane Jobert as Gérard Sarkissian, Anne Azoulay as Laetitia Serra, and Mhamed Arezki as Omar Matif.³^•⁴ The guest suspects are played by Sara Giraudeau (Émilie Weber), Nathalie Baye (Caroline Solal), and Jérémie Renier (Jérôme Lacombe).³^•⁴

Reception and availability

On IMDb the miniseries holds a 7.2 out of 10 from about 5,000 votes, and JustWatch users give it 60 percent; AlloCiné spectators rate it 3.4 out of 5 from 325 notes.⁵^•² Critics reviewing the anthology as a whole highlighted the claustrophobic intensity of the interrogation-room format and the strength of the acting.⁸

The series streams on Netflix, including the ad-supported tier, with French original audio and subtitles in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese; it is available to download for offline viewing.¹^•⁶ Age ratings differ by region: Netflix France lists it as suitable for ages 13 and over, JustWatch France gives 12, and the US listing carries TV-MA.¹^•⁵^•⁴

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026