(Mini Series) Culprits - A Unique Series Focusing on the Aftermath of a Grand Heist

This series was released on Disney+ just last week which I was not aware of as it did not get any promotion & hype at all. I only gave it a try as the premise looked interesting. OK, without further ado, here's more on the series.

Brief Story Line

On the outside, Joe Petrus (Nathan Stewart-Jarret - Candyman 2021 version etc) looked like a normal family man living with his fiance Jules (Kevin Vidal - Sunnyside TV series etc) and his two young children. However, Joe actually had a dark past and was part of a heist crew 3 years before, led by the masterful Dianne Harewood (Gemma Arterton - The King's Man, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters etc) who all went their separate ways.

Joe's new life was turned upside down when he noticed one by one the ex crew was killed by an assassin, later on revealed as the Devil (Ned Dennehy - Guns Akimbo etc). When he got a call from Officer (Kirby - Mr. Harrigan's Phone, Why Women Kill TV series etc), Joe who realized the danger that would bring to his family, decided to find out the reason and try to stop the killing.

So what would happen to Joe? And why and who were targeting the heist crew? You could find out in this series. 

End of Brief Story Line

Well that was quite a nice surprise. As I said above, I tried this series only based on the premise where it involved heist, something that was almost always interesting to watch but it turned out to be better than I had hoped for. The story telling was a bit unique as it was not done in sequential manner, but it started from the moment after the heist and showed the aftermath of the people involved. The heist itself was shown via glimpses of flashback in every episode, although I was a bit disappointed that there was no scene revealing the full heist from beginning till end. 

In the closing credits, it was mentioned that the series was based on the anthology novel titled "Culprits: The Heist Was Just the Beginning" edited by Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips. After further reading, I found out that it was actually written by several authors who focused on the character's story and they were all linked by the heist. In this series that consisted of 8 episodes, the connecting part was not only the heist but the character Joe who I believed was the lead in here, together with Officer who appeared in all episodes.

The first episode felt like black comedy with the rather funny situation Joe had to experience in early stage, although it did not take long before it developed darker. As the story progressed and we got to know more on the characters, the story became more interesting too. It was added with few twists though they were not that shocking and could easily be guessed. Now the part that I liked best here was actually the action scenes. To my surprise they were pretty well executed and quite amazing for a series and not pale in comparison with Hollywood action movies. In fact, I thought the action was more entertaining than the heist (cause it was not completely shown in one full scene). 

The Devil was one of the characters that I liked. He was really suitable as the villain with his violent behavior and ruthless method like a killing machine. Aside from the persons I mentioned, there were also some additional characters like Specialist (Niamh Algar - Wrath of Man etc), Azar (Tara Abboud), Right Hand (Tom Mothersdale), Youssef (Kamel El Basha) and few others. The scene involving Devil and Specialist in one of the episodes was enjoyable to see. This British production series was created, written and directed by J. Blakeson whose credential included the critically acclaimed I Care a Lot. Not too sure about critics reception of the series but I think audience in general like it.

Overall this was an entertaining series for me which could easily be better on the heist. The action was nice to watch, the characters were quite well developed with an interesting story on the reason behind the heist. The ending was also fine for me and pretty satisfying as it felt more realistic to most of the characters involved, although it might be more awesome had it been done differently for one of the major characters. So if you are interested in watching the story of people after the heist with plenty of actions, then you could give this a try. But if you prefer series which focused on the preparation which culminated to the heist itself, then you would not find it here.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars