“Truth Is Up for Grabs”: Criminal Record EP Unpacks Season 2’s Timely Theme and That Final June & Hegarty Scene

To say Criminal Record Season 2 felt uncomfortably timely would be an understatement.

Aside from showcasing the compelling dynamic between Jumbo’s June Lenker and Capaldi’s Daniel Hegarty, the season was a brutally honest examination of alt-right extremism, misinformation, influence culture, and a world wherein the truth itself has become negotiable.

We had the distinct pleasure of chatting with executive producer, Elaine Collins, about that explosive finale, tackling prescient themes, and June and Hegarty’s fascinating dynamic.

Criminal Record Season 2 has been an explosive season, pun intended, but also prescient, particularly in its exploration of the alt-right and misinformation. What inspired that direction, and were you surprised by how timely it felt by the time it was released?

Well, everyone who works on the show, we’re all pretty political anyway. So we all talk about politics a lot. We’re very up to speed with what’s happening.

I think the inspiration for this season was that Paul [Rutman] read Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger. Then we all read it and thought it was fantastic. She talks a lot about the mirror world and how it’s very hard to grasp the truth nowadays.

Truth is up for grabs in a weird way, like it’s never been before. We wanted to explore that. We were always concerned about staying ahead of the curve because we were anxious that by the time it went out, it would feel old-fashioned.

But as it happens, if anything, it feels like we’re living through the moment now. I guess Paul’s a bit of a Nostradamus, basically.

It’s been out there for a while now — this kind of influencer culture. It just feels like a mad world, doesn’t it? Sometimes it’s very difficult to articulate just how wrong everything is going.

It was interesting watching June all season because I found her incredibly relatable. Her frustration was palpable.

She kept believing that truth should mean something, while Hegarty is essentially telling her, “The truth is a relic. It doesn’t matter anymore because someone will spin it before it gets out there.

I love that speech Hegarty gives where he talks about truth being like a Betamax sitting in the back of the garage. And we’re using a catapult. I just think that’s an absolutely brilliant piece of writing.

I like the way it twists. You’d expect June to be saying something like that, and Hegarty, being his age, to feel “Well, this isn’t how it should work.”

But he’s grasped something. She still has that idealism. She can’t believe that truth doesn’t matter. She still believes that truth must mean something.

Cosmo is a fascinating — albeit infuriating — character. Was it always the plan for him to essentially walk away with such a favorable deal?

We floated around different ideas.

One of the things we talked about was The King of Comedy. It’s a brilliant, brilliant film. Rupert Pupkin goes to jail, but it actually increases his fame. He gets to write a book and stuff.

That seemed like such an insight into American culture at the time that Martin Scorsese did it. It was a bit genius. I think that was an influence because I do think that’s what’s happening at the moment.

You don’t have to have your finger on the trigger to be the guy who did it. There’s so much of that going on now where people — it doesn’t matter how heinous the encouragement to do bad things, they somehow are able to walk away from it and have a fan club.

We wanted to reflect that in some way.

We didn’t want it to be that skinhead far-right that we’re all familiar with because I think the far right is much more nuanced and subtle than that now.

You always knew what a guy walking toward you with a skinhead and swastika was. But now it’s much more complex, which is why so many young men have been sucked into this vortex.

It also felt like accepting Cosmo’s deal was a pivotal moment for June. She sacrifices what she believes is right for what she sees as the greater good.

Yeah, absolutely.

I love that Hegarty basically tells her, “We’re making this decision together.” And she’s like, reluctantly, “Fine! Let’s go with it!”

Yeah. [Laughs]

Of course, now I have to ask if there are plans to bring Cosmo back again since he’s still out there.

I don’t know. I guess it depends on whether we want to use him again for something — a bit of information.

To an extent, I think that story is complete.

What’s incomplete is knowing who actually blew up Leo’s car.

For June — and for the police — I don’t think that’s ever going to be laid to rest until they know who did it.

What we really wanted to get across is that this wasn’t some criminal mastermind. This is just some guy listening to an influencer.

We’ve seen that happening in the UK. I don’t know if you follow UK Politics, but a lot of this has been going on over here. People have been encouraged to go and commit acts of violence by people who should know better.

Building off that, June can NEVER seem to catch a break!

[Laughs]

By the finale, it feels like everything has been taken away from her, and all she really has left is the job. Where does she go from here?

That’s part of the beauty of that last scene with June and Hegarty.

What you see in that scene is that he understands, and she knows that he understands because he lost his wife. He’s gone through years of dealing with a daughter struggling with addiction. If anybody can have insight into what she’s going through right now, it’s him, and in his own way, he’s sort of reaching out to her and trying to help her.

And she knows that. I love the mood of that last scene.

I think Leo dying is really sad. Stephen [Campbell Moore] played a blinder in that scene. It’s a brilliant performance he gives in that last scene.

But I don’t think that relationship was really going anywhere anyway. It had been spinning its wheels for quite a while.

Yeah, they were in a toxic cycle they couldn’t seem to escape. As horrible as it sounds, this was probably the only way that either of them could’ve gotten out and broken that cycle.

And then, we have Hegarty and June. It felt like the season was building toward this moment when they felt like professional soulmates.

Yes. I think they’re more alike than they are different. They always have been similar. They’re both single-minded, but June has been a lot more idealistic.

There’s that wonderful quote from Dangerous Liaisons: “I have no illusions. I lost them on my travels.”

He [Hegarty] is that guy.

They both have a passion to fix things and get to the truth, but they have different ways of going about it.

Looking ahead, Criminal Record always gets bigger, better, and more unapologetic each season. Are there still corners of the justice system left to explore in a third season? How could you push things further?

We’re all quite passionate about politics at the moment, and quite frankly, it doesn’t look like things are going to calm down anytime soon. So I don’t think we’re going to run out of things to talk about.

And Paul Rutman, the writer and creator, is fantastically intelligent. I never worry about Paul running short of ideas.

The people who work with me are brilliant too. We’re a very tight team, we’re all very close and very collaborative, and so we’re all in it together.

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You can stream both season of Criminal Record on Apple TV.

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