Netflix ‘Crooks’ Season 2 Review - Fails to Create the Same Magic Again

Crooks is back with Season 2, and this time it is aiming for bigger ambitions with a narrative that goes above yet manages to remain entertaining enough. Picking up from where it left off, Crooks Season 2 continues to center on Charly, a retired safe cracker for whom escaping the past is not easy. Alongside him, we have Joseph, the driver who is so unlucky that he gets dragged into all the chaos even if he doesn’t have a direct role to play in it. The central object of the plot, the coin, once again is the reason the turmoil continues. The coin is lost, which pulls many criminal groups back into conflicts. Multiple gangs from Berlin, Vienna, and others continue to get behind the coin in order to find it first and get it. Charly and Joseph face betrayal, alliances, and much more as they move across cities for the coin. The question is: who will actually get the coin?

There is no doubt that the scale of the fight involves along with the risks are much higher this time. Crooks Season 2 returns with more action and power than Season 1, and that is clearly visible in how the rest of the plot is executed. There are new characters in the criminal underworld that are introduced in Crooks Season 2. We can see how our main characters, Charly and Joseph, also try to strive for a balance between their lives, which is unfortunately tangled into a mess that is now turning criminal in nature. Joseph is a big savior in the show as he continues to be the humor that is needed to break the monotony. He is a sharp contrast to that of Charly, and that is what is best in favor of Crooks Season 2. We have one serious character and one humorous one.  Even the character of Samira adds a touch of human elements that were missing.

Having said that, Crooks Season 2 is filled with narrative clutter. The plot is a big mess, just like the lives of its central characters. There is so much going on in season 2, that in return it becomes hard to understand and declutter things in our heads as and when we see the scenes. This is a major drawback. Every episode ends up telling the same story again and again, which leads to heavy repetition of the plot. That repetition isn’t needed as such, and yet here we are watching it in every fourth episode.

Even the pacing is a huge issue. The overall speed of Crooks Season 2 is erratic, which can break your intention to watch the show’s season 2. Season 1 was way better and faster. There wasn’t so much information thrown at us, nor was it too slow to watch. Additionally, even the humor was dry. None of them managed to elicit laughter in the way one might expect it to. One should only mix crime with laughter if it can be executed well. Here, the execution is faulty, which is why Crooks Season 2 fails to leave a mark even after the credits roll.

Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Neerja Ch
Follow @NeerjaCH on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times