Series Spotlight: Criminal Lines

Three bank robbers. Two rival gangs. One unlucky pastry chef. Criminal Lines puts them all in the same city, in the same crime drama genre, in three separate episodes that each ask a different question about what happens when the stakes go up and the usual rules stop applying.

Director Avai d'Amico built the anthology by working backward from what was available. A bank that had been closed for remodeling. A scrap yard full of rusted vehicles. “Our production team took stock of what we had to work with, including the filming locations we could access at the time, and we designed stories to fit those locations,” d'Amico says. The result is a series where the constraints shaped the storytelling, and the storytelling found ways to use the constraints.

Three Episodes, Three Kinds of Lines

Each episode operates with its own set of characters and its own definition of what a line is. “Divided Loyalty” follows a gang expanding territory. “Bitter Motive” moves between truth and alibi. “An Even Score” asks who the worst people in the room really are. They share a genre. Everything else is different.

d'Amico was drawn to moral lines specifically, but also territorial ones, criminal ones, personal ones. The title holds all of them. “While each episode draws lines between sides in the plots, characters in each episode struggle with either setting boundaries or crossing them.”

The Cast That Made It Possible

Filming three different stories with three different sets of characters meant a larger cast than most productions this size. Steven Andrews, Mayte Ruiz, Safie Dorsey, Derek Kirby, and Maxine Contreras are among the actors bringing these separate worlds to life. The anthology structure made it possible to film with people who would never otherwise share the screen.

The formula is not complicated, d'Amico says. Characters behave one way under normal circumstances. Put them in unusual circumstances, raise the stakes, and their choices might surprise you. “Sometimes the worst events in a character's life happen when they're least expecting something bad to happen. In one scene the characters may be celebrating, but in the next they may be mourning.”

What the Anthology Format Unlocked

The three-episode format allowed d'Amico to follow different characters through the same thematic territory without forcing them together. Each story has its own rhythm and its own conclusion. “Telling these specific three stories works in an episodic format, because while they all share an overall genre of crime drama, the stories are each quite different.”

What to Know Before You Press Play

d'Amico says it plainly: “Our entire production crew and cast of actors had a great time making this anthology, and we all thank you for watching our show.” That energy is in the work. Criminal Lines is a crime drama with a wide ensemble and three distinct stories, made by a team that built the world they had available to them.

Mystery

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Streaming now on Relay.