A police detective in London is asked by her boss to listen to a tape of an emergency call concerning an allegation of domestic violence. It’s more a formality than anything; the caller refused to give her name or any other identifying details. But she does let slip one bit of information that catches the detective’s attention: Her abusive boyfriend told her he killed his previous girlfriend years ago — and now another man is serving a prison sentence for the crime. Then she screams and the line goes dead.

That call will be the undoing of several cops in the Apple TV+ police procedural “Criminal Record.” Cush Jumbo stars as June Lenker, a detective who thinks the allegations are worth investigating, opposite Peter Capaldi as the older, more senior detective named Daniel Hegarty, who initially worked the case — and now uses every trick in the book to undermine June’s questions. Is it possible there was a wrongful conviction? “I don’t want to embarrass you,” Daniel says patronizingly, “but some caller out of the blue, doesn’t give a name, he said/she said — frankly at this point, it’s starting to sound like a prank.” Behind her back, he and his cronies dismiss her as an ambitious token hire with an ax to grind.

Most organizations, be they public or private, are designed to discourage people from asking too many questions that challenge the status quo — especially if it’s a Black woman doing the asking. Systems exist to be preserved, no matter how amoral or dysfunctional.

This is what June is up against. Some of the corruption is driven by pressure from higher-ups to quickly close a case. Some of it is driven by sour, exceedingly stubborn bigotry. Similar issues were at the forefront of Steve McQueen’s “Red, White and Blue,” one of the films in his 2020 “Small Axe” compilation, starring John Boyega as a cop who is quickly disabused of any ideas that change from within is possible. But most British cop shows present a more idealized version of events — of a diverse police force where racism isn’t much of a factor in the workplace. The long-running crime series “Vera” comes to mind, not only because Jumbo co-starred on it for a couple of seasons, but because “Criminal Record” creators Paul Rutman and Elaine Collins (who is married to Capaldi) are “Vera” alum as well. They’re taking a different approach here, which makes the show stand out.

U.S. audiences might better recognize Jumbo from “The Good Fight.” Capaldi is best known for “Doctor Who” and “The Thick of It,” and together they are a riveting pair. There’s not enough story here, or suspense frankly, to justify the eight-episode length — like so many other streaming shows, it would have worked better as a movie — but Jumbo and Capaldi’s performances are reason enough to watch. Her face is open, revealing her racing thoughts within. His face is closed off to better hide his secrets, but not his disdain.

June and Daniel are wary and distrustful of one another, forever on edge and trying to figure out how to undermine their opponent. She has righteousness on her side, but little institutional support. His colleagues give him the benefit of the doubt, while his cadre of equally dirty underlings do everything possible to muddy the waters of June’s investigation. But the pair have certain things in common, including personal lives that bleed into their work lives. Both are worried about their children — her preteen son is racially profiled by one of Daniel’s henchmen to better scare her off; meanwhile he has his hands full as the single father to a drug addicted daughter who sees through his steely bluster.

The resolution, when it finally comes, is unsatisfying. After eight episodes, the thinness of the show’s ambitions are revealed. That’s probably closer to real life than most of us would hope. Even when the outcome tips in favor of justice, the Daniels of the world remain firmly entrenched.

———

‘CRIMINAL RECORD’

2 stars (out of 4)

Rating: TV-MA

How to watch: Apple TV+

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©2024 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Best known as the star of films such as the Jordan Peele-directed critical faves “Get Out” (2017) and “Nope” (2022), Kaluuya co-directed the commentary-filled science-fiction drama with Kibwe Tavares and co-wrote it with Rob Hayes and Joe Murtagh.

“The Kitchen” — a British film debuting in the United States this week on Netflix — is set in a near-future London in which public housing has been abolished and police force residents to abandon their homes. Against that compelling backdrop, Kaluuya and Co. tell the story of a man who comes to care for a boy after the latter loses his mother.

Unfortunately, that story — while very human and relatable — is a little bland, so we quibble a bit with the choice of ingredients. We wonder if the film may have been better served by allowing us to know other residents of The Kitchen. In this predominantly Black, working-class community, those living there are considered trespassers by the authorities and monitored regularly by police drones.

It is there we meet Izi (Kane Robinson), who leaves behind a fortified door and hears the morning announcements from The Kitchen’s man with a microphone, Lord Kitchener (Ian Wright). The latter informs the residents that while water is out in the community’s west wing (“they’ve finally done it”), it is available in the east wing (“but only go if you need”). When Izi finishes a shower in said wing, he exits into a long line of others banging on the door while waiting to use it.

Izi is yearning for a better life, one away from The Kitchen. He is saving what he can while working as a salesman at a funeral home to pay for a nicer apartment elsewhere in the city, checking notifications on his mirror about his status on a waiting list for a single-occupancy unit.

At the funeral home, the remains of a deceased person are used to grow one tree, the destiny of which depends on the package purchased by the person’s loved ones. It’s Izi’s job to up-sell them, of course.

One day at work, he takes a particular interest in a funeral, attended in person by the 12-year-old Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman) and by others virtually. They meet, with Izi admitting he knew Benji’s mother but being rather tight-lipped on the details.

Soon, Benji is helping him make a sale, but Izi seems willing to allow the youth to get only so close to him. However, after Benji falls in with a gang from The Kitchen that specializes in robberies, tries to take a more active role in his life. However, helping Benji and reaching his goals for a better life may not be accomplishable together.

On what at least would appear to be a modest budget, the makers of “The Kitchen” succeed in visually realizing this dystopian London, where residents of The Kitchen bang on pots and pans from their windows to alert others when the police are coming and where folks in better living conditions can select from a gallery of artificial cityscapes images on digital windows instead of gazing out into the urban decay. Kudos to production designer Nathan Parker for some nice work.

In The Kitchen, folks largely stick together, with the help of the steady presence of Lord Kitchener.

“They can’t stop we,” he implores more than once, adding at one tough moment: “They can only stop we if we see we as I.”

(This may be a good time to mention that, due to the thick accents used by characters in the film, we early on turned on the English subtitles. Highly recommend.)

That Izi so badly wants to leave could have been explored more deeply if, again, the writers had fleshed out more supporting characters. The movie is mainly Izi and Benji, although Izi does get some pushback about his not-so-fond feelings about The Kitchen from his co-worker and fellow resident Jase (Demmy Ladipo).

Fortunately, the two primary actors — especially Robinson, a British rapper who previously started in the British drama “Top Boy,” who successfully uses a less-is-more approach here — are interesting enough to help keep us invested.

While “The Kitchen” simmers for too long more than once, it is effective when it boils. That certainly goes for its final, tension-filled stretch.

Shortcomings and all, there’s enough good here to leave you eager to see what’s ahead for Kaluuya as a filmmaker.

‘The Kitchen’

Where: Netflix.

When: Jan. 19.

Rated: R for language.

Runtime: 1 hour, 47 minutes.

Stars (of four): 2.5.

“Beef,” which dominated the limited series categories with five awards, delivered the first Emmy for an Asian American actress in a lead role when Ali Wong won for limited or anthology series or movie. Steven Yeun also won lead actor in a limited series.

Earlier in the show, three Black actresses won acting Emmys, including Quinta Brunson for “Abbott Elementary,” who is only the second Black woman to win best lead actress in a comedy, and the first in more than four decades.

Ayo Edebiri won best supporting actress in a comedy series for “The Bear,” and Niecy Nash-Betts won best supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie.

Host Anthony Anderson joked at one point that the show, held on the federal holiday in honor of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was “like MLK Day and Juneteenth all rolled into one.”

For “Succession,” the series ended on a high with lead actor and actress wins in a drama for Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook, and supporting actor for Matthew Macfadyen. “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong joked about the parallels between real life and the show in accepting for best drama.

“This is a show about a family but it’s also about when partisan news coverage gets entwined with with divisive rightwing politics,” Armstrong said. “And as I understand it, after four seasons of satire that’s a problem that’s now fixed.”

In addition to Edebiri’s win, “The Bear” also won best lead actor in a comedy for Jeremy Allen White, and best supporting actor for Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

Drama series: “Succession”

Comedy series: “The Bear”

Limited or anthology series: “Beef”

Scripted variety series: “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”

Reality competition series: “RuPaul’s Drag Race”

Talk series: “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”

Variety special (live): “Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium”

Lead actor in a drama series: Kieran Culkin, “Succession”

Lead actress in a drama series: Sarah Snook, “Succession”

Supporting actor in a drama series: Matthew Macfadyen, “Succession”

Supporting actress in a drama series: Jennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus”

Lead actor in a comedy series: Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”

Lead actress in a comedy series: Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”

Supporting actor in a comedy series: Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”

Supporting actress in a comedy series: Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”

Lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie: Steven Yeun, “Beef”

Lead actress in a limited or anthology series or movie: Ali Wong, “Beef”

Supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie: Paul Walter Hauser, “Black Bird”

Supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie: Niecy Nash-Betts, “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”

Directing for a drama series: Mark Mylod, “Succession”

Directing for a comedy series: Christopher Storer, “The Bear”

Directing for a limited or anthology series or movie: Lee Sung Jin, “Beef”

Writing for a drama series: Jesse Armstrong, “Succession”

Writing for a comedy series: Christopher Storer, “The Bear”

Writing for a limited or anthology series or movie: Lee Sung Jin, “Beef”

Writing for a variety series: “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”

“Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium” aired on Disney+ as he played his final North American concert ever – at least that’s what he says – on Nov. 20, 2022.

John, who was not at the Emmys on Sunday, becomes the 19th person to earn a competitive EGOT – one in which none of the awards were honorary.

John earlier won six Grammys including a lifetime achievement award. He’s won two Oscars for best original song for his work on “The Lion King” and “Rocketman.” And his Tony Award came with the score for “Aida.”

Anthony Anderson kicked off the 75th Primetime Emmys with a bang — though a much less controversial one than that of last weekend’s Golden Globes.

The 53-year-old host, who boasts 11 Primetime Emmy nominations of his own, opened the show by narrating — and playing piano for — a skit honoring some of TV’s most notable series.

The “Black-ish” star previously teased that a tribute to iconic television shows — with the help of stars from “Cheers” and “The Sopranos” — would be a part of the ceremony.

“Welcome to our Emmys neighborhood, on this beautiful MLK Day. I love television and tonight we celebrate 75 years of Emmys. We’re going to commemorate the greatest shows of today,” Anderson began, noting the night would also honor the classics that paved the way for the modern landscape of the small screen. “Television has helped shape the world, and more importantly, it helped shape me.”

The shows highlighted by Anderson included the likes of “Good Times,” “The Facts of Life,” and “Miami Vice” — which saw Anderson and drummer Travis Barker doing a rendition of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight.”

“Tonight, we’re giving out 27 awards,” Anderson also said. “That means 27 acceptance speeches. So I’d like to ask you all to keep those speeches tight.”

He jokingly warned his mother, Doris Bowman, would help ensure that happens — replacing playoff music with the role of “Playoff Mama.”

After Bowman demonstrated her ability to get even her son off the stage, Anderson brought out first presenter — and Best Actress in a Comedy Series nominee — Christina Applegate (“Dead to Me”). The Emmy winner, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, was given a standing ovation as she was walked out.

Anderson’s monologue, much like the Emmys themselves, proved far more buttoned-up than Jo Koy’s at the Golden Globes, with the stand-up’s gig slammed as everything from “sexist” to a “comedic disaster.”

The ceremony, which celebrates the best in TV and streaming each year, was initially scheduled to take place in September. But organizers were forced to push the date back due to strikes by writers and actors in Hollywood.

The switchup has nestled the Emmys in the heart of awards season, just eight days after a Golden Globes Awards ceremony that drew headlines when its host, Jo Koy, bombed with a low-laugh, high-cringe monologue.

The Emmys are set to begin Jan. 15 at 5 p.m. PST. The three-hour ceremony will be broadcast live from the Peacock Theater, a modern 7,100-seat venue in downtown Los Angeles.

Those looking to scope out the fashions and catch off-the-cuff comments can tune in for red carpet coverage from 2 to 5 p.m.

Here are some of the best looks from the Emmys 2024 red carpet:

Contributing: Tim Balk, New York Daily News

Introduced in Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 detective novel “The Maltese Falcon,” the character of Sam Spade became an indelible template for the hard-boiled gumshoe. Humphrey Bogart would bring him to life with a dryly unflappable performance in the 1941 film noir based on the book, and now Clive Owen ably dons the fedora in AMC’s “Monsieur Spade,” which catches up with the character decades later in the early 1960s, when he’s more or less retired to the small village of Bozouls in southern France.

What an unexpected turn of events.

It’s a case that first brings him to town. In 1955, he is hired to deliver a little girl named Teresa to her father after her mother’s death — only the guy was nowhere to be found. This is annoying rather than worrying for the private eye (no one is more emotionally detached than Spade) so he sticks Teresa in an orphanage run by nuns. As this unfolds, he catches the eye of a wealthy local widow who he subsequently falls for and marries. (Wait, I thought he was detached!) She dies of an illness a few years later, leaving him to mourn luxuriously on the estate she left to him.

All of this is prologue to a mass murder of the nuns, which throws into disarray Spade’s placid existence of quiet days skinny dipping and trading good-natured barbs with his live-in housekeeper.

Who killed the nuns — and why? Spade is begrudgingly drawn into the drama and Teresa, now a teenager, comes to stay with him until he can sort things out. When the girl comes of age, she’ll be the beneficiary of a vast inheritance and he’s worried about her safety. Could the money be the reason behind the nuns’ deaths?

No one in the village seems particularly appalled by this crime or its effect on the orphaned children. No one seems concerned about the emotional welfare of any child in the story, for that matter. Perhaps their sympathies are spent, having lived through the horrors of World War II and then, later, the revolution that would win Algeria its independence from France in 1962. The ghosts of both wars hang over the place like a dark cloud, despite the sunny skies, pastoral vineyards and quaint villages.

That’s the setting. Gorgeous, but full of secrets. Classic noir motifs of moral ambiguity and inner conflicts are threaded throughout. No one is content, but forever glancing over their shoulder. David Ungaro’s cinematography is dazzling, capturing Spade’s life in the country and the cozy Old World look of the town. Bozouls has a unique topography, built around an enormous gorge — The Hole, as everyone refers to it — with buildings seemingly teetering on the edges. Talk about your metaphor. This is the one time I wish a production had used drone shots to really make clear how vivid the village’s gorge appears from overhead.

The show comes from seasoned talents. Created by Scott Frank (of “The Queen’s Gambit,” and whose other screenwriting credits include everything from “Get Shorty” to “Minority Report”) and Tom Fontana (known for “Oz” and “Homicide: Life on the Street”), the six-episode limited series is so classy and made with such style, you don’t notice its flaws at first. Most of that comes down to Owen’s performance as the gimlet-eyed Spade. He doesn’t have the right gait — he moves through the world with too much spring in his step — but his face is wonderfully inscrutable. Spade’s inner monologue is meant to be elusive, but he’s a calculating figure and Owen conveys his watchful cynicism with the kind of low-key zest that holds your interest, even when the narrative doesn’t.

A number of red herrings and people with compromised motives enter the picture. Is the precocious Teresa (Cara Bossom) the real target? Perhaps not. There are various soldiers around, both ex and current, who can’t seem to move on from whatever violence they were primed for. There’s the woman who co-owns the local nightclub with Spade; she’s unhappily married to an Algerian who is suffering PTSD from the war. The Algerians in town were never made to feel welcome, and that subtext runs through everything. There’s also a young British painter who moves next door with his mother; they’re too chipper and too friendly to not be up to something. These are surface-level characters, which is also true of everyone populating the show’s original source material. But that can wear thin when stretched out over a multi-episode season.

Round and round they go, and the show’s plotting becomes Byzantine and strained. But the dialogue makes up for it. There’s a terrific monologue in the first episode when Spade explains his reluctance to get involved. He is a man who has seen it all, and had his fill: “People come to you with their problems and you end up inheriting those problems,” he says with studied dispassion. “But you’re good at fixing them, so the problems keep coming. Along with the money. In a very short while, the problems go from small to deadly — turns out, you’re good at those too. Maybe too good. One day you wake up, you look in the mirror and you see someone you don’t much like. No big deal. Just don’t look in the mirror anymore.” It’s the moment that solidifies him as Spade.

There’s also the occasional wry and deadpan line. “Cigarettes are bad for you,” Spade’s doctor says as he lights a pipe.

Here’s what Hammett once said about his invention: Spade is a “dream man,” the kind “most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been, and in their cockier moments thought they approached.”

How do you translate that fantasy on screen without devolving into a cliche of masculinity that leaves no room for vulnerability or any visible emotion other than anger? Somehow, Owen finds a way to play him as exceedingly human.

———

‘MONSIEUR SPADE’

3 stars (out of 4)

How to watch: 9 p.m. ET Sundays on AMC (streaming on AMC+)

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©2024 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The crew failed to win the Writing for a Preschool or Children’s Live Action Program award, but Henry had plenty of positives to take away from the experience.

Henry attended a red carpet ceremony event and a dinner while awards were announced.

She said the room where it took place at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles was packed.

“It was a good time and fun to be there with the other people who were nominated,” Henry said. “You got to see people you hadn’t seen in a while, and I learned about shows where I previously had no idea who was working on them.”

The “Raven’s Home” team failed to win the Emmy, but Henry acknowledged that they faced tough competition.

“We lost to ‘Sesame Street,'” she said. “When you lose to the OG, it’s OK.”

Although “Raven’s Home” did not win the writing award, the show did have something to celebrate.

Actress Mychal-Michelle Harris, 11, won the Younger Performer in a Preschool, Children’s or Young Teen Program award for her role as Alice Baxter in “Raven’s Home.”

“To know our little actress got an Emmy is quite nice,” Henry said. “She’s super talented and this was her second nomination, and we were all hoping for her to win.”

Henry said she enjoyed being a part of the Emmy event experience for the first time.

She also said the nomination is very meaningful to her.

“It sounds cliché to say ‘it’s just an honor to be nominated,’ but it really, really is,” Henry said. “We were all super happy and excited.”

Henry said she is excited to see where her career will take her next as 2023 winds down.

She said the Writer’s Guild of America strike this year put things on hold for a while.

“I’m just looking forward to working again,” Henry said. “We’ve been out for a while because of the strike, and hopefully in the new year, things will start to pick up and maybe we’ll see new shows.”

Henry said she has enjoyed making people laugh for a living.

“It’s stuff I used to get punished for when I was in school,” she said. “When I was in the classroom, teachers didn’t like me being the class clown, but now I get paid to come in and think of funny stuff all day long.

“I can’t complain.”

Henry recently received an Emmy nomination for her work as a writer on the Disney Channel show “Raven’s Home.”

Before Henry was Emmy nominated or had even stepped foot in Hollywood, she was a youngster growing up in Elyria with no idea where her career would lead her.

“I originally wanted to join the Peace Corps,” she said. “My dad wasn’t in favor of that, so I went to college and thought I wanted to be a teacher.”

Henry said she did not have many people to look to who were in the entertainment industry growing up.

“When I was growing up, I didn’t see a lot, I didn’t know anybody that wrote for television or did anything like that,” she said. “I was just a little Black girl from Ohio.

“They told me I could either be a teacher or journalist, nobody ever told me I could write plays or do stand up.”

Henry did pursue journalism and took her first job out of college on the copy desk at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland after interning at local newspapers.

She went on to have editor roles at the Philadelphia Enquirer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It was during her time in Atlanta when Henry got a taste of entertainment and comedy.

She started writing for sketch comedy.

Henry also did standup comedy while in Atlanta.

Around this time, Henry was approached by someone who worked in the television industry asking if she could do scriptwriting.

Henry sent in a script and waited months to hear back.

“I didn’t hear anything for like eight months,” she said. “I just thought ‘oh it must’ve sucked, not gonna worry about that.’

“And then he called me asking if I wanted to come in and interview for a job on a sitcom.”

Henry was able to take some time off from her job at the Journal-Constitution for the interview in California and landed the job.

“Next thing I knew, I was a TV writer and I quit my journalism career which I had done for almost 20 years,” she said. “It’s worked out.”

The move to California continued Henry’s life theme of experiencing new places.

In between stints in Philadelphia, Henry spent two years in China living in the cities of Shenyang and Dalian.

She said she believes living in a variety of places has influenced her ability as a writer.

“You get to see how different people are, how different cultures are, how different people talk,” Henry said. “As writers, we really listen to that.”

She said the transition from journalism to entertainment was smooth.

“I took a lot of my journalistic skills into the writers room,” Henry said. “I was used to managing people and that was something I did from early on in my journalism career.

“I came into writing having managed people.”

Since she began TV work, Henry has been a part of more than 20 programs, including Kevin Hart’s reality show parody series “Real Husbands of Hollywood,” which she said was one of her favorite experiences.

Henry also said she has enjoyed writing for “Raven’s Home.”

“I never thought I would write for children’s television, but it’s really been fun and Raven Symone is incredible to work with,” she said. “She is super funny and has this huge audience that already loves her.

“You can let your imagination run wild because she can do anything.”

Although Henry has left Ohio to pursue her career, she said she is proud to be from Northeast Ohio and Elyria.

She said she hopes her story will inspire youngsters from the area to strive for their dreams.

“I feel so strongly about telling young people that ‘you can do it,'” Henry said. “You can be from anywhere; you just have to have that drive.

“I just kept trying, and if I can be the inspiration for somebody else to try, I’m thrilled with that. That’s bigger than an Emmy to me.”

Henry and the rest of the Raven’s Home writing team will find out whether they won the Writing for a Preschool or Children’s Live Action Program award at the Children’s & Family Emmy Creative Arts Ceremony on Dec. 16.

Henry is the daughter of JoAnn and the late Leo Henry.