I watched the first episode of this series today and it’s damn good. Giovanni Ribisi is a confidence man who is released from prison and quickly finds out that he is seriously in debt to very dangerous people. He decides to assume the identity of his endlessly talkative cell mate, Pete so that he can try to get something out of Pete’s grandparents who are “in the bond business” and haven’t seen Pete in twenty years (Pete still has 3 more years on his sentence). Giovanni is great as always and all of the other characters are well cast, particularly Grandma. There is a great reveal at the end of the actor who plays “the big bad”. This appears to be a weekly release, so no binging just yet.
This looks like it could be way up there in the quality level if they are able to maintain the energy of the first episode.
Man, what a strong start! I liked it, and I’m eager for more, so I guess it’s a success from my point of view. I don’t have Amazon Prime (I still feel they should offer a cheaper and monthly alternative to the annual chunk of cash, even if said option only gets you access to the streaming video content) though so I suppose it doesn’t really matter, but if I find out it’s going to be a show, I’ll figure something out. Very cool.
Yep, this is good! And the big bad reveal was fun. (Don’t spoil yourself by trying to find out who it is.)
It’s just a pilot though, so don’t expect new episodes any time soon. First it has to get picked up, then they have make the episodes. As with Man in the High Castle, it’ll be some months before we see more.
Any tentative release date been announced? Or any idea how long it might take Amazon to get this series to subscribers now that it has been ordered? A full year year passed between the release of the pilot episode and episode two during season one of Bosch, another Prime show. But they’ve produced other series’ since then, and I don’t know if they’ve managed to speed things up any.
Watched the first episode thanks to this thread by the way, and my wife and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Having finally entered the 21st century and just gotten a Roku and Prime account Friday, I noticed this in the menu yesterday and am really looking forward to it.
As to Amazon’s fees, I don’t know what ltr told them, but we’re being billed at about $8.50/month.
Welp, today’s the day the season goes live, and I’m already seeing ads for this show online (at IGN etc). I probably won’t binge this one since my wife will want to watch it with me. Now I just play the waiting game till we can fire it up. I guess we’ll start by rewatching the pilot since its been a year and a half since we watched it, after it was put up for streaming.
Watched the first four episodes today and the show does not disappoint. Very good actors in almost every role and a nice, pulpy vibe for the storyline. Cranston is brilliant and Malcolm Jamal Warner is a pleasant surprise as Pete’s parole officer.
Edit: Couldn’t resist and wrapped this up the next day. Pretty damn satisfying even if the ending is a little too pat. Final scene leaves me optimistic for the future.
Replying mostly to give it a bump. Nothing to add except ‘I like it’. Fun to recognize cast members from a wide array of shows that I admire… The Wire, Justified, The Americans (and of course Breaking Bad). So many shows that I gravitate to these days can be a little bit ‘extreme’ in terms of violence. Not sure what that says about me but my wife doesn’t go in for those as much. This is something we can both enjoy. Character drama, comedic touches, light action, nothing bloody (yet). Above all very well done. Team Yost and Cranston.
Does anyone else think that Marin Ireland reminds them of a young Joan Cusack? Like, right down to her go-to mannerisms?
And are we supposed to assume that the woman Marius meets in a park and shares a shot of ‘Pappy’ with is his mother? Only explanation I can think of unless there is a bizarro The Americans thing happening and he’s meeting his contact or making the drop.
The cast is great. Realizing it included Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and seeing him do such a great job with his character, was wonderful. Pawn shop guy? Demosthenes “Simeon” Chrysan from GTA V, just as great in this role as he was in that one.
Not sure about that Marius park scene, Mr_PeaCH, not ringing a bell. Was that in the pilot?
Barstein - yes, the pilot/first ep. He goes to the city, avoids the goons who are with his brother, gets the fake ID made from some old friend and then is met on a public park bench by an older woman; old enough to be Marius’ mother, I’m inferring. It’s never explicitly stated and even when they talk about Marius’ brother neither specify a family relationship but clearly there is a relationship in the past between all three of them. (She pours each of them a shot of Pappy Van Winkle into paper cups and Marius’ symbolically crushes his cup beneath his foot after he drinks.)
Finished the season. This is still good! Not great, yet, but good. Perhaps with Yost at the helm it will hit greatness in the second season like Justified did.
Ribisi, Cranston, and character actress Margo Martindale all delivered solid performances as expected. What I did not expect is that I wanted more of minor characters like Otto, the creepy cop, and the parole officer.
It will be interesting to see what they do in season 2. They may have to change things up, as long cons tend to work out mostly the same in the end, even if the details differ along the way.
Protip to those who watched the pilot and haven’t watched the season yet. Watch the pilot again before episode 2. I didn’t, and since there’s no recap at the start of episode 2 I spent all that episode saying, “Wait, who is this guy again? Who knows what about who?”
I actually blew through this over the weekend, and I’ll agree it’s a lot of fun. I like con and heist stories, and the characters were appealing, the actors all did a good job.
One nitpick: all the actors seemed to be about ten years off for their parts, and it bugged me the whole time. Pete’s family left when he was 12, and this was 20 years later? Dude is obviously my age (early 40s). If these are his grandparents, they (and their kids) must have been popping out babies straight out of high school.
If you were do a textbook on how not to write a TV show, I think Sneaky Pete might be a test case for you, all by itself. Ja-heezus.
The entire plot–hell, the entire show–creaks by on these awful, ex machina moments. A phone always rings at just the right time. Someone walks into a room. By the time a pickup truck shows up conveniently in the ninth episode, I was laughing at the awfulness of it. It’s Three’s Company level plotting.
Entire characters and plot lines come and go. Who’s the girl that Taylor’s banging? What about the douchebag from ANB? Hey! That’s Malcolm Jamal Warner playing an interesting parole officer…too bad the show forgot he existed.
What sucks the most here, though, is that this is a really talented cast. They do yeoman work with the shitty material their given and the ridiculous plot machinations they’re stuck with. I’d love to see this show bring in someone who isn’t David Shore to try to save season 2.
