Sneaky Pete

In recent years, combining family drama and crime film has several representatives that are highly valued in modern quality TV (yes, of course led by Breaking Bad or Sopranos) and it is not surprising, as combining complex characters with a dramatic crime story line offers emotional engagement, strong ambivalent characters and their Sofia choices. And Sneaky Pete has all the prerequisites for all of the above. It´s backed by well-experienced makers of Justified, a phenomenal cast and on top of that a stimulating heist theme. But… But the result is a decent movie for several evenings (except for the horrible pilot, which seems to be something other than what, fortunately, the series from the second episode turns out to be), but it hardly aspires to become top league of this kind of series. And that perhaps every tv station and streaming service has at least one of these in its portfolio. The problem is mainly with the script, which works with many interesting topics, also offers well-constructed conflicts (although logical lapses need to be excused by the fact that the whole series takes place in one week), but the characters are too dull for this kind of movie. I´m not saying they are not interesting, but they work well mainly due to the cast and not because of the way they are written and developed. However, when Cranston plays the main "bad guy" in his early sinister Heisenberg mode, the family is represented by Margo Martindale, who can act both as a good grandma and uncompromising mafia mother of the regiment inspiring respect like no other character actress and Ribisi, who is a type of actor that embodies. a bit slimy (yet charismatic) self-centered, inconspicuous, self-seeking cheat, who, however, manipulates you exactly where he wants you, it is less annoying than one would expect. So does it reach its potential? Not even remotely. Is there room for improvement? Immense. Is it a series where the quality of the second heist half of the series saves the inconsistency of the first? Absolutely. It's good? It is, providing you don't expect anything more than a decent relaxing genre movie. It's definitely good, but not excellent. | S1: 4/5 | (09/18/2017)