It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.
The usual “TMINE recommends” page features links to reviews of all the shows I’ve ever recommended, and there’s also the Reviews A-Z, for when you want to check more or less anything I’ve reviewed ever. And if you want to know when any of these shows are on in your area, there’s Locate TV – they’ll even email you a weekly schedule.
What have I been watching? Well, to be honest, since Tuesday, not much, but this entry is mostly so I can get back on schedule with a regular Friday WHYBW. All the same, I have managed to watch a few things, both regular and new.
Elsewhere, I’ve previewed a couple of pilots for series that will be airing this month: NBC’s Blindspot and Fox’s Minority Report. After the jump, I’ll also be reviewing Impastor, Humans and the season finale of Mr Robot.
But on the recommendation of Benjitek, I decided to watch the pilot episode of Sneaky Pete.
Sneaky Pete (Amazon)
The joint idea of David Shore (the creator of House) and Bryan Cranston (do I really need to tell you who that is?), Sneaky Pete was originally developed for CBS but was ultimately rejected in May. Amazon then picked it up and such has been its popularity in the past month, it was awarded a full series a couple of days ago.
The basic idea is a sort of more amiable Banshee, less romantic Le Retour de Martin Guerre. Giovanni Ribisi (Phoebe’s white trash brother in Friends) is a conman who gets released from prison. Having to lay low for a while and in need of cash, he turns up at the door of his lifer cellmate’s family, pretending to be the brother/grandson they haven’t seen in over 20 years. The family runs a bail bondsmen business and Ribisi soon discovers he has a talent for using his criminal skills to catch other criminals. He also realises that this could be the family he’s never really had until now… and that his ‘sister’ (Marin Ireland from The Divide, Homeland and The Slap) is quite hot. All he has to do is to keep everyone from finding out who he really is, avoid falling in love with Ireland and prevent the guy he owes money to (Cranston) from amputating all his real brother’s fingers in lieu of cash.
It takes about five or ten minutes for the show to get going, but after that, it’s pretty engaging. More network in tone than most Amazon shows, right down to the tame swearing, it’s actually quite genteel and smart, with neither Ribisi nor Ireland being happy using guns, so using just their wits and their ability to run to entrap/evade criminals in a sort of Mission: Impossible without spies. There’s also Margo Martindale being entertainingly sassy, as the one family member who realises that Ribisi isn’t who he claims to be, but isn’t that fussed about it.
Not The Wire by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely worth a look and I’m quite looking forward to the series now. Thanks Benjitek!
Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Sneaky Pete, Mr Robot, Impastor and Humans”
