Sneaky Pete Amazon Prime 10 episodes
Executive producers Brian Cranston and Graham Yost (from Justified)
Kid friendly: No. No nudity, not alot of swearing, sexual situations and graphic violence.
So anyway i finally finished watching season 2 of Sneaky Pete. Minor spoilers ahead, mostly just general plot things. Just be warned.
If you want to avoid the spoilers, i give it a 7/10. Not a must watch, but certainly entertaining if you have a free weekend to binge something. Its not so intense that you cant answer a text or go to the kitchen for a drink without pausing it, but its not so sugary as to be unbelievable.
Here is the original season 1 trailer
BEGIN SPOILERS;
In a nutshell if you watched and liked season 1, you’ll most likely like season 2.
To quickly sum up: Season 1: Con man named Marius Josopovich goes to prison, listens to his cell mate (Pete Murphy) talk about growing up on his grandparents farm in rural NY. Con man gets out of prison, and pretends to be his ex cellmate to avoid the bad guys he stole a bunch of money from. Badguy (Brian Cranston) kidnaps Conman’s brother as leverage. Con man goes to ex cellmates grandparents farm, and passes himself off of as grandson, thinking he can somehow con the family out of enough money to get his brother free. Surprise surprise he finds he actually likes the family and spends all of season 1 balancing the desperation of freeing his brother and not really wanting to bilk the family out of their money (or is it that they dont have as much money as he thought they would?).
Season 2 theres a new bad guy, but the plot is very much the same. This time however its a long lost family member (The real Pete’s mom) thats stolen some money from a bad dude. Whereas Brian Cranston played a more or less smooth in control ex cop who had built an illegal gambling ring, this seasons bad guy (played by John Ales) is an out of control psychopath with a penchant for burning people he doesnt like with acid.
First of all i find the show to be fantastically cast. Everyone fits their roles perfectly. From Giovanni Ribisi playing the lead character to the always fantastic Margo Martindale playing Audry Murphy (Pete’s grandmother) this show is just stuffed to the gills with actors who youve seen before Marin Ireland (Masters of Sex, Homeland) Shane McRae (The Following, and if they ever make a Tim Tebow movie, this guy gets the role) Peter Gerrety (Brothers and Sisters, The Wire) Jay O Sanders (The Blindspot, Person of Interest) Jacob Pitts (Justified) Desmond Harrington (Dexter) Ben Vereen (freeking Ben Vereen!) Kevin Chapman (Person of Interest) Alison Wright (The Americans) Malcolm Jamaal Warner (The Cosby Show) i could go on and on and on. Trust me i paused the show repeatedly while i looked up where i knew that guy or this guy from on IMDB. If youre into that, you’ll love this show.
At its core, the plot is less about the crimes (although the second half of season 2 did sort of turn into Oceans 15 or whatever theyre up to now.) and more about watching Marius keeping more and more balls in the air, and the chaos it creates for the Murphy family. Petes long lost mom returns, the real Pete gets out of jail, a homicide detective from NYC shows up looking for a missing cop. It just gets more and more complicated. Who Marius has told which lies to, which alias other characters know him by. And in my opinion Ribisi nails it. And the show runners do a great job of just keeping that shadow of a doubt that he really is going to run off with the money. Is he the shows good guy? Or is he actually the bad guy, and he’s conned all of us too?
No mistake though, this show is no lighthearted romp. Its dark at times, bordering gruesome. People actually die. It isnt Game of Thrones level homicidal towards main characters, but its enough to keep you guessing.
Season 3 has not been officially announced, but it has been strongly hinted at. Graham Yost said in an interview that Brian Cranston (absent from all of season 2) may return for season 3.
I give it a 7/10.