If you missed ‘Sneaky Pete’ on Prime Video, now is the time
If you missed ‘Sneaky Pete’ on Prime Video, now is the time
Giovanni Ribisi and Margo Martindale are fantastic in this overlooked crime drama from the early days of streaming.
There were a lot of great TV shows that got buried in the “first wave” of original streaming content. I’m talking about the five-year stretch from about 2013-2018. And there’s one Prime Video show from that era that I think deserves another look if you’ve never heard of it or seen it: “Sneaky Pete.” It stars the wonderfully weird Giovanni Ribisi as a con artist pretending to be his former prison cellmate, Pete. It’s part family drama, part dark comedy, and part crime caper as the new Pete infiltrates the real Pete’s family to pull off the biggest con yet. Tara and I watched it when it first came out and finished all three seasons. Here’s why it’s seriously underrated.
Best under-the-radar drama TV show on Prime Video
Why is ‘Sneaky Pete’ the most underrated drama series on Prime Video?
“Sneaky Pete” follows Ribisi as a con artist named Marius Josipović, who gets out of prison and takes the identity of his former cellmate, Pete. He does this to 1) escape a criminal named Vince (Bryan Cranston) who’s looking for him, and 2) see if he can steal some money from Pete’s rich family (at least he thinks they’re rich). So, first, he shows up at Pete’s grandparents’ house pretending to be their long-lost grandson. Margo Martindale plays the imposing grandmother, who runs a failing bail-bond business with the rest of her family.
So, right from the opening, you feel the tension of Marius trying to keep his real identity hidden. But remember, he’s a conman, so he can think on his feet and talk himself out of increasingly difficult situations. And that’s much of the fun of this show — watching Marius desperately try to keep his con alive while the wheels come off. If you like the vibe of “Ocean's Eleven,” this is similar.
His relationship with Martindale’s character, Audrey Bernhardt, is where things get really interesting. See, Marius expects Pete’s grandmother to be a sweet, naïve, little old lady. He gets Audrey, who is anything but. She’s perceptive, calculating, suspicious, with a closet full of skeletons of her own. They battle it out in the subtext of seemingly normal conversations, as Audrey begins to get wise to the fact that Pete isn’t all he seems.
The tone of this show is right in that dark comedy space. It’s funny and clever and never too heavy, while being really smart. And that makes sense because it comes from Bryan Cranston and David Shore, the creator of “House.” It was originally developed for CBS, but they passed before Amazon picked it up, and Graham Yost, the creator of “Justified,” eventually took over as showrunner. So that gives you a sense of the vibe you’re getting.
But there’s another reason this show is an underrated classic. Just like in a great love story, when the people who “pretend to date” inevitably end up falling for each other, so does Marius with the Bernhardt family. He becomes attached to the family he’s conning because, well, at the end of the day, they’re good people. Sure, they have secrets, but they take him in as one of their own. And Marius can’t help but become attached to them. That gives the series unexpected heart that becomes just as big a reason to keep watching as the con itself.
So why is it so underrated? Well, it was one of Amazon’s early original series, before the major hits like “Reacher,” “The Boys,” and “Fallout” dropped. Which means there are plenty of more recent subscribers who have no idea this show exists. It also only went three seasons, so it didn’t have a ton of longevity to make a name for itself. But if you want something that’s fun, fast, smart, and extremely bingeable that you probably haven’t seen, watch “Sneaky Pete.”
Sneaky Pete
A con man on the run from a vicious gangster takes cover from his past by assuming the identity of his prison cellmate, Pete, “reuniting” with Pete’s estranged family, a colorful, dysfunctional group that threatens to drag him into a world just as dangerous as the one he’s trying to escape - and, just maybe, give him a taste of the loving family he’s never had.
Watch a trailer for ‘Sneaky Pete’
Other underappreciated drama TV shows on Prime Video
If you’re looking for other hidden gems on Prime Video, check out “Hanna.” Esme Creed-Miles plays a teenage girl raised in the wilderness and trained to fight, who finds herself hunted by the CIA. It’s a great mix of action, mystery, and coming-of-age drama.
Then there’s “Patriot,” a darkly funny spy thriller about an intelligence officer (Michael Dorman) whose undercover mission keeps going horribly wrong.
Last one? “Ballard.” Maggie Q plays an LAPD detective investigating cold cases who uncovers a much bigger conspiracy involving police corruption. If you love detective shows, this “Bosch” spin-off is worth checking out.
Prime Video
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