SEASON ONE
From Amazon Prime:
A con man (Giovanni Ribisi) on the run from a vicious gangster (Bryan Cranston) 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.
There are now two seasons you can stream from Amazon Prime. Season One consists of 10 episodes, each roughly an hour long.
Giovanni Ribisi (who plays Pete) has always been one of my favorite chameleon actors. But the bonus is that his “grandmother” Audrey is none other than Margo Martindale whose resumé is enormous but whom I first remember as the cold blooded killer Mags Bennett from “Justified.” You will probably also recognize Pete’s “grandfather” Otto as the actor Peter Gerety who played Judge Timothy Stane in “The Good Wife.”
Clever crime can be extremely technical. In our case the crimes center around fraudulent scams and card shark gambling. Not only can the scams be complicated, but the cheating techniques in card playing are challenging to understand. However, those details do not really matter because the fun is just watching the participants getting caught in their intrigues. If you think some of our current politicians are “good” at lying, wait till you hear Pete in one tense situation after another instantly concoct some of the most creative lies I have ever heard.
At times the show can be violent. For example, until Pete returns stolen money to a crook, Pete’s captive brother will regularly lose a toe (ouch!). But after the card shark brother loses just one toe, the captors convince him to deal cards for them in order to discover how one of the client players is cheating.
If there is a main theme, it is that Pete not only convinces the family that he really is the long lost grandson, but Pete becomes genuinely attached to the family.
Peter never stays out of trouble for long and seems to drag everyone else along with him. But it is just fun to watch.