A British show about a group of lovable con people, this is just another caper series. Kudos, the production company, raves about the originality of it (perhaps the biggest con of all?) for there is little that is original. The characters are engaging but all stereotypes that we have seen many times before. The scripts are among the weakest part of the show- the writer Tony Jordan obviously took The Sting apart before 'creating' this show. The Adrian Lester and Marc Warren characters are clearly versions of Newman and Redford. Identical scenes from The Sting appear in the first two episodes of the first series (plus a line lifted directly out of Robert De Niro's mouth in Heat!). The concept of these engaging con men who are really nice guys screwing some really nasty people is also taken from that movie. The Sting itself probably owes more than a little to the excellent USA 60s TV series The Rogues which also boasted the idea of lovable types doing society a favor. Production company Kudos claims that the freeze frame special effect is another original first, but this type of nonsense was pioneered in The Man from Uncle (and really makes that show look dated now) and must have been consciously employed because Robert Vaughn appears in both shows. Hustle also has a great similarity with the UK 60's hit show The Avengers in both ethos and production values. Other criticisms of the screenplay evolves around getting from A to B in the plot. This is often disposed of in gratuitous fashion so when the ingenuity of the con is finally revealed to us we find ourselves saying "hang on, how did they manage to do X when Y was...etc." If the ingenuity of the plot isn't entirely transparent we end up thinking that we have been... well... conned! Screenplay apart, the series does have great production values. London looks good. The acting is great. Even Robert Vaughn isn't bad- though I suggest his inclusion is only to make people think of Hustle as the new Man from Uncle (and also to make the show sell in the States; some of the script actually uses American English which is bizarre for a BBC show!). A younger more energetic performer than Vaughn would surely have added more? Jamie Murray is eye candy and Adrian Lester is adequate- a kind of smooth British version of Blair Underwood- but rather wooden. The two real stars are Robert Glenister and Marc Warren. Most of the humor comes from them and they both play 'wide' infectious street types barely on the right side of the law. Marc (Band of Brothers) Warren is probably going to be a superstar. He has the face of a psychopath that looks not unlike the young Malcolm McDowell. Warren has it all- a great acting range, comic timing and spine-chilling evil when he wants to turn it on. So yes- the show is fun and worth watching. But original? Kudos- do me a favor!
