Karl Puschmann
TV and pop culture
binge-mode as the story of Ribisi’s hustle on an unsuspecting smalltown family started to really ramp up.
And it was in episode four that my mind was blown.
Sneaky Pete is a slick crime drama that deserves to be a big hit. What started off as an innocent hustle has quickly expanded to include Cranston’s underworld kingpin, crooked detectives, ruthless Native American criminals, Irish hitmen, dodgy lawyers, fellow grifters and, so far at least, one stomach-churning dismemberment.
Ribisi, who has made a solid career out of playing oddball weirdos, is always pretty good. Here, however, he’s great as the hustling Pete. Distrustful, on edge, flying by his wits, easing in and out of charm offensives and channelling his nervous energy into constructing lies on the fly. His whole face contorting from pained worry into beaming “trust me” smiles.
Great as Ribisi is, Cranston’s performance is the real reason you should be watching Sneaky Pete. He is just something else. Most amply demonstrated in episode four, appropriately named “The Fury”.
It’s here that Cranston gives one of the best acting displays I’ve seen. A powerhouse performance in which he delivers an arresting 10-minute monologue that sees him sliding from charismatic bonhomie to threatening menace and back again with a master’s ease.
It’s utterly captivating. Totally gripping. The best/worst sort of intense. It’s violently unpredictable, his mood ping-ponging between extremes and sucking all the air out of the room. The tension rising the longer his near-endless speech goes.
You really can’t tell where he’s going with it, but you know it’s not going to end well for at least one of the people in the room with him.
Truly, this monologue has proved to be worth the cost of this month’s ill-gotten subscription fee alone.
It’ll be hard for Cranston to ever top Breaking Bad’s Walter White but hot damn if he isn’t giving it a solid crack with his charismatic gangster Vince in Sneaky Pete.
And, if that doesn’t convince you to check it out, well, nothing will. You’d be a fool to not get on it.
Trust me. Would this face lie to you?