Margo Martindale’s work on the stage and small screen has earned her multiple Emmys, a Tony nomination, and—perhaps the most prestigious honor—having virtually every reference to her name preceded or followed by “beloved character actress.” On everything from Justified to The Americans, Martindale is a consummate and…

There’s a great moment in the first-season finale of Sneaky Pete that encapsulates much of the feel of the show: As Marius Josipovic (Giovanni Ribisi) believes he’s finally free of his scam as Pete Murphy and all the lying and stealing and keeping secrets that comes with it, he’s kidnapped by two men. They tell him…

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

Amazon announced next month’s crop of new Prime offerings today, teasing fans of the service with new seasons of a couple of the company’s original series—most notably, the return of Giovanni Ribisi’s Sneaky Pete. Criminal bouts of faked identity aren’t the only thing on the Prime docket, though; there’s also a new…

Sneaky Pete‘s finale wastes absolutely no time getting to the action, picking up right where the previous episode left off. A car horn blares insistently, a nice bit of sound design that amps up the anxiety of the situation. Is Audrey alive or dead? And what about Winslow? As the camera takes us inside the car, we see…

Early on in “The Turn,” the Bernhardt family is in near-total panic. Dockery’s man has killed Otto’s hired hitman, Marius and Lance are being held at knifepoint with no clue as to what’s going down, and Audrey is frantically calling Marius’ phone in the hopes of finding out that their plan went off without a hitch.…

Just a few episodes ago, Sneaky Pete was in a rough place. “Sam,” the season’s fifth episode, represented a low point, the show finally crumbling under the weight of its many storylines. The biggest problem with “Sam” was its structure. By withholding a lot of information while also trying build a brand new mystery,…

“Lieutenant Bernhardt” wastes no time picking up where the cliffhanger from “Coyote Is Always Hungry” left off. After Carly rats out “Pete,” Marius is forced to improvise when he’s confronted about the robbery at the gun range. Otto and Audrey want to know if their grandson is just a common thief, and while “Pete”…

If there’s a defining trait of the first half of the first season of Sneaky Pete, it’s inconsistency. More often than not the inconsistency does come from the show’s outsized ambitions, shooting too high and then failing to really follow through. The season’s halfway point, “Sam,” was also the season’s nadir, a messy,…

Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, January 23. All times are Eastern.

After a few episodes of pretty generic setup, Sneaky Pete finally went for the heart in “The Fury.” It was the first episode of the season that really felt like a distinctive statement, like the show finding its footing and beginning to move forward with purpose and intrigue. A large part of that was the addition of…

One of the biggest issues with Sneaky Pete in the early stages of this season is the lack of an emotional anchor for all the crime caper drama. Through the first three episodes the show has largely focused on establishing who Marius is, what he did wrong, and how he plans on blending in with the Bernhardt family in…

Though it’s only had about a week to grow on folks, Sneaky Pete’s already picked up a season two renewal from Amazon Studios. The crime drama comes from executive producers Graham Yost and Bryan Cranston, the latter of whom originally pitched the pilot to CBS with David Shore. It stars Giovanni Ribisi as Marius/Pete,…

“Who the hell would go to Bridgeport, Connecticut?”

After a relatively formulaic, albeit entertaining series premiere, “Safe” immediately establishes Sneaky Pete as something much more intriguing. The cold open that kicks off the episode is the key here. It’s a dizzying, complex, intense first scene, and it’s a statement, both in terms of aesthetic and storytelling,…

There’s a moment near the end of Sneaky Pete‘s first episode that I’m sure many of us have been waiting for. In this moment Marius, a con man who’s recently out of prison and on the run from a mobster named Vince, realizes that the $100,000 he owes the man isn’t something to shrug off. No, Vince wants his money, and…

Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, January 13, and Saturday, January 14. All times are Eastern.

A few months ago, it seemed as though Bryan Cranston’s failed CBS pilot might float away into the ether. Then, Amazon jumped into negotiations with Sony Pictures TV to give the project new life, promptly releasing a trailer and the entire episode online. It was probably around this point that the show went from “Bryan…