TVSquad

Saturday marked the American premiere of the BBC drama, Hustle, on AMC. The show revolves around the secret, underground world of grifters -- or con artists -- and, more specifically, a close-knit team of five. As someone that really enjoyed Matchstick Men (both the Eric Garcia book and the movie starring Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell), I was excited to see a series all about conning. To put it simply, Hustle does not disappoint. Although some of the activity borders on far-fetch, it's all intriguing enough to make you wonder if con artists really do have to go through that much magic just to make something work.

Although I had seen ads run on AMC for a while, I had forgotten that Saturday was the premiere. When the show came on, I thought it was some car commercial. It just... had that car commercial "look". Y'know, the camera moves smoothly, swooping through the city streets to show just how easy the car drives, and then the camera pauses on some random car-owner, looking bad-ass and fully confident because they've got the coolest car in the world. Eh, it's probably just me, but really, I thought it was a car commercial. Then the people onscreen started doing weird stuff... like, getting hit by cars and seducing old men with fuzzy handcuffs. "Ohh... This is Hustle".

The first episode introduced Mickey Stone, a well-seasoned grifter, who is keen to get his old group of con-buddies together for one last go before he retires. The group includes Ash (whose favorite con is 'The Flop': he takes advantage of his old skull fracture by getting into accidents and cheating insurance companies into thinking the fracture is new), Albert (the sophisticated American that picks out marks, or victims, for cons), and Stacie (who uses her smats and sexiness to distract the mark while the boys work the con). They come together to let Mickey leave with one last hurrah. The group targets a greedy businessman, Peter Williams, and seduce him with illegal shares. It goes off brilliantly but a newbie, Danny Blue (a younger, less-experienced grifter), pops up and tells Mickey that he wants to join the group. He won't shut up until he gets his way so, finally, Mickey says yes.

The con goes really well... or so it seems. When the final moment draws near, the police burst in and stop it. No one seems to know what the hell is going on and emotions run high. When Mickey pulls a gun on one of the policemen, he gets shot through the head. Ash, Stacie, and Albert are dragged away while Danny is pulled aside. The policeman that shot Mickey tells Danny that he knows that he hasn't been around as long as the others, so he's going to cut him a break: he can either go to jail with the rest of them or he can blab and be spared. He stands by his new friends, disgusted by the policeman's offer.

Whoo! Break out the bubbly! Ash, Stacie, Albert, and Mickey (yeah, Mickey) come out, laughing and cheering. Danny has passed his test and is now truly accepted as one of the gang. Turns out the policeman was a fellow conman that went straight into the belly of the beast to keep the police as clueless about the gang as possible (he pretended to be a real policeman that was supposed to transfer to a new station). What happened to the real policeman that he replaced? Well, he's currently handcuffed to a bed in a mysterious bedroom, thanks to Stacie (jump back to the last line of the second paragraph). Mickey also reveals another secret: he's not going into retirement. He only lied so that he could get the group back together. No one seems to mind because spirits are definitely high. After all, they're all free and the police are pissed. All in all, a good day.

Okay, the twist wasn't as mind-blowing as Matchstick Men's but it was still fun. There were some moments where the pacing dragged but that almost always happens in a premiere episode where all the characters have to be introduced. The suspense kept me happy, though, and I felt well-acquainted with the characters very quickly. I think this is going to be a great season of lying, cheating, and stealing. Boys and girls, the con is on.