In August 2014, Bryan Cranston won his fourth and final Emmy for his performance as Walter White on "Breaking Bad" and made a speech that would inadvertently lead to his next TV project.
“I don’t know why I have been blessed with an abundance of good fortune in my life,” Cranston began. “I was a kid who always looked for the shortcut — schemer. My own family nicknamed me Sneaky Pete. My own family!”
After thanking the academy, his family, the cast, and the crew, he concluded: “I'd like to dedicate this award to all the sneaky Petes of the world.”
The next day, Cranston got a phone call from Zack Van Amburg, the president of Sony Pictures Television, who pitched him a surprising idea: What about a show called "Sneaky Pete"?
Seven months later, Cranston had teamed up with David Shore (creator of "House") to write and film a pilot, which aired in March 2015 on CBS. The network passed on the show, and a bidding war began, with "Sneaky Pete" ultimately getting scooped up by Amazon's Prime Video and premiering two years later. Positive reviews were enough to keep the series running for three seasons, but it never managed to break into the mainstream conversation, which is a shame, because "Sneaky Pete" is a truly excellent crime drama.
Thankfully, that may finally be about to change. "Sneaky Pete" is streaming for the first time on Netflix as of July 10, meaning this overlooked show has a chance to reach its biggest audience ever. Here’s why it’s worth making "Sneaky Pete" your new summer obsession.
What is 'Sneaky Pete' about?
![Sneaky Pete Season 1 - Official Trailer [HD] | Prime Video - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/KCM-I4j-Rv4/maxresdefault.jpg)
"Sneaky Pete" stars Giovanni Ribisi (best known as the villain in "Ted" and Phoebe’s brother in "Friends") as Marius Josipović, a con man who’s released from prison as the show begins. Marius soon runs into a gangster he once robbed (Cranston), who wants revenge.
Thinking quickly, he remembers that his former cellmate, Pete Murphy, has some rich grandparents in upstate New York who haven’t seen their grandson in 20 years. So Marius becomes Pete and heads north to start a new life and meet his new family.
While this plan seems to work at first, it quickly arouses the suspicion of his new grandma (Margo Martindale). He’s soon introduced to a sprawling family — including a female cousin he probably wishes he could kiss— leading to further complications. Marius’ con-man instincts often make things worse, creating an increasingly tangled web of lies that he struggles to keep up with.
"Sneaky Pete" season 1 also features a great B-plot focused on Marius’ brother Eddie (Michael Drayer) and Cranston’s gangster, which helps keep things moving as we’re slowly eased into the world of the Murphys.
If you’re only watching for Bryan Cranston, however, be warned, he doesn’t show up in any of the later seasons, which put more focus on the Murphy clan as those relationships continue to develop and new complications are introduced.
A network crime drama/prestige TV hybrid
The premise of "Sneaky Pete" may seem slightly contrived, but the execution is masterful, thanks in large part to showrunner Graham Yost ("Justified"), who came onboard after Amazon picked up the show with the goal of transforming it from a network drama to prestige television.
A big part of that is Bryan Cranston, who was supposed to only get a glorified cameo but instead wound up with a small-but-significant season 1 role. Cranston clearly saw something special in "Sneaky Pete" and decided to stick around. The always-amazing Margo Martindale ("The Americans," "Justified") also does some heavy lifting to elevate the main plotline while Ribisi and the rest of the cast find their footing.
Comparing the pilot episode, which was released on Prime Video unchanged, to the series that followed, it’s easy to see how Amazon altered the original concept. It’s darker and sexier, in the style of so many mid-2010s prestige shows.
The overall structure still sometimes feels more episodic, with a clear adventure-of-the-week framing that might play better on CBS (especially early on in the show), but that doesn’t mean you can’t binge your way through multiple episodes (or even seasons) at a brisk pace.
A (somewhat) satisfying ending
The most important question to ask about any older show before diving in is whether it sticks the landing. In this case, the answer is a resounding: sort of.
Amazon canceled "Sneaky Pete" in 2019 after season 3, and while the series doesn’t end on some huge, unresolved cliffhanger, it’s also clear that the show’s creators were already planning for season 4. Much of the third season is spent assembling various pieces and bringing important plotlines and characters into position. Yost seems like he was setting up for something big that we’ll likely never get to see.
Then again, if "Sneaky Pete" is a hit on Netflix, maybe a sequel of some sort could still happen (like with "Suits" and its recent spinoff show). But even if these three seasons are all we ever get, you won’t regret watching this criminally overlooked crime series that never dipped in quality and just keeps getting better until its very last episode.
Watch "Sneaky Pete" on Netflix and Prime Video
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