Netflix’s Best New Show Boasts 96% On Rotten Tomatoes

Every so often, a show sneaks onto your favorite streaming platform, totally catching you off guard; the kind of show you previously slept on, or maybe you never even heard it, only to wonder in retrospect why you didn’t tune in, or how it ever flew under your radar. After all, the show’s credentials speak for themselves: a crime thriller that boasts a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, that was created by Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, that somehow never found the audience it needed on Amazon Prime. Well, that show is now going to test the waters on Netflix—and it might just be about to steal your weekend.

The series in question? Sneaky Pete, a con artist drama that originally premiered on Amazon Prime Video back in 2017. This critically acclaimed show that moved over to Netflix this morning sports three seasons of smart, suspenseful material. Yet, despite such glowing reviews (it currently sports 46 positive reviews and two negative ones on Rotten Tomatoes), and despite a stellar cast (Giovanni Ribisi, Bryan Cranston, Libe Barer, Marin Ireland, Michael Drayer and Margo Martindale), and despite three tightly written seasons of caper-filled entertainment, this show never quite reached the mainstream buzz it deserved. But now, with all 30 episodes available on Netflix, Sneaky Pete is finally positioned to find the massive audience it was always meant for.

At the center of the story is our main character Marius (Ribisi), a gifted con man who, after serving time in prison, slips into the identity of his former cellmate, Pete Murphy (Ethan Embry). Posing as Pete, Marius ingratiates himself with his deceased cellmate’s estranged family—a tight-knit group that hasn’t seen the real Pete since childhood—in Bridgeport, Conn.

The family matriarch, Pete’s grandmother Audrey (Martindale, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the 2017 Critics’ Choice Television Awards), runs the family’s struggling bail bonds business alongside her husband Otto (Peter Gerety) and accepts Marius with open arms. But Marius soon discovers the family carries deep, dark secrets of their own, and as Marius gets pulled deeper into their world, he must learn to navigate some escalating threats while also concealing his hidden agenda.

All the while, a menacing gangster named Vince (Cranston) looms in the background, hunting Marius down for a debt that could cost him his life. As the con grows more complicated, new players enter the mix—Julia (Ireland), Pete’s sharp and suspicious cousin; Carly (Barer), Pete’s whip-smart teenage sister; and Taylor (Shane McRae), a hot-headed local cop. Throughout the series, these characters pose new challenges to Marius’s carefully constructed lie.

As evidenced by the 96% score, critics were effusive in their prais during the show’s run between 2017-2019 (technically, the show’s pilot episode premiered in 2015, but the first full season didn’t play until 2017). Tim Goodman over at The Hollywood Reporter calls Sneaky Pete an “immediately likable, unspooling with exhilaration,” and that the suspense and drama never let up throughout the course of the story, that “almost when we’re not expecting or even needing it to, the series develops other favorable attributes that hint at a longer, more complex run.”

Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com notes that while the writing isn’t as dense or challenging as a similar show like Better Call Saul, “it’s not intended to be. This is more of a diversion, a miniature version of Ocean’s 11 or Get Shorty with its twists and turns, memorable bad guys and complex cons.”

Finally, Lorraine Ali of Los Angeles Times rightfully highlights the show’s incredible ensemble cast, specifically noting the work of Cranston (who won multiple Emmys for his Walter White character on Breaking Bad), who “doesn’t appear all that often, but when he does, we’re reminded of how terrifyingly calculated his characters can be.”

If you’re a fan of shows like Ozark, Better Call Saul, The Americans, or even The Talented Mr. Ripley—all programs that were praised by the same critics who loved Sneaky Pete—then this show could be right in your wheelhouse. The comparisons to such shows will become evident once you start watching: like Ozark, this Ribisi-fronted vehicle thrives on characters forced into criminal lives, without room to make a single mistake; like Better Call Saul, this slow-burn character study revels in the mechanics of cons, scams and second chances; and like The Americans, this unfortunately cut-short drama digs into the emotional cost of pretending to be someone you’re not.

But what sets Sneaky Pete apart is its lighter touch. It’s not always grim or cynical; there’s a charm to its world of lies, a thread of humanity that runs through every double-cross. The show understands that the best cons aren’t just about getting away with something, but about about survival, about connection, about the blurry line between who we are and who we pretend to be. And now with all three seasons now on Netflix, Sneaky Pete is no longer hiding in plain sight. It’s one of the smartest, most entertaining shows on the streamer—and now that it’s within reach, there’s no excuse not to press play.