Brought to you by Kudos, the makers of Spooks, I went into Hustle with high expectations. Have they been met? Read on.
At time of writing, I've only seen the first couple of episodes, and therein lies the problem. The opener was a great introduction to the characters and the milieu they habit. At the end of the episode, we the viewers, realised that we too had been conned and that felt good.
But episode two was very poor indeed. We didn't get the same double bluff at the end, and frankly the character who was being stung didn't ring remotely true. Even the con itself was weak. When was the last time you saw a billboard promoting an actress as a big new thing without having a vehicle (say a film) to actually be promoting? Doesn't happen.
I'll stay with this series because I like the characters, but they need to decide whether the hustles of the title are realistic or not. If they're not, then go headlong into the unreal, but do it well.
Oh, and they did play plenty of Gotan Project on the soundtrack, which is a big plus.