Hustle

[Chief Rum]

Hey, just wondering if I'm the only guy here who catches this show on AMC. It's a con/grifter show, but I love how they pull off their cons. Fun stuff.

It's a British show done by BBC (I would imagine BBC shows it in England).

Oh, and I love the brunette.

[Jake Plummer]

It's my second favorite new show this year (behind Big Love).

[OldGiants]

I love Brit stuff like this and have seen every epside--They have now gone back to the beginning and are up to episode 2 this week, I think.

While I enjoy the plots, they are all far from original. The show doesn't hide this, in fact they often mention the classic nature of the cons and sometimes attribute movies (The Sting, for example) as the source of the plot. What they do is put a modern twist on the con, like using computers to mirror the telegraphed horse race results of the Sting. Trying to remember the movies that the plot came from is a big part of the enjoyment for my wife and me.

One other joke here in the Richmond area is that local legal firm specializing in ambulance chasing had been using Robert Vaughn as its spokesperson on TV ("Show them you mean business"). When Hustle began playing, Robert Vaughn, who plays the old con man on Hustle and does insurance fraud supplots, was replaced in the ads with William Shatner. Which is just as funny--"Denny Crane!"

[RoastDuck]

My personal favourite is the wealthy Nigerian (?) stamp (or bank note?) collector episode. This is the only plot that caught me hook, line and sinker. The show requires a leap of faith but is good fun.