CS Weekly Archive> DVD > 07/06/07

Never Too Old for New Tricks

by jason davis

The BBC's Hustle returns for a third season where creator Tony Jordan and his colleagues devise even more elaborate scams for their cast of con artists to perpetrate both on their marks and the audience.

Hustle: Season Three

Danny Brown, Steve Coombes, David Cummings, and Tony Jordan
Created by Tony Jordan
From an idea by Bharat Nalluri

Pockets empty after a con gone awry in Las Vegas, Mickey Stone (Adrian Lester) and his crew of grifters return to London to discover that junior con man Danny Blue's (Marc Warren) phony credit card shenanigans have made them unwelcome in the posh hotels to which they've grown accustomed. Broke and homeless, the team set about scoring some working capital with a season's worth of daring capers. After two seasons of elaborate cons, year three shakes up the status quo with stories that toy with the series' format and even more stylized excursions into fantasy to provide insights into the characters' world.

Joined by three newcomers to the Hustle writer's stable, creator Tony Jordan pulls the rug out from under faithful viewers with scripts that use the audience's expectations against them. Mickey and his grifters are conned almost as often as they con, and the uncertainty adds a new edge to the season's stories. Whether it's Mickey and Danny taking part in a one-on-one contest to determine the better grifter or the entire gang teaming up with an American con man (a memorable guest role for Richard Chamberlain) to scam a investment bank that buried the latter's great- grandfather, the third season pushes the limits of the show's genre while keeping the characters front and center, driving the stories along.

The series' penchant for Moonlighting-esque departures from mainstream television storytelling also hits a new high this season, spicing up the show with kinetic visuals and making exposition as invigorating as action. Prior seasons often indulged in fourth-wall-breaking asides from the cast and the occasional fantasy sequence, but this year pushes the outré to new limits. The crew's attempt to topple a ruthless sweatshop owner plays into his love of Bollywood cinema, and the script delivers a full-scale Indian musical number where the mark joins the conmen in an ecstatic outpouring of their feelings. Another episode uses Chaplin-style silent-movie antics to illustrate events from a hundred years earlier, while the asides to the viewer and freeze frames to showcase sleight of hand remain critical components of the drama.

- "It's Just Like Playing"—An insightful interview with the cast.

A cast interview offers a few insights into the performers' take on the show's writing, but creator Tony Jordan is missing after informative appearances on previous sets.


Like the con artists of Hustle long to dupe a seasoned grifter, the writers of the series are keen to keep their audience guessing. The narrative tricks of previous years get new spins in season three, while the series' flamboyant execution continually finds new ways to deliver stylish and well-written stories.

Buy it now

Jason Davis is the DVD Manager for CS Weekly , a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and has written for Cinescape.com, MSN.com, and created the TV series Studio 13, which ran on Lorne Michaels' Burly TV network. He lives in the small space left over by his ever-expanding library of books, movies, and music.