Latest news with #crimeDrama
The Independent
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Fans rejoice as Line of Duty ‘confirms return'
Adrian Dunbar, who portrays Ted Hastings in Line of Duty, has stated that the crime drama is poised to return next year. Dunbar revealed he was frustrated by the previous series finale, which revealed the identity of 'H' as Detective Superintendent Ian Buckells. Despite attracting a record 12.8 million viewers, the finale was widely criticised by audiences as disappointing. Creator Jed Mercurio is currently writing new scripts, and Dunbar hopes the BBC will soon make an official announcement regarding the show's return.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ballard could hardly have been worse than Bosch Legacy, but it's actually great – here's why I'm loving Prime Video's hard-hitting crime drama
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. If you weren't a fan of police procedural Bosch or its subsequent spinoff Bosch: Legacy, there's a good chance you're ready to write off Prime Video's latest installment, Ballard. Despite only being released on July 9, the new TV show has already got an astonishing 100% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes…and that's excellent news for the franchise as a whole. But it isn't just the smashing review score that's responsible for Ballard's success. If you've not already spotted it on our everything new coming to Prime Video in July 2025 list, the series follows LAPD detective Renée Ballard (Maggie Q) as she oversees a cold case in a new department. As you might imagine, it's all not as straightforward as that. Don't let Bosch: Legacy dissuade you from trying Ballard as it hasn't set an amazing example for crime fans wanting to tune in. Sure, the critic's score still stacks up (it also had 100% on Rotten Tomatoes), but Harry Bosch's (Titus Welliver) retirement was more of the same, and that got tired and stale as the years passed. Even though we drove a cop car head-first into a snooze fest, don't tarnish Ballard with the same brush. Don't write off Prime Video's Ballard just because Bosch: Legacy was awful Frankly, there's never been a better time to be a Bosh: Legacy hater than now. Ballard's return to the small screen has made stimulating and fresh crime drama look so effortless, it's difficult to see how the franchise avoided a new lease of life for so long. The fact we only briefly met Ballard herself during the finale of Bosch: Legacy doesn't hurt (she's a big part of Michael Connelly's original book series), but the new show's sprint towards success runs much deeper than that. We start off strong with Maggie Q's casting – the actress is arguably underappreciated in the action movie genre she's cultivating as her own (Mission: Impossible III remains the best in my book, and she should have had a two-film arc at the very least). Her cold-case detective is sharp and commanding, relentless in the face of the city's challenges. So far, so good. Then there's the storylines themselves. Ballard isn't choosing to play it safe, extending the danger we'd normally see within the department into the personal lives of characters we're growing attached to. Ballard beats up an intruder who enters her home, Samira Parker (Courtney Taylor) isn't afraid to be a voice for the most vulnerable victims, and corrupt police conduct is exposed and tackled without hesitation. Prime Video has also played it smart by including Bosch as a cameo role in the new series. Those that did appreciate the main series and Bosch: Legacy don't have to do without him, but there's more than enough breathing room for Ballard to become its own programme. There are no shadows to stand in here. So what are you waiting for? Ballard is the new TV show you need to be streaming this week. If nothing else, you might be inspired to kick a door down (or two). You might also like The Boys season 5: everything we know so far about the popular Prime Video show's final entry Reacher season 4: everything we know so far about the hit Prime Video show's return The best TV show on Prime Video? I can't stop coming back to this comfortingly cringey comedy series from the 2000s
Forbes
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Netflix's Best New Show Boasts 96% On Rotten Tomatoes
Giovanni Ribisi and Bryan Cranston star in the critically acclaimed crime drama 'Sneaky Pete,' which ... More just made its move from Amazon Prime Video to Netflix. 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 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.
Telegraph
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Dexter saga has become too much filler and not enough killer
Dexter has always asked a lot of its viewers. The crime drama, about a vigilante serial killer who dispenses the grisliest form of justice to Miami's worst offenders, demanded that we are simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by its main character, Dexter Morgan (Michael C Hall). The latest instalment in the franchise, the New York-set Dexter: Resurrection (Paramount+), asks a lot too – the viewer must wade through tedious stock characters, some alarmingly hammy acting and a script that assumes we are all staring at our phones as we watch. Do that, however, and you're rewarded with Dexter's trademark breezy, jet-black wit and a crime procedural all of its own. It's like CSI: Patrick Bateman. Ostensibly, this is the third spin-off in the Dexter universe, following Dexter: New Blood and Dexter: Original Sin, but like the first of those it is merely a continuation of the original series. At the end of 2022's New Blood, we left Dexter dead in the snow of upstate New York, where his estranged son, Harrison (Jack Alcott), had just put a bullet through Dad's chest. A brief coma-dream sequence conveniently explains the plot and characters of New Blood away, so Dexter can gingerly hotfoot it to the Big Apple to find Harrison, who may or may not have inherited his father's murderous impulses. What Dexter finds in the big city is a whole bunch of yellow-cab, steam-system, Central Park cliches. Harrison works in a hotel where his colleagues include Snooty English Hotel Manager and Winsome Latina Single Mom; Dexter finds friendship with a borderline-offensively stereotyped Sierra Leonean family; one of the detectives who comes into Dexter's orbit is a brusque genius-savant whose quirk is listening to Stayin' Alive while she works. Perhaps showrunner Clyde Phillips feels his main character has enough originality to make up for the rest of them. Which, in Phillips's defence, Dexter Morgan almost does. He is no longer an athletic thirtysomething, but a weary 50-year-old recovering from a near-fatal shooting. There is relish in Hall's performance as Dexter finds his 'Dark Passenger' (the name he gives his psychopathic tendencies) slowly stirring back into life – largely because of a killer in the city who beheads cab drivers and the press have dubbed 'The Dark Passenger'. All the early footling about is an appetiser to the main meal, which we finally get to in the fourth episode – a dinner party for serial killers. This is where the series truly gets the blood pumping back through its veins, with a lovely performance by Peter Dinklage as a billionaire philanthropist with a clandestine sideline in collecting serial-killer memorabilia. Watching Hall and Dinklage go head-to-head as the series develops will make the whole endeavour worthwhile; the less said the better about Uma Thurman's pantomime turn as Dinklage's fixer. Among this Psychos Assemble meeting is Neil Patrick Harris's 'Tattoo Collector' and Krysten Ritter's 'Lady Vengeance'. The small talk is terrific: 'So, how do you sharpen your knives?' Yet the show can never quite pull itself free from being dispensable popcorn fun – for all its accolades, it has never been in the same league as the true greats of the streaming era – something highlighted by Dexter's stepfather, Harry (James Remar), who appears in ghostly form to remind distracted viewers what's going on. If you are concentrating, the ghostsplaining becomes farcical as Harry repeats key bits of information over and over again ('Harrison needs you!' 'Batista will be here any moment!'). Given the show already has Dexter's voiceover to explain proceedings, this is unforgivable and drags proceedings nearer to streaming-service filler than prestige-television killer.
The Review Geek
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Has Ballard been renewed for Season 2? Here's what we know:
Renewed or Cancelled? Ballard is the latest crime drama series on Prime Video, armed with a simple but effective story, compelling characters and 10 episodes of drama. Having watched the first season in its entirety, you may be wondering if this one has been renewed or cancelled. Well, wonder no more! What is Ballard about? Ballard centers on detective Renée Ballard who plunges into a web of murder and corruption as she hunts a ruthless serial killer. In doing so, she uncovers a sinister police conspiracy that threatens everything she stands for. With Renée's own demons threatening to consume her, Ballard is forced to outwit both criminals and colleagues to bring long-overdue justice to the victims and their families. We have ongoing coverage of Ballard across the site, including recaps for every episode. You can find those HERE! Has Ballard been renewed for Season 2? At the time of writing, Ballard has not been renewed for season 2. Generally Amazon would gauge numerous metrics before renewing a show, including how many people initially watch it and then looking at the drop-off rate. With some shows, cancellations or renewals happen quickly. Other times, it can take months before a decision over a show's future is made. So far, Ballard has had a pretty mixed reaction online from audiences and critics alike. Given the way this show is set up, and the ending we receive, we're predicting that this will be renewed for a second season. Given this falls into the same category as shows like Cross which got a second season nod, it seems likely that this one will follow suit. Having said that, we do also know that completion rate is a massive metric for these streamers so that could play a pivotal role here. For now, we'll have to wait and see what happens but it does seem like we'll be seeing more of Renee and co in the future! What we know about season 2 so far: Barely anything is known about Ballard season 2 at this point given Amazon haven't officially renewed or cancelled this one. Given the first season's conclusion, it does seem likely to get the nod for another season though but we'll have to wait and see. The show ends on a big cliffhanger, with unresolved drama surrounding Renee and her team, who are up against it. As Renee is taken away at the end of season 1, we do linger on a shot of Chief Hughes herself. Does she have some part to play in this? We will update this page when more information becomes available, so be sure to check this page out in the near future. Would you like to see Ballard return for a second season? What's been your favourite part of the show? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
