‘Lucky’ Review: Anya Taylor-Joy Can’t Con Her Way Out of Apple TV’s Uneven Thriller

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Jul 15

**Anya Taylor-Joy in "Lucky," now streaming on Apple TV.**

Anya Taylor-Joy brings style and spark to ‘Lucky,’ but Apple TV’s seven-episode con-woman thriller never figures out what kind of show it wants to be.

A good con story needs confidence. It needs rhythm, seduction, danger and at least one clean reason to keep watching after the trick has been revealed. Apple TV’s ‘Lucky’ has the right pieces for that kind of show: Anya Taylor-Joy as a slippery identity-swapping grifter, Timothy Olyphant as her charming criminal father, Annette Bening as a dangerous family power player and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as the federal agent closing in.

Somehow, with all of that talent on screen, the series still never quite pulls off the job.

Adapted by Jonathan Tropper from Marissa Stapley’s novel, ‘Lucky’ follows Lucky, a young con woman raised into the life by her father, John. As the series begins, Lucky and her husband Cary are preparing to flee the country with nearly $10 million in stolen cash, only for their plan to unravel after a night in Las Vegas. Soon, Lucky is being chased by criminals, family members and the FBI, all while trying to figure out who betrayed whom and how much of her own life has been built on a lie.

That should be fun. At times, it almost is.

The pilot gives Taylor-Joy exactly the kind of glossy, chaotic showcase that suggests ‘Lucky’ might become a stylish, fast-moving thriller. She races through casinos, changes looks, slips in and out of identities and turns every room into a stage. Taylor-Joy remains one of the few young actors who can make stillness feel active and performance feel like strategy. She understands that Lucky is always playing someone, even when she is not sure there is a real person underneath the act.

But the show around her is far less certain.

‘Lucky’ has the shape of a con thriller, but not the snap. It has the cast of a prestige drama, but not the depth. It wants to ask whether its criminals are bad people, damaged people or simply people who learned too early that survival is a performance. The problem is that the series rarely gives those questions enough emotional or moral weight to matter. It keeps gesturing toward complexity without doing the work to earn it.

The biggest issue is identity, both Lucky’s and the show’s. This is a series about a woman who can become anyone she needs to be, yet the show itself never lands on a convincing personality. One episode wants to be a propulsive chase thriller. Another leans toward family drama. Another tries for moral reckoning. Another circles back to twisty crime mechanics. None of these modes are impossible to combine, but ‘Lucky’ shifts between them without enough grace or purpose.

**Timothy Olyphant in "Lucky," now streaming on Apple TV.**

That tonal confusion is especially frustrating because the cast is more than ready for sharper material. Olyphant is easily one of the show’s best assets, bringing warmth, selfishness and slippery charisma to John. He has always been great at playing men who seem relaxed until you realize they are controlling the temperature of the room, and he gives ‘Lucky’ some of its most enjoyable moments.

Bening also brings more presence than the writing gives her. Her Priscilla should be a fascinating antagonist, the kind of elegant criminal matriarch who can smile through a threat and make cruelty feel practical. Instead, the character is underwritten, defined more by implication than by actual dramatic force. Bening fills in some of the gaps, but even she cannot turn an outline into a fully satisfying villain.

Ellis-Taylor, meanwhile, gives the FBI side of the story more intensity than it deserves. She is so grounded and watchable that it takes a while to notice how thinly drawn Agent Rand actually is. The series tells us who she is more often than it shows us, leaving one of television’s strongest performers stuck elevating procedural material that never becomes as compelling as Lucky’s side of the chase.

**Drew Starkey in "Lucky," now streaming on Apple TV.**

Then there is Drew Starkey as Cary, Lucky’s husband and partner in crime. The character is central to the plot but never interesting enough to justify the amount of emotional space he occupies. Starkey has done stronger work elsewhere, but Cary mostly functions as a problem Lucky has to keep reacting to rather than a person we care about on his own.

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At seven episodes, ‘Lucky’ also lands at exactly the wrong length. It is too long to work as a lean, twisty caper and too short to fully build out its world, relationships or emotional damage. The result is a show that keeps moving but rarely accelerates. The plot keeps producing new information, but not enough of it feels surprising, painful or funny enough to change the temperature.

There are pleasures here. Taylor-Joy wearing different identities like costumes remains entertaining. Olyphant’s chemistry with the material gives the show a needed jolt. The casino sequences have energy. The Fiona Apple theme song is a gift. Every so often, ‘Lucky’ flashes the version of itself that might have worked: a stylish, morally messy thriller about a woman trying to outrun the scams that made her.

But that better show never fully emerges. Instead, ‘Lucky’ becomes a slick diversion with an identity crisis, a series about cons that too often feels like it is bluffing its way through its own story.

Taylor-Joy is good enough to make Lucky worth watching. She just cannot make ‘Lucky’ worth believing.

RATING: ★★★☆☆

That’s a Wrap

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Lucky

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That’s a Wrap | Lucky |

“‘Lucky’ has a terrific cast, a stylish premise and a strong lead performance from Anya Taylor-Joy, but the Apple TV thriller never finds the confidence, pace or moral bite a great con story needs. It is watchable in pieces, but too uneven to fully click.”

— Jonathan P. Moustakas

CREDITS

Release Date: Wednesday, July 15

Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Annette Bening, Timothy Olyphant, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Drew Starkey, William Fichtner, Clifton Collins Jr., Mo McRae, Eric Lange

Creator: Jonathan Tropper

Based on: ‘Lucky’ by Marissa Stapley

Streaming: Apple TV

Episodes: 7