RE:VIEW ~ “Lucky” (2026)
It’s high time we were rid of the notion of ‘women can’t play the lead in a noir, they have to be the femme fatale who leads the male lead to his un-doing.’
What bollocks.
This series is a perfect example of how it can and should be done. Anya Taylor-Joy’s anti-hero has a troubled past, mostly due to her father’s cynical view of the world. He follows the PT Barnum maxim that “there’s a sucker born every minute,” and he’s out to take advantage of every one of them. Along the way, he's teaching his daughter ‘Lucky’ (her real name is ‘Luciana,’ which is immaterial to the story) how to do this without any feeling of remorse. After all, a child is seen as guileless, above suspicion, which means she is the key to almost all of his schemes.
The central question of this series is ‘does she continue on this path or not?’ She is repeatedly betrayed by others, so her bitterness to exact revenge is understandable. However, she is hardly an admirable character, given she has made her way around the world and away from the authorities from theft, confidence scams, and the occasional shakedown. She's certainly not Joan of Arc, that’s for sure, so sympathizing with her or rooting for her success is tough at times.
Every one of the other characters are bent or twisted in some way. If not actually committing wrong-doing, the very least they’re doing is cutting corners and skipping steps in order to make things either faster or easier, despite that possibly being either illegal or immoral. Rooting for them is equally challenging.
As is typically the case with fiction, ‘everything works out perfectly in the end.’ The process of getting there, and what constitutes a perfect resolution fort the story, is incredibly satisfying to watch the entire length of.
The acting, cinematography, and editing are all fantastic. The dialogue and acting especially is letter-perfect, with nary an unnecessary word, reaction, or plot twist out of place. If Ms Taylor-Joy, the writers, the editors, and the show as a whole do not among them win at least one Emmy next year, something is wrong with the world.
Saying much more would ruin your discovery of this gem of a programme, but I’ll add this.
It’s simply brilliant.
★★★★★