Lucky premieres July 15 on Apple TV+.
By Elazar Abrahams
Anya Taylor-Joy rocking a blonde bob, running from danger in different disguises as she dodges bad guys and tries to outsmart the criminal world she thought she left behind. Surely, there’s a great show in there somewhere. And occasionally, Apple TV’s new limited series Lucky is pretty okay. But not often enough.
Based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel, Lucky stars Taylor-Joy as Lucky Armstrong, a former con artist who is forced back into her old life after a multimillion-dollar heist goes wrong and she ends up hunted by law enforcement and dangerous criminals. The seven-episode limited series, created by Jonathan Tropper and Cassie Pappas.
The performances are not the problem. Taylor-Joy is a great actress, and she is very watchable here. She has one of the most expressive faces of anyone in the industry these days, and the camera loves her. Even when the show around her feels underwritten, she gives Lucky a cool, bruised, restless quality. Watching her on the run is relatively propulsive, at least in bursts.
Timothy Olyphant is also good as Lucky’s incarcerated father, a career criminal whose relationship with his daughter gives the show some of its only real emotional texture. Olyphant has that great laconic screen presence where he can make almost any line sound more interesting than it is, and the show benefits whenever he shows up. Annette Bening, meanwhile, is a chilling presence as Priscilla, a crime boss with enough steel and quiet menace to make you wish the series around her had more personality. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor also adds sharpness as the FBI agent on Lucky’s trail.
There is solid action too. The show tends to offer at least one set piece per episode, and those moments are generally well shot and directed. Taylor-Joy scrambling through escapes, improvising her way out of danger, or trying to stay one step ahead of everyone else gives Lucky the occasional jolt of energy it desperately needs.
The issue is everything between those jolts.
For a show about a con artist on the run, Lucky is surprisingly dull. It has the ingredients of a sleek summer thriller, but very little that sticks. The plot moves, technically, but it rarely builds excitement. The story should feel like a tightening noose, with Lucky’s past and present crashing into each other in increasingly stressful ways. Instead, it often feels like a handsomely mounted exercise in people chasing each other from one location to the next.
Perhaps this is a lazy critique, but this would have worked way better as a movie than seven hour long episodes. There is not enough character, suspense, or thematic depth here to justify the runtime. The show keeps stretching out reveals and relationships that never become interesting enough to sustain the extra hours.
That’s especially frustrating because the bones of the story are not bad. A woman raised in crime, trying to escape her past, only to be pulled back in for one final, desperate act is a savory setup. But the writing never makes Lucky’s inner conflict feel as juicy or as her physical danger. We understand the broad strokes of who she is, but not enough of the specifics to really care.
The result is a show that is competent yet rarely compelling. The action and acting are solid. But “solid” can become its own kind of problem when there is nothing amazing underneath it. Lucky is too polished to be a disaster, but too bland to be memorable.
And that may be the most damning thing about it. This is a series with Anya Taylor-Joy, Timothy Olyphant, Annette Bening, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and the kind of pulpy premise that should make for easy binge-watching. It should be a blast. Instead, it feels like something you watch, mildly enjoy in places, and then forget almost immediately.
I give Lucky a C.
