Forget White Collar, Its Perfect Replacement with 96% Tomatometer Awaits You on Prime Video

Criminal dramas about defenders of justice were once popular only in the procedural format, but the industry developed by leaps and bounds. Over time, we began to receive full-fledged dramas at the level of feature films with the best actors of our time.

One of the most popular projects in this genre was White Collar – an exciting series about a sophisticated, elegant, handsome intellectual, formerly one of the elite of the criminal world, and now an FBI consultant, Neal Caffrey, who, together with Agent Peter Burke, solves the most complex crimes in New York.

However, while White Collar and Suits received its fair share of love from the viewers, another project remained in the shadows completely undeservedly.

Sneaky Pete Was Inspired by Bryan Cranston 's Life

In 2014, Bryan Cranston won an Emmy for his role as Walter White in Breaking Bad. At the ceremony, the actor spoke a little about his past: he had a difficult childhood and was always trying to find ways to make his life easier – and his friends nicknamed him Sneaky Pete for it.

The next day, Cranston received a call from Sony's television division asking if he would be interested in telling the story of Sneaky Pete in serial form. Cranston decided that yes, he would.

What is Sneaky Pete About?

For three years, the con man Marius shared a cell with Pete. Pete talked and whined all the time: he missed the old days when he and his friend Taylor lived with his grandparents and life was carefree and happy. But after a fight between his mother and grandmother, a chain of sad events began that led Pete to prison.

Pete talked, Marius listened – and as it turned out, not in vain. Once Marius was free, crime boss Vince was waiting to kill him, and Marius desperately needed a place to hide – so he decided to pose as his former cellmate and came to Pete's grandparents house. And Grandma and Grandpa believed him.

Sneaky Pete Changed the Tone And Genre After The First Episode

Sneaky Pete was intended to be a light-hearted procedural for CBS. It was assumed that Marius, his "cousin" Julia, and other family members would solve all sorts of problems from episode to episode, such as posting bail and finding defendants who failed to show up for court hearings.

However, after show creators David Shore and Bryan Cranston produced a pilot, CBS abandoned the project and Sneaky Pete was picked up by Amazon. At the same time, Shore was replaced at the helm of the series by Justified creator Graham Yost, and Cranston decided to not only appear briefly in Sneaky Pete, but also play a fairly significant supporting role.

Therefore, Sneaky Pete should not be judged by its first episode. Although the second episode picks up almost immediately after the conclusion of the first one, several months passed between filming, during which time the project was significantly rethought.

In essence, the pilot and subsequent episodes seem to belong to two different shows, created in different tones and even different genres, even though they share the same characters. While the first episode is a TV crime comedy, the subsequent story of Sneaky Pete moves toward a family crime drama.

And for this decision to change tone, we can only thank Amazon – the viewers have ended up with one of the most outstanding family dramas, as evidenced by the show's Rotten Tomatoes rating of 96% from critics and 90% from viewers.

Where to Stream Sneaky Pete?

All three seasons of Sneaky Pete are available on Prime Video.