Snatch (2017)

Snatch on Crackle pops. The new series, based on Guy Ritchie’s 2000 movie, is a whole lot of fun, a stylish heist story with an irreverent sense of humor.

It adeptly moves along, creating a rhythm easy to fall into, but far from addictive. Time may turn this into a more moving adventure, but it’s a bit too uninspired to leave a mark a la Mickey’s right hook.

To its credit, Snatch the show is one of the better riffs on an original idea you’ll see on television, owing partly to its young and talented cast and partly to a few tweaks to the formula. But it’s still irritatingly derivative, when no derivation was really necessary.

Judging from the first two episodes of the 10-hour season, the show is riddled with characterizations that are meant to be humorous but are just dumb or offensive.

The trade-off of the relatively fast-paced plotting is that, even after just two episodes, Snatch begins to struggle with an increasingly unmanageable cast of characters.

Crackle's TV adaptation is Kidz Bop at best. [17/24 Mar 2017, p.89]

The acting is largely endurable but there’s no variety, no feeling of these actors actually trying to evince a thoughtful persona from what’s been handed to them. The writing is the premiere issue but there’s rarely any sign of the performers putting effort into giving shape or tone to those words.