There's a particular brand of flashy, modern television production at which the folks with the BBC seem particularly adept. Using slick soundtracks, stylish editing and boatloads of clever details, these shows really capture the feel of 21st century television.
The big problem for us yanks is how hard it is to market these shows Stateside. J.H. Wyman tried to snag the style for his ill-fated Fox series Keen Eddie. As much as TV viewers complain about high-profile cancellations like Firefly, I was always much more heartbroken by Keen Eddie's unceremonious departure in 2003. It had a great cast, including a "before we knew her" Sienna Miller and an amazing visual style. Alas, the hair trigger on Fox's cancel gun squeezed back after only a few episodes.
It wasn't until 2006 that anything with the style of Keen Eddie hit American airwaves again. This time it was with the much more successful BBC original Hustle by Tony Jordan. The show centers around a group of con artists who combine their talents to pull off complicated, high-risk, high-reward scams on a series of unsympathetic marks.
As for why Hustle grabbed the audience that Keen Eddie never did, there are a lot of reasons. First, Hustle didn't aim for a major network like Fox. Every season of the show to come to America aired on the AMC cable network, so ratings were never as crucial an element. Additionally, Americans already proved that they like clever crooks by giving Steven Soderberg and company what is arguably the most successful remake franchise in history, Ocean's 11 and its sequels.
Whatever the reason, the first three series of Hustle are some of the most consistently entertaining seasons of television I've ever seen. They balanced top-notch writing with a perfect cast and a slickness seen nowhere else in TV land. Adrian Lester leads an ensemble comprised of familiar faces like TV veteran Robert Vaughn and talented newcomers like Jaime Murray and Marc Warren. The show was a comedy without a doubt, but it had an edge to it thanks to our characters' need to muck around with the shady side of the street. Most of the main cast also had some sad history that drove them to the life of conning strangers. They're less like classy Robin Hoods and more like damaged people backed into a complex addiction.
By the fourth series of Hustle, the cast lost Adrian Lester. He wanted to move onto other projects and was reportedly not fond of the show's transforming tone. Hustle definitely became lighter and more goofy in its two most reason series. These days, only two members of the original main cast are still on the show. Marc Warren and Jaime Murray went on to other projects. Warren has been building up a film resume and had a short but memorable part in Band of Brothers while Murray found a recurring role on the Showtime original series Dexter.
Hustle will be coming back for another series on the BBC with a mostly younger, lower-profile cast. Though I'm not really a fan of the last two runs, don't let that stop you from indulging. The earlier seasons are top-of-the-shelf and definitely worth a box set.