Ripley · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 4 April 2024
S1E1 I A Hard Man to Find
THE MOMENT Ripley's first sight of Dickie Greenleaf's life in Atrani - the precise moment the con man decides he wants to become rather than merely rob.
The premiere establishes Ripley's world in near-silence - a grifter in a walk-up apartment, a job offer he cannot refuse, and a first-class flight that rearranges his ambitions completely. Elswit's black-and-white photography of New York and then Naples makes every frame feel like a crime scene before any crime has occurred.
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Ripley Season 1 Episode 1 'I A Hard Man to Find' released April 4, 2024 on Netflix as the opening of the 8-episode limited series written and directed entirely by Steven Zaillian. Rotten Tomatoes holds the season at 86 percent from 135 critics; IMDb audience scored it 8.1. Variety called Tom 'utterly charmless,' his sociopathic personality making Ripley 'an uncomfortable, somber watch.' The premiere establishes the series in near-silence: Tom Ripley in a New York walk-up, a job offer from a millionaire he cannot refuse, a first-class flight that lands him in a life he immediately decides he wants to appropriate rather than visit. Robert Elswit's black-and-white cinematography of New York and then Naples makes every frame feel like it contains the memory of a crime before any crime has occurred. Andrew Scott's performance operates in the gaps between words, primary information conveyed through stillness and directed gaze. The Emmy-winning direction establishes its formal signature within the opening ten minutes.