Ripley · Season 1 · Episode 4 · 4 April 2024
S1E4 IV La Dolce Vita
THE MOMENT A boat on flat Italian water, an argument that goes wrong, and the cut that follows - the moment the series stops being a con-artist story.
The season's pivot episode, in which Ripley's improvised solutions calcify into something more deliberate and sinister. The extended sequence on water is the show at its most formally controlled - Zaillian holds shots far beyond comfort, and Andrew Scott fills the silence with a stillness that conveys more than any monologue.
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Ripley Season 1 Episode 4 'IV La Dolce Vita' released April 4, 2024 on Netflix as the season's central pivot. Rotten Tomatoes holds the season at 86 percent from 135 critics; the series won 4 Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award. Variety described it as 'an uncomfortable, somber watch.' The pivot arrives on water: an argument between Ripley and Dickie Greenleaf that begins as recognisable human conflict and ends in a manner that stops the series being a con-artist story about impersonation and identity theft and makes it something more irreversible. Zaillian holds the shot far past the point of comfort, and Andrew Scott fills the silence with a stillness that conveys calculation rather than panic. Robert Elswit's black-and-white framing of the boat against flat Italian water is the season's most formally controlled single composition.