Pilot Review: Snatch

Snatch (Crackle)
Premiered March 16

I have a somewhat foggy memory of watching the film “Snatch” probably a few years after it came out. What I remember is that it was fast-paced, frantic, and near-impossible to understand. I didn’t expect too much from a show that serves as a remake of the film, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a relatively involving pilot that wasn’t all that hard to understand and structured itself pretty well. I enjoyed the introduction of someone as an “upstanding citizen,” immediately followed by a shot of him disposing of a body. The music is also a very commendable part of the show, getting very intense when the match went the other way and then again towards the end when they realized that there were two trucks. Having their big gain be caught on camera and promptly uploaded to the Internet is a very bad thing, and it’s just those kind of antics that are going to define this show. In the cast, aside from Ed Westwick from “Gossip Girl,” Marc Warren from “The Good Wife,” and Dougray Scott from “Mission: Impossible II,” Rupert Grint, best known as Ron Weasley in the “Harry Potter” movies, is clearly having fun playing against type as Charlie. This is actually a show I might not mind which could be engaging, but I don’t think that I need to get involved with it right now. I can be more than content knowing that it surpassed my expectations and served as more than decent entertainment for the one hour of it that I watched.

How will it work as a series? This world has more than enough craziness and intrigue to populate a season if not a number of seasons, and ending the episode with this big discovery assures that the fallout should be well worth it and capable of maintaining viewers’ interest.
How long will it last? I think this one might be a hit despite the fact that the reviews haven’t been overwhelmingly positive. Ratings data isn’t really published or available by the streaming service, which premiere all ten episodes last week. My bet is that this will be renewed.

Pilot grade: B