Ross JohnsonRoss JohnsonFreelance Writer
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Ross Johnson writes about television, film, and literature for Lifehacker. He has a degree in political science from the University of Rochester and has previously been a legal writer and editor for Thomson Reuters, for which he later traveled around India and the Middle East as an educator specializing in American English style and grammar for adults.
Ross has been an actor on stage, in commercials, and in independent films since childhood, and has written hundreds of articles and essays on genre literature and cinema for Barnes & Noble, Gizmodo, Kotaku, and Yahoo! Entertainment.
Ross produces the Swan Songs film podcast and hosts The Sound of Tomorrow, a pop culture and current affairs radio show based in Rochester, New York, where he lives with his husband and dogs and supports the local arts and cinema scene. You can find him on Bluesky.
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August 19, 2026
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The latest from Reese Witherspoon’s production powerhouse Hello Sunshine is another buzzy hit: the crime thriller Lucky, based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel, has been solidly within Apple TV’s top ten since its release. Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Luciana “Lucky” Armstrong, con-artist forced to go on the run when a heist goes sideways. And we do love a caper—especially when it goes off the rails. When you’re done watching that and are craving more, here’s what the stream next.
Good Girls (2018 – 2021)
Beth, Ruby, and Annie (Christina Hendricks, Retta, and Mae Whitman, respectively) are three moms in suburban Michigan, and they are all having serious money troubles. They’re not exactly criminal masterminds, so they concoct a scheme to rob the local grocery store to solve them—a store that just happens to serve as a front for a money-laundering operation. They make off with $500,000, but the gang leader whose money they unknowingly stole wants it back, and the store manager who spotted one of their tattoos is threatening blackmail. It’s definitely not a sitcom, but it’s a solid comedy-drama with a talented cast of characters who keep finding themselves in deeper and deeper over the course of four seasons. <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80177342″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Stream Good Girlson Netflix.
Poker Face (2023 – 2025)
Poker Face, created by Knives Out writer/director Rian Johnson and starring Natasha Lyonne, pays tribute to Columbo in its mystery-anthology format: One-time cocktail waitress Charlie Cale, on the run from a ruthless casino magnate, travels the backroads of North America and encounters murder pretty much everywhere she goes. Fortunately, Charlie has an uncanny ability to tell when people are lying, as well as a very handy penchant for finding under-the-table work. Like Columbo, the audience is given all the details of the murder up front, and so the mystery isn’t whodunnit so much as how is Charlie going to solve it? Lyonne’s self-effacing, no-bullshit persona is perfect here, and she’s well-matched with a top-tier array of guest stars. She’s not a con artist so much, but, like Lucky, she’s on the run from criminals and the law at the same time. Stream Poker Faceon Peacock.
Poker Face (2023 – 2025)
at Peacock
at Peacock
Confidence Queen (2025)
She’s a con artist with a heart of gold (more or less), so it’s easy to sit back and have some fun with this South Korean import. Yoon Yi-rang (Park Min-young) leads a three-person team of confident tricksters who prey exclusively on other criminals and crooked business-types. As the series starts, things are starting to come apart: Yi-rang’s childhood friend Gu-ho wants out, no longer sure that he’s cut out for a life of crime. When the team breaks up, the more experienced James sets out on his own—only to turn up later, beaten nearly to death at the hands of a famous corporate CEO, known publicly for his philanthropy but is secretly a vicious loan shark. And so, Yi-rang’s schemes are no longer just a lark: she’s out for justice, pursued with a great deal of style. Stream Confidence Queenon Prime Video.
Barracuda Queens (2023 – )
Rob from the rich and give to the…rich? Is the gist of this Swedish import, as we follow four mostly wealthy, privileged, and largely unsympathetic young women who wake up after a night of partying to discover that they’ve run up rather massive bills that their parents aren’t going to be responsible for. Coming up with a plan to steal from the home of another very rich family in the neighborhood, they’re very nearly caught before circumstances lead them into stealing not just to cover up their own indiscretions, but to get back at some assholes who’ve wronged them. There are some clever choices here that set the show apart from other heist dramas: It’s unclear whether we should actually be rooting for these women, even if their targets are deserving, and, similarly, they’re not particularly good at what they do. These aren’t master criminals, so the likelihood that they’re going to mess up and get caught is pretty much 100%. Stream Barracuda Queens on Netflix.
Barracuda Queens (2023 – )
at Netflix
at Netflix
Steal (2026)
Sophie Turner stars here as Zara Dunne, a trade processor (which is a job, apparently) at a major London pension management company. Which all sounds terribly boring, but not for long: A group of well-trained and armed individuals take the office staff hostage and arrange for trades to the tune of around £4 billion—nearly every penny to the firm’s name. During the heist, Zara interacts with the firm’s bank in order to confirm the transactions or, at least, so it seems. When co-workers discuss the possibility of an inside job at the end of the first episode, Zara’s rather cheeky smile might well suggest to you that she knows quite a bit more than she’s letting on. Stream Stealon Prime Video.
Queen of the South (2016 – 2021)
Very loosely based on true events, Queen stars Alice Braga as Teresa Mendoza, who we meet as the head of a vast drug empire, before we flash back to witness her rise (think Narcos). A poor girl in Sinaloa, Mexico, she becomes the girlfriend of a drug dealer who ends up on the wrong side of his bosses. Teresa flees the country, setting out on an action-fueled journey to the top of her own criminal empire. The show is based on a telenovela (which was, itself, based on a non-fiction work), so the tone here is rather impressively unique: Teresa is as clever as she is good in a fight, the show highlighting the character’s charisma and brains alongside her facility with getting herself out of scrapes. Initially, the high-octane action feels a little silly, but once the show finds a balance, it’s pretty addictive. Buy Queen of the South from Prime Video.
What do you think so far?
Queen of the South (2016 – 2021)
at Prime Video
at Prime Video
Inventing Anna (2022)
TV’s reigning monarch Shonda Rhimes brought us this true-crime drama about Anna Sorokin, aka Anna Delvey, a Russian émigré who posed as a wealthy German heiress and eventually scammed New York City’s wealthy elite out of hundreds of thousands of dollars (because rich people are, after all, at least as stupid as the rest of us). Julia Garner plays the con-artist with a brilliantly whackadoo accent and an appropriately high level of commitment. The show’s non-linear narrative reveals the elements of the scam in such a way as to emphasize the ways in which people were very keen to believe her even when doing so began to seem very dumb. Stream Inventing Anna on Netflix.
Big Little Lies (2017 – )
These rich ladies are goingthrough it, and just because they’ve got beautiful homes and nice clothes doesn’t mean they’re not getting the full treatment. As the series opens, five women (played by Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz) become involved in a murder investigation connected to a school fundraiser that threatens to bring all of their private dirt out into the open—and there are secrets aplenty to uncover. Toxic relationships come into the light, and others become toxic under pressure. In their social strata, any threat to the status quo can lead to big drama. This one is part crime drama, part dark comedy, part psychological thriller, and, where Lucky is the most recent hit from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company, this was the first. StreamBig Little Lieson HBO Max.
Killing Eve (2018 – 2022)
Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer star as the two halves of television’s great cat-and-mouse, will-they-won’t-they narratives, with Oh as Eve Polastri, a bored MI5 analyst who becomes obsessed with hunting down the brutal, notorious assassin known only as Villanelle. It starts as a professional compulsion before it gets personal, and it soon becomes clear that the fascination goes both ways. This is a spy drama more than a crime thriller, but the complex relationship between two women on opposite (but shifting) sides of the law is enthralling. Stream Killing Eveon Prime Video, Paramount+, Britbox, and Netflix.
The Brothers Sun (2024)
A fun crime comedy, The Brothers Sun stars Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh as Eileen Sun, the exiled head of a family of Taiwanese gangsters. She’d come to Los Angeles years before, taking one son, Bruce (Sam Song Li), who grew up knowing little of his origins and who has few ambitions beyond being really great at improv comedy—which his mom isn’t thrilled about, but she’s happy to have her criminal past behind her. An assassination attempt sends the older brother, still in the family business, to L.A., drawing Eileen and Bruce back into the fold—and into plenty of danger. Stream The Brothers Sunon Netflix.
The Brothers Sun (2024)
at Netflix
at Netflix
Ross Johnson
Ross Johnson writes about television, film, and literature for Lifehacker.
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