The Untalented Mr. Ripley

The eight-part Netflix series Ripley (2024) marked the first time Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, had been reimagined for television. Unlike previous screen adaptations, the show presents a deliberately deglamorized version of Highsmith’s character, a Tom Ripley less charismatic or preternaturally “talented” than the one made famous by Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film. Characterized by long procedural sequences in which Tom encounters persistent difficulties executing his crimes, Ripley received criticism for these narrative longeurs, as well as its use of black-and-white cinematography and Andrew Scott’s performance in the lead role. Even as the distinctive approach to casting, pacing, and visual style taken by creator Steven Zaillian differentiates Ripley from earlier adaptations, however, it affirms the series’ proximity to the mordantly comic, Hitchcockian sensibility of Highsmith’s novel. At the same time, this Ripley also reflects, like other media characters of late, the pressures of our contemporary “too-late” capitalist moment.