Anya Taylor-Joy plays a con woman on the run in Apple TV+ thriller 'Lucky', a seven-episode adaptation that struggles to find its own identity

The setup

Apple TV+ is launching 'Lucky', a seven-episode limited series starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Luciana 'Lucky' Armstrong, a con woman raised in a criminal life by her now-incarcerated father, John (Timothy Olyphant). The series, adapted by Jonathan Tropper from Marissa Stapley's 2021 novel, opens with Lucky and her husband Cary (Drew Starkey) celebrating a final night in Las Vegas before fleeing the country with nearly $10 million in cash. The money was skimmed from a scam involving John's mother, Priscilla (Annette Bening), and a wealthy crime boss, Wayne Whittaker (William Fichtner).

The chase begins

When Lucky wakes up alone in the hotel suite the next day, both Cary and the briefcase of cash are gone. Her instinct that something was about to go wrong proves correct. FBI special agent Billie Rand (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) is tracking her, while Priscilla Matheson, Whittaker's underboss, is also closing in. The series follows Lucky across the American Southwest as she uses every skill her father taught her to survive, with the narrative structured around a flashback from a bus stop in Arizona where she is first seen trying to evade federal agents.

A cast working against the current

Taylor-Joy's performance is described as 'fantastic' by Variety and as hard-working by The Hollywood Reporter, which notes that she and a 'solid ensemble cast work hard to swim against the underdeveloped stream.' The supporting players include Bening as the vicious Priscilla, who becomes softer in Whittaker's presence, and Clifton Collins Jr. as Dutch, her enforcer who does 'all her bloody bidding.' Variety praises the show's character-driven approach, noting that Billie's obsession with taking down Priscilla 'constantly puts her team in peril' and that Cary is 'torn between his own desires and others' expectations.'

Adaptation choices under scrutiny

The Hollywood Reporter is sharply critical of the adaptation, arguing that Tropper's take 'scraps the entirety of the book being adapted and replaces those elements with motley bits and pieces that fail to generate a consistent tone, theme or pace.' The review describes the central con as taking place before the series begins, calling it nonsensical and adding 'nothing to the principal story.' The oil-industry backdrop of the scam is dismissed as 'something stupid about oil' and 'amorphous.' The result, per that outlet, is 'a show about an identity-swapping heroine that has no sense of its own identity,' oscillating between 'half frivolous lark' and 'half self-important commentary.'

The action beats

Variety offers a more positive take, describing the series as 'replete with gunfights, car chases and more than a few intriguing grifts' across all seven episodes, with 'heart-racing sequences that rival those of any worthwhile high-voltage thriller.' The review frames the show as a meditation on 'the tensions between nature and nurture' and 'the dangers and vulnerabilities that come with loving other people,' calling it 'the captivating story of one young woman's desperate attempt to break free of the dark and violent life that's shaped her.'

It's a show about an identity-swapping heroine that has no sense of its own identity.

Both reviews agree on the core premise and cast, but diverge sharply on whether the execution delivers. The series streams on Apple TV+ from 15 July 2026.