Crime thrillers are often built around the question of who did it. Lucky asks something much more interesting: who are you when you’ve spent your entire life pretending to be someone else? Apple TV’s latest series wraps that question inside a stylish, emotionally engaging thriller led by another exceptional performance from Anya Taylor-Joy.
Sleek and emotionally complex, the show makes clear it knows that its biggest revelations won’t come in its criminal plot, but in its characters. Inspired by the award-winning novel by Marissa Stapley, Lucky tells the story of Luciana “Lucky” Armstrong, a young woman determined to escape the world she was born into, spending her childroon raised by a bunch of conmen. However, when her husband Carey (Drew Starkey) goes missing and all of her past enemies start catching up with her, she finds herself pulled back into a world she tried so hard to get away from.
The series begins as your typical thriller, but eventually reveals itself to be much more personal than that. In the midst of all the scams, lies, and betrayal is a story of self-identity. Lucky has been a fake throughout her whole life, and the series constantly explores if it’s possible for a person to truly know themselves if their very survival has relied upon them being anyone other than what they were born as.
This concept works due to Anya Taylor-Joy.
She could not be more at home here. While she remains perpetually intelligent and never unapproachable, she is always aware of what’s happening around her through calculated glances, while harboring a heavy past underneath. It’s incredible how Taylor-Joy is able to make each glance a calculation, yet she never allows the character to become emotionally distant. No matter what Lucky does, even if it is questionable, you know exactly why she does it.
It just proves yet again what a talent Taylor-Joy is when it comes to making a vulnerable and confident character in one.
Another great aspect of the show is Timothy Olyphant as Lucky’s dad, John. The complex relationship between these two characters provides many of the show’s best dramatic moments, combining love and manipulation in an interesting way. Olyphant never reduces John to a one-note criminal. He finds the complexity in the character, balancing genuine love with the emotional scars that have shaped him into the man he has become.
Drew Starkey continues to prove why he is one of the most exciting young actors working today. There’s a quiet sincerity to his performance that grounds much of the series, bringing warmth and vulnerability to every scene he’s in. Together, Starkey and Olyphant become two very different emotional forces in Lucky’s life, making every choice she faces feel genuine and emotionally earned.
Visually, Lucky is equally impressive. The series has a confident cinematic style without ever feeling self-conscious, moving effortlessly between tense thriller sequences and quieter, character-driven moments. Director Jonathan van Tulleken keeps the audience firmly aligned with Lucky’s perspective, allowing us to uncover each new piece of the mystery alongside her.
If there’s one criticism, it’s that the central mystery occasionally feels less compelling than the people caught within it. At times, the plot threatens to overcomplicate itself, but the performances are strong enough that it rarely becomes an issue. You’re invested because of Lucky and the people surrounding her, not simply because you want answers.
And that’s exactly why Lucky works so well.
This isn’t simply a story about escaping dangerous people. It’s about escaping the version of yourself they helped create.
Thanks to excellent performances, led by another outstanding turn from Anya Taylor-Joy, Lucky is an intelligent and emotionally engaging thriller that knows its greatest strength isn’t the mystery at its heart, but the woman searching for her place within it.
