Netflix’s 8-Part Thriller Miniseries Is a Near-Perfect Binge

Image via Netflix Published Nov 15, 2026, 5:15 PM EST Liam Gaughan is a film and TV writer at Collider. He has been writing film reviews and news coverage for ten years. Between relentlessly adding new titles to his watchlist and attending as many screenings as he can, Liam is always watching new movies and television shows. In addition to reviewing, writing, and commentating on both new and old releases, Liam has interviewed talent such as Mark Wahlberg, Jesse Plemons, Sam Mendes, Billy Eichner, Dylan O'Brien, Luke Wilson, and B.J. Novak. Liam aims to get his spec scripts produced and currently writes short films and stage plays. He lives in Allentown, PA. Sign in to your Collider account Tom Ripley, created by Patricia Highsmith for her novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, is one of the most iconic characters in contemporary literature. In addition to the several sequels that Highsmith wrote, Ripley has appeared in several cinematic incarnations, including the Oscar-nominated 1999 classic starring Matt Damon as the titular character. Given this storied history, making a new version of the classic story would seem like an endeavor doomed to end in disappointment. However, Netflix revamped Highsmith’s source material with the eight-episode miniseries Ripley, which saw Andrew Scott taking over the iconic role in the series by creator Steve Zaillian. Even if the story was already familiar, Ripley made creative choices that helped reframe the narrative into a twisty noir. The character of Ripley is a true enigma who is employed by the wealthy businessman Herbert Greenleaf (Kenneth Lonergan) to find his son, Dickie (Johnny Flynn), who has disappeared in Italy with his girlfriend, Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning), to live a bohemian life. Although Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley created a lush version of Europe that spoke to the exuberance of the post-war era, Ripley is a moody, atmospheric black-and-white drama that examines the feelings of disenchantment from expatriates. Its eight episodes allow it to expand upon details that weren’t fleshed out in some of the previous interpretations, but Ripley is such an engrossing, noir experience that it’s hard not to consume it in its entirety over the course of just one sitting. ‘Ripley’ Redefines One of Literature's Most Iconic Characters One of the most notable differences between the original source material and Zaillian’s version is the age of the characters, who are almost two decades older than they appear in the novel. Ripley uses the faded ambitions and lack of accomplishments of its protagonists to reflect a dark side to the notion of escapism; even though Dickie has seemingly rejected his family’s responsibilities for the sake of doing his own thing, he’s revealed to be just as miserable as his father is. What makes Flynn’s version of Dickie so different than the Oscar-nominated performance by Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley is that he is a vacuum of charisma who seems to have no real artistic talents, even if he engages in pretentious conversations with his friend Freddie (Eliot Sumner). This makes Ripley’s desire to literally replace him more complex; although there is still a hint of psychosexual obsession, Ripley seemingly wants to take over Dickie’s life because he feels that he could live it better. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Netflix Character Would Be Your Best Friend? Dustin · Emily · Wednesday · Gi-hun Some friends drag you out of the house. Some sit with you on the worst night of your life. Netflix has written both, plus the one who tells you the truth you have been avoiding all week. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually do friendship, and find out which of them was always going to end up in your corner. 🧢Dustin(Stranger Things) 🗼Emily(Emily in Paris) 🕷️Wednesday(Wednesday) 🟢Gi-hun(Squid Game) FIND YOUR BEST FRIEND → 01 How do you usually end up making a new friend? The origin story says a lot about the friendship that follows it. AWe got loud about the same obsession and never stopped. BThey invited me somewhere before we had properly met. CWe bonded over disliking exactly the same thing. DThey noticed I was struggling and stayed with me. NEXT QUESTION → 02 What is a perfect Saturday with your best friend? Friendship is mostly built out of very ordinary hours. AA ridiculous plan neither of us should attempt. BSomewhere new, photographed heavily, ending very late. CSomewhere quiet, few people, zero small talk. DSomething simple, and a conversation that actually matters. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You call them at two in the morning. What happens? This is the real test of a friendship, and everybody knows it. AThey are already putting their shoes on. BThey answer instantly and turn it into a plan. CThey answer and say something unflattering and true. DThey listen for an hour and never check the time. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What do you want from them when you are clearly wrong? The best friendships are the ones that survive being corrected. ASupport first. We can review the mistake later. BA relentlessly positive reframe of the entire disaster. CThe blunt version. Do not soften it for me. DPatience, and no judgment about how I got here. NEXT QUESTION → 05 What do your friends actually value about you? The friend you attract says something about the friend you are. AI am all in, always, about everything. BI can turn almost any situation into a good time. CI say the thing nobody else in the room will. DI look after whoever is having the worst day. NEXT QUESTION → 06 You have a falling out. How does it go? How a friendship repairs itself matters more than how it breaks. ALoudly, briefly, then back to normal by Tuesday. BThey apologise first, enthusiastically, with a gift. CCold silence, then one dry joke that fixes everything. DWe talk until we both understand what actually happened. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What do you actually need a best friend for? Everybody is missing something. The right friend fills that gap. ATo make my life bigger than it would be alone. BTo push me out of the house and into my own life. CTo catch me when I start lying to myself. DTo be the person who never gave up on me. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Ten years from now, what keeps the two of you close? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who you get. AWe would still drop everything for each other, instantly. BWe still make plans, and we still actually go. CWe still cut through each other's nonsense in one sentence. DThey stood by me once when it cost them something. REVEAL MY BEST FRIEND → The Group Chat Has Spoken Your Best Friend Is…Four Netflix characters, four completely different ways of showing up for somebody. This is the one who fits how you actually do friendship, and what having them in your life would be like. Dustin HendersonYou do not do friendship at half volume, and neither does he. What you want is somebody who says yes to the plan before you have finished describing the plan. Dustin is the friend the entire show runs on: loyal past the point of sense, enthusiastic about everything, and incapable of leaving anybody behind. You have the same instinct. Your friendships are loud, specific and slightly ridiculous, and they last for decades because of it. He is also the one person who would take your strangest interest completely seriously, which is far rarer than it sounds. You would have a group chat. It would never once be quiet. Emily CooperYou are the friend who makes things happen, and so is she. Together you would be mildly exhausting to everyone around you and completely delighted with yourselves. Emily treats an ordinary Tuesday as something that could be turned into an occasion, which is either the best or the worst quality in a friend depending on your energy levels. You share her refusal to sit still. Neither of you has ever accepted a night in when something was happening somewhere else. She is far more loyal than people give her credit for. She defends her friends loudly, publicly, and occasionally before checking the facts. She would post the photo without asking. You would forgive her, because it is a very good photo. Wednesday AddamsYou have no patience for pleasant lies, and she has no ability to tell them. What looks like coldness from the outside is the most reliable friendship on this list. Wednesday never says a kind thing she does not mean, which makes the rare ones count for an enormous amount. You would rather be told the truth than be made comfortable. She is constitutionally incapable of offering you anything else. Underneath all of it she is ferociously protective. She simply refuses to make a performance out of caring. Do not expect a birthday message. Do expect her to ruin anyone who wrongs you. Seong Gi-hunYou look after whoever is having the worst day. So does he. It is the least strategic way to move through the world and the best possible quality in a friend. Gi-hun is not the strongest player in Squid Game, or the cleverest. He is the one who keeps choosing to protect somebody else, over and over, at genuine cost to himself. You have the same instinct. You notice who is struggling and you stay with them, long after anybody would blame you for leaving. He is a flawed friend, and that is part of why it lands. He lets people down, then comes back and tries again, which is more than most manage. He would give you his last chance and never once mention that he had done it. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Ripley puts the viewer in a precarious position because the characters are as fascinating as they are repulsive. While Scott doesn’t inspire the same sense of empathy that Damon did, Ripley breaks down the senselessness of wealth, status, and etiquette by showing how shallow Dickie and Marge are. In some instances, it's darkly amusing to see Ripley disrupt their social circles and draw Dickie to a more carefree lifestyle, even if Marge wants them to settle down and have a family. There are instances in which Highsmith’s words are replicated in their entirety, but Ripley is also a masterwork in subtle audio cues that create suspense. By gradually emphasizing background noise, Ripley allows its viewers to experience the same perception of the world as its titular character does, which makes the build-up to Dickie’s murder even more suspenseful. ‘Ripley’ Is a Brilliant Modern Noir Even though Ripley doesn’t expand beyond the narrative of Highsmith’s first novel, the series takes the time to show the highly ornate problem-solving that Ripley faces, which makes it more believable that he’s been able to operate in obscurity. Instead of using the murder as a brief instance of a jump scare, the episode "III Sommerso" meticulously examines how Ripley lures Dickie to a place where they will not be discovered and strategizes a way to cover up the evidence. By suggesting that Ripley has planned his actions, and that they are not done out of instinctual rage, the series is able to question why he has developed these skills in the first place and why he still chose to spend so much time soaking up Dickie’s lifestyle. While in no way does this make Ripley more likeable, at least in a traditional way, it does create a greater sense of intrigue as to how he will pull off his next scheme. There’s also a greater deal of suspense that comes from the appearance of Inspector Pietro Ravini (Maurizio Lombardi), the one member of law enforcement who seems to understand that nothing that Ripley says or admits to can be taken at face value. Ripley makes for a satisfying and conclusive experience, but there's an ambiguity to the characters that makes it even more compelling upon a rewatch. 'Ripley' Proves That TV Has the Potential To Replace Film Image via Netflix Although it's often expressed that prestige television has replaced films as the best medium to tell mature stories for adults, Ripley is the rare series for which the description “cinematic” actually applies. Zaillian, a venerable screenwriter behind classics like Schindler’s List and American Gangster, creates a perfectly realized version of New York and Italy in the ‘60s that mirrors the stylized films that were released in the same timeframe. The film’s gorgeous look comes from Robert Elswit, the Oscar-winning cinematographer behind There Will Be Blood, who utilizes his trademark visual style that couldn’t be more distinct than the bland, oversaturated aesthetic that has become far too common within Netflix originals. That being said, far too many Netflix shows feel like they were originally designed as movies and later extended to multiple episodes; in comparison, Ripley uses its extra running time to explore more existential questions, which are conveyed through the use of beautifully rendered flashbacks. It’s both a brilliant reconsideration for Highsmith fans and a great introduction to the world of Ripley for those unfamiliar with the material. Ripley Release Date 2024 - 2024-00-00