Netflix’s Ripley is a visually rigorous, performance-led thriller that turns Patricia Highsmith’s familiar story into a patient study of deception. Its black-and-white images, careful sound design and Andrew Scott’s watchful lead performance make the series compelling if you enjoy slow-burn suspense. The deliberate pace is also its main hurdle: viewers seeking a brisk, plot-first thriller may find it languid.
What is Netflix’s Ripley about?
Set in the early 1960s, the eight-episode limited series follows Tom Ripley, a grifter scraping by in New York. A wealthy man hires him to travel to Italy and persuade his son, Dickie Greenleaf, to return home. Tom accepts, but the assignment draws him into escalating deceit, fraud and murder. Netflix describes the series as an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley fiction; its Media Center listing identifies the principal cast and credits Steven Zaillian with writing and directing all eight episodes.
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Andrew Scott plays Tom, Johnny Flynn plays Dickie, and Dakota Fanning plays Marge Sherwood. The source novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, was published in 1955, according to Netflix Tudum’s account of the series’ production.
Does the black-and-white style work?
Yes: the monochrome photography gives the series a distinctive visual identity and supports its uneasy mood. Zaillian told the Associated Press that he did not want “a color postcard sort of Italy” for the story. Instead of treating the country as a sunny travel backdrop, the series makes its streets, interiors and landscapes feel watchful and often forbidding.
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The look is more than a filter. Netflix Tudum reports that the production team researched the period, worked across more than 200 sets and locations, and filmed in places including Venice, Rome, Naples, Palermo and Atrani. Director of photography Robert Elswit, production designer David Gropman and costume designers Maurizio Millenotti and Giovanni Casalnuovo shaped the visual world. Millenotti and Casalnuovo said the black-and-white format challenged them to distinguish characters through “a thousand shades of gray.”
That restraint suits a story built around concealment: details in a room, an outfit or a face can matter as much as a plot turn. TIME likewise reads the restricted palette as reinforcing a colder, more sinister atmosphere. The trade-off is that viewers who want lush, colorful images of Italy may find the series deliberately withholding.
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How do the pacing and suspense feel?
Ripley takes its time. It alternates stretches of movement with scenes that hold on an uneasy pause, letting the viewer notice a glance, a sound or a small change in Tom’s behavior. Andrew Scott told the Associated Press, “You have to teach the audience how to watch it to a certain degree.” That patience is central to the experience rather than a brief prelude to a faster thriller.
For viewers who enjoy tension built through observation, the measured rhythm gives the deceptions room to gather force. TIME describes the series as languorous and points to its visual motifs and sound as part of the suspense. Ringing telephones and bells, for instance, can feel like imminent threats to Tom’s carefully maintained lies. The Television Academy records a 2024 Emmy win for sound editing on episode “III Sommerso.”
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The same approach will not suit everyone. If you want a rapid sequence of reveals or a thriller that keeps pushing the plot forward, the long pauses may feel more draining than suspenseful. This is a better fit for patient viewing than for background watching.
Do the performances carry the story?
Scott’s Tom is compelling because he makes attention itself feel dangerous. He watches, calculates and adjusts, so the performance keeps the character interesting even when he says little. The role depends less on openly announcing a motive than on making the audience look for one.
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Fanning gives Marge a presence that makes her more than an observer of Tom’s schemes. She told the Associated Press she was excited by communicating through “micro-movements in the face and a look.” That small-scale expressiveness fits the series’ close attention to suspicion, and TIME also praises Marge’s agency. Flynn’s Dickie completes the central triangle of attraction, privilege and danger around which Tom’s Italian life takes shape.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How does the series compare with earlier Ripley adaptations?
Its eight-episode format gives Zaillian room to follow more of Highsmith’s tortuous plot than a feature film can. TIME argues that the series has space to develop the novel’s complications compared with René Clément’s 1960 film Purple Noon and Anthony Minghella’s 1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley. That extra room is not simply a matter of adding events: it allows the series to dwell on the small acts of observation and improvisation through which Tom’s deceptions work.
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The format also makes the slower rhythm more pronounced. Viewers who prefer a compressed adaptation may favor a film’s pace; those interested in a more sustained, visually controlled account of the character may appreciate the series’ extended focus.
What recognition has Ripley received?
The Television Academy records 13 Emmy nominations and four wins for the series in 2024: Outstanding Cinematography for Robert Elswit’s work on “V Lucio,” Outstanding Directing for Zaillian, Outstanding Sound Editing for “III Sommerso,” and Outstanding Special Visual Effects for “III Sommerso.” Those honors reflect several parts of the production’s craft, but they do not settle whether its pacing will work for a particular viewer.
Is Netflix’s Ripley worth watching?
Watch it if you like literary adaptations that make atmosphere and performance as important as plot mechanics. The monochrome design is purposeful, the sound contributes to the suspense, and Scott gives Tom a quietly absorbing center. Skip it for now if your priority is a fast-moving thriller with frequent action and quick answers: Ripley asks you to stay with its silences and watch closely.
Netflix’s official series listing identifies it as a psychological thriller and a limited series. Availability can vary by region and change over time.
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