The Company You Keep is the best show you’re not watching on Sunday nights
There's still time to get in on ABC's sexy, soapy heist series
TV Features Creative works
Sunday night has long been an embarrassment of riches on television, particularly if you’re tuned into the premium cable networks. In the 2022-2023 season alone, HBO has deployed a murderer’s row that includes The White Lotus, The Last Of Us, Succession, and soon Barry. Showtime is providing competition with its buzzy hit Yellowjackets, and AMC entices with the new Bob Odenkirk vehicle Lucky Hank. These are big, juicy, awards-contention series that are so thoroughly dominating the conversation you might not even be aware that one of the season’s best new shows is airing the same night. That’s The Company You Keep starring Milo Ventimiglia and Catherine Haena Kim, which runs Sundays on humble network TV over at ABC.
The Company You Keep, which is based on the Korean series My Fellow Citizens, has a simple but rich premise. He’s a high-level conman; she’s a CIA officer. Can I make it any more obvious? The romance between Charlie Nicoletti (Ventimiglia) and Emma Hill (Kim) is complicated by the fact that they’re both lying to each other about who they are, and even more complicated by the fact that a mutual enemy (Felisha Terrell) puts them at cross purposes. It’s a perfectly crafted web of intrigue designed to ensnare the audience—and you’ll be glad it did.
Seeing as how the series is predicated on this central romance, the show smartly invests a lot in developing the chemistry between the two leads, and it pays off in spades. Much of the pilot episode is devoted to portraying just how well-matched Charlie and Emma are, both intellectually and physically. And while network TV fare might be far less graphic than what you can get in the Game Of Thrones universe (another Sunday staple), this is nevertheless one of the sexiest relationships on current television, marked by passionate embraces in hotel rendezvous and parked-car hookups. The fact that the couple is shadowed by deception gives their intimacy a delicious edge. Charlie and Emma may fall fast, but the viewer is right there with them.
The allure of romance, while a main facet of the show, is not the only thing The Company You Keep has to offer. Another core theme weaved deftly into the narrative is reckoning with family legacy. Emma, Charlie, and Daphne (Terrell) are all engaged to various degrees in the family business. Emma feels ostracized for rejecting her family’s political dynasty; Charlie is burdened by the responsibility of leading the family’s heists even as he contemplates life on the right side of the law; and Daphne is fighting tooth and nail to earn her spot within a criminal family enterprise, constantly underestimated and undervalued by those around her. These characters are operating in parallel as much as they are in opposition, which makes their dynamics—fighting, flirting, scheming, and teaming up—all the more appealing.
Then there’s the pure fun of a great con artist show. Charlie and his family (a winning troupe that includes Sarah Wayne Callies, Polly Draper, and William Fichtner) typically pull off one fabulous heist per episode, with a Robin Hood-esque mission to steal only from the kind of bad actors that deserve it. These shenanigans provide a lot of the series’ thrills, especially when the Nicolettis’ plans brush up against Emma’s CIA investigation (something that happens with increasing frequency as the season goes on).
It should also be said that The Company You Keep has been, so far, a masterclass of pacing. The show mines the toe-curling tension of all the lies, deception, and betrayal, but never pushes it past its breaking point. Viewers are rewarded for their investment with actual confrontation, shifting alliances, and evolving relationships. This series knows what it’s up against: not just a powerhouse Sunday-night lineup, but also the fragile position network shows are in. Today’s fractured television audiences provide no guarantee of a renewal. (The show, as of publishing this piece, hasn’t gotten the green light for a second season.) As such, The Company You Keep is leaving it all on the table in its first season, telling a full, rich, satisfying story that doesn’t feel like it’s saving its best tricks for the future. All the same, one hopes there is a future for a show this enjoyable.
The Company You Keep is not bestowed with the same prestige TV seriousness as its Sunday bedfellows. This is network television at its best—sexy, soapy, and sometimes downright silly. (Ventimiglia and the rest of the Nicolettis have a lot of fun with the various ridiculous characters their heists require.) That’s what makes the show stand out amongst Sunday’s many competing antiheroes; the feeling of watching something so classically, traditionally TV has somehow become a breath of fresh air. Even beyond the realm of comparison, the series is a solidly written and perfectly cast bit of television that has a little something for everyone within its twisty romance. And with the season finale set for May 7, there’s still time to catch up and tune in. Trust us: You won’t regret adding this to your weekly roster.
12 Comments
I enjoy it, though it kind of reminds me of that show The Catch with Mireille Enos and Peter Krause from a few years ago (which didn’t last long).
As good a place as any to mention that I’ve been getting some serious enjoyment out of Paramount+’s Rabbit Hole. After a first episode that left me more puzzled than entertained, it has been a great mix of mystery, humor, suspense…a very nice surprise.
Can’t agree more, they’ve kept the puzzle pieces exposed and moving without beating you over the head… there are definitely some surprises you won’t see coming since they’re doing a good job of misdirecting the audience.
I am enjoying the show but honestly I think they should have just done a show about Charlie and the Nicoletti family’s cons and capers. I like Emma, but her CIA and family dramas are only interesting in connection to Charlie being a con man and how his life affects her work. Daphne is more interesting than Emma as a love interest, but we’re not suppose to root for her since she’s set up as the main villain (though I’d be ok with that changing, I like the actress).
I’ve watched it since episode 1 and have truly enjoyed it. It’s a “Ocean’s 11″ meets “Moonlighting” meets “The Sopranos” (heists, detective work, the mob).
All three leads are well acted, and I love that the Nicoletti’s don’t always “explain” what the heist is, they SHOW. That is good writing – never explain what you’re gonna do, SHOW it.
I’ll always remember Milo for when he was a 30 year old dating a then 19 year old Hayden Panettiere.
I watched the first two episodes, and have the rest on DVR, but haven’t gone back to watch them. While I agree with this assessment about the chemistry between the leads, I quickly got the sense that if this show clicks with ratings, ABC will insist that the producers keep stringing the story along, well past the point where it should come to a conclusion. There will always be another big bad to replace one that is defeated, or a series of breakups followed by reunification. The show would work better for me if I knew that it was a limited series, but I can see this being another Lost or Blacklist that loses its pizzazz.
The Company You Keep does not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Barry. The latter is delicately plotted, clever, funny and even if far-fetched, emotionally devastating when it wants to be. The former is… not. I am amazed to find it described as a ‘masterclass of pacing’ because I find it deathly dull and just the latest in a long line of Ocean’s 11 wannabes (see also Kaleidoscope). We’ve watched every episode, mainly because my girlfriend loved MV’s character in This Is Us but I’d have given up on this after two episodes if not for that.
Barry is in the bojack horseman catagory of it can feel completely alien to many many people, who have no way to connect to it’s deeply flawed cast. Like I find my friends who have struggled with mental health love Barry and bojack, and my friends who haven’t just find them boring, with miserable characters, that seem unrealistic.
I’m really enjoying this. If it doesn’t get renewed, I hope they the season finale will also work as a graceful, sensible series finale. If it does get renewed, I hope it only goes a few seasons. And they are able to write a graceful, sensible series finale.The heists give me Leverage vibes.
I think this show is wonderful. Milo and Kim have such chemistry something you don’t see very often in this kind of show. To each there own as far as Barry goes.I stopped watching that after 3 episodes, thought it was dumb.We all have different tastes in what we enjoy watching, so to condemn one over the other is stupid. Watch what you like. And I’ll watch what I like, SIMPLE
Not renewed for second season. 🙁