The Last Panthers is a six-episode miniseries about international jewel thieves. It opens with a diamond heist in France. One of the criminals has ties to a European crime syndicate called “the Pink Panthers.” A tough female insurance investigator is tasked with tracking them down. The main cop working the case is a loose cannon with connections in the underworld who is literally called “a cowboy” by his French chief in the first episode. On paper, it would appear to be everything I asked for when I begged for more heist shows a while back: A kind of Thomas Crown Affair meets Entrapment meets Lethal Weapon, with the main characters galavanting across Europe in an attempt to evade and/or seduce the people trying to bring them in.
But here’s the thing: The Last Panthers is not that kind of heist show. It is very much not that kind of heist show. Everything I said in the first few sentences is 100 percent accurate, but imagine the bleakest, grayest possible version of all of it. No one is dipping beneath lasers or wearing tuxedos to fancy high-class Manhattan fundraisers, because they are too busy stabbing each other in Belgrade. That is the kind of heist show it is. And it’s pretty good.
The series comes to SundanceTV from Europe, where it premiered in France last October and came to the United Kingdom a month later. The plot is basically a three-person weave. Goran Bogdan plays Milan, an Eastern European criminal with ties to the “retired” Pink Panthers who has struck out on his own. He’s the mastermind of the heist that opens the premiere, which goes like clockwork at first and then goes completely to hell, resulting in a death newsworthy enough to complicate the sale of the diamonds. Samantha Morton plays Naomi, the aforementioned insurance investigator chasing him and the stones into the Balkans. She has a complicated backstory of her own. And Tahar Rahim plays Khalil, the French cop who is trying to solve the theft and the murder. Aaaaand go.
And, well, go they do. The performances of those three alone make the show worth the six-hour investment. Especially Bogdan’s, whose character is a Level 10 badass known by his Panther ex-cohorts as “The Animal,” almost like a lunatic criminal Jack Bauer who steals diamonds. (Would I pay to see another Taken movie about Liam Neeson storming Eastern Europe and snapping hundreds of henchmen’s necks before running into Bogdan’s character as the final boss? Probably not. But would I watch it on basic cable three or four years later some Saturday morning? I imagine I would.) And this is before we even get to John Hurt as Naomi’s weird, ruthless boss. John Hurt appears to be having quite a bit of fun. Which is good, because — and I say this in the best way possible — no one else on the show is. Turns out diamond heists are serious business.
Speaking of: If all of this “Pink Panther” talk sounds familiar at all, and not for reasons related to Peter Sellers or 2006 reimaginings starring Steve Martin and Beyonce, there’s a good reason for that. The series is based on a real group of ex-military Eastern European thieves that were given the name by Interpol, and who are suspected of stealing somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 million worth of jewels in the last 20 years. You should google them, but if you’re short on time, here’s an excerpt from their Wikipedia page:
They robbed a jewelry store in Saint-Tropez in 2005 wearing T-shirts emblazoned with flowery designs then made their escape on a speed boat. Prior to one 2008 robbery of Graff jewelers in Dubai, eight gang members drove a pair of Audis through a window, taking watches and other items worth a total of £8 million. In a further robbery, four gang members dressed themselves up as women in December 2008 before breaking into France’s Harry Winston jewelers in Paris. The gang escaped from the store with items worth over US$100 million (£60 million). There is growing speculation that the US$65 million heist on 6 August 2009 of an exclusive London jewelry store was the work of the same group. A key element in the speculation is that the men who looted Graff Diamonds on New Bond Street made no effort to hide their faces, suggesting that they had been able to alter their looks with “Mission Impossible” style prosthetic make-up.
So, yes. There is a fair amount of source material to work with.
The Last Panthers is a dark and gritty crime drama highlighted by strong performances. If you like shows like that — The Wire, Luther, other shows starring Idris Elba — there’s a solid chance you’ll like this, too. I know I’m in for the full six-episode run, even if it’s not exactly the type of heist show I was looking for. I mean, would it have killed them to let Pierce Brosnan show up in a limousine and help them rob a museum at some point? I don’t think so.
Still, good show.
The Last Panthers premieres on SundanceTV Wednesday, April 13
