Scott's Ripley is impossibly beautiful, but an imposter to Nineties classic

THE first thing to say about Netflix's bold Ripley remake is that it is unbelievably, extravagantly beautiful.

- Anna van Praagh

The cinematography is grand and exquisite. I've never seen a television show look so cinematic. Think Hitchcock meets Antonioni meets Anderson. It's MDMA for the eyeballs, an absolute masterclass.

However, the series has a terrible - and, I'm afraid, insurmountable problem. And that is that the 1999 film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's book, The Talented Mr Ripley, was cast so expertly with actors at the apex of their talent that their counterparts cannot help but come up short.

To be fair, Andrew Scott is a magnificent Tom Ripley, inhabiting that compelling, ambivalent, and malevolent outsider so well. He is at the top of his game, bringing something different and supplementary to the role Matt Damon played in the film.