I fully expected to be distracted by the ghost of Lady Mary during Michelle Dockery\u2019s new TNT series, \u201cGood Behavior.\u201d Dockery\u2019s work as the imperfect daughter (who wore perfect hats) in \u201cDownton Abbey\u201d was indelible. With her snow-white skin and her endless eye rolling, she was a stone cold noble. And yet she was also a passionate literary heroine who, despite gender standards of the time, refused to be sweet and feel meaningless without a man. When I think of \u201cDownton,\u201d I think first of Dockery\u2019s chilly, fiery turn.<\/span><\/p>\n But Lady Mary quickly left my mind while viewing \u201cGood Behavior,\u201d an intriguing neo-noir that premieres with back-to-back episodes on Tuesday at 9 p.m. Dockery pulls an Edie Falco, to some extent, as she manages to follow up her work as an iconic TV character with a completely different and yet equally compelling performance. She dives into the role of an American grifter and addict named Letty Raines with the kind of full-tilt enthusiasm and versatility that\u2019s exciting to watch. \u201cGood Behavior,\u201d created by the \u201cWayward Pines\u201d team of Chad Hodge and Blake Crouch, has plenty of potential, most of all thanks to Dockery.<\/span><\/p>\n When we meet Letty \u2014 who\u2019s based on a character from three Crouch novellas \u2014 she is waiting tables in South Carolina and listening to a self-help app that delivers affirmations such as \u201cI am in control of my life.\u201d She has a parole officer, Christian (Terry Kinney), who sees how intelligent she is and works hard to help her stay sober and out of trouble. Also, Letty has a young son she\u2019s not allowed to visit, who is being cared for by Letty\u2019s mother, Estelle (Lusia Strus). Surely that will continue to motivate her to go straight.<\/span><\/p>\n But, with a nasty boss who mistreats her for being a woman and an ex-con, she finds diner work humiliating. Those affirmations ring hollow. Her deep hunger for trouble and escape kicks in, and soon she is donning a wig to burglarize rooms at an expensive hotel. Hiding in the closet in one of those rooms, she overhears a man hire an Argentine assassin, Javier (Juan Diego Botto), to kill his wife. She sneaks out of the room and decides to tell the soon-to-be-murdered wife to watch out. Letty is crooked and cunning, but she has enough moral grounding to frown on murder.<\/span><\/p>\n And that\u2019s all I\u2019ll say about the setup, which ultimately has Javier blackmailing Letty into working another job with him. They become a team of sorts, but Letty can\u2019t wait to finish so she can return to her miserable life. In the three episodes I saw, the pairing was simultaneously fun to watch and disturbing. On the one hand, they both have great instincts when it comes to lying and cheating, like the con artists in the British series \u201cHustle.\u201d Their chemistry \u2014 both between the characters and the actors \u2014 is formidable. Letty is particularly good at making up stories on the spot, when the two are pretending to be married. She loves to become a different person for a few hours. On the other hand, she is an unwilling participant in the game, and it\u2019s hard to appreciate her smooth scam moves when she\u2019s essentially in servitude to a violent man. And with each minute she spends with Javier, and with her resumed use of drugs and alcohol, she moves further and further from access to her beloved son.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to figure out how Hodge and Crouch will make the show\u2019s central relationship work more comfortably and believably moving forward. How will they keep this couple together in a more equal relationship, and yet keep Letty at least a tiny bit sympathetic? Are Letty and Javier going to be Bonnie and Clyde? Or will they be softened, with some comedic elements in the mix? Botto is fine, but he\u2019s in the difficult position of playing a guy who is both Javier Bardem\u2019s cold-hearted hit man in \u201cNo Country for Old Men\u201d and a romantic lead. Can this work over the long run? All I know is that I\u2019m willing to keep watching, to find out the answers.<\/span><\/p>\n Source:https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/arts\/television\/2016\/11\/13\/good-behavior-proves-michelle-dockery-not-downton-anymore\/PQza0VUYBVM2FVNnHFS5DL\/story.html<\/span><\/p>\n