YMMV / Hustle

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Alfie's Establishing Character Moment in the season 5 finale. Carlton was explicitly setting up Alfie to draw in Albert's interests for the team, so did he tell Alfie to pretend to be exaggeratedly classist and rude around Albert (notably Alfie doesn't seem quite as unpleasant for the rest of the episode), or did he just assume that Alfie's personality and views would do that naturally?
• Base-Breaking Character: Billy, Emma and Sean all qualify for various sections of the fandom. Billy was often regarded as a whiny brat prone to indulging in Wangst whom the writers tried to use as a foil to Danny in his new position as leader, but who wasn't nearly as funny or charming as Danny had been when he'd served as Mickey's foil. Emma and Sean were instantly regarded as the Replacement Scrappies for Danny and Stacey, with people claiming they weren't given enough depth to make them unique or interesting (especially Sean), and especially that Emma and Mickey's relationship was a severe case of Strangled by the Red String (and again an attempt to mirror the UST between Mickey and Stacey in the earlier seasons). The UST didn't survive past Season 5, and Emma and Sean were later fleshed out in future episodes (in one case, conning their father).
• Broken Base: Fans are divided on whether the Season 4 lineup (Danny, Stacey, Ash, Albert, Billy) is better than the Season 5-8 lineup (Mickey, Ash, Albert, Emma, Sean) or vice versa. Arguments for the former cite Billy being a fairly unique character in his own right and the original crew dynamic remaining largely intact (minus Mickey) while allowing a closer look into how Danny fits as a leader after it having been teased a few times in the first 3 seasons. Arguments for the latter cite an overall return to the original dynamic of the first three seasons - with Emma and Sean filling the roles left by Stacey and Danny but with enough uniqueness to make them their own - that Danny's nature as a character meant he couldn't work as a leader of the team and Adrian Lester's return.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Of the characters only appearing in half of the seasons, Danny probably has the biggest fan base.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: One of the main criticisms of the series (especially in the later seasons) is that a lot of the episodes follow the same pattern: gang picks a mark, the con gets underway, some kind of complication arises, it looks like everything's gone wrong, turns out (via flashback) they were already prepared for the complication (or they adapt to circumstances, or a disagreement within the gang puts the con in danger) and everything turns out fine by the end. While some episodes do subvert this pattern, the fact that a lot of viewers reached a point of Like You Would Really Do It with regards to any of the gang suffering serious long-term consequences for their actions meant that the series rapidly lost a lot of its main source of tension.
• Retroactive Recognition: Angel Coulby (now best known for playing Queen Guinevere in Merlin) appears in one episode as a secretary.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Some, though not all, of Emma and Sean's detractors feel that they got some decent Character Development in the following seasons, as well as some powerful and emotional Day in the Limelight's.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Season 4 was very divisive among fans. The team dynamic was completely changed with the chaotic Danny now serving as the leader, and the rest of the team seeming to merely indulge him rather than actively follow him as a leader like they did under Mickey. Plus there was Billy, who didn't stay for very long. Evidently, the writers seemed to agree as from the start of Season 5, things returned back to something much closer to the first 3 seasons. Though that came with its own set of problems.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Hero Antagonist Lucy Britford with her tension with Mickey and decent amount of professionalism. While the reasons she couldn't come back in the season 6 finale (Indira Varma getting pregnant) is a valid case of Real Life Writes the Plot, that wouldn't have kept her from showing up again in seasons 7 or 8, but she never did.
  • Frank Doyle, the Noble Top Enforcer from the season 4 finale gets a lot of development before being unceremoniously beaten up and tossed on the side of the road as just another Kick the Dog moment for his Karma Houdini boss, when it could have been much more rewarding (and certainly felt like it was being set up) for him to betray his boss to either the team or the cops. Frank being Albert's former partner from his Vegas days and only pretending to beat up and run off the various cheaters over the years could have been a great twist.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Mickey when cursed. The job as led by Ash ultimately goes well enough and Mickey overall stays out of things for the most part. Given that he had his luck gone and was Brought Down to Normal for the episode, there was far more potential regarding how that could have negatively effected the job, creating drama & complications, than explored.

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