Hustle

Each episode's plot focuses on a team of grifters who conduct the art of the "long con", often targeting a "mark" whose activities are immoral and/or illegal, or whose character retains a fundamental negative personality with others they dislike, or who they make suffer, while adhering to the credo that "you can't cheat an honest man". Although conmen, the team display a moral, honourable code within their team, which include sometimes helping others who have been victims of their mark, often with anonymous financial compensation to them, and never stealing anything that doesn't belong to them, instead borrowing them for the con and then returning them afterwards. For each mark, the team focuses on background research to uncover any issues they may face as well as a weakness in them that they can exploit, such as a passion for something they love, or an issue they are facing. Once they have a plan, the team set up a scenario, employ a "convincer" to rope in their mark, and then hit them with the sting in which they take them for a sizeable amount of cash, within the tens of thousands, before conducting a "blow-off" to ensure the mark will not come after them, either because they won't if they have to admit to conducting something illegal, or because the team has convinced them it will be impossible to do so. Although episodes feature stand-alone stories and are not referenced in later episodes, some series have featured sub-plots that occur during its broadcast, or make reference to events that occurred in previous episodes. In one such example, the first half of the third series features a sub-plot in that the team manages to pull off some long cons despite nearly suffering misfortune, which they later resolve after one of the characters determines what was causing them to suffer such bad luck. s