From multicam sitcoms to serialized dramas to creepy miniseries, family films to R-rated thrillers, supporting parts to star turns, Carla Gugino’s career has been difficult to pin down. For a small subset of viewers, her best role was in ABC’s Karen Sisco (2003), leaving us wondering why Hollywood hasn’t found her more work in a similarly hardboiled, Elmore Leonard-esque vein.
Cinemax’s Jett comes close. Written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez (Elektra Luxx), the first five of its nine episodes are filled with suave crime lords, verbose henchmen, heists, sex and double-crosses, all anchored by an enigmatic protagonist: Gugino’s Daisy “Jett” Kowalski, an ex-thief hoping to stay clean after her release from jail.
Of course, just when she thinks she’s out, she’s yanked back in by gangster Charlie Baudelaire (Giancarlo Esposito),…