The Company You Keep is a drama series that premiered on ABC on February 19, 2023. It's based on the South Korean drama series My Fellow Citizens!.
Charlie Nicoletti (Milo Ventimiglia) comes from a family of con artists who has just pulled off a massive score. But Charlie is rocked when his fiancee, Tina (Bridget Regan) turns out to have been conning him, robbing his family of a needed score to settle debts to bad people.
A heartbroken Charlie is at a bar and hits it off with Emma Hill (Catherine Haena Kim), who just discovered her own boyfriend cheating on her. The pair end up sharing a steamy weekend before going their separate ways. What Charlie doesn't know is Emma is a CIA operative tracking an international criminal group.
Before long, the con man and the CIA agent's paths cross amid a variety of adventures, with the pair dealing with their mutual attraction while unaware of the other's true nature.
On May 12th, 2023, ABC canceled the series after one season.
Not to be confused with the 2012 movie directed by, and starring, Robert Redford.
This show contains examples of::
- And the Adventure Continues: The series ends with Emma deciding to run her own off-the-books unit investigating corruption in higher places while Charlie and Birdie target bigger crooks to "level the playing field." Charlie and Emma agree to a partnership with the sparks clearly still there.
- Auto Erotica: Charlie and Emma have sex in the car multiple times during "A Sparkling Reputation".
- Bait-and-Switch: When Charlie is hauled in by the CIA, it seems it's over his scams and/or the Maguire case. It turns out they have no clue about that, it's just interrogating someone dating a CIA officer.
- Bedroom Adultery Scene: Emma comes to a hotel and finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman, learning he's been cheating this way.
- Blackmail:
- In "A Sparkling Reputation" Charlie extorts the man they just stole a necklace from because it turns out to be a stolen cultural artifact. He pays them $500,000 not to reveal he'd gotten it from a Russian oligarch and gives back the necklace, while portraying himself as a hero for doing so.
- In "The Spy Who Loved Me" the Nicolettis are ordered by Daphne to obtain the blackmail material a notorious fixer's gathered on all his clients for insurance against them exposing him. She can use this for extorting government officials into facilitating her drug trafficking operations.
- In "The Real Thing" Daphne blackmails Emma with knowledge of a prior affair her father had when he was a US Senator with his aide, which had been used for blackmailing him into securing a contract for a business. It's used by Daphne to threaten Emma so she'll drop her investigation into Daphne's crimes, as this being released would hurt not only her father but her brother's campaign for Congress.
- In "The Art of the Steel" Daphne orders Charlie to get something compromising against a federal judge whom she can then have order her imprisoned father released. Since it turns out he takes bribes, Charlie does a sting with Emma who pretends she's a corporate heiress who has a case in his court, giving him a bribe for ruling her way. Daphne uses this to get his ruling for her father, while Emma can use it as more evidence against her and her family later.
- Cassandra Truth: During their first meeting, Charlie admits he's a con man and Emma confesses she's with the CIA. They then burst out laughing, assuming the other is joking.
- Chain of Deals: Daphne tries to get into the gunrunning business but the contact at the arms manufacturer can only steal three out of every hundred rifles produced without drawing suspicion, not nearly enough to be profitable. Charlie suggests getting the rifle discontinued so the company offloads all their newly surplus product. The owner of the company is willing to switch to a new line of Smart Guns as long as the government pays for it. A congressman, convinced of the prestige he'll get, agrees to fund the project as soon as the Department of Defense places an order. The Under Secretary of Defense agrees to place the order, with the understanding that some of the newly surplus non-smart rifles go to conflict zones to keep the fighting going so America can profit from the chaos.
- The Con: The Nicolettis are an entire family of con artists, so naturally they run cons regulardly. All of them are highly skilled at it.
- Corrupt Church: The pilot features a very wealthy, corrupt pastor who runs a megachurch and launders money, being clearly far more interested in getting rich than helping anyone in his congregation.
- Dating Catwoman: Emma, a CIA agent who investigates international criminal activity, has a mutual attraction with very skilled con artist Charlie (neither at first knows of the others' true profession).
- Dragon Ascendant: The opening con has Charlie accusing gangster Patrick Maguire's aide of "being the one in charge," which the man denies. By the end of the episode, Maguire has been busted and the woman, Daphne, has now become the boss. It turns out though she'll only run things on the outside when he's in prison, and she's loyal to him (it's revealed that he's her father).
- Everyone Has Standards:
- The Nicolettis have a code of honor of only targeting the corrupt and criminal rather than conning innocent people.
- In "Against All Odds," the family's old con man buddy Jonah talks them into helping him fleece a rich woman who he's even "engaged" to. When they realize the woman is truly trying to help others with her money and work, they tell her what's happening and enlist her to con Jonah.
- Family Business:
- The Nicolettis are an entire family of con artists.
- Patrick Maguire is a crime boss, with his daughter Daphne as his loyal lieutenant while his son Connor is his heir apparent.
- Hand Signals: The Nicoletti family all know sign language due to Olivia, Birdie's daughter, being deaf, speaking with her using it.
- Hollywood Law: Emma is a CIA agent who investigates international crime. However, the CIA's remit is gathering intelligence about threats abroad to the US. What she does is something the FBI would do. Further, the CIA has no legal right to surveil people in the US, which she and other agents are shown as doing (not that this has never happened, but this is portrayed as above board).
- Hustling the Mark:
- A lot of the Nicoletti cons run this way, but a big one is in "Against All Odds" as they run a scam on fellow con artist Jonah.
Birdie: Con artists are the easiest marks of all because they never think it can happen to them.- Of course, the Nicolettis know firsthand what that's like, as they had no idea Tina was setting them (especially Charlie) up to rob them.
- Internal Reveal: Multiple times characters learn things the others (and the audience) were already aware of.
- Connor Maguire discovers Daphne is his half-sister at the end of "Against All Odds".
- Charlie discovers Emma is working for the CIA at the start of "All In".
- "The Real Thing" has Emma finding out about Charlie being a crook working for Daphne.
- The Irish Mob: Patrick Maguire is a crime boss from Ireland, with his son and minions mostly Irish as well, though they operate in the US. The main exception is his daughter Daphne, who's apparently from the US originally (her mother was it seems African-American), though of course on his side she's half Irish too.
- Kansas City Shuffle: How Charlie takes down Maguire: he makes Maguire think Charlie switched a truck full of guns for an empty one. Maguire leads his gang and the buyer to the truck, opening it to find the guns inside. Charlie says he knew Maguire would expect a swap and "the trick was there was no trick." When the FBI shows up, Maguire figures it's another scam and gets into a shootout with them. Between the guns, the millions in cryptocurrency and trying to kill federal agents, Maguire would have been going to jail if not for a sniper taking him out.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- Obviously, both Charlie and Emma are unaware of who the other truly is and that they're both involved with the Maguire case.
- Emma's family thinks she works for a "logistics firm," unaware she's with the CIA. She finally admits it to her brother.
- Patrick Maguire it turns out had never told his son Connor Daphne was his half-sister. He had to learn it from other people.
- Love at First Sight: Charlie and Emma fall in love after spending only thirty-six hours together in a hotel.
- Love Confession: In "The Spy Who Loved Me" Emma tells Charlie she loves him. Later on he says this back, while also confessing he works for the woman she's hunting, Daphne Finch.
- Master of Disguise: As part of their con artist skills, the Nicolettis are adept at putting on various disguises to blend in for their cons.
- Missed Him by That Much: Charlie is checking out Daphne's hotel room when he hears someone enter and assumes it's her to try and escape. It's actually Emma checking the place out with her and Charlie never spotting each other.
- "Not So Different" Remark:
- Daphne claims after Emma tries to sway her from her criminal pursuits that cops and spies (Emma's CIA) are criminals as well who break laws whenever it's useful for them.
- Birdie points out to Emma how con artistry and CIA tactics for undercover deception are very much alike.
- The Reveal: People can't figure out why Daphne remains so loyal to Maguire when he's in prison and she doesn't try to take control of his operations completely. However, it turns out she's his daughter, which they didn't expect as he's white while Daphne's clearly herself a woman of color (her mother was black, as seen in a photo she has) as shown by "A Sparkling Reputation".
- Sibling Rivalry: Connor Maguire is not happy at all to learn Daphne is his half-sister, as she's also their father's lieutenant in the US while he expects to run everything. Later on Charlie suggests that she's his actual lieutenant. Connor is motivated to go against Daphne after this, in spite of her maintaining they can work together.
- Spotting the Thread: Birdie's ex realizes a painting is a fake as 60-year-old oil paint would absorb the light much better.
- Thought They Knew Already: Charlie calls up Maguire's son, Connor to tell him how Daphne is making some secret deals and how it feels that his sister is cutting him out. When Connor replies "I don't have a sister," the family realizes even Maguire's own family don't know that Daphne is more than just an assistant.
- Tracking Device:
- In "Against All Odds" it turns out Birdie had used a tracker to know where her daughter Ollie is. Later on Ollie puts this into Daphne's purse instead, which lets her movements be tracked for Charlie and Birdie to discover later. This reveals Daphne met crime bosses all around the US.
- In "The Art of the Steel" it turns out Birdie has placed a tracker on her dad Leo's phone so she can tell where he is, given his dementia might make him get lost.
- Wham Episode:
- The end of "Against All Odds" has Charlie taken by unknown men to a van.
- "The Real Thing" has Charlie confess to Emma he's a con man working for Daphne. They break up as she warns Charlie she'll take his family down with Daphne if they get in her way.
- Whole-Plot Reference: "The Real Thing" is an entire reference to Tenet, from targeting a pro-Russian oligarch to stealing valuables (in this case, a painting) from a Free portnote .
- Working with the Ex: In "The Real Thing", Birdie has to work along with her ex Simon, which is very awkward as they didn't part well and he's also the father of her daughter Ollie, but they've never met. They manage to make it work though.
