Apple TV+'s series "Lucky" adapts Marissa Stapley's 2021 novel of the same name, preserving its central tension: a con artist raised in a life of crime who is torn between exploiting human trust and genuinely caring for others. Author Stapley discusses how the show, starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Lucky and Timothy Olyphant as her grifter father John, remains faithful to the book's exploration of whether someone shaped by deception can ever escape it, a theme that resonates given wider public fascination with real-life female con artists.

Stapley's own interest in con artists stemmed from her mother being swindled out of her life savings, which led her to research figures such as Anna Delvey, Elizabeth Holmes and fake psychic Rose Marks. In the series, Lucky assumes false identities, including posing as a domestic abuse victim and a nanny, to evade the FBI and a mob boss played by Annette Bening, from whom she and her husband (Drew Starkey) stole money, while also showing moments of genuine kindness that reveal her underlying humanity.