Stephen Zallian's Netflix eight-episode series Ripley, starring Adam Scott, is filmed entirely in black and white and invites a different perspective than the 1999 full-length color film The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Matt Damon. The lack of color is not the only difference. The two Ripley characters are markedly distinct psychologically, though both are based on Patricia Highsmith's first Ripley novel.
'Black and White' can also suggest an explicit, uncompromising mindset—the point of view of Adam Scott's Ripley, a dispassionate observer. We join him in his studied observations of Dickie and Marge and their world, which includes paintings, architecture, and books enough that would fill an entire H.W. Janson's textbook History of Art. The idea of becoming a murderer and stealing Dickey's........