What to Watch Saturday: Lifetime ‘Swindler’ movie takes on romantic scammers
Here’s what’s on TV tonight.
‘Swindler Seduction’ (8 p.m., Lifetime)
This week’s Lifetime movie seems to be a bit of a play several recent “romantic swindler” documentaries: “The Tinder Swindler” (Netflix), “Love Fraud” (Showtime) and “Bad Vegan” (Netflix).
In the Lifetime movie, Louisa (Gabrielle Graham) meets handsome and sweet Steve (Colton Haynes) at a bar in Chicago and he seems like the perfect guy: an angel investor and entrepreneur who just sold a company for millions. They spend 48 hours together before Steve disappears and she realizes she has been swindled out of thousands of dollars. Louisa finds out she’s pregnant and starts to track Steve down, only to find that he has an identical twin named Mitch (also played by Haynes) — and that they are both romantic con artists. Lousia finds many other women who have been deceived by the swindler twins and decides to outsmart them and get justice for all victims.
Following the movie, a special called “Beyond The Headlines: Swindler Seduction” (10 p.m.) explores the “phenomenon of evil and criminal twins and the environmental and genetic circumstances that can lead twin siblings to a life of crime.” The special features a forensic psychologist who deconstructs and analyzes a case of identical twin sisters who turned on each other.
48 HOURS (10 p.m., CBS)
Schanda Handley talks about how she was kidnapped at gunpoint from the quiet suburban town of Lafayette, La., and how she escaped. Great part of this dumb criminal story: the man who kidnapped her accidentally recorded himself plotting the deed.
No new episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’ this week
Instead, at 11:30 on NBC there’s a repeat of the episode hosted by Miles Teller with musical guest Kendrick Lamar.
Some programming descriptions are provided by networks.
