Apple TV+’s Dope Thief Is A Meandering Bust

There were plenty of reasons to be excited about Dope Thief, Apple TV+’s latest original series. For starters, the streamer has been on a bit of a hot streak in the last year or so: we’ve gotten excellent new seasons of Severance, Pachinko, Slow Horses, Silo, and Shrinking, just to list a few. And beyond this recent track record, the list of names attached to this project was also quite intriguing. It was written and created by Peter Craig, who co-wrote The Batman, Top Gun: Maverick, and The Town. Ridley Scott directed the pilot, and the scene-stealing Brian Tyree Henry was announced as the center-man alongside Wagner Moura, who is coming off his great performance in Civil War. Unfortunately, despite the talent involved, this crime drama comes up well short of expectations, let down by directionless plotting and tonal whiplash that leave it in the shadow of the small-screen crime classics it’s drawing from.

In case it wasn’t clear from the title, this is another story set around the periphery of America’s “war on drugs,” as two hapless goons get sucked in well beyond their depth. There’s Raymond Driscoll (Brian Tyree Henry), a control-obsessed con man, and his dependent partner in crime, Manny (Wagner Moura). They’re two small-time players with the very dangerous side hustle of impersonating DEA agents—the pair stage fake busts on minor drug dealers, pocketing whatever cash and supply they can get their hands on. Things go smoothly for a while until they very suddenly don’t, and after a job goes horribly wrong, they end up in the crosshairs of the real DEA and a terrifying criminal organization with eyes everywhere.

One element that makes the series’ eventual collapse so disappointing is that its premiere starts off strong by making the most of this premise. The first scene puts us in Ray and Manny’s shoes as they creep towards a drug operation with their fake badges and very real guns, every creaking floorboard and panicked movement capturing how they’re one step removed from catching a bullet or putting one in someone else. Ridley Scott does his thing, ringing tension out of every scene as we glide between these harrowing moments and the complicated home situations of our central pair. Ray is concerned that his stepmom (Kate Mulgrew) may be struggling with medical bills, and he has a strained relationship with his dad, who is currently serving a stint in a nearby Philadelphia jail. Meanwhile, Manny keeps secrets from his longtime girlfriend as he attempts to keep his work and personal lives separate. In other words, they both have something to lose and a reason for trying to scrounge up more cash.

Throughout the first episode, Brian Tyree Henry and Moura establish a tangible camaraderie between Ray and Manny, making it clear these two have good memories and plenty of baggage. It all leads to a nail-biting confrontation at the end of the premiere, as they enter a powder keg situation that rapidly goes from bad to worse, one of those train crashes you can’t look away from. Soon, they’re on the run from a man who may as well be the grim reaper, a gravelly voice on the other end of the line who promises to bring the full weight of his organization down on them to crush everything they love. His larger-than-life threats imply that some shadowy organization is at work, bringing up engrossing questions, like why was that place Ray and Many hit so important? However, as alluded to, this convincing setup has a less impressive payoff, and the series wanders through the woods for too many episodes before hastily resolving everything in its final moments.

Dope Thief’s middle stretch suffers from a commonplace modern TV problem: it repeats itself over and over to avoid while hoping that withholding elements of its central mystery will be enough to keep us coming back. While the series loves to tease at the identity and purpose of the imposing man pulling the strings, it offers few hints until the very end, only occasionally returning to the greater conundrum hanging over everything. Instead of focusing on these more compelling elements, it mostly centers on Ray and Manny stumbling between one screw-up and another, as they end up in an endless procession of contrived conflicts that stem from their inability to communicate with each other or anyone else. There is just a fundamental absence of direction to the flow of this story as we suffer through scenes that do little to build up the characters, themes, or central conflict.

Much of this material would work much better if the series had a firmer grasp on tone, but instead, it can’t decide if it wants to be funny or grave. While it can sometimes be good at both independently, like with the tense sequences in the opening episode or an absurd bit around a Sun-Tzu quoting Juggalo and his killer clown crew, it lurches between these two modes ineffectively, cheapening both.

Along the way, we can see the nuggets of something more meaningful: Ray struggles with being stuck in Philly and the inertia of his family’s substance abuse problems, as he’s trapped in layers of bad behavior and schemes. Manny struggles with how his failings affect not only his loved ones but the countless innocents caught in the crossfire. While Tyree Henry and Moura make both these portrayals convincing at times, they can’t overcome the tedious script as these characters repeatedly commit “yell at your TV” style goofs that stem from weak writing rather than an exploration of tragic flaws.

And on top of letting down its characters, this story also comes up short regarding its larger ideas because it fails to say anything substantial about drug abuse, trafficking, and policing—there are individual scenes or whole episodes that make these ideas work, like the pilot, but they don’t come together to form a greater whole. In the end, Dope Thief is yet another series that can’t live up to the more compelling and cohesive HBO dramas it takes inspiration from, a lackluster imitation of the genuine article.

Elijah Gonzalez is an assistant Games and TV Editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to playing and watching the latest on the small screen, he also loves film, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.

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