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.