Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny (Wagner Moura) are connected on the hip. The lifelong greatest associates end one another’s sentences, they know one another’s households, and — most related to their current circumstances — they have one another’s backs. Like, they actually have one another’s backs. Their loyalty goes past airport pick-ups or wingman sacrifices. They’ve taken and can take bullets for one another. When a cop presses Manny to rat out Ray, or a girlfriend begs Ray to go away Manny behind, neither one buckles below the strain. Within the Metropolis of Brotherly Love, they aren’t simply previous buds. They’re household.
It’s a disgrace, then, that over the eight hour-long episodes making up “Dope Thief’s” first season, Ray and Manny’s relationship is lowered to testing that devotion again and again. Their central predicament — on the run from a really scary drug seller, a really pushy police pressure, and a really shady division of federal regulation enforcement — is so aggravating, their conversations are usually shouting matches and their shared screentime is often spent staring down both finish of a loaded gun. We get it. They’re going via quite a bit proper now. However if you forged Henry and Moura to play fiercely devoted brothers-in-arms, it’s essential allow them to discover the depths of that friendship, in all its ache and its pleasure. In any other case, even their appreciable charms wrestle to maintain a one-note ready sport.
Tailored by Peter Craig (“The Batman,” “The Unforgivable”) from Dennis Tafoya’s 2009 novel of the identical title, “Dope Thief‘s” premiere is directed by Ridley Scott, who units a steely grey shade palette primed to be adorned with vivid splashes of blood. Chase scenes are simply tracked over wealthy city terrain, and shootouts are likely to play out in clear, rudimentary compositions. The Philadelphia setting foregrounds inner-city row homes, scrappy nook shops, and nondescript residents simply making an attempt to go about their enterprise — a working-class imaginative and prescient of a blue collar city.
However a lot of the enterprise proven right here is illicit. After we first meet Ray and Manny, it’s February 2021. America continues to be within the throes of COVID, and our boys are scouting out a pot seller’s hideout, playfully bantering behind a van as they get able to raid the home. Their scheme is easy however severe: Posing as DEA brokers (full with hats, jackets, and badges), the 2 nobodies from nowhere “bust” whoever’s as much as no good inside and stroll out with no matter cash they’ll discover. They struggle to not harm anybody within the course of, and so they keep away from closely guarded stashes. With simply the 2 of them, they’ll’t danger getting over-matched, so that they want the opposition to consider they’re federal brokers. (Ray even practices making his voice sound as authoritative as potential.)
All that adjustments once they let a 3rd member be a part of the workforce. Now, as quickly as a kinda gradual, fairly cocky, and completely scuzzy ex-con reveals up, recent out of jail, with a handful of “straightforward marks,” any fan of the heist style will know this man goes to be an issue. He’s the wild card, the fly within the ointment, the gold-digger who breaks up a very good marriage, but when the story goes to work, then Manny and Ray should go together with his scheme. As at all times, they’ve their causes: Ray wants cash to help Theresa (Kate Mulgrew), his de facto mom who helped increase him after his father/her boyfriend (Ving Rhames) ended up in jail. Manny is making an attempt to start out a household along with his girlfriend. Plus, they consider of their trigger — they discuss drug pushers “overrunning” and “poisoning” the town — they consider of their preparation, and so they consider in one another.
Whoops. The bust breaks dangerous, all the pieces goes sideways, and Manny and Ray quickly can’t escape their very own shadows, not to mention the varied armies of males with weapons on the lookout for them. However their botched raid is simply first domino to fall in “Dope Thief’s” drug-trade conspiracy saga, a indisputable fact that takes manner too lengthy to make itself recognized. After a barn-burner of a premiere, subsequent episodes wrestle to determine a discernible thriller and as a substitute depend on extreme violence and implausible chaos to distract viewers from a stagnant story engine. Primarily, we’re watching two males cover, and conceal badly. All too slowly, the duo tries to show the tables on their pursuers, because the self-described hunters survive being the hunted lengthy sufficient to attempt to reclaim their authentic title. However because the plot turns into too far-fetched for its gritty presentation, the sequence additionally turns into much less enjoyable, regardless of the most effective efforts of its forged.
Brian Tyree Henry, who’s additionally an govt producer, proves himself — of all issues! — a more-than-worthy successor to John McClane. Sweaty and matted, determined to outlive however modern below strain, Henry can go toe-to-barren-toe with Bruce Willis’ iconic character, together with the quips. (He will get a handful of punchlines, delivered with apt exhilaration and exasperation, that think of Willis’ put-upon-everyman charms.) That he’s stranded with murkier motivation and a dragged-out operating time preserve the efficiency from feeling as sprightly and invigorating, however in a uncommon lead flip, the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated character actor actually does the work to warrant extra (and higher) starring roles.
Moura retains his multifaceted scorching streak going — after breaking out in “Narcos,” he’s been stealing scenes in “Shining Ladies,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” and “Civil Battle” — albeit with spottier screentime than you’d count on given the premiere. (It’s known as “Dope Thief,” not “Dope Thieves,” for a purpose — Ray is the main target.) Mulgrew and Rhames are reliably nice, and Marin Eire takes the grizzled cop archetype to new ranges of surliness, however the forged is left to hold too heavy a bag.
By the tip, it’s clear the primary season of “Dope Thief” ought to’ve been the primary episode of “Dope Thief” (possibly, at most, a two-part premiere). After beginning and stopping, the story is simply getting going once more when the season ends, however trusting Season 2 to ship a extra targeted story is all however inconceivable. This friendship, as robust because it as soon as was, simply isn’t constructed to final.
Grade: C+
“Dope Thief” premieres Friday, March 14 on Apple TV+ with two episodes. New episodes will probably be launched weekly via April 25.