Apple TV+ Review: ‘Dope Thief’ is an Engaging, High-Stress Crime Drama with Top-Tier Performances

The world of drugs can be dangerous for everyone involved with it: those who make the product, sell it, and consume it. That they’re typically illegal also adds another factor, and the presence of corruption within law enforcement can mean that those caught with anything may be manipulated into either cooperation or cutting someone in on their operation. Dope Thief centers on someone bold enough to pretend to be a DEA agent who quickly sees his actions catching up with him and threatening the safety of everyone in his life.

Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny (Wagner Moura) barge into a home with their guns drawn and DEA vests on, quickly subduing everyone inside and taking the drugs they have on them. They congratulate themselves on their latest successful grab when they return to their van and immediately take off the vests that aren’t real. Their next job, however, doesn’t go nearly as smoothly, leading to the hospitalization of Mina (Marin Ireland), an undercover FBI agent, and a target placed on Ray and Manny’s backs as they soon come to realize that they’ve become irreversibly tangled with the wrong people who have no concept of proportionate response or forgiveness.

Based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Dennis Tafoya, this show comes from creator Peter Craig, whose screenwriting credits include The Town, The Batman, and Top Gun: Maverick. The first two in particular inform the experience of watching this show, which starts out as almost celebratory and quickly gets intense without ever really turning back through the end of the eighth and final episode of season one. There’s humor to be found in how its characters cope with their situations, like how Ray can’t place the song that serves as the ringtone on the phone whose caller viciously threatens his life every time he answers, or his endearing relationship with his father’s longtime girlfriend Theresa (Kate Mulgrew).

There are many contributing factors that enhance this story and make it much more than just two men on the run from a misbegotten crime. Ray has a difficult relationship with his father Bart (Ving Rhames), who has long been incarcerated, and treats Theresa like family since she’s always supported him while his father has been absent and previously helped get him into this dangerous world. Manny has a family he wants to protect and much more to lose than Ray, and he’s also not always quite as careful about what he does. And Mina, who is unable to speak above a whisper after she finally emerges from the hospital, was in very deep and formed a relationship with her partner that has resulted in her not being able to monitor a situation that has spiraled far beyond her control.

This show is remarkably well-paced and demands that audiences return for the next episode even though each hour wraps up in a moderately satisfying way (two episodes premiere at launch with every subsequent episode dropping weekly after that). Henry, an Emmy nominee for Atlanta who also earned an Oscar nomination for Causeway and merited consideration for Widows, makes for a fantastic lead, remarkable to watch when Ray is under pressure and providing an effective and empathetic point of access for audiences. Narcos and Civil War star Moura is as good as ever in a much more vulnerable role, as is the dependably excellent Ireland, as Mina feels ready to reign fire even when she can’t speak. Mulgrew adds a great deal to any project and this one is no exception, and it’s great to see her embrace a part like this and deliver so well. Everything about this show works, making a familiar world for film and TV an opportunity for a new story that’s gripping and immensely watchable.

Series Rating: 8/10