‘Dope Thief’ Pairs Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura as Huckster Vigilantes Who Cross the Line 

Alci Rengifo

Apple TV+ demonstrates versatility within its own brand of television with the entertainingly gritty “Dope Thief.” It features the streamer’s taste for moody lighting and despairing situations, but with morbid humor and extra adrenaline. The real nucleus of its energy is the pairing of Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura as two friends who go too far in carrying out petty crimes. They make the material crackle, bringing to it their own long experience as actors cast in all sorts of crime thrillers. Creator Peter Craig is also no stranger to this genre, adapting a novel by Dennis Tafoya with skill.

Ridley Scott, for whom Craig has written screenplays, even drops in to direct the first episode, taking a break between his behemoth film projects. The setting is Philadelphia, where Ray (Henry) and Manny (Moura) pose as DEA agents. Dressed in convincing vests and sporting badges, they carry out “busts” on low-level drug houses. They then keep the cash they find at these criminal dens. Seeing themselves as vigilantes or Robin Hoods cleaning the streets, the buddies tell themselves what they’re doing is the equivalent of a “karma tax.” They don’t spread the wealth because both men are already struggling economically. Manny seems to have found some balance with girlfriend Sherry (Liz Caribel). Ray lives with Theresa (Kate Mulgrew), the woman who cared for him after his father was sent to prison. When a former prison buddy tips the guys off to a new score, they end up raiding something on the higher end of the criminal scale. Now the real DEA is in pursuit as well as a biker gang sent by a mysterious drug runner.

In different hands, “Dope Thief” might have been turned into another slapstick buddy comedy, using drugs as a punchline. Craig and team give the show subdued laughs with edge. What works best is how Henry and Moura do feel like friends from the downtrodden corners of town. They are living under the shadow of the pandemic’s economic aftershocks, which even impacted the drug business as the writing intelligently illuminates. They are not “heroes” in any classic sense and even Theresa harangues Ray for being a hypocrite. He and Manny raiding drug houses solely for themselves. More personal, typical issues also boil beneath the surface. Ray doesn’t want to be to open about how Manny’s evolving relationship with Sherry makes him feel a bit left behind. 

This is almost a story in the tradition of books and films like “A Simple Plan,” where the intensity ratchets up from the characters struggling to keep a serious crisis to themselves. A mystery voice keeps calling and making the friends fear for their lives. A vicious biker gang starts roaming around, scouting locations and the men’s homes. It doesn’t help that someone was killed in the pair’s ill-planned raid. Ray can’t meet with his father’s lawyer (and potential love interest), Michelle (Nesta Cooper) at a bar without turning into a paranoid mess considering everyone inside looks like a potential biker assassin. Speaking about Ray’s father, one of the series’ best supporting casting choices is certainly Ving Rhames as Bart. Rhames is great as an aging tough guy, still capable of issuing a cutting criticism of his “weak” son from a prison hospital bed. Amir Arison and Will Pullen are less compelling as DEA agents Mark Nader and Marchetti, who are convincing as the plot’s token cops slowly unraveling what’s going on.

The real heart of the show is the individual moments of tense hilarity, the rest of the cat and mouse chase almost work as detours for the plot to remain cohesive. Henry and Moura simply chomp the scenery when Manny starts breaking down, showing up at Ray’s sweating and wanting to use the bathroom, or when both men are in a car arguing about what to do. Manny wonders aloud if he should just run back to his home country, Brazil. They’re like co-workers who dropped the ball on an assignment, except this is a crime hanging over their heads. Liz Caribel is such a good match for both actors that we wish there was more of her. She brings more sly comic relief when arguing with Manny over the trouble he’s causing. These are anti-heroes we root for. They’re breaking the law and yet, we get them and wouldn’t mind if they ride off into the sunset.

“Dope Thief” begins streaming March 14 with new episodes premiering Fridays on Apple TV+.