Apple TV+ is on one heck of a run. It’s been my personal pick of the best streaming services for at least a couple of years now, not least because it’s the most affordable if you’re looking for 4K quality shows, but it also has a habit of making those shows extremely high-quality.
So, when I saw the first trailer for Dope Thief a few weeks ago, I knew I’d be tuning in, although I didn’t realise how much I’d enjoy it. This is a show that casts one of my favourite actors (Brian Tyree Henry) in a story that plays with some of my favourite tropes (people committing crimes badly), and it’s been great so far. Now, Apple’s deployed a super intriguing trailer showing what’s coming up in the weeks yet to air.
It confirms that what has started as a very stressful show won’t be letting up, as Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura’s characters get further and further into trouble thanks to their calamatious screw-up early doors. The two of them play opportunistic criminals who think they’ve hit upon a brilliant recipe for ripping off drug dealers.
They pose as DEA agents, using the classic ballistic vests bearing those letters in bright white capitals, and turn over drug stashes to grab money and contraband before making themselves scarce. This all goes very wrong, though, when they hit a stash hiding way more than anticipated, and get the attention they’d so far been able to dodge after each job.
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I’ve pointed out before that this is the exact sort of scenario that some excellent Coen brothers movies have used as their hook – regular people or petty criminals who get dragged into messes they could never have anticipated. How these characters contrive to escape or fail to do so, can be endlessly compelling if handled the right way.
Dope Thief is handling it excellently, based on the trio of episodes available to watch at this point, and you can feel the influence of Ridley Scott in the background (he’s on Executive Producer duties, along with Peter Craig, a long-time collaborator). As always, though, it’s a little hard to judge the show until it finishes its run – but I recommend jumping aboard while it’s still airing, for maximum suspense between episodes!
