Review: ‘Dope Thief’ is an Intense, Graphic, Well-acted Thriller

*** Caution: Spoilers ahead***

Whenever my wife and I watch something as gritty and intense as “Dope Thief,” we try to do so with another hour left before bed so we can then watch a comedy or something lighter to relax. We call it taking a “comedy shower.” And after watching the first two episodes of this eight-episode limited series, I definitely needed one.

That’s not to say “Dope Thief” isn’t enjoyable. Quite the contrary – it is a well-crafted adaptation of Dennis Tafoya’s 2009 novel that grips you with every scene. In fact, Ridley Scott even directs the pilot episode and there is no doubt a movie quality to it.

Set in Philadelphia (Have you noticed how “hot” Philly seems to be at the moment?), it is either winter or winter adjacent and viewers can just see the chill about town and enveloping the series itself. The show centers on the lives of two good friends, Ray (played by Brian Tyree Henry, an incredible actor we need to talk about more) and Manny (played by “Narcos’s” Wagner Moura). They aspire to be decent men who provide for their loved ones, but for now, they’re a couple of hoods running a scam posing as DEA agents to rip off small-time drug dealers of their cash and drug supply.

Ray, who is about a month sober and attending AA meetings, lives with his adoptive “mother” Theresa, who took a young Ray in when her boyfriend, Ray’s father Bart, was sentenced to prison. Theresa is played by Kate Mulgrew, who is most identified with “Star Trek: Voyager” but who more recently played prison chef Galina “Red” Reznikov on “Orange is the New Black.” We learn she’s having trouble with hospital bills from a battle with cancer, which Ray doesn’t quite get because he doesn’t immediately know what a “PET scan” is, but he knows something is ailing her and tries to get it out of her.

Manny’s girlfriend Sherry is moving in with him, and he’s a little concerned with their criminal activity taking up too much of his attention. At the same time, he thinks inviting a third party into their crew might be wise, perhaps somebody to watch the door and their backs as they carry out their phony drug busts and cash grabs. This leads them to Rick, an old associate of Ray’s from a stretch in prison who’s just gotten out. He tries to convince the fellas that they only have so many small-time dealers to rob in the city, and that they should consider hunting bigger fish cooking up meth in more rural enclaves outside of Philly.

Despite some hesitation, they are dumb enough to try it, but that’s ok because the misguided move gives us the essence of the show – guys on the run from some really nasty people.

They scout a rural location where they can even see the suspected drug runners practicing their marksmanship, and decide this is the place they’ll hit. But as they carry out the job, Rick – who they really should not have given a firearm – shits the bed and in a bad moment, shoots one of their captives in the back of the head. This alerts an unaware guy in a completely other room who was cooking meth, and results in a woman on site, Mina (played by “Sneaky Pete’s” Marin Ireland) drawing a gun and shooting Rick in the chest. But Rick gets a shot off too and hits Mina in the neck, and she goes down. As Manny and Ray panic to try and figure out what to do about this blown situation, they notice that Mina must have gotten up and moved. So they decide to torch the place to mask their presence or any DNA, and high tail it out of there, leaving Rick to die. They manage to depart will a black bag full of money and dozens of bottles of liquid meth disguised to look like aloe vera.

There’s just one mistake. They left one of their walkie-talkies behind, and as they are speeding away, a very intimidating voice comes over Ray’s walkie and says if they return with the money and drugs now, all would be forgiven (yeah, fat chance). They take a pass but are being pursued. They conduct a few evasive measures but realize as they get back to Philly that they need to ditch their now-recognizable van.

We also see two men visit Mina in the hospital. She has survived but is being prepped for surgery and can’t talk because of the neck wound. Through a couple of written messages she shows them – one being “Keep my cover” –  it becomes immediately clear that Mina is legitimate DEA or a cop and she was undercover on the farm (One of the agents is played by “The Blacklist’s” loveable tech pro, Amir Arison).

In Episode Two, it’s the next morning and Ray and Manny torch the van. Ray then declares what he sees as a simple step to Manny, “We just got to put our heads down and hide everything we love,” which for him immediately means getting Theresa somewhere safe. He tries to convince her he’s won her a free trip to Atlantic City, and while she doesn’t seem to fully buy it, her real hesitation is missing a meeting with some attorney she’s paid a retainer for work on Bart’s behalf. Ray assures her he’ll take the meeting but will he?

With Theresa off to Atlantic City, Ray then visits well-off crook Son Pham in his upscale neighborhood. Son is the criminal who Ray and Manny offload their stolen drugs to and is appreciative of their work as it helps eliminate small competitors of his around town. Son’s family is sitting down for breakfast, and Ray even grabs some food himself. This scene is clearly intended to tell us Ray better enjoy this nice environment and all the trimmings now because he’s not going to be able to relax for a long time. Privately, Son tells Ray what we think he already knows – that he hit the wrong people and he and Manny are in deep doo doo.

From there, Ray meets Manny at a storage unit where they’ll store the liquid meth and the money. When Manny sees an old chair of Bart’s in the unit, they start to wonder if Rick was in prison with Bart, Ray’s dad. And if so, could Bart have given Rick the idea for them to carry out? Is Bart perhaps vulnerable here as well?

So Ray goes to visit his dad in prison (Bart is played by a perfectly cast Ving Rhames), and it is great to see Henry and Rhames play off of one another as scene partners. But long story short, Bart apparently at his own AA meeting may have let it slip what Ray does for a living to a guy named Danny Loebsack. Back in Philly, we then see Manny and Ray looking all over town for this guy. The show is almost comical about how many homes with “Loebsacks” living in them the two have to visit until they happen upon Danny’s place.

And then, Bam! We get an even meatier shoot-out than we did at the farm. These guys are some pretty gnarly “white power” biker types. Manny almost gets hit but Danny thankfully kills the man about to shoot him just in time. They make it out alive but not before Manny insists on piously closing the eyes of the men they shot, which Ray only scoffs at.

Later, after being unable to find Manny and wondering if somebody got to him, Ray finds himself having to outrun more white supremacist types in a footrace and almost gets hit by a truck. Eventually, we see that he does in fact catch up with Theresa’s lawyer, Michelle Taylor, just as she was about to leave the office for the day. I have to see after the day he’s just had, I was not just surprised but outright impressed that Ray kept this promise.

We find out from Ms. Taylor that Theresa has been trying to secure a compassionate release for Bart, who has cancer so bad it’s beyond treatment. So were those medical bills for Bart? Or Theresa? I’m gearing up to take on the remaining six episodes to see how, or if, Ray and Manny can survive this.

And that’s what Todd’s watching.