To be entirely honest, Dope Thief is about eight times more complex than it needs to be. However, by the time one realizes that truth, their bodies will likely be too saturated by adrenaline and too coiled by tension to pay that reality much mind.

The Peter Craig adaptation of Dennis Tafoya’s novel begins with a familiar energy. Friends/partners Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny (Wagner Moura) chat, sort of about their upcoming job, sort of not. Moments later, they’re tricked out in DEA gear and raiding the house of a corner drug dealer. Moments after that, the audience learns it is all a charade. The two pose as agents to rob from the dealers and line their own pockets.

It’s an intriguing premise that allows Henry and Moura to show off both their chemistry and their individual approaches to the characters. Dope Thief lets them—and the audience—enjoy it for about fifteen minutes. Then, the two do a job that proves far larger than expected. They come away with more cash than they ever scored while leaving behind a stack of bodies and a series of exploding meth houses. Worse, whatever cartel was running the operation saw them pull away. For the rest of the season’s eight episodes, the series sets the screws to everyone. Moments to catch your breath are rare. Each choice leads to even worse circumstances.

Within this sort of storytelling maelstrom, it can be easy to lose track of the characters. It is, therefore, a tremendous credit to Dope Thief that Craig et al. maintain a human-focused perspective on the storytelling. No matter how many plates they have spinning—and there are so very many—or how fast, the show ensures that a handful of characters do not become just cogs in the plot machine.

The series’ actors, chiefly Moura and Henry, aid that effort. Henry is reliably excellent and never the same as a performer. Dope Thief provides yet another example of that. Even as the plot increasingly begs incredulity, he feels natural and honest. Moura is bigger and flashier in the supporting role, playing Manny as a man increasingly undone not so much by his past choices but by his evolving feelings about those choices. Grounding his character choices in a core of loyalty to his friends and family lets Moura vacillate between a clear-eyed pragmatist and a guilt-ridden sinner looking for a way to atone without either pole feeling unearned.

Marina Ireland, as a DEA Agent swept up in the way of Ray and Manny’s recklessness, grows more interesting as the series progresses. Initially saddled with a collection of clichés as a character, the writing and Ireland’s performance add depth, leading to her finishing the series as one of its more transformed and empathetic characters. The series gets further strong turns from the likes of Ving Rhames as Ray’s estranged dad, Kate Mulgrew as his mother figure, Dustin Nguyen as a well-connected fence, and Will Pullen as a still green DEA agent.

What undoes Dope Thief some is its ever-expanding criminal conspiracy. At first, it gives the series an intensely nerve-wracking sense of “there is no escape.” However, as the characters temporarily escape and the show reveals further layers of the vast criminal enterprise, it loses some sense of reality. It doesn’t quite feel like the two are up against HYDRA, but it comes pretty damn close. In a scene involving a radio and an empty hospital, Ray feels like a protagonist taunted by his supervillain adversary. As a distinct moment, it is a corker. Within the larger context, though, it shatters Dope Thief’s established reality. There’s also a moment when one player so obviously reveals themselves that the mystery feels voided before the show intends it.

The visual language of the film follows a similar path. While the story “lives” in Philly, the cinematographers do an excellent job of making the locations feel alive and integral. Then, as the characters find themselves in increasingly unlikely places, like the empty hospital or a bunker-style DEA location, the visuals feel less immediate. The movement of the camera, the selection of shots, and so on remain strong. Unfortunately, they butt up against the unreality of the settings.

These are flaws that generally only stand out upon reflection. While in the midst of Dope Thief, it is hard to manage one’s empathetic anxiety enough to see them. Still, the oversteps linger after watching, the unpleasant aftertaste of an otherwise satisfying experience.

Dope Thief bursts into AppleTV+’s house with a badge beginning on March 14.

Dope Thief Trailer: