rabbitmoon

Dope Thief is a well produced show, it looks and feels like a movie and has a decent fast pace to keep you interested. But I found myself struggling to stay immersed in its world. The criticisms I've read about bad dialogue are something I don't agree with, it's fine as those are the characters. The problem is more the contrivances to manipulate your buy-in, in terms of how it wants the audience to root for the anti-heroes. They're essentially thieves, putting people at huge risk, yet they of course have to be likeable, big fuzzy well-meaning bears, with Ray looking after his stepmom, a dog and such like. It just seems a bit much. Then of course the implausibility of allowing this newly-released moronic redneck to tag along on a house siege, even giving him a gun, because of course our anti-heroes can't be the ones to actually kill anyone and ruin their 'innocent' status. That was some contrived writing right there.

It feels like it's trying to be a bit Breaking Bad, a bit 90s Tarantino, the gritty gray tones of The Wire - all of which makes it feel slightly dated. But there's also a strange comfort and familiarity in all that, the lack of gimmicks etc makes it an easy, chill watch. So despite its implausibilities it's still definitely worth a watch.

A fascinating, well edited, often shocking docu that moves at a lick and doesn't outstay it's welcome with just three episodes.

The perp here is a bonafide psychopath who neatly checks off all of Robert Hare's checklist. Watching him talk is quite chilling, seeing his cold, poker-face demeanor and claims of innocence, alongside the TikTok footage of his rampant narcissism. I'm glad the journalist wasn't sympathetic to his manipulations.

I wish there had been more focus on the main victim. I fully appreciate keeping his anonymity, and we hear his narration of the details of the crime itself. But it would have been useful to hear more about how it's affected his life.

The surfing DA dude deserves a spinoff series of his own, I'd love to read an autobiography of that guy.

The first half of this is a great procedural thriller. Good attention to detail, very fast paced, logical, great score, cinematic. Then the Saw soundtrack gets plagiarised, and some flashbacks start happening (like those movies) that start stretching logic to breaking point. Throughout the second half, you'll be so distracted by various motives, and how certain characters would have achieved certain things (and found certain people, and why) that all the credibility of the first half starts draining fast. It was all just washing over me by the overlong climax.

It's a shame, because without addressing motive with the emotional intelligence of a ten year old, it could have been great (and forty minutes shorter). It's the same "ugh, really?" feeling I had in the last act of Spectre. It ends up turning the very real problem of child grooming and abuse into a really ignorant plot device.

Also, the divisive framing of these characters into 'villains' and 'hero' leaves a bad taste the more you think about what actually happened. The general idea could have been dealt with so much more intelligently (like The Last Of Us Part 2 for eg.).