For a while, Apple TV+’s adaptation of Dennis Tafoya’s Dope Thief fits into one of my favorite subgenres of crime fiction: Longtime friends, bonded by shared trauma, engage in petty crime to survive, only to find themselves caught up in something bigger and more dangerous than they could have imagined.

Never quite a buddy comedy, but definitely a morbidly funny thriller fueled by economic desperation, Dope Thief gets off to an extremely promising start.

Stars Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura have the instant and volatile chemistry of men who have weathered so many dark moments together that they love each other even when they hate each other. Series creator Peter Craig has a good grasp on the obscenity-filled, vernacular-peppered language of this world. Pilot director Ridley Scott grounds the story in the urban grit of its Philadelphia and Philadelphia-adjacent locations.

The story in Dope Thief starts small and then things escalate and,...