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India Today
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
There is too much trauma on TV and it is killing all the joy
A few weeks ago, a friend suggested that I watch Dope Thief on Apple TV+. Like everyone else, I too enjoy a good movie or TV series that can be classified as a thriller. It is usually good entertainment in the evening, and more so when, after a day in the office, you are not in the mood to ponder over love and life in a Woody Allen movie. So, last week I fired up Dope Thief. The first episode went well enough. The second one wilted a little. The third was down in the dumps. And by the fourth one, I found the Dope Thief crashing and shattering into thousands of little pieces all over my TV this was a well-received show among critics. Usually, I tend to vibe well with stuff that has lots of red on Rotten Tomatoes. But of late, I am also finding many of these highly-rated shows unwatchable. Dope Thief is one. Wheel of Time season 3 is another recent one. I loved Bad Sisters season 1 but couldn't watch season 2 beyond three episodes. Zero Day, despite Robert De Niro, was terrible. Adolescence, a darling of critics and a topic of conversation on a dinner table, was barely tolerable for me. Even superhero and gaming stuff — The Penguin, The Daredevil Returns, and The Last of Us — was missing a verve and felt sluggish in the thrills it Penguin Lessons and The Friend, two movies with a big tender heart in their centre, too turned out to be somewhat less wholesome for me. There are many examples. This made me ponder: either there is something wrong with how I am approaching these movies and TV shows, or there is something subtly broken with the entertainment we are getting nowadays on our I don't have an answer yet as to which is which and what is what. But I have a hunch. I am finding this stuff on TV unbearable because there is too much trauma in it. By that, I don't mean to say that watching them is traumatic — although something like The Eternaut can give most people a chill. I mean, there is too much trauma in the plot, and often this trauma comes to the screen in flashbacks that not only break the narrative flow but also try to explain the world and everything else in a therapy-speak that is heavy-handed. Actually, it is as if they are shoving the narrative down our Thief, for example, does it with these quick and very short — less than a minute — trauma bursts that take over the vision and thoughts of Ray Driscoll, its lead character. It is the same in almost everything that is coming to screens nowadays. The plot is driven by some trauma or other, the characters act or don't act in rational or irrational manner because — you guessed it — this trauma or that. What happened 15 years ago to a character is the thread that runs through their life-story now. What happened to them yesterday takes over the thoughts of the lead characters today. They move through the plot dazed and compelled, without any human agency that can make them accountable for their own is explained. And trauma is used to explain it all. Increasingly, watching a TV series or a movie is akin to tuning into a psychoanalysis lecture. It is like watching Sigmund Freud unravel each character in all their ugliness. It gives no joy. If the character gulped a glass full of whisky, it is probably because they are nursing a trauma from yesterday. If they are mean to their neighbour's cat, they are mean because of some childhood trauma, and this trauma is laid bare by the show for its movies and TV series nowadays, in one way or another, have plots driven by the past. It is as if the world has stopped living in the present collectively. That is infuriating because it means we are always watching things 'explained' instead of things 'unfolding.' At least, that is the impression I get. Explanation makes things banal, it strips the moments and acts of their mystery. This is the reason why Samuel Beckett, in a thinly veiled attack at viewers, wrote in his play Endgame: 'Ah, the creatures, the creatures, everything has to be explained to them.'advertisementExplanations make the narrative flat, which is what I find in most popular TV shows and movies. They are flat without layers, and the overuse of trauma strips them of irony, absurdity and satire. The effect, I believe, is the opposite of what they want to achieve. With all the explaining and use of trauma as a torch, they hope to reveal reality. Instead, by robbing plots and their characters of mystery, absurdity and irony, the TV shows and movies nowadays make them unreal and was different earlier. Why can't a character be evil because that is the way they are? Or why can't they be supremely kind because that is how they are? Why does it have to be explained? Some of the great characters I remember from movies and TV shows leave an impression because they exist without any explanations. Chigurh from No Country For Old Man is a great villain, and brilliantly psychotic, because he is what he is. No trauma required. Just a toss of a coin is sufficient for him. Amelie, yes that French girl, is made of light because she is what she is. Again, no trauma TV shows and movies of late have become unnecessarily heavy and weighty. They have become too ponderous, even in genres where they don't need to be. That is probably the reason why even Marvel stuff has lost its floaty and fun aspect. That is a pity. Because weight is an ingredient that spoils anything that is Calvino warned against this weight in his essays for the future. In his essays in 1985 - later published as Six Memos For The Next Millennium - he talked about weight. In an essay titled Lightness, Calvino argued against making art heavy. His idea was that the best art is light and has a quality that makes it effervescent. He wrote that after accumulating all the experience as a writer, his 'method has (now) entailed, more often than not, the subtraction of weight.' He gave a lot of credence to weight in the beginning, he wrote. But now he had realised that it was the lightness that we all should chase. I feel that somewhere in the last ten years, movies and TV shows have increasingly lost this quality of being light. They have become too heavy and that is because of all the trauma they pack nowadays.(Javed Anwer is Technology Editor, India Today Group Digital. Latent Space is a weekly column on tech, world, and everything in between. The name comes from the science of AI and to reflect it, Latent Space functions in the same way: by simplifying the world of tech and giving it a context)(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author)Must Watch
Los Angeles Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
2025 Emmy predictions: best actor, limited series/TV movie
As expected, Colin Farrell waddles apart for his nigh-unrecognizable turn as the reimagined Bat-nemesis in 'The Penguin.' Farrell has collected many honors for the role, including the SAG Award, and is in front in Round 1 of the BuzzMeter — though not uncatchably so. 'Colin Farrell is just as strong as co-star [Cristin] Milioti in this corresponding category,' says Trey Mangum, 'but I do think he has a bit more competition here because Bryan Tyree Henry could very easily be on his heels, the way he elevates 'Dope Thief.'' Kristen Baldwin echoes the sentiments of several panelists in elevating Henry above his show: 'Though 'Dope Thief' was uneven, Brian Tyree Henry's performance as a small-time crook who ends up on the bad side of a very dangerous cartel was consistently fantastic.' Tracy Brown agrees Henry is 'overdue for some Emmys love,' but says, 'Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna make up one of my favorite creative power couples, so it was great to see them reunited in 'La Máquina.'' 'Doesn't it feel like Colin Farrell already won the Emmy for his entertaining turn in 'The Penguin'?' asks Glenn Whipp. 'Maybe it's time to start the Stephen Graham ('Adolescence') bandwagon.' Lorraine Ali is already on it: 'Stephen Graham's haunting performance as the father of a teen who's accused of murder should be at the front of the pack.' For Graham, who co-created and co-wrote 'Adolescence,' an Emmy nom would be the first of his 35-year career (he has shared SAG honors, for instance, for his work in 'Boardwalk Empire'). Matt Roush sums it up, with Farrell favored but many others in play: 'Buried under prosthetics yet commanding the screen, Colin Farrell as 'The Penguin' looks like the performance to beat … [but] let's not forget that upstart, Robert De Niro.' More predictions: Limited / TV movie actress | Limited series 1. Colin Farrell, 'The Penguin'2. Brian Tyree Henry, 'Dope Thief'3. Stephen Graham, 'Adolescence'4. Kevin Kline, 'Disclaimer'5. Aaron Pierre, 'Rebel Ridge'6. Gael García Bernal, 'La Máquina'7. (tie) Robert De Niro, 'Zero Day'7. (tie) Josh Andrés Rivera, 'American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez'
South China Morning Post
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Dope Thief author on why Apple TV+'s adaptation had to be shot in ‘magnetic' Philadelphia
Author Dennis Tafoya remembers his time working in accident and emergency in a hospital in Doylestown, Philadelphia, in the 1980s. Advertisement One night, a call came in about a fire at a farmhouse-turned-meth lab, but when doctors attempted to help, the burn victim refused care and eventually died. 'It got me thinking about who ends up in a burning meth lab in the middle of the night,' said Tafoya in a recent call with Philadelphia newspaper The Inquirer. That incident was the seed of the idea that, decades later, became Tafoya's 2009 novel Dope Thief. It has since been adapted into a series of the same name on Apple TV+, written, directed, and executive produced by Peter Craig – who co-wrote the screenplay for 2010 crime thriller The Town – and executive produced by legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott Scott also directed the pilot, which introduces the two best friends-protagonists, Ray ( Brian Tyree Henry ) and Manny (Wagner Moura), who pose as DEA drug enforcement agents to steal money from small-time drug dealers.
The Australian
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Australian
Ridley Scott's new Philadelphia crime caper is a cracker of a show
We don't normally think of Philadelphia, nicknamed the City of Brotherly Love, when it comes to crime fiction. But it's also known as a place that's 'quick to anger, prickly and prideful, wary of the new', according to writer Chris Satullo. It's the perfect backdrop for Dope Thief, Apple TV's new, hilarious at times, and rather disturbing at others, crime caper that follows a couple of street hoods stealing drugs from selected dealers, 'low-level tweakers', while posing as DEA agents. 'They don't remember your face, just your badge,' is their modus operandi. Their dangerous scheme eventually lands the pair in the crosshairs of an implacable, powerful operation connected to the hidden narcotics corridor on the eastern seaboard, determined to hunt them down and exact revenge. They are also pursued, a little ironically, by the real DEA, just as deadly as the facially tattooed sicarios sent looking for retribution. Dope Thief is a cracker of a show, possessing a pulpy vitality, superb acting and diverting action sequences, and it is as astutely engineered as any series we've seen this year. It's also about what it's like to be family, and how the loneliness of men can sometimes result in tender relationships, while all around is grim mayhem. And about how these men struggle for some sort of better life, even though they know the odds are stacked against them, their futures bleakly predictable, even as they seek atonement. Originally titled Sinking Spring, the series is from Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions; the famed director is also executive producer and director of the first episode establishing the show's distinctive, visceral aesthetic, which is tight, trim and tense. The show, years in the making, was created by Peter Craig, not only a successful crime author but a seasoned screenwriter known for films such as The Batman, The Town, and Top Gun Maverick. It's based on the novel of the same title by Dennis Tafoya, author of two other highly acclaimed books, The Wolves of Fairmount Park and The Poor Boy's Game. Tafoya's inspiration for Dope Thief, according to online magazine Bucks Happening, apparently came from an alarming real-life event in remote Plumsteadville, a small Pennsylvania township where a meth lab fire led to the discovery of a body in the woods. At the time, Tafoya was working as a medical technician in nearby Bucks County, and the incident stayed with him for years. This haunting image set the foundation for a heist novel that explores the dark underbelly of malfeasance and consequence. Respected crime magazine Kirkus Reviews called it: 'An impressive debut by a writer savvy enough to understand that the way to a reader's heart is often as not through flawed characters.' Ridley Scott at the TCL Chinese Theatre in August 2024 in Los Angeles. Picture: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic. Picture: Getty Images. The two leading characters in Craig's series are certainly that. Brian Tyree Henry is cocky Ray Driscoll, full of hustler bombast and the gift of the gab, a born wheeler-dealer who believes he's cleaning the streets by his robberies. But his life is complicated by Teresa, a brilliant Kate Mulgrew, longtime girlfriend of his incarcerated father, Bart, an equally impressive Ving Rhames, who raised him as her son and to whom he is emotionally indebted, even if she's addicted to her lottery tickets. Wagner Moura is vulnerable and emotional as his best friend, Manny Carvalho, who desperately wants the violent situation he finds himself in to disappear. Who wouldn't? Sherry (Liz Caribel Sierra), his faithful girlfriend, doesn't know about his illegal vocation and has little time for the hustling Ray. Henry and Moura are heartbreakingly convincing in these roles. Their rattled-off dialogues together are like pieces of street opera, abrasively shrill but weirdly full of affection. Craig says he has little problem with being hemmed in a little to the crime genre, especially after the success of The Town, the successful thriller directed by Ben Affleck. 'I got very comfortable in it really quickly,' he told The Hollywood Reporter. 'I started as a novelist who wrote books that were only moderately read, but they were respected crime books that were mostly about conmen. I just loved the genre because the stakes are immediately there, and you can do what you want to do with character.' Craig has worked mainly in feature films and Dope Thief is his first TV venture. He says he studied Mad Men scripts to learn how it was done, the celebrated series teaching him about the way to create layered characters. 'It's great TV when there can always be another layer to somebody no matter how much you scratch him,' he said in another interview with the Creative Screenwriting website. The trick in all the great crime shows, he found, is the way the main character starts as a 'regular person and you put them in a terrible situation, and you watch them adapt to it', he says citing The Godfather and Breaking Bad. He was also after the feel of '70s crime movies such as Chinatown and Dog Day Afternoon, the quirky humour and the way that, in those movies, it comes from unexpected places in the writing. And to add to the pile of influences, there was Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway and Straw Dogs. 'I watched those over and over, and try to capture some of that feeling. Sam was gritty, he was ugly. He let things get really uncomfortable and you felt like if somebody's arm got scraped, you felt that scrape on your own arm.' Creator Peter Craig was after the feel of series is such as Breaking Bad, starring Bryan Cranston as Walter White, above. Craig was working with Scott on a film project and showed him the pilot script for Dope Thief he had been writing at the same time. Scott liked Craig's sense of dark humour and wanted to do TV again. 'TV is a massive basket full of balls,' he said recently. 'Every now and again something comes up like The Sopranos or Game of Thrones, and that influences everybody, who then rushes to that ball to copy it and it's already too late. That's how I function as a director – what's the next ball?' Dope Thief was his. His movies, so often grandiose, high-concept and philosophical, have always been intensely cinematic, taking audiences to unexpected and maybe even unnameable areas of experience. Oscar-winning Hollywood director Sydney Pollack called him one of cinema's great stylists, along with Adrian Lyne and Alan Parker: 'Every shot has a great idea in it.' While the series has been heavily promoted as if Scott is a stranger to TV, across the 30 years of its existence Scott Free has received more than 100 Emmy nominations with 22 wins, and 28 Golden Globe nominations for its TV projects. But this project is new territory for Ridley Scott. His last, Raised By Wolves, a high-concept sci-fi series, was not the success he had hoped for, but he was ready to do television again. 'So once Ridley jumped on, it suddenly looked like we had a show, and I just went at it,' Craig said. 'I just went towards the daylight, like a plant that grows towards the daylight. And I was lucky enough that I had committed early on to something that I understood really well. So it was partly the opportunity, and it was partly the love at first sight of Ray and Manny.' As you might expect of Scott, he cleverly establishes the world of this drama and its characters while introducing the series' long-running themes and visual language. Craig says he treats it all like theatre, often using several cameras so he only needs a couple of takes. There were often four crowded in on his two leading actors somehow still brilliantly lit by cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, a regular on David Fincher projects and who also worked on Raised By Wolves. Martin Freeman as Lester Nygaard in the TV series, Fargo.... 'eternal dusk'. They were after what Scott called a disorienting feeling of 'eternal dusk' through the series, using the Coen brothers' Fargo as another influence. The series presents the decaying sections of Pennsylvania with the lonely, echoing streets, the sunlight always muted and washed out, and the rain always threatening. The first episode is a masterclass in direction when Ray and Manny's lives are ignominiously altered when they take on a new hand, hiring Rick (Spenser Granese) when Ray targets a remote farm that's the base for a clan lab, a clandestine laboratory, manufacturing narcotics. But the new guy panics and the ensuing shootout leaves him dead. Ray has a bullet in his shoulder, and he and Manny are on the run, with a voice on a stolen radio taunting them about killing them, and their families. Dope Thief might struggle a bit after Scott sets the pace – like so many shows these days it's a little too attenuated – but whatever, it's a blast. Dope Thief,streaming on Apple TV+. Graeme Blundell TV Writer Actor, director, producer and writer, Graeme Blundell has been associated with many pivotal moments in Australian theatre, film and television. He has directed over 100 plays, acted in about the same number, and appeared in more than 40 films and hundreds of hours of television. He is also a prolific reporter, and is the national television critic for The Australian. Graeme presents movies on Foxtel's Fox Classics, and presents film review show Screen on Foxtel's arts channel with Margaret Pomeranz.
Buzz Feed
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Brian Tyree Henry Opened Up About His Career Journey, And Now We're Even More Obsessed
From Paper Boi to the MCU, there's a lot to be a fan of when it comes to Brian Tyree Henry. So when he joined us on Seasoned Sessions to talk about his latest show, Dope Thief, we had to talk to him about his career journey – from Atlanta and beyond. Here are some things we learned! Brian didn't plan on being an actor – he was originally studying Business, but when he went to the arts department, he knew he'd found his place. Business was never really an ambition for Brian, 'I was just following the herd of like, 'oh boy, everybody's doing business,' and I hated it.' He shared that one fateful day on campus changed his life; some friends took him along to audition for an all-Black adaptation of Antigone, and he was sold. Going to Yale was a bit of a culture shock, but his roots proved to be a strong foundation. Brian shared that from preschool to college, he only went to predominantly Black institutions, and this background really enriched his experience at Yale, an experience which he described as being 'exposed to the real world.' 'Because I was so ingrained and steeped in heritage and culture and learning about Black playwrights and poets and activists, like I was able to really put that into the work that I was doing,' he shared, saying that his experience at Yale gave him the space to learn all the essentials of acting and collaborate with many wonderful Black artists. He instantly knew he was a perfect fit to play Paper Boi, but he went into the audition with no expectations – he just wanted to have fun. FX It wasn't hard for Brian to get into character: 'I knew exactly who this dude was,' he shared, 'I immediately was like, oh, that's my best friend.' He had to dress as what he thought the character would wear, which was easy for him – 'Camo shorts, black polo, and an Atlanta Braves cap' – and the rest is history. The cast of Atlanta are like family to him. The chemistry between Brian, Donald Glover, and Lakeith Stanfield was instant. 'There was such an immediate connection,' he said, 'we were all just laughing and vibing.' The group was so tight that they permanently commemorated their bond on one of Brian's birthdays. 'Donald gave us a tattoo party and we all got the 'Atlanta A.' Except Zazie – she got her ears pierced,' he laughed. Brian knows that Atlanta is iconic, but he's still getting used to people calling him Paper Boi. FX 'My name is Brian,' he joked, 'I had this morbid thought one day: when I die, is the news going to be like 'Paper Boi Brian Tyree Henry'? And I was like, 'I don't want that, but that's okay.' He's made his peace with it, though, and can thank Paper Boi for making him one of Rihanna's favourite actors. He brings himself into every role, especially in Dope Thief. AppleTV+ In Dope Thief, Brian plays Ray, a former inmate trying to survive after prison. It's gritty, raw, and emotional, and he helped shape Ray's story from the ground up. 'When I read the script, I was like, 'if you put my body in this space, it changes the whole narrative,'' he said. 'It's really easy to see narratives where we have a Black and brown man and there's violence and drugs. But with this one, we really wanted to pull back and show the layers of what that friendship is because at the end of the day, these two men love each other. It's a love story.'
