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  DOPE THIEF (Apple TV+) If you're not watching 'Dope Thief,' why the hell not? Yes, it's on Apple TV+ but such is the quality of the acting, writing and directing, it's as good an argument as I've seen to subscribe to the streaming service. Unravelling over eight episodes, Peter Craig's adaptation of Dennis Tafoya's 2009 novel tells the story of two low life criminals who stumble into a conspiracy that is bigger than they could ever imagine. Brian Tyree Henry's Ray Driscoll and Wagner Moura's Manny Carvalho are childhood friends in Philadelphia who are recovering addicts and low level drug dealers. They also have a pretty good scam going. Dressed as DEA agents, they stake out other low level dealers and then carry out fake raids, stealing their product and money. The information on which houses to hit comes from Dustin Nguyen's Son Pham, a successful Vietnamese drug trafficker who lives in a nice house, with a model family but who also has s...

  From ' Public Enemy ' to ' The Irishman ,' ' The Sopranos ' to ' This City Is Ours ,' it seems we can't get enough of tales about gangsters on the big and small screen. Ireland has also had quite a few TV shows and movies about crime gangs in its time from ' The General ' to ' Calm With Horses ,' ' Love/Hate ' to ' KIN '. Sometimes, though, the grim storles of what real life crime gangs get up to is just as fascinating. That is especially true of two recent docuseries about rival sides in a feud that spectacularly erupted on the streets of Dublin - RTE1's 'Gerry Hutch: AKA The Monk' and BBC1's 'Kinahan: The True Story of Ireland's Mafia'. The feud between the Kinahan and Hutch gangs is probably best known for the  shocking gun attack on a boxing weigh-in in Dublin's Regency Hotel in February 2016 . However the fallout claimed the lives of 18 people. There were lots of other casualties ...

  In  Series One of 'KIN,'  everybody was talking about Jamie. In Series One of the Liverpool crime drama 'This City Is Ours,' everybody is... well, talking about Jamie. Despite being touted as  "the Scouse Sopranos" , BBC1's 'This City Is Ours' actually has a lot more in common with its RTE/AMC predecessor 'KIN'. Both have sensitive gangland lead characters at the centre of the show called Michael.  Both gangs in each show also have macho hotheaded young men desperate to prove their criminal credentials but who ultimately place their families at risk. Both gangs in each show also incur the wrath of the international drug cartels. However the most striking thing about ' KIN ' and 'This City Is Ours' is the way the women around the men are just as callous, calculating and culpable as the husbands, sons and partners they often run rings around. That is not to say 'This City Is Ours' is a 'KIN' rip-off. Like its...

  REUNION (BBC1) ' Shockproof ,'' Straight Time ,' ' Mona Lisa ,' ' The Limey ,' ' Carlito's Way ,' ' King of New York ' and ' The Shawshank Redemption ' all addressed it on the big screen. TV dramas about the pitfalls after release for ex prisoners are, however, harder to come by. Written by William Mager, the BBC1 series 'Reunion' not only tries to tackle that but it puts a new spin on it. Not only does Matthew Gurney's hotheaded Daniel Brennan have to navigate an outside world wary of him because of his murder conviction, he's also deaf. Jailed for the murder of his childhood friend, Ace Mahbaz's Ray Mokhtar, he encounters Olive Gray's probation officer Anna before his release who has not been informed of his disability and has come to meet him without a sign language interpreter. Outside jail, Daniel's wife has died and his daughter, Lara Peake's Carly is struggling and nursing a lot of rese...