'The Horror Of Dolores Roach' Is 'Sweeney Todd' By Way of Opposite World Lin-Manuel Miranda

By Jen Maravegias | TV | August 17, 2023 |

By Jen Maravegias | TV | August 17, 2023 |

On its surface, Amazon Prime’s The Horror of Dolores Roach, based on a podcast by the same name, is a modern, gender-swapped, retelling of Sweeney Todd. Instead of Georgian-Era England, we’re in modern-era Washington Heights where empanadas are the meat pies of choice. Dolores Roach is a masseuse living in the basement, not a barber sending victims down there from his chair. But they were both unjustly imprisoned and are looking for revenge.

Justina Machado is a world away from the family-friendly One Day At A Time in this role of a woman trying to regain her footing in gentrified Washington Heights after spending sixteen years in prison. She thought she would be able to walk back into her old life where she had been dating the block’s weed kingpin before she got put away protecting him from prosecution. But Dominic is in the wind leaving Dolores with no plan and no prospects. She has one remaining ally on the block, Luis Batista (New Amsterdam’s Alejandro Hernandez), who is running his father’s shop, Empanada Loca. Luis is holding onto his own life by a thread though. He’s basically squatting in a building where he’s in a lengthy rent dispute with the new white landlord (Marc Maron). But he offers Dolores a bedroom in his apartment below the empanada shop for old-time sake and does what he can to re-introduce her to the neighborhood and get back on her feet.

That’s when things get murdery.

If you’re at all familiar with Sweeney Todd you know where this is going but there’s great fun in this telling. The story mines a lot of humor from the characters in the neighborhood and their relationships with each other. A lot of them you only get to know well enough to wish them dead, which is to the cast’s credit. Jean Yoon (Kim’s Convenience), Jimmy Alvarez, Judy Reyes (Scrubs), Esther Chung, Ilan Eskenazi, Jeffery Self, and Cyndi Lauper work together to create a backdrop of characters who range from mildly annoying to manipulatively evil. Regulars Kita Updike as Empanada Loca’s counter-girl Nellie, and K. Todd Freeman’s paranoid butcher Jeremiah are loveable dummies who don’t understand what’s going on around them until it’s too late. The real treat though is the relationship between Dolores and Luis. He’s a bit unhinged from the beginning, having harbored an unrequited crush on the older woman since he was a boy. He slides into cannibalism and masterminding their messy plan so easily that you have to wonder how safe the neighborhood was whether Dolores arrived on the scene or not.

Dolores Roach’s Washington Heights is a different place than the one popularized by Lin-Manuel Miranda where even though they’re facing the same societal challenges, everyone’s storyline feels like it’s on the upswing. In Dolores Roach’s world, the comedy is darker and everyone is more desperate. In some stories about New York City, problems are solved with a song. But Delores and Luis have other ways of resolving their issues. It feels like a much more honest portrayal of life in New York, where the average rent in Manhattan is $5,588 a month and even moderate social justice reforms aimed at addressing “individuals most impacted by the unjust enforcement of the prohibition of cannabis or nonprofit organizations whose services include support for the formerly incarcerated” can’t get off the ground. There’s good reason for Dolores’ distress. There are more barriers than supports in place for former felons. She and Luis are forced to make their own opportunities and maintain their tenuous grasp on the community by any means necessary.

Machado and Hernandez are excellent scene partners in this. They’re natural together and desperation breeds strange bedfellows so you’re rooting for them even though you know it’s wrong. The story, and their relationship, build over the short course of a few weeks. Predictably things end badly for everyone involved and the final scenes at Empanada Loca are gloriously bloody and chaotic. The season ends in a cliffhanger. Although there’s a second season of the podcast, there’s been no news of a renewal yet.

In the current economy and social climate, I’m honestly surprised more people don’t resort to striking down the enemies who create minor (and major) inconveniences in their lives. And in a city where space is at such a premium, and so many folks are living in food deserts, it only makes sense to cook them into delicious snacks.

All episodes of The Horror Of Dolores Roach are available on Amazon Prime