The Horror of Dolores Roach Is a Sweeney Todd Riff That Lacks Bite: TV Review

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Nonfiction podcasts have proven to be a rich vein for the IP-starved TV industry to mine, from true crime (“Dirty John”) to unauthorized biography (“The Dropout”). Scripted podcasts have been a less fruitful source of material, with the first season of Sam Esmail’s star-studded “Homecoming” serving as the sole exception to date. Even then, luring Julia Roberts to the small screen likely had more to do with the show’s success than the story’s medium of origin.

“The Horror of Dolores Roach,” a new series produced by Blumhouse Television for Amazon Prime Video, seems unlikely to reverse this trend. “Dolores Roach” began as a one-woman play called “Empanada Loca,” but found a broader audience in audio form. Released under the auspices of Gimlet Media, the studio recently absorbed into parent company Spotify after drastic cuts, the retitled podcast riffed on the urban legend of Sweeney Todd, the mythical barber made famous by Stephen Sondheim. (Disclosure: I previously worked at Gimlet’s sister studio The Ringer, also owned by Spotify.) “Dolores Roach” changed the antihero’s name, gender and nationality —  but kept the cannibalism and twisted love story that still define the character.

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Translating such a grisly tale to a more visual format offers plenty of adaptive possibilities. (Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd” may not have aged well thanks to Johnny Depp, but the musical was a perfect fit for the director’s macabre fantasia.) It’s one thing to hear a voice describe stuffing a pastry with human flesh; it’s another to watch the chef in action. But while the televised take on Dolores Roach — anglicized from “Rocha” — gets a boost from Justina Machado, who brings the same warm charisma to a serial killer she did to a single mom in “One Day at a Time,” the show is too timid to embrace the extremity of its premise. Advertised as a horror comedy, “The Horror of Dolores Roach” effectively earns neither scares nor laughs.

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Created by original playwright Aaron Mark, who shares showrunning duties with Dara Resnik, “The Horror of Dolores Roach” is framed as a monologue by Dolores, now a notorious killer who’s cornered the actress playing her onstage to share her side of the story. We then flash back to Dolores’s release from prison after 16 years, having taken the fall for her drug-dealing ex (Anthony Grant). But the ex is nowhere to be found, and Dolores’ native Washington Heights has changed dramatically since the aughts. With nowhere to stay and no money to her name, Dolores starts crashing with Luis (Alejandro Hernandez), the owner of the local empanada shop, and offering massages for cash, an art she picked up from her former bunkmate. Anyone who’s ever hummed “The Worst Pies in London” knows how the duo’s respective skill sets will eventually overlap.

If newcomers are not aware that “The Horror of Dolores Roach” was once a podcast, Machado’s omnipresent narration is an obvious clue. The device is overused, neglecting to compensate for the viewer’s ability to see the action and Dolores’ emotions — no need to have either explained to us. (When another character asks Dolores whether she’s OK as she visibly panics, the voiceover makes sure to tell us, Ron-Howard-in-“Arrested Development”-style, that she isn’t.) The effect isn’t just inartful; it roots the show a little too firmly in Dolores’s need to convince herself she’s a good person, even after she impulsively strangles her and Luis’ landlord Gideon (Marc Maron). Murder and meat pies are not ingredients for a grounded show. Yet “Dolores Roach” tries too hard to humanize its protagonist and make the case that she isn’t a monster. What’s so wrong with monstrosity, though? 

At the same time, “The Horror of Dolores Roach” is too broad toward everything and everyone who isn’t its main character. Attempts to update its central fable into a commentary on gentrification ring hollow; so does the toxic romance between Luis and Dolores. Both plots feel more rooted in abstract stereotypes — the greedy (and, uncomfortably, Jewish) landowner, the hothead troublemaker — than specific relationships. Dolores’ prison beau Tabitha (Maureen Cassidy) is one exception, though still behind bars and therefore confined to the series’ margins.

Yet the biggest missed opportunity may be the violence itself, which lacks the gore and operatic flair that make the Sweeney Todd story such a twisted delight. “The Horror of Dolores Roach” should be fun, but even a Cyndi Lauper cameo as a private investigator can’t give the show a sense of glee. Rather than tell us Dolores isn’t a villain, you wish the show would lean into her vengeful side and serve up some ham. After all, long pig’s already on the menu.

All eight episodes of “The Horror of Dolores Roach” are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

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