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The Horror of Delores Roach finds that for the titular lead, played by Six Feet Under‘s Justina Machado, her life has gone to hell in a handcart. She was locked up in prison for 16 years, for possession with intent to supply, along with assaulting a cop, and expects she can rock up to stay with her ex, Dominic, but almost the entire area has been redeveloped.
She finds the one thing which hasn’t changed in her old neighbourhood is the local bakery, owned by Luis Batista (Alejandro Hernandez), but having just got out of chokey, but she has severe fiduciary issues. Becoming a masseuse seems the only viable option, so how will that fare?
Well, good word spreads, but events happen and she soon finds she’s in way too deep.
Early on, you might get an idea about how things will go, although without giving spoilers, I can say that it takes a dark turn. It is a turn I’ve seen before in a particular film – and I’ll avoid mentioning where, as that would be a spoiler – albeit not for some time.
Once The Horror of Delores Roach has been out a while, and if it becomes well-known which film I’m referring to, I’ll put the film name behind a spoiler header, but it’s far too early for any of that, at this time.
So far, I’ve seen the first three episodes. It’s a bit daft and far-fetched, but could have legs. It’s also nice to soee Judy Reyes pop up from Scrubs and Smile.
Further update: I did watch the rest of the series. No spoilers, obviously, but it did improve as it went along – even though it was still quite daft at times – and I would like to see a second series. I’m not sure if I can say that Justina Machado makes the character believeable, but certainly engaging.
Thanks to our friends at Prime Video for the screener prior to broadcast.
The Horror of Delores Roach is on Prime Video from Friday July 7th. All eight episodes are available on day one.
NOTE:
Trailer posted July 2nd 15:00
Updated with spoiler-free review: July 6th 20:00
Cert: 
Running time: 25-30 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: July 7th 2023
Studio: Prime Video
Format: 2.00:1
Series Directors: Hiromi Kamata, Eduardo Sanchez, America Young, Roxann Dawson, Edward Ornelas
Podcast: Aaron Mark
Creator: Aaron Mark
Writers: Aaron Mark, Mariah Wilson, Dara Resnik, Michelle Badillo, Joe Hortua, Brian Otato, Daphne Rubin-Vega
Cast:
Dolores Roach: Justina Machado
Luis Batista: Alejandro Hernandez
Jeremiah: K Todd Freeman
Nellie Morris: Kita Updike
Jonah Pearlman: Ilan Eskenazi
Caleb: Jeffery Self
Joy: Jean Yoon
Flora Frias: Jessica Pimentel
Hector: Jimmy Alvarez
Jentrifer: Jessalyn Ferguson
Gideon Pearlman: Marc Maron
Ruthie: Cyndi Lauper
Marcie: Judy Reyes
Tabitha: Maureen Cassidy
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.