First impressions of They Cloned Tyrone

The new Netflix sci-fi comedy features John Boyega and Jamie Foxx in their best performances in years.

Somebody strap J.J. Abrams into a chair and make him watch They Cloned Tyrone pronto.

On the surface, They Cloned Tyrone tracks the adventure of a drug dealer (John Boyega), a pimp (Jamie Foxx), and a sex worker (Teyonnah Parris) who discover a Twilight-Zone-brand conspiracy at work in their neighborhood. The weirdness has been happening for a long time, but they’ve been too deeply entangled in the down-and-outness of their demoralizing routines to notice. When someone known to have been murdered in typical gang violence suddenly turns up alive again—well,  that’s when these three start asking questions and connecting dots. And this leads them on a circuitous journey of amateur detective work, uncovering mysterious sci-fi elevators and secret laboratories where a network of nefarious agents are running some Matrix-level wickedness.