Dopesick (2021)
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- Synopsis:
The series takes viewers to the epicenter of America's struggle with opioid addiction, from the boardrooms of Purdue Pharma, to a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA...Richard Sackler (Michael Stuhlbarg) begins to launch a powerful new painkiller, a rural doctor is introduced to the drug, a coal miner plans her future, a DEA agent learns of black market pills and federal prosecutors decide to open a case into OxyContin... Doctor Finnix (Michael Keaton) begins to take Betsy (Kaitlyn Dever) off OxyContin, Bridget (Rosario Dawson) sees the toll the it's taking on communities, Rick (Peter Sarsgaard) and Randy (John Hoogenakker) investigate the world of "pain societies" and, with sales climbing, Richard Sackler makes bigger plans for his new drug...Rick and Randy's criminal investigation now threatens Richard Sackler's empire, activists take action against Purdue, and Finnix tries to heal his beloved community that's been ravaged by addiction... - Actors:
- Michael Keaton, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg, Will Poulter, John Hoogenakker, Kaitlyn Dever, Rosario Dawson, Jake McDorman, Will Chase, Phillipa Soo, Raúl Esparza, Arischa Conner, Ian Unterman, Brendan Patrick Connor, Andrea Frankle, Lawrence Arancio, Winsome Brown, Andres Erickson, Jaime Ray Newman, Alayna Hester
- Directors:
- Michael Cuesta, Barry Levinson, Patricia Riggen, Danny Strong
- Producers:
- Richie Kern
- Creators:
- Danny Strong
- Writers:
- Beth Macy, Danny Strong, Benjamin Rubin
- Genres:
- TV Dramas, TV Medical
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Reviews (1) of Dopesick
Overlong, Talky, Legalese but Decent Drama about the USA Opioid Crisis - Dopesick review by PV
This is a great watch esp the early episodes.
Not 100% sure all of this is true - inspired by truth but characters combined into those here, which are ticking the diversity boxes galore.
Not sure |I believe all the stories, esp the doctors. But maybe true. Certainly the level of duplicity from big pharma is shocking and true. Real-life footage at the end.
The timelines are handled REALLY well - so bravo for that. It flashed between various years because this story dates back to 1990s or even 80s and is still going. Legal settlements only in 2019. Many hundreds of thousands of deaths because of opioids, esp Oxycontin.
The actors are all great, esp the ambitious and unlikeable slimy toad who takes over the family firm and pushes opioids via the sales team. Everyone here is amoral at best, especially the corporates and big pharma and NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
I'd have cut two episodes though, jettisoned a lot of the relationship stuff, which is padding, often woke padding - no need at all to make this all about racism or sexism, SO many dramas do this now and it is tiresome. And anyway, the investigator in real life was NOT a black woman. Remember that.
The ending, well,. No spoilers but it sort of fizzles out BUT not sure what else it could have done.
4 stars