Susan Granger’s review of “Dopesick” (Hulu/ 20th Century Television)
Michael Keaton’s recent Best Leading Actor Emmy win is just one reason to start to stream Hulu’s “Dopesick,” Emmy-nominated writer/producer/director Danny Strong’s provocative blend of fact ‘n’ fiction examination of the opioid crisis.
The limited, multi-layered miniseries chronicles how Purdue Pharma developed and aggressively marketed OxyContin while hiding its highly addictive properties. The sprawling crime saga details the Sackler family-controlled company’s business practices, government officials who ignored complaints about distribution, and the unwitting victims of Purdue Pharma’s deceptive marketing campaigns.
Chronologically, the story begins in 1996 and concludes with the 2007 sentencing hearing of the Purdue Pharma executives. What becomes crystal-clear is how OxyContin hijacks the brain and makes users feel as if they’re going to die if they don’t get the drug. That condition is called “being dopesick.”
For years, using “political connections,” Purdue was able to convince government authorities that OxyContin was safe, alleging that victims were abusing the drug. That decimated and destabilized millions of American lives.
The show follows several top-tier players: A kindly small-town doctor (Michael Keaton) who descends from prescriber to addict; Richard Sackler (Michael Stuhlbarg), who led the drug’s development and marketing; a young yet wary sales rep (Will Poulter); a pain-wracked coal miner (Kaitlyn Dever); a crusading DEA agent (Rosario Dawson); and a suspicious U.S. Attorney (Peter Sarsgaard).
Based on Beth Macy’s novel “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America,” the series was created by activist Danny Strong, who said, “I was outraged by the lies and deception of Purdue Pharma, outraged by all the devastation that had been brought to millions so that less than 20 people in one family could make billions.”
Not surprisingly, a month after “Dopesick” was shown, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art erased the Sackler name from its walls, as did the Tate Modern in London, along with London’s National Gallery.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Dopesick” is a sobering 9, streaming on Hulu.
