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- HULU
- Oct 13, 2021
- HULU
- Oct 13, 2021
Summary A Virginian miner (Kaitlyn Dever) and her doctor Samuel Finnix (Michael Keaton) are just a few of the victims of Purdue Pharma's prescription pain medication OxyContin in this Danny Strong limited series based on Beth Macy's non-fiction book, Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America.
Created By: Danny Strong
- HULU
- Oct 13, 2021
- HULU
- Oct 13, 2021
Summary A Virginian miner (Kaitlyn Dever) and her doctor Samuel Finnix (Michael Keaton) are just a few of the victims of Purdue Pharma's prescription pain medication OxyContin in this Danny Strong limited series based on Beth Macy's non-fiction book, Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America.
Created By: Danny Strong
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
68
68% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
32% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
68
68% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
32% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Given the size of its canvas, Dopesick is a remarkable achievement, which clearly lays out the facts of the slow-burning tragedy, with lots of helpful date reminders, without losing track of the human stories behind it.
At times Dopesick can feel similarly overwhelming. But it also feels important that these stories be told.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 20 User Ratings
8.0
75% Positive
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
20% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 20 User Ratings
8.0
75% Positive
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
20% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Dopesick will certainly be a slow burn in spots. But it deals with a subject whose depth most people aren’t aware of, and the performances are so good that it should keep viewers interested.
It verges at times on hokey melodrama. ... So, yes, I’m disappointed. But I'm recommending Dopesick anyway, because quite honestly I don’t think the show was designed for a viewer like me. ... Hulu has apparently decided that this adaptation of a nonfiction book should resemble a very long movie-of-the-week — but you know, a lot of people like to watch those.
Committed turns from Keaton (always an excellent everyman) and Dever (who goes through the wringer) only get you so far, as Hulu’s valiant endeavor just keeps hammering home a point it made straight from the jump.
Despite powerful performances from Michael Keaton and several of his top-tier co-stars, Dopesick is a frustrating selection of questionable narrative choices and bizarrely bad performances from typically unimpeachable actors. It’s a muddled telling of an urgent story.
The two comments about wanting a documentary are lousy -- obviously there's a documentary on it. Feel free to read Empire of Pain for an even deeper dive.
This is really well done. The only thing I would really argue with it is that it jumps in time a bit too much, and the voice on Richard Sackler is the most annoying voice I've heard. Like Dark Knight Bruce Wayne but 100x worse.
Otherwise, great series, very engaging.
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SEASON 1
(Mauro Lanari)
Why a non-linear narrative? Perhaps to distinguish it from "Traffic" (Soderbergh 2000), from the 4th and final excellent season of "Goliath", from the extraordinary "Kill the Messenger" directed in 2014 by the same Michael Cuesta who signed the 3rd and 4th episode of this "Dopesick"? Just to say that on the subject there were already illustrious precedents, but all affected by the similar flaw: the apology of quixoticism, the idea that it is better to win battles by losing the war rather than the opposite. A television miniseries that therefore exalts the "beautiful losers": better than nothing or not? If humans survive only by taking some kind of drug, there must be an explanation.
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SEASON 1
5 for now as obviously I haven't seen it yet, but I'm interested in the topic. I'll update later (like people are waiting with bated breath for my take on it, lol). However, if you really want to know about how the opioid crisis developed, there's a great, limited doc series on HBO called "Crime of the Century." It lays the whole thing out. Not sure why we need a watered down, dramatic version of historical events. The truth is so much stranger and more interesting.
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SEASON 1
I would rather watch a documentary on the subject than have this unnecessary melodrama included.
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SEASON 1