![]() Skipping ahead about 10 years, two assistant district attorneys notice the debilitating effects opioids have had on their Virginia community and open an investigation into Purdue Pharma. Michael Stuhlbarg in “Dopesick” Gene Page / Hulu When she takes more, she feels better, but even when she realizes her problem, the dependency is too strong to stop. So begins a vicious cycle: Betsy feels better, her back heals, but her mind is hooked on the pills. Finnix tells Billy, and you can almost see a thought bubble emerge from the young lad’s brain: “Famous last words.” After being given a free sample bottle and pumped full of promises that this narcotic is non-addictive, the doctor hands those pills to Betsy, who’s desperate to get back to work because her job won’t allow the recommended time off. “I would never prescribe a narcotic for moderate pain,” Dr. Finnix had just shared a bucket of KFC chicken with Billy the Pharma rep (Will Poulter), and while bonding over a shared love of fishing, the salesman-for-hire sold the doc on a new wonder-drug called Ox圜ontin. One of those house calls is for Betsy Mallum (Kaitlyn Dever), a young woman proud to be working in the mines, until an errant co-worker knocks her into a machine and messes up her back. The good doctor sees patients for all sorts of ailments and emergencies, be it a bum shoulder or late-night aches. ![]() Trying to keep events straight is impossible, which wouldn’t be that big of a deal if all that back-and-forth didn’t undermine much of the drama.Ĭarrying one timeline is Michael Keaton’s small town physician, Dr. Strong’s scripts bounce back and forth across decades, using an onscreen dial that spins like a horizontal slot machine until it lands on the appropriate year. ![]() Conventionality leads to bloat, which dulls the clear passion driving “Dopesick,” and as the all-star cast struggles to make repetitious tragedies feel relevant, the series’ exhaustive approach to chronicling the start of the opioid crisis grows exhausting. Over eight time-skipping episodes, Richard’s one-note baddie gets gobs of unnecessary screen time - you have to respect a series that refuses to indulge in humanizing a truly wretched individual, but why make him a consistent focus if you’re never going to flesh out his immorality? - and most of its main characters end up feeling just as simplistic. The Sacklers certainly earn their blunt characterization (not everyone has a section on their Wiki page titled “Reputation Laundering”), but “Dopesick” can’t build from its early efficiency. The Unexpected Comfort of ‘How I Met Your Father’ Through this scene and its immediate successors, writer and showrunner Danny Strong, along with director Barry Levinson, aren’t setting up a nuanced tale where good intentions go awry they’re telling a story where bad men do bad things for one simple reason - money - while everyone else pays the price. The Sacklers are so quickly and glaringly framed as evildoers that they may as well have James Bond tied to a chair in the basement. Knowing that “Dopesick” is based on a true story means also knowing that Richard’s proposal to end an “epidemic of suffering” means starting an actual epidemic of opioid addiction, but even viewers entering Hulu’s limited series with only a tertiary knowledge of our national health emergency will recognize the telltale signs of villainy afoot. Soon, we’ll learn the squinting skeptics clad in bow ties and ascots are Richard’s relatives, all of whom “work” for the family pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma, and all of whom stand to profit immensely if his plan to “redefine the nature of pain” comes to fruition. In a dark room, his face half cloaked in shadow and standing next to a throne-like chair he’ll eventually inherit, Richard Sackler (Michael Stuhlbarg) whispers his diabolical plan to a small group of powerful men. “ Dopesick” announces itself right off the bat.
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