X
- 2023
- TV-MA
- Netflix
- 2023
- TV-MA
- Netflix
Summary The limited series about the OxyContin and its role in the opioid crisis in America is based on Barry Meier's book of the same name and the New Yorker Magazine article by Patrick Radden Keefe.
Created By: Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster
- 2023
- TV-MA
- Netflix
- 2023
- TV-MA
- Netflix
Painkiller
Season 1 Premiere: Aug 10, 2023
56
4.2
Summary The limited series about the OxyContin and its role in the opioid crisis in America is based on Barry Meier's book of the same name and the New Yorker Magazine article by Patrick Radden Keefe.
Created By: Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster
All Seasons
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
56
29% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
57% Mixed
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
14% Negative
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
56
29% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
57% Mixed
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
14% Negative
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
On the spectrum of social contagion art, it belongs on a spot much closer to The Big Short than it does to WeCrashed, and to the extent that there are still eyes to be opened and outrage to be mustered in regard to the opioid crisis, it will do the job.
Aduba comes to enraged life as she describes the sins of the Sackler family for the firm in the present day. Flowers in flashback – as she digs deeper with her investigations – is riveting; tough, disbelieving, straightalking and alternating between determination and despair as the scale of the deception, corruption, addictions, bereavements and misery become apparent.
Unfortunately, with fewer standout performances and more underdeveloped characters in Painkiller, this new Netflix series doesn't draw you in as much as its Disney Plus rival - making for an important but slightly lacklustre drama.
Expect to like “Painkiller” while watching it, only to later cringe when thinking about it.
Fictionalized takes on true stories are a plague. And this overkill of a series starring Matthew Broderick as a Big Pharma drug dealer exaggerates like hell for dramatic purposes. What feels real is the rage over the ongoing opioid crisis.
After Dopesick, which trod remarkably similar ground, it’s hard to argue that we needed another depiction of the tripartite collusion of pharma, clinicians and victims. This is a story told more comprehensively, convincingly, and, crucially, movingly, elsewhere.
Glib, garish, and ham-fisted. .... Each episode of Painkiller opens with a real person explaining that, while the events in the show have been fictionalized, opioids’ effects on their own lives have been genuinely tragic. They hold up photos of their dead children. Some of them cry. This only manages to make the rest of the show seem even more grotesque.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 24 User Ratings
4.2
25% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
33% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
42% Negative
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 24 User Ratings
4.2
25% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
33% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
42% Negative
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Production Company:
- Blue Harp
- Film 44
- Grand Electric
- Jigsaw Productions
- Netflix
- Screen Arcade
Initial Release Date: Aug 10, 2023
Number of seasons: 1 Season
Rating: TV-MA
Awards
Critics Choice Awards
• 1 Nomination
Screen Actors Guild Awards
• 1 Nomination
Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards
• 1 Nomination
