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- Netflix
- Aug 10, 2023
- Netflix
- Aug 10, 2023
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
- Netflix
- Aug 10, 2023
- Netflix
- Aug 10, 2023
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
Season Episodes
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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.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 14 User Ratings
4.6
29% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
29% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
43% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 14 User Ratings
4.6
29% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
29% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
43% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
not enough movies, tv series nor books can be made detailing the scourge of deceitfulness the most disgusting family in american history has caused to this world. and hurr durrr the wokeness oh i think it means consequences that occur in society for ones actions the thin skinned but hurt is next level
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SEASON 1
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.
Highly effective filmmaking all around, leveraging some familiar faces as villains. The writing, performances and Peter Berg's direction make for addictive viewing. Strong on style, but for the first couple of episodes at least, it's less tongue in cheek than tongue in teeth.
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SEASON 1
The miniseries doesn't exactly miss the mark when it comes to the quality of its production, but it's its lack of narrative depth that ultimately relegates it to the realm of forgettable content.
Considering the magnitude of the problem at hand – a genuinely serious crisis – Painkiller merely skims the surface without any sincere intent to delve into the heart of the matter. This approach not only diminishes the significance of the issue but also comes across as exploitative rather than enlightening.
It's hard not to feel that Painkiller was fundamentally a convenient theme chosen to shape a show, offering something fresh for the Netflix catalog. Beyond this purpose, it struggles to carry any substantial weight or true sense of significance.
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SEASON 1
I suppose the Sackler family can longer be slandered, no matter how outrageous the lies.
As America sinks into an addiction crisis of meth (utterly unrelated to Oxycontin) and fentanyl (with some relationship) Hollywood likes to make villains out of a few people who pushed the boundaries of ethics.
Nonetheless they are hardly primarily responsible for Americans infatuation with drugs and the heroin epidemic of the 70s had NOTHING to do with it, and the present fentanyl epidemic has little.
All the PC characters in the film lecturing the non-woke characters may have "won" in that destroyed the Sackler empire, but America's drug addicts simply adapted and now even many drug treatment counselors wish we were still still dealing with the occasional pill mill over rare over-prescribing doctor.
Just pray that neither you nor a family member need long term pain treatment, because the latter day scolds have put a stigma on treatment that will take a couple generations to erase. Just hope that if you get very sick you just collapse, I do.
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SEASON 1