Review: Netflix's OxyContin drama 'Painkiller' is just painful
BY - MAHI
You just might get the feeling after watching the Netflix original series "Painkiller."
which dramatized how the opioid crisis was sparked by Purdue Pharma's painkiller OxyContin.
If this sounds familiar, that's because "Dopexic," a limited series on Hulu dramatizing the role OxyContin, manufactured by Purdue Pharma, played in the opioid crisis launches in 2021.
while Michael Stuhlbarg played the evil Dr. Richard Sackler. "Dopesik," Matthew Broderick plays him in "Painkiller."
Both "Painkiller" and "Dopexic" featured Caitlin Dever as a Southern commoner who became addicted to Oxy after suffering an accident.
Taylor Kitsch had the same role in "Painkiller". Rosario Dawson worked at Purdue for "Dopesik", while Uzo Aduba did so for "Painkiller". Quick.
“Painkiller” (streaming Thursday, ★½ out of four) tells almost a carbon copy of the story told by “Dopexic,” but the bigger problem is that “Dopexic” told it better.
"Painkiller" presents the story of a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and torn families apart in the form of a magical realist farce,
which is full of fanciful scenes and screaming ghosts from Sackler's past. It's an over-stylized choice that would work well for any other story.
But it is not as serious as the crimes committed by the companies that sell opioids to the public. It lacks seriousness and perspective.
At many points, it's painful to watch. It's tiring to watch it constantly.