Finished watching Dopesick. There’s very little justice in real life. Although this is just part of the story, as the last episode focuses of indicment of a few Purdue managers, and we’re never told how Oxycontin sales were stopped, for example.
John Brownlee is a real prosecutor, although not as handsome in real life as depicted in the film.
There are no supervillains. Everyone was just “doing their job”. Marketing marketed the drug, sales pushed it, doctors did their due diligence. It’s all a composition of small little lies. So, it wasn’t a cited study, but just a letter to the editorial, but who cares, right?
The series has almost a zombie apocalipsys feel to me. To the point of “nothing will save you from this”. Not Anonymous Alcoholics. Not rehab. Not Jesus. There’s no escape.
Rosario Dawson performance is astonishing. Such as shame it’ll be wasted on something like Star Wars.
Both series cover the same even, the Opioid Epidemic in the 90s, but from different perspectives.
Painkiller is more of a crime drama, where the Sackler family and their salesmen (and more importantly saleswomen) are presented like in “Wolf from Wall Street”.
Sackler constantly sees his diseased uncle approving his actions, even if just in his head.
Dopesick is much more down to earth in many aspects. It focuses on a doctor, a community leader, and how he feels he failed his community.
It’s also interesting the different approach to the lead female character. While Painkiller undersexualizes her while oversexualizing the saleswomen, Dopesick does exactly the opposite.
Sackler in Painkiller is Jack Nicholson’s Joker. Sackler in Dopesick is Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker.
