Dopesick

While it bites off more than it can reasonably chew and can be a little heavy-handed at times, when the series breaks your heart, it really shatters it.

The story lines Strong and his fellow writers give their Appalachian everypeople are a mixed bag, sometimes skating along on addiction and recovery boiler plate that’s interchangeable with a thousand other dramas. But they’re generally watchable because of the bone-deep credibility of Dever’s and Keaton’s performances.

Committed turns from Keaton (always an excellent everyman) and Dever (who goes through the wringer) only get you so far, as Hulu’s valiant endeavor just keeps hammering home a point it made straight from the jump.

Dopesick struggles to feel like a persuasive narrative because its cop characters all feel as if they have to justify the chase. ... [Kaitlyn Dever’s] scenes, along with those of Stuhlbarg’s merciless Sackler, do showcase the show’s potential electricity, but the false narratives and overwrought justifications of the cop story at its center renders Dopesick a bit bland.

In isolated moments, the miniseries functions exactly as prescribed, offering a devastating portrait of how Purdue helped turn us into, as DEA agent Bridget Meyer (Rosario Dawson) puts it, “a pill-popping zombie nation.” More often, though, the drama’s emotional impact fades too quickly, and chief writer and producer Danny Strong (Empire) attempts to compensate by doubling the dosage.

None of the characters' tales feel fully realized, or even complete, at the end of the seven episodes made available for review. Since Strong's script leans heavily on humanizing the toll this emergency is taking on every aspect of American life — save for the people profiting off it — that lack of substance ultimately defeats the story.