Dopesick

HULU | Release Date: October 13, 2021

7.9	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Ratings

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KurschOct 17, 2021

Had high hopes, but even the excellent Michael Keaton cannot save this boilerplate melodrama that has all the nuance and subtle complexity of a ten megaton bomb. Viewers looking for another "Wire" will be sorely disappointed, DopesickHad high hopes, but even the excellent Michael Keaton cannot save this boilerplate melodrama that has all the nuance and subtle complexity of a ten megaton bomb. Viewers looking for another "Wire" will be sorely disappointed, Dopesick settles for depressing schmaltz, hammering home repeatedly about the evils of Purdue.

As a side note, when making dramas that are "based on a true story", actors should be picked that accurately reflect the ethnicity of the place and time period. For example, if there was a movie about Japanese samurai taking place during the Kamakura period during the 12th century, I would be put off if a bunch of white guys showed up in samurai armor.

Dopesick is guilty of altering the ethnicity and gender of characters for the sack of diversity. Female coal miners? Ok...wait there is also a black female lesbian coal miner? Ok.... Now we discover the white federal prosecutor from VA who moved to Appalachia has a black wife and bi-racial children - in 2002. Since the kids seem to be about ten, that would have meant that he ands wife met and fell in love in the late 80's. I grew up in Virginia. Bi-racial couples are uncommon in VA today, but in the 80's and 90's virtually unheard of, at least between white men and black women. It did happen (the Loving's for example) but it was rare, and such discrepancies are off-putting because they pull me out of the illusion the show is attempting to create.… Expand

3 of 3 users found this helpful30

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Mauro_LanariJan 18, 2022

(Mauro Lanari)
Why a non-linear narrative? Perhaps to distinguish it from "Traffic" (Soderbergh 2000), from the 4th and final excellent season of "Goliath", from the extraordinary "Kill the Messenger" directed in 2014 by the same Michael(Mauro Lanari)
Why a non-linear narrative? Perhaps to distinguish it from "Traffic" (Soderbergh 2000), from the 4th and final excellent season of "Goliath", from the extraordinary "Kill the Messenger" directed in 2014 by the same Michael Cuesta who signed the 3rd and 4th episode of this "Dopesick"? Just to say that on the subject there were already illustrious precedents, but all affected by the similar flaw: the apology of quixoticism, the idea that it is better to win battles by losing the war rather than the opposite. A television miniseries that therefore exalts the "beautiful losers": better than nothing or not? If humans survive only by taking some kind of drug, there must be an explanation.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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coastdaJun 11, 2023

An interesting show, but take enormous liberties with the truth.
For example; it makes a huge deal about OXY commercials never mentioning the name of the drug. The US is one of only two nations that allows direct pharmaceutical advertising.An interesting show, but take enormous liberties with the truth.
For example; it makes a huge deal about OXY commercials never mentioning the name of the drug. The US is one of only two nations that allows direct pharmaceutical advertising. There are two kinds of ads, those that mention the drug, and those that don't. Watch network TV news, any night. The only people who ACTUALLY exist in the mini-series are the Sacklers (who are made to look like literal demons, even though none have ever been convicted of anything) and the two assistant US attorneys in Virginia. EVERYONE else is made up; the DEA official, the doctor played by Michael Keaton, the Purdue detail rep.

One of the biggest ironies is that studies from Harvard and Stanford confirm that the addiction rates for people prescribed opioids legitimately ends up being at, or just under 1%. That isn't chopped liver, but it is not what the show portrays. Two years after the show - 25 years after the events in the show, the United States is seeing the worst drug epidemic in its history - and it has nothing to do with ANY pharmaceutical drugs. The issue are bootleg meth and fentanyl, killing a whole magnitude more people. One of the great ironies is that the whole show demonizes Oxycontin but calls out the NAME brand of one of the most promising Medication Assisted Therapy drugs (buprenorphine).

Some fact, a lot of fiction.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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MetacriticOnurNov 17, 2021

admirable
[ ad-mer-uh-buhl ]

adjective
worthy of admiration; inspiring approval, reverence, or affection.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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