Painkiller

:

Season 1
  • Network: Netflix
  • Series Premiere Date: Aug 10, 2023
User Score
5.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 13
  3. Negative: 5 out of 13

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User Reviews

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  1. Signal1
    Aug 15, 2023
    1
    Painkiller is a weak, tonally deaf series that does not come close to the much better and carefully crafted Dopesick which deals with the same material. Watching Painkiller is a painful experience.
  2. coastda
    Aug 10, 2023
    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    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.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

43
#43 Most Discussed TV Season of 2023

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
56

Mixed or average reviews - based on 29 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 29
  3. Negative: 4 out of 29
  1. The Observer (UK)
    Reviewed by: Barbara Ellen
    Sep 10, 2024
    60
    There are times that Painkiller feels like a cover version of the more atmospheric Dopesick. Nevertheless, it’s thought-provoking, with strong performances (especially from Aduba) and a firm narrative grip on a catastrophe that never stops sounding a grim, shrill alarm.
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  2. Slate
    Reviewed by: Laura Miller
    Aug 17, 2023
    10
    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.
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  3. ABC News
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    Aug 14, 2023
    40
    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.
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