The Crime of the Century: Season 1

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Universal acclaim based on 7 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Ratings

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7.3	Your Score
7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Ratings

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The Crime Of The Century

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Season Details & Credits

HBO | Season Premiere Date: May 10, 2021

Summary: The two-part documentary directed by Alex Gibney is an expose of the origins and enabling of the opioid epidemic featuring exclusive interviews of whistleblowers and victims as well as leaked documents.

Genre(s): Movie/Mini-Series, Health & Lifestyle, Documentary

Season 1 Episodes

No episode information is currently available for this season

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Critic Reviews

The Daily Beast Nick Schager

May 10, 2021

An evisceration of Big Pharma. ... With a level-headedness that makes its takedown all the more effective, Gibney’s film shines a spotlight on the evolution of Purdue and company’s treacherous conduct. Read full review

Meghan O'Keefe

May 6, 2021

Searing. ... Because Gibney is committed to showing the full scope of opioid-related sin, it’s hard to hang our anger on one singular party. Gibney’s most popular past documentaries left us understanding who the villains were and who the victims were. The lines get blurred when it comes to the opioid crisis in part because there are so many at fault and so many who have gotten hurt. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

May 3, 2021

Alex Gibney’s shattering two-part, four-hour HBO documentary “The Crime of the Century” makes devastatingly clear, the opioid crisis is more than a human tragedy that has claimed half a million lives. It’s part of what America has become. Read full review

John Anderson

May 10, 2021

The cinema is as exhilarating as the journalism is exhaustive. Still, the style remains in service to the story. ... The opioid story in general isn’t new, but a lot of what Mr. Gibney offers is. Read full review

Saloni Gajjar

May 7, 2021

The documentary presents a data overload, but one that is still a statistical overview as opposed to a more in-depth look at the ramifications of the people who suffered. The Crime Of The Century isn’t able to paint a complete picture, but it’s still a powerful and edifying watch. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Nick Allen

May 10, 2021

While the documentary has so much to share, it doesn't have the poignancy or poetry that helps such informed calls for attention to truly resonate. Read full review

Daniel Fienberg

May 10, 2021

There are original documents and revelations here, but they aren’t always presented in a way that lets you know what’s new and notable about them. ... The Crime of the Century is good instead of great. Read full review

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7.3

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User Reviews

CelloAfoxx

Jul 28, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This documentary was so eye opening. Living in southwest virginia i have watched this happen first hand. It's not far fetched.… Expand

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coastda

Jun 1, 2021

Gibney is an excellent film-maker but he treads exactly the same places as virtually every other documentarian and gladly accepts every trope handed to him on a platter.
Never mind that America has suffered waves of problems with opiates, post Civil War, then allowing drugs like heroin toGibney is an excellent film-maker but he treads exactly the same places as virtually every other documentarian and gladly accepts every trope handed to him on a platter.
Never mind that America has suffered waves of problems with opiates, post Civil War, then allowing drugs like heroin to be sold via catalogues until 1914. Then the huge problems as the Vietnam War dragged on. Nixon's "War on Drugs" which ended decades ago, was predicated on that wave of addiction in the early 1970s. But everyone wants their era to be THE era.

By demonizing the Sackler family for taking advantage of a medical community willing to prescribe strong narcotics for minor pain, this doubtless resulted in problems, but that kind of prescribing went on for barely 10 years. By 2010 doctors were scaling back, and the vast majority of opiates are now illegal fentanyl analogues. But the Sackers are no more guilty than the Ford family for car wrecks, or any number of American billionaires who made a killing off their product.

The "burn the witch" mentality which drives museums to chisel the Sackler name off of hospitals to which they generously donated is absurd.

To quote "experts" like Dr. Andrew Kolodny, who operates numerous clinics (for profit) and has accepted large sums consulting for rival drug-makers will likely appear as silly in 50 years as documentaries accusing homosexuals of nearly forfeiting America to the Commies.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Seasons & Episodes

84

Series Overview
Season 1

84
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: May 10, 2021
- No episode information is currently available for this season