Painkiller: Full Series

August 20, 2023 9:29 AM - Season 1 (Full Season)

A Netflix six-part drama miniseries from Netflix about Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family, and the opioid epidemic. Released 10 August 2023.

The causes and consequences of America's opioid epidemic unfold in this drama following its perpetrators, victims and an investigator seeking the truth. (Netflix description.)

Barry Meier’s book “Pain Killer” and the New Yorker article “The Family That Built the Empire of Pain,” by Patrick Radden Keefe, documented the rise of OxyContin and the lasting impact it had here in the U.S., and both serve as the foundation for Netflix’s new limited series “Painkiller.” Directed by Peter Berg, the show is a fictionalized account of the opioid epidemic as told from the perspective of the survivors, victims, villains and those who stand somewhere in between....

The issue with “Painkiller” is that none of these storylines are sharp or new. Due to years of investigations and research, much more is now known concerning the opioid crisis. There have been varied exposes, films and television shows examining it, including Netflix’s intriguing docuseries “The Pharmacist.” – Aramide Tinubu, Variety

If in its anger and its desire to cover (especially legal) events as close up to the moment as it can, Painkiller fails to quite match Dopesick’s nuance, emotional resonance and tenderness towards its (deserving) characters in the process; in many ways it feels like a price worth paying. – Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

Stars Matthew Broderick as Richard Sackler, Clark Gregg as Arthur Sackler Sr., Uzo Aduba as Edie Flowers, Taylor Kitsch as Glen Kryger, and West Duchovny as Shannon Schaeffer. Currently has a 58% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a 49% average score.

posted by jzb (8 comments total)

We binged this over two or three days. It's getting a lot of criticism for not being Dopesick, or not living up to it, but that strikes me as unfair. It's clearly aimed at a different audience and sensibility than Dopesick, and gives those who don't subscribe to Hulu but do subscribe to Netflix a version of the story.

If you compare the two, Painkiller does compare unfavorably in many ways. Matthew Broderick is just hard to take seriously as Sackler, though I'm not sure if that's his acting or that he's just burned into my mind as Ferris Bueller. For a guy who is in his early 60s he's still incredibly babyfaced and his voice hasn't changed much either.

Enjoyed Uzo Aduba (probably best known as Suzanne 'Crazy Eyes' Warren from Orange is the New Black) and hope she's going to be getting more and better parts in the future.

It has all the subtlety of an after school special, but I thought it was OK. If it means more people are brought up to speed on the story and further ruins the Sackler name, generates more public pressure to go after the Sackler family directly, then it's well worth the effort.
posted by jzb at 9:42 AM on August 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

I thought it was pretty successful at what it was trying to do. It was a little more narrated than I thought it should/would be but overall I thought it was affecting and clear in the morality it was portraying. I didn't mind Matthew Broderick, mostly because I had no idea what Richard Sackler sounds like, or really even looks like.
posted by rhizome at 12:02 PM on August 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

Quite enjoyed this, thought Uzo Aduba was great, and Broderick was only a problem for me in that I kept thinking "oh hey, thats Matthew Broderick" whenever he showed up; much like how I kept thinking "oh hey, that's the guys that plays Agent Coulson" whenever that actor showed up. Just people who are burned into my head in a certain way.
posted by nubs at 2:13 PM on August 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

What did strike me as new and important was the focus on the sales people and their role in all this. I liked juxtaposing Sackler's fear of the fall of his reputation with the sales people's fear of their loss of new found wealth. I did wish at the end they acknowledged Nan Goldin's enormous and generally successful efforts at getting major art institutions to remove the Sackler name from their museums.
posted by Stanczyk at 9:41 AM on August 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

I’ve only seen the first two episodes but I think it’s interesting. Having seen videos of Richard Sackler, I think Matthew Broderick does ok. From what I understand, Sackler IRL is smart, aloof, and cold. I get that from Broderick.

I feel like I’m in the minority here in that I didn’t appreciate Dopesick though Michael Keaton was great. I think two things make this stand out as different so far. One, the vignettes at the beginning with the families of those who died from opioid addiction are very compelling and it contextualizes the story. This is a story about money and greed with real consequences and victims, and having actual victims’ faces in the story with the people who loved them is powerful, more so than composite victims. Two, Uzo Aruba’s character (her brother in particular) draws a parallel to the crack epidemic that is too often ignored. Hope the next few episodes are as interesting.
posted by kat518 at 10:30 PM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have to think the scene with the meeting where Richard is playing with his dog in the lobby actually happened.
posted by rhizome at 1:25 PM on August 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have to think the scene with the meeting where Richard is playing with his dog in the lobby actually happened.

He definitely brought his dog to the office (source).

I finished the series. It got worse. Do not recommend.
posted by kat518 at 5:11 AM on August 31, 2023

I actually didn’t think it was that bad? I haven’t seen dopesick (but I want to now). Matthew Broderick fit the role to me actually, even though yeah he will always be Ferris. He plays smarmy asshole quite well I think. I really really liked the investigator lady character/person. I really like everything Uzo Aduba is in.
posted by LizBoBiz at 6:56 AM on August 31, 2023