From a miscast Matthew Broderick as Richard Sackler to a lack of depth, this series falls short at every turn.
This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.There is something surreal about watching Netflix’s miniseries Painkiller — and not in the bizarre way it intends.
Based in part on Patrick Radden Keefe's outstanding New Yorker article — worth reading more than this series is watching — each of the six episodes begins with greater compassion in a handful of minutes than the rest of the show does writ large as we hear from a real person who lost someone to OxyContin. From the very first episode, this then becomes jarring when we cut from a crushing confessional to the bizarro world of Richard Sackler himself.
Where Dopesick felt more in line with a film like the richly detailed Dark Waters in not skimping on the emotional experience of taking on callous corporations, this series is content to provide an overview that never offers any greater insight. Instead, there are recurring shots of Broderick walking with a dog where we get to see the canine’s balls.
'Painkiller' Cuts Corners in Every Episode More than anything, Painkiller feels unnecessarily slight in a fundamental sense. Characters are nearly all made superficial and there is a persistent lack of patience that sets the actors up for failure. By the time we get to the end, everything ties itself up a bit too neatly when the truth of this story is far more complicated.
Not only did Dopesick beat Painkiller to the punch, but it also did so with far more emotional and thematic force behind it in the ways that truly matter. The last time we see Sackler essentially talking to himself here, the only relief is we no longer have to listen to his shtick.
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