Netflix recently revealed a limited series called Painkiller that would centre on the actual opioid crisis in America. This drama will follow a fictionalised account of the events which resulted to one of America’s biggest crises in recent memory, with Matthew Broderick and Uzo Aduba playing the main players.
Executive producer Eric Newman said, “We wanted to mirror the effects of opioids: the warmth and the hope and the relief of taking a pill that’s going to deliver you from your suffering and then watching it become suffering.”
A trailer for the forthcoming series was made available by the streaming service, giving viewers a look at the intricate criminal underworld that led to this major calamity.
The synopsis of the limited series read: “Explores some of the origins and aftermath of the opioid crisis in America, highlighting the stories of the perpetrators, victims, and truth-seekers whose lives are forever altered by the invention of OxyContin. [It is an] examination of crime, accountability, and the systems that have repeatedly failed hundreds of thousands of Americans.”
The six-episode “Painkiller” series will premiere on Netflix on August 10, 2023.
The OxyContin connection to the American opioid crisis is made clear in the Painkiller trailer, which also discusses other prescription drugs that are legal. It demonstrates who is making money off of it, how widely it is used around the nation, and who is trying to counteract its negative consequences.
The book “Painkiller” by Barry Meier and the article “Painkiller” by Patrick Radden Keefe were the sources of inspiration. However, the show will fictionalise the incident and add its own twist to it instead of depicting actual occurrences.
Peter Berg, the series’ director, talked about the show and revealed significant information about it during the Netflix Tudum event. He averred, “Everyone knows that the opioid crisis is bad…But this is the origin story of the collision between medicine and money that allowed it to happen. One of the many things that I thought was missing [from the conversation about OxyContin] was the introduction of the drug into mainstream medicine.”
He further added, “How Arthur Sackler, this psychiatrist from New York who specialized in lobotomies, started to realize that the future was in pills — specifically in advertising pills. Whoever could market their drug better was going to make the most money…We wanted to make sure people knew upfront that there might be some farcical moments in this show, but that we don’t think there’s anything remotely funny about the Sackler family, Purdue and the opioid crisis.”
In Toronto, Canada, in April 2021, Netflix began filming the much awaited limited drama series Painkiller. In November 2021, the filming was completed.
