ADVANCE REVIEW: Keaton, Dever, & Poulter Give A+ Performances in Hulu’s Dopesick
The opioid crisis has been an ongoing epidemic in the United States. According to the CDC, over 90,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020 and the main contributor to these overdoses, opioids. Now, creator Danny Strong and Hulu are teaming up to give TV watchers the chance to see how this prescribed pain killer became the crisis it is today in the new limited series, Dopesick.
The series tells the story of how pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma pushed their “non-addictive” drug, OxyContin on a small town in Virginia leading it to become the epicenter for the opioid crisis. Based on the novel Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy, the story is extremely compelling but the structure in which the story is told is extremely confusing. Instead of following a chronological approach to his storytelling, Strong opted to tell the story through the eyes of the investigators, so the story jumps from year to year in each episode. As the investigators learn a new piece of evidence, so does the audience. However, this structure makes it very hard to remember what is going on and when.
A number of characters are introduced throughout the series, but only a few make a real name for themselves. Those names are, Michael Keaton (Dr. Samuel Finnix), Kaitlyn Dever (Betsy), and Will Poulter (Billy). Keaton is fantastic as the small town Virginia doctor, Finnix. His performance only gets better as the series progresses and his character’s storyline gets more complex. Poulter portrays Pharma sales representative, Billy and shines alongside Keaton. Poulter’s ability to portray what his character is feeling in just his nonverbal cues will keep your eyes glued to him in every scene he is in. Last but not least is Dever. This young actress continues to impress me with the roles she chooses and her performances in those roles. Dever knocks it out of the part in this role and is a joy to watch whether she is on screen by herself or with one of her many costars.
If you can get past the confusing storytelling than you will thoroughly enjoy this series. The story is compelling and eye opening. Sure some of it is dramatized for TV purposes, but the moral of the story remains the same from start to finish.