(Photo by: Keri Anderson/Netflix)
Painkiller finally has its arrival date. The limited drama was first announced by Netflix in 2021 with the reveal of its cast. Six episodes were produced for the series, which arrives on August 10th.
Starring Uzo Aduba, Matthew Broderick, Taylor Kitsch, Dina Shihabi, West Duchovny, John Rothman, Clark Gregg, Jack Mulhern, Sam Anderson, Ana Cruz Kayne, Brian Markinson, Noah Harpster, John Ales, Johnny Sneed, Tyler Ritter, and Carolina Bartczak, the series tells the story of the opioid crisis.
Netflix revealed more about the upcoming series in a press release.
A fictionalized retelling of events, PAINKILLER is a scripted limited series that 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. An examination of crime, accountability, and the systems that have repeatedly failed hundreds of thousands of Americans, PAINKILLER is based on the book PAIN KILLER by Barry Meier and the New Yorker Magazine article ‘The Family That Built anthe Empire of Pain’ by Patrick Radden Keefe. Executive produced by Eric Newman, Pete Berg, Alex Gibney, and showrunners/creators Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster. Starring Uzo Aduba, Matthew Broderick, Taylor Kitsch, Dina Shihabi, and West Duchovny.
Peter Berg, director and executive producer of the series, said the following about the drama:
“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. 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.”
Executive producer Eric Newman notes, “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.”
The trailer for Painkiller is below.
What do you think? Are you planning to watch this new drama on Netflix next month?
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