When reality goes beyond fiction, we go fromAmerican Horror Story To Dopesick, which is a very real “American Horror Story”. Based on the eponymous book by investigative reporter Beth Macy, the eight-part miniseries created by Danny Strong (Recount, The Butler) paints a devastating picture of the American opioid crisis that began in 1995, when OxyContin manufactured by the Purdue Pharma laboratory (owned by the Sackler family) hit the market.
If the facts are known (opioids have killed more than half a million people in the last twenty years in the United States), it is difficult not to be stunned by the extent of the descent into hell experienced by millions of people while a handful of others pocketed billions. And this, legally.
“It is essentially a government agency [la Food and Drug Administration] who initially approved a suspect drug. Doctors have thus found themselves prescribing it, in good faith, to patients who needed it ”, summarizes, in a virtual interview, Barry Levinson (Good Morning, Vietnam, Rain man), who directed the first two episodes. “It’s a tragedy for all that this has caused and also for all that it reveals: some government agencies whose goal is to protect consumers are not doing their job, and there is too much money in this system. lobbyists and lawyers. “
To tell all this, Dopesickfollows both real and fictional characters, but inspired by the people Beth Macy interviewed.
Among the first, Richard Sackler (Michael Stuhlbarg, on a somewhat monotonous Machiavellian note), at the time chairman and chairman of the board of directors of Purdue Pharma, who, by minimizing the addictive effects of OxyContin, facilitated the drug’s massive landing in the markets, then Rick Mountcastle (Peter Sarsgaard) and Randy Ramseyer (John Hoogenakker), two Virginia attorneys who led the investigation into the drug company.
Among the seconds, Bridget Meyer (Rosario Dawson, very fair), an agent of the Drug Enforcement Agency who delves behind the scenes of Purdue Pharma, and, in a small mining town in Virginia, the Dr Samuel Finnix (Michael Keaton, perfect) and one of his patients, Betsy Mallum (Kaitlyn Dever, amazing).
By more than four ways
So that makes four distinct dramatic arcs of different natures: there is investigation, political, legal, personal and family drama. So many furrows which, through the intermediary of many back and forth, widen over… five or six eras. “It’s a huge, complex story that unfolds over several years. I believe that, without the structure created by Danny Strong, the whole would not have held up, ”says Barry Levinson.
We conclude from viewing the first three episodes that he may be right. The structure is tame, it remains nonetheless convoluted. All the more so since the “visited” periods are concentrated over relatively few years: the main ones are between 1996 and 2003. Thus, the characters and their environment change little. The intention is therefore good, but without the repetition of the dates on the screen, we would be lost.
However, we do not give up. Because Dopesick (the first two episodes of which were deposited on November 12 as part of Disney + Day to mark the platform’s second anniversary) has great staging, acting and writing qualities. With a few exceptions (for example, the saleswoman whose ambition is inversely proportional to the ethics embodied by Phillipa Soo flirts with caricature), the cast is extremely convincing and the characters are camped and written with nuance.
In the lead, Michael Keaton: his doctor Finnix is an old-fashioned doctor, full of empathy and who does not count his hours. But, because he is being lied to and being manipulated, he starts prescribing OxyContin. Facing him, Kaitlyn Dever (unbelievable) is narrowly exceptional in Betsy, a young mining worker who, following an injury, begins a descent into hell.
“There are these illegal drugs that people knowingly use by sticking a needle in their arm. There is no question of that here, explains Barry Levinson. OxyContin seems as benign as an aspirin and was basically advertised as such! Lies and twisting of the facts, however, have led to overconsumption, overdose deaths and outbreaks of violence in previously quiet towns.
And the crisis is not over, with the COVID-19 pandemic helping to fuel a still smoldering fire. And then, in August, the bankruptcy plan proposed by Purdue Pharma was approved by a US judge: the company will pay the victims 4.5 billion in exchange for immunity for the Sackler family.
For all these reasons, Dopesick gives cold in the back while creating the habituation. With, as a side effect, the possible awakening of the Don Quixote who sleeps in us.