If there’s one thing that Netflix excels at, it’s making gripping shows based off real events. Series like Inventing Anna, The Watcher and the upcoming Griselda are all fictional takes on true stories, and its new project, Painkiller, is another we can’t wait for. The limited six-episode series is about the opioid crisis in America and around the world, and how it came about before soon becoming an endemic issue. It stars Matthew Broderick in the leading role of Richard Sackler, one of the key figures in the medical company Purdue Pharma, a leading cause of the crisis.

Everything You Need To Know About Netflix’s Painkiller

Like several big shows in recent years (including Inventing Anna), Painkiller pulls from an article, this one in New Yorker, to base the narrative around. The Family That Built and Empire of Pain was published by journalist Patrick Radden Keefe and explores the corporate empire that ended up being one of the main driving factors behind opioids becoming such a big problem.

The company developed the drug OxyContin as a powerful but commonly prescribed medication to treat pain, but it would slowly become abused and proved highly addictive. Broderick’s Richard Sackler is the main figure in the running of Purdue Pharma and an investor in the drug, becoming a billionaire in the process. His father Raymond (Lost’s Sam Anderson) and brother Mortimer (The Blacklist’s John Rothman) also appear, and the series explores how their business plan brought ruinous consequences to millions of lives.

While Painkiller gives the inside story of the Sacklers, it also brings a sharp focus to the lives of those that the OxyContin drug affected. Uzo Aduba (Orange Is The New Black) plays a lawyer, Edie Flowers, who’s working in the US attorney’s office to investigate and potentially bring a case against Purdue Pharma, while Taylor Kitsch (The Terminal List) plays Glen Kryger, a family man and business owner who encounters the drug after a serious injury. Other characters are ex-college athlete Shannon Shaeffer (West Duchovny), sales rep Britt Hufford (Dina Shihabi), and the US attorney general himself John Brownlee.

The series is also based on the book Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic by Barry Meier, and is produced by Narcos showrunner Eric Newman, and created by Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue. Netflix has yet to put out a trailer but has released a few official images of Broderick and co in action.

Netflix’s Painkiller lands on the platform on 10th august 2023

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