“We want people to realise that there were moments when this could have been stopped; that it could have gone a different way.”
New Netflix drama Painkiller is a six-part fictionalised re-telling of the origins and aftermath of the opioid crisis in America.
It’s a troubling, emotional and, at times, enraging story – and it seems that, according to showrunner Noah Harpster, that is entirely by design.
Harpster said of the series: “We want the audience to be entertained, of course, but we also hope that, by the last episode, they’re filled with fury. We want people to realise that there were moments when this could have been stopped; that it could have gone a different way.
“We don’t want this show to feel like something you’re supposed to watch rather than something you want to watch, and so we’ve taken great effort to help you get to know these characters on a deep level, and so, hopefully you’ll grow to love and hate them over the course of six hours.”
Executive producer Alex Gibney previously called the opioid crisis a “crime hiding in plain sight. And it’s aided and abetted by the most powerful forces in the United States”.
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He continued: “I’m talking about the Department of Justice failing to properly prosecute. I’m talking about Congress failing to properly legislate.
“That, in a way, is what really shocked me; that we know what happened, but we didn’t bother to really pay attention. This is a crime hiding in plain sight. It wasn’t the detail, so much, though many of the details shocked me.”
The series stars Matthew Broderick as Richard Sackler, the real-life former chairman and president of Purdue Pharma who was previously played by Michael Stuhlbarg in the Disney Plus series Dopesick.
Painkiller is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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