The Dropout on Hulu (Elizabeth Holmes story)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just finished Season 1 and loved it. The actors did an amazing job with a storyline I was already very familiar with. Highly recommend. She’s definitely a sociopath in my mind.

I just finished Season 1 for real. Even though I knew the ending, it was still so crazy to watch. Very well done series all around. So sad about the relationship between George and Tyler Schultz.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just finished Season 1 and loved it. The actors did an amazing job with a storyline I was already very familiar with. Highly recommend. She’s definitely a sociopath in my mind.

I just finished Season 1 for real. Even though I knew the ending, it was still so crazy to watch. Very well done series all around. So sad about the relationship between George and Tyler Schultz.

I found it incredibly frustrating that George’s ego got in the way if the truth. I’m curious as to how much liberty Hulu took with that portrayal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just finished Season 1 and loved it. The actors did an amazing job with a storyline I was already very familiar with. Highly recommend. She’s definitely a sociopath in my mind.

I just finished Season 1 for real. Even though I knew the ending, it was still so crazy to watch. Very well done series all around. So sad about the relationship between George and Tyler Schultz.

This part of the storyline was so heartbreaking to me. Poor Tyler.

I thought this series was really well done. I would love to know more from Elizabeth's perspective. Did she really think she never did anything wrong or was it all an act and she knew she was scamming everyone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just finished Season 1 and loved it. The actors did an amazing job with a storyline I was already very familiar with. Highly recommend. She’s definitely a sociopath in my mind.

I just finished Season 1 for real. Even though I knew the ending, it was still so crazy to watch. Very well done series all around. So sad about the relationship between George and Tyler Schultz.

I found it incredibly frustrating that George’s ego got in the way if the truth. I’m curious as to how much liberty Hulu took with that portrayal.

Doesn't seem like they took many liberties at all. From a CBS interview with Tyler Schultz after the verdict in January:

"By coming forward in 2015 about what he saw while working for Holmes and her partner, Sunny Balwani, Shultz risked a lot, including his relationship with his grandfather, George Shultz, the former secretary of state and a board member of Theranos. At one point, Tyler only spoke to his grandfather using lawyers.

"That was extremely tough. This whole saga has taken a financial, emotional and social toll on my relationships. The toll it took on my grandfather's relationship was probably the worst. It is tough to explain. I had a few very honest conversations with him," Tyler said. "

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-elizabeth-holmes-conviction/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just finished Season 1 and loved it. The actors did an amazing job with a storyline I was already very familiar with. Highly recommend. She’s definitely a sociopath in my mind.

I just finished Season 1 for real. Even though I knew the ending, it was still so crazy to watch. Very well done series all around. So sad about the relationship between George and Tyler Schultz.

I found it incredibly frustrating that George’s ego got in the way if the truth. I’m curious as to how much liberty Hulu took with that portrayal.

Doesn't seem like they took many liberties at all. From a CBS interview with Tyler Schultz after the verdict in January:

"By coming forward in 2015 about what he saw while working for Holmes and her partner, Sunny Balwani, Shultz risked a lot, including his relationship with his grandfather, George Shultz, the former secretary of state and a board member of Theranos. At one point, Tyler only spoke to his grandfather using lawyers.

"That was extremely tough. This whole saga has taken a financial, emotional and social toll on my relationships. The toll it took on my grandfather's relationship was probably the worst. It is tough to explain. I had a few very honest conversations with him," Tyler said. "

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-elizabeth-holmes-conviction/

That’s really sad George couldn’t get over himself.

[Anonymous]

I’m surprised that only Elizabeth and Sunny were charged.

[Anonymous]

Who else thought George Schultz was a royal ass? What he did to his grandson was reprehensible and it's understandable why half his family wasn't talking to him.

Did he at least give money to Tyler's parents to make up for what they had to do to represent Tyler?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK but did Elizabeth have a scientific concept to support the ability to do this?

Anything more than- wouldn't it be cool if it was one drop of a blood into a machine that super analyzed it immediately?

If Siemens could shrink and speed up their machines, they would have. What was the breakthough she was bringing to the table?

I feel like my 9 year old could come up with the concept. I realize I'm being snarky here but really I'm totally ignorant about all of this I just don't get it.

I had the same thought about this being elizabeth’s “invention” in the same way 9 year olds “invent” magnetic levitating shoes or whatever.

Even though I'm horrified by what she did, I don't agree. Sometimes inventions really do start by someone saying, in an almost childlike way, "what if there was a better way to do this?" Like the telephone or the internet also probably sound like the fantasies of a 9 year old at some time.

My issue with her is that once she had the idea, she talked to experts who told her it wasn't possible, and she very arrogantly didn't listen. If your 9 year old came up with this idea you might even think "hey, yeah, that would be great -- having your blood drawn is awful." But if you decided to pursue it, you'd talk to people who understand blood testing and if every single one of them told you "sounds great, people have tried, it's just very difficult/impossible to run most of these common blood tests on less than a certain amount of blood" would you then pitch it to venture capital and falsify a prototype result in order to start a multi-billion dollar company? No.

It's not the "having an idea" part that is upsetting. It's all the other stuff. Lots of people have good ideas they can't get off the ground. That's... most ideas.

I agree with you, but I think the Walgreens exec (who will always be Cameron from Ferris Bueller to me) represented this counterpoint nicely and why she was able to go so far with this. You have to go back 10 years, to when unicorns were getting launched and people were desperate to find another one and make money. He described it as, people in our generation are old and behind - kids today aren't limited by "the way it's always been done" and they have this vision etc....I think people really, really wanted to tech to work because if we can revolutionize so much of our lives the way the internet, social media, etc. has why can't we revolutionize how we draw blood? It seems like it could work with billions in investment and smart people right?

And I do think Walgreens understood they weren't going to be able to test for 100s of things. It seems like at the first roll out they were only offering a few tests, and they accepted that it couldn't be done in house etc. But they still felt like they were innovators and bringing this to the forefront. So it seemed like they settled and let it go further. But in doing that gave it a bunch of credibility and probably helped perpetuate if for a few more years.

I think in some ways we've seen the same thing with wearables. I work in health care and people were just convinced for years that if people had a watch or something that tracked things it would be a game changer. And it's really not turned out that way. Mostly it's healthy, wealthy people working to reduce their marathon time or something. But there is a ton of things in health tech that is the next big thing. The danger here is that they were taking people's BLOOD and giving them medical information, which is really horrifying.

This is still happening too. Look at companies like Omada. They are valued in the billions and I absolutely cannot understand what they add. Do they think diabetics and people at risk for diabetes do not have access to scales, generic lifestyle advice, and free calorie counter apps? Weight Watchers has been doing the same thing in a better way for decades, and even they have seen their market share tank to the free/cheap apps. I’ve done them all and honestly can’t believe what these investors and insurance companies are thinking plowing their money into these apps.

What works is the meaningful human support, and it’s very hard to do that on the cheap like these apps promise.

Well, to be fair, Omada's secret sauce (haven't kept up with them for a while, but at least a few years ago) was the health coaching and the peer support. It's based on a model the CDC launched that has been studied and validated. It's not rocket science like you said - the program is based on a lay person training as a health coach, and doing a pretty simple program around healthy eating, exercise, and stress management with the addition of peer support. Omada took that and made it virtual. Agree it's not rocket science, on the other hand, like 1 in 3 people in this country are prediabetic so the market is huge, the program is not crazy expensive, and it's been shown to work at least somewhat.

But I'm not sure what else they are up to - haven't read about them in a while.

[Anonymous]

It's a limited series folks. There is no plan for season 2 sadly.

I wish they'd reconsider but from I could find this is it. I'd love to see how she convinced that rich heir to marry her and have a kid with her? She's apparently living in his 10 million dollar mansion while she awaits sentencing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a limited series folks. There is no plan for season 2 sadly.

I wish they'd reconsider but from I could find this is it. I'd love to see how she convinced that rich heir to marry her and have a kid with her? She's apparently living in his 10 million dollar mansion while she awaits sentencing.

$135 million

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/07/elizabeth-holmes-staying-at-135-million-silicon-valley-estate-during-theranos-trial.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a limited series folks. There is no plan for season 2 sadly.

I wish they'd reconsider but from I could find this is it. I'd love to see how she convinced that rich heir to marry her and have a kid with her? She's apparently living in his 10 million dollar mansion while she awaits sentencing.

? I think people understand that. Hulu still lists limited series as “season 1”.

[Anonymous]

The ultimate proof of how selfish and destructive Elizabeth Holmes is, is the fact that she had a baby last year, while awaiting trial. He may grow up without his mother.

[Anonymous]

I thought Elizabeth Holmes and Sonny were well cast, although naveen Andrews is really too hot to be Sunny, even with a pillow as a belly under his shirt.

The real miscast to me, was Sam Watterson as George Schultz. I mean, I loved him in law and order, but he looks nothing like George Schultz, and I really think you needed a different actor there.

Also his wife, played by Ann Archer, really looks like she did something weird to her lips along time ago. Probably some weird fillers or plastic surgery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought Elizabeth Holmes and Sonny were well cast, although naveen Andrews is really too hot to be Sunny, even with a pillow as a belly under his shirt.

The real miscast to me, was Sam Watterson as George Schultz. I mean, I loved him in law and order, but he looks nothing like George Schultz, and I really think you needed a different actor there.

Also his wife, played by Ann Archer, really looks like she did something weird to her lips along time ago. Probably some weird fillers or plastic surgery.

I kept trying to place his wife. Ann Archer! Yes. Her face was really distracting.

Agree about Sam Waterston miscast as George Schultz. It's hard not to like Waterston, and they needed an actor that allows the viewer to just be really pissed at Schultz.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Elizabeth Holmes and Sonny were well cast, although naveen Andrews is really too hot to be Sunny, even with a pillow as a belly under his shirt.

The real miscast to me, was Sam Watterson as George Schultz. I mean, I loved him in law and order, but he looks nothing like George Schultz, and I really think you needed a different actor there.

Also his wife, played by Ann Archer, really looks like she did something weird to her lips along time ago. Probably some weird fillers or plastic surgery.

I kept trying to place his wife. Ann Archer! Yes. Her face was really distracting.

Agree about Sam Waterston miscast as George Schultz. It's hard not to like Waterston, and they needed an actor that allows the viewer to just be really pissed at Schultz.

Yes! I kept saying "Jack McCoy would never act like this!"