Anonymous wrote:While I don't have the answer to your question (and I'm just starting to watch), it's very disheartening over the past few years to learn just how much the FDA is just a farm team for Big Pharma.

I am halfway through (have also watched Dopesick). But this comment stuck out to me because I am a GS Reg and policy writer and I will tell you that this comment applies to every government agency reg/policy division out there. The special interests imbed their staff/former staff in every political appointee position and it doesn't matter who or what party is in office. These movies on the Oxycontin scandal have just highlighted one agency, but I can assure you, the practice is pretty rampant throughout the government. The big companies and lobbying groups are really good at playing this game.

Anonymous wrote:Ask some people in terrible pain from terminal disease how they feel about oxycontin. And don’t believe media that blames a therapeutic drug for damage from unlawful. Chinese fentanyl.

My grandma was on oxy for horrific RA pain. The drug made her able to move and live. It also made her addicted. She never took more than her allotted dose but one day ran out and didn't get new meds in time. She had a withdrawal seizure and never recovered. She had zero idea she couldn't just stop taking it. Yes it stops pain but it still causes addiction

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Anonymous wrote:I didn't enjoy this show that much - I thought Dopesick was better. I already knew some about it all from reading Empire of Pain.

Agree, PP. Dopesick was so much better.

Agreed. If you haven't watched Dopesick, stop watching Painkiller and go watch Dopesick. MUCH better. There is no comparison.

op here.. dang it. I don't have hulu.

You can sign up for Hulu for a month and then quit. It’s definitely worth a month of no ads Hulu to see Dopesick.

Michael Keaton won a SAG award for Dopesick and dedicated it to his nephew Michael who died of drug addiction, and his sister Pam who endures that pain. I thought it was a very caring thing for him to share that with the public, since despite the overwhelming numbers of people caught up in the opiod epidemic, many still feel ashamed and alone.

The speech is here if you feel like a good cry. https://youtu.be/WK-_rYYqBYM

Anonymous wrote:There is something cartoonish about Painkiller compared with Dopesick, which was very straightforward (and based on Beth Macy’s book). The stories are the same but Dopesick was more sympathetic to the addicts. Painkiller spends too much time on the sexy, venal Purdue sales reps, but they are not the real bad guys here. Also, Michael Keaton in Dopesick was fantastic.

Mini-rant: With all the biracial (half Asian/white) actors in Hollywood, why can’t they accurately cast Rick Mountcastle’s character? This is the second show where he is played by a white guy.

I agree with you but thought casting without race in mind was now the “correct” thing to do? See: Hamilton and Bridgeton. Apparently keeping a character’ s race true history is somehow racist.

Anonymous wrote:There is something cartoonish about Painkiller compared with Dopesick, which was very straightforward (and based on Beth Macy’s book). The stories are the same but Dopesick was more sympathetic to the addicts. Painkiller spends too much time on the sexy, venal Purdue sales reps, but they are not the real bad guys here. Also, Michael Keaton in Dopesick was fantastic.

Mini-rant: With all the biracial (half Asian/white) actors in Hollywood, why can’t they accurately cast Rick Mountcastle’s character? This is the second show where he is played by a white guy.

Interesting, didn’t know he was biracial IRL! Good point.

But, agree Painkiller was cartoonish, and I can’t understand the decision to make it that way. It undermines the severity of the topic. It’s so overly fictionalized, and it doesn’t have to be. I’m thinking of the silly scenes with Richard Sackler and the beeping alarm, him with the “ghost” of his dead uncle, the scenes of Edie Flower who apparently never even existed? They have enough REAL material to work with. Strange approach.

There is something cartoonish about Painkiller compared with Dopesick, which was very straightforward (and based on Beth Macy’s book). The stories are the same but Dopesick was more sympathetic to the addicts. Painkiller spends too much time on the sexy, venal Purdue sales reps, but they are not the real bad guys here. Also, Michael Keaton in Dopesick was fantastic.

Mini-rant: With all the biracial (half Asian/white) actors in Hollywood, why can’t they accurately cast Rick Mountcastle’s character? This is the second show where he is played by a white guy.

Dopesick is the FAR superior presentation of the Purdue/ OxyContin/Sackler story. If you’re choosing only one, choose Dopesick - Michael Keaton’s performance is stellar.

Painkiller has a weird tonal feel that didn’t sit well with me, especially considering the inclusion at the beginning of each episode of real families who lost loved ones to the opiod epidemic. It’s watchable, but inferior to Dopesick and Matthew Broderick’s performance was lackluster but so was the material he was given to work with.

I definitely agree Dopesick is superior… But I loved Painkiller still.

Painkiller definitely had a lot more cheesiness to it with the way it was shot. But still, those are compelling stories.

Do people realize that Jennifer Gray and Matthew Broderick were engaged back in the day right around when dirty dancing, came out? And they had kind of a bad break up after they got in a really tragic car accident in Ireland. And that she went onto marry Clark Gregg, who had a ton of scenes with Matthew Broderick?

They are divorced now, but were married like 20 years and have a grown daughter together. I just found it amusing that both of those guys had so many scenes together. I’m sure in Hollywood that happens all the time, but it still made me chuckle.

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Anonymous wrote:I didn't enjoy this show that much - I thought Dopesick was better. I already knew some about it all from reading Empire of Pain.

Agree, PP. Dopesick was so much better.

Agreed. If you haven't watched Dopesick, stop watching Painkiller and go watch Dopesick. MUCH better. There is no comparison.

op here.. dang it. I don't have hulu.

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Anonymous wrote:I didn't enjoy this show that much - I thought Dopesick was better. I already knew some about it all from reading Empire of Pain.

Agree, PP. Dopesick was so much better.

Agreed. If you haven't watched Dopesick, stop watching Painkiller and go watch Dopesick. MUCH better. There is no comparison.

Good series. I preferred it to Dopesick.

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Anonymous wrote:Ask some people in terrible pain from terminal disease how they feel about oxycontin. And don’t believe media that blames a therapeutic drug for damage from unlawful. Chinese fentanyl.

? yea, anyone in pain would benefit from heroin. But, that doesn't mean it's a safe drug and should be prescribed the way it was. Are you a big pharma shill or something?

also, fentanyl is also made in the good ol' usa. It's not just imported.

I’d give a terminal cancer patient any drug they wanted to make them feel better.

Anonymous wrote:I didn't enjoy this show that much - I thought Dopesick was better. I already knew some about it all from reading Empire of Pain.

Agree, PP. Dopesick was so much better.

I enjoyed it immensely. What I found amazing is I am having horrible hip pain right now. So even knowing how it all ends, part of my brain was totally falling for their “ this new pill is great for patients” speeches. So I have no doubt why folks took it.

I actually appreciate them making it clear it was fiction. The intro sections of real people was heartbreaking. And there is already a lot of info out there about what parts were true and what were not.

I do not get the fire alarm beep (I had closed caption on - so it typed out every time there was a beep).

I watched one episode and thought it was so bad compared to Dopesick (which I thought was brilliant) that I quit watching it.