The Opioid pandemic is really scary and was the subject of the award-winning and dense Dopesick a few years ago. It’s more terrifying than we can imagine: in less than 20 years, with medication prescribed by doctors, more than 260,000 people died in the United States alone from overdose or dependence on opioids. A profitable universe for the Pharmaceutical Industry, which, in general, is not punished for creating a market on top of pain. The new series to deal with the subject is Painkiller from Netflix is uncomfortable but urgent content to be seen and reviewed.

The story treated in the series is exactly the same as that of Starplus, which earned Michael Keaton the Emmy for Best Actor. It traces the criminal and irreversible path created by Perdue Pharma in the exploitation of pain and how it generated billions at the expense of the destruction of families and individuals.

Conducted by the ever-great Uzo Aduba who plays Edie Flowers, the attorney working for the US Attorney’s Office who was the first to identify the risk of commercializing OxyContin. Her direction is sensitive and having an actor with a docile image like Matthew Broderick in the shoes of the antagonist, Richard Sackler, the senior executive of Purdue Pharma who “created” the pandemic, works. After starring in Saint X, West Duchovny returns to have a prominent role in the series, playing the fictional Shannon Schaeffer, the former college athlete and recruit for Purdue sales who ends up getting involved with the pandemic as well. But it’s Taylor Kitsch‘s sensitive performance as mechanic Glen Kryger, whose life is shattered when he goes on medication that moves us. As was done in the Brazilian soap opera O Clone, in the early 2000s, each episode opens with a true testimonial from people directly affected by Purdue Pharma, which also brings perspective to the urgency of the topic.

I avoid spoilers because they are important to impact those who still don’t follow the absurd reality that surrounds us. Highly recommended.

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