The Big Picture
- Painkiller, a limited series on Netflix, stars Matthew Broderick as a billionaire who profited from the opioid crisis in America.
- The fictionalized series focuses on Richard Sackler, the nephew of Purdue Pharma's founder, and covers the story from Purdue's perspective and the lives damaged by addiction.
- The goal of Painkiller is to provide a comprehensive view of the opioid crisis by exploring the people involved, those who suffered, and those who blew the whistle.
Ah, the woes of being filthy rich. In a sneak peek for its upcoming limited series Painkiller, Netflix has released the first three minutes of the first episode. The series stars Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) as a billionaire who profited off the opioid crisis in America. The series is set to premiere later this week.
In the very first scene of Painkiller, Richard Sackler (Broderick) gets awakened really early in the morning because a smoke alarm is going off in his mansion. First, he tries to localize it across the generous square meters of the house, and when he finds it… the roof is way too high to reach and turn it off. That’s why he starts throwing stuff up in the air in order to just break the noisy thing.
The scene is played to the tune of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” and suggests that Richard is not living his best wealthy moment. Richard is the nephew of Arthur Sackler, the founder of Purdue Pharma – the company behind OxyContin, a painkiller that is highly effective but also dangerously addictive. The fictionalized series is set to cover the story from the perspective of Purdue and the people whose lives were damaged by addiction.
In an interview with Netflix, completed before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Broderick provided a little info about his character and suggested we’ll be able to empathize with him because he’s a guy that’s in way over his head and only realized it when it was too late:
“[His company] has developed kind of a great drug, a miracle for a lot of people giving their lives back, and well, there’s a very bad side to it. He feels that he’s helping an enormous amount of people. It’s the only thing we have to get through pain, and I think Richard fully believes that.”
Painkiller Will Bring the Pain
Painkiller is inspired by two stories: Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic, a book by author Barry Meier and The New Yorker article “The Family That Built an Empire of Pain” by journalist Patrick Radden Keefe. Series executive producer Eric Newman (Narcos) explained to Netflix's Tudum that the idea of the limited series is to provide a big picture of the opioid crisis and that, in order to achieve it, you need to take a look at “the people who did it, the people who let it happen, the people who suffered from it — and the people who blew the whistle on it.”
The cast of Painkiller also features Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black), Taylor Kitsch (The Terminal List), West Duchovny (Saint X), Dina Shihabi (Jack Ryan), John Rothman (One Mississippi), Ana Cruz Kayne (Barbie), Tyler Ritter (Homecoming), John Ales (Euphoria), Sam Anderson (Lost), Carolina Bartczak (Moonfall), and Jack Mulhern (Mare of Easttown).
Netflix premieres Painkiller on August 10. You can watch the first three minutes of the series on Netflix’s website Tudum. Check out the trailer below:
