As we all learned with The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu doesn’t shy away from gritty dramas. For its next series, the streaming platform is tackling America’s opioid crisis prompted by a major drug company. Dopesick is coming to Hulu this October.
Based on "Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America," the best-selling book by Beth Marcy, the series explores how a small Virginia community became ground zero for an opioid epidemic in the United States that lasted over the course of several decades. The series is created by two-time Emmy winner Danny Strong, who also created Fox’s Empire and wrote the last two installments of the Hunger Games movie series. The cast features Michael Keaton, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg, Will Poulter, John Hoogenakker, Kaitlyn Dever, Rosario Dawson, Phillipa Soo, and Jake McDorman.
In the trailer, it is revealed that Dopesick will dive deep to show other problems that helped shape the “universe” of the tragic events in Virginia, such as child labor, facts manipulated by the pharmaceutical industry, and what was the ultimate goal from the people who worked hard to get their new drug into shelves (money, of course).
The first three episodes of Dopesick are set to premiere on Hulu on October 13, with new episodes premiering on Wednesdays. Check out the trailer for Dopesick below.
You can read the official synopsis of Dopesick below.
From Executive Producer Danny Strong and starring and executive produced by Michael Keaton, “Dopesick” examines how one company triggered the worst drug epidemic in American history. The series takes viewers to the epicenter of America’s struggle with opioid addiction, from the boardrooms of Big Pharma, to a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA. Defying all the odds, heroes will emerge in an intense and thrilling ride to take down the craven corporate forces behind this national crisis and their allies. The limited series is inspired by the New York Times bestselling book by Beth Macy.