Tag: Elizabeth Holmes

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Dropout (March 3, Disney Plus)

There has already been much information about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos in the public eye — including newspaper and magazine articles, a book and a podcast — but there’s something about a well-done dramatization that can really bring a story to life.

“The Dropout” is a well-done dramatization.

Amanda Seyfried gives a can’t-take-your-eyes-off-her performance as Holmes, as we watch her transform from a misguided but seemingly well-meaning college dropout with a dream into a monster in a Steve Jobs turtleneck and too bright lipstick.

Monster might seem overly dramatic, but how else do you describe someone whose reaction on hearing that a Day 1 employee and supporter has committed suicide is joy that a lawsuit in which he can no longer testify against the company has been won?

Her chief enabler is Sunny Balwani (Naveen Andrews), her 19-years-older boyfriend and eventual COO of Theranos, portrayed as a bullying, fearsomely loyal protector of Holmes and her company.

“The Dropout” makes it easy to believe that Holmes had good intentions when she created Theranos — a startup that claimed to have invented a technology by which blood tests could be performed with just a single drop of blood — but by the time it all came crashing down the goal of helping people had been irretrievably subsumed by the singleminded imperative to succeed at any cost.

What is truly astonishing is how many high profile people allowed themselves to be bamboozled by Holmes despite the lack of evidence that the technology worked — spoiler alert: it didn’t.

In the series, this wilful blindness is best personified by two actors: Sam Waterston, who co-stars as George Shultz, a former U.S. Secretary of State who became a bullish member of Theranos’ board; and Alan Ruck (“Succession”) as Jay Rosan, the Walgreens VP so desperate to put Theranos’ machines in the drug chain’s stores and beat its rivals that Holmes’ refusal to demonstrate the tech was no deterrent.

Believing in fraudsters is not a uniquely American trait, of course, but one wonders how much the vaunted idea of the American dream played into the elevation of Holmes to celebrity billionaire status.

Seyfried, speaking to a Television Critics Association panel, said she believed Holmes “was incredible at creating the story of Theranos and her invention . . . people must have questioned things, especially engineers and people in health care and science and medicine, but . . . she’d double down.”

Among the doubters were Holmes’s childhood neighbour, doctor and inventor Richard Fuisz (played by William H. Macy), and Stanford professor of medicine Phyllis Gardner (Laurie Metcalf). In the series, they join with the widow of the Theranos chemist who committed suicide, Ian Gibbons (Stephen Fry), to try to stop Holmes and Theranos, lending their voices to those of the company whistleblowers who fuelled the Wall Street Journal article that was the beginning of the end.

The real Holmes was found guilty in January of defrauding investors but not of defrauding patients, but the series doesn’t lose sight of the fact that ordinary people were harmed by Theranos’ deficient technology. (Holmes is waiting to be sentenced; Balwani has yet to be tried.)

In “The Dropout” we get a fascinating character study and an alarming cautionary tale that is just as compelling as any thriller.

Disney Plus will also stream Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated “West Side Story” remake beginning March 2.

Short Takes

Killing Eve (Feb. 28, 9 p.m., AMC and AMC Plus)

Revenge and redemption are the themes as this darkly funny drama kicks off its fourth and final season. Ex-MI6 agent Eve (Sandra Oh) and ex-MI6 boss Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) are out to take down the murderous global organization known as the Twelve and avenge the death of Carolyn’s son, Kenny. Meanwhile, ex-professional assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) is looking to prove she’s not a monster by taking up with a church group. But can people, particularly remorseless killers, change? Eve certainly has, now working for a private security firm in London and going full bad-ass. Carolyn, meanwhile, has been put out to pasture as a cultural attache but has lost none of her wiles or wit. And Villanelle’s obsession with Eve appears to continue unabated. Camille Cottin is back as Twelve associate Helene while Anjana Vasan (“We Are Lady Parts”) joins the cast as potential assassin Pam. Having seen the first two episodes, in which Oh, Comer and Shaw are all at the top of their games, I anticipate a bloody but extremely entertaining ride to the finish.

Our Flag Means Death (March 3, 9 p.m., Crave)

I suspect the real Stede Bonnet — a British sugar plantation owner who abandoned his wife and children to become “the Gentleman Pirate” in 1717 — was a lot less benign than his comedy counterpart. This series created by newbie TV writer David Jenkins portrays Bonnet (played by Rhys Darby of “Flight of the Conchords”) as a fop and esthete with no stomach for violence whose crew is planning to mutiny until he gets lucky and snags a couple of British army captives. Things seem to really be looking up when he crosses paths with the famous Blackbeard (Taika Waititi), who’s grown bored with all the pillaging and is looking for an exit plan. Besides Darby and Waititi, who’s also an executive producer of the show, the cast is packed with well known actors and comedians, including Nat Faxon, Leslie Jones, Fred Armisen, Ewen Bremner of “Trainspotting” and Kristian Nairn of “Game of Thrones.” I’d characterize it as more of a mildly amusing time-waster than a comedy must-see, but it has its moments.

Crave also has Season 3 of the Elena Ferrante adaptation “My Brilliant Friend” (Feb. 28, 10 p.m., HBO) and Season 2 of “Star Trek: Picard” (March 3, 8 p.m., CTV Sci-Fi Channel). Plus, there’s the the debut of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers” (March 6, 9 p.m., HBO), with a stacked cast — John C. Reilly, Adrien Brody, Jason Segel, Sally Field, Gaby Hoffman, Quincy Isaiah and more —portraying the 1980s, Magic Johnson-era Los Angeles Lakers; and the premiere of “Shining Vale” (March 6, 10 p.m., Starz), in which Courteney Cox stars as an unfulfilled wife, mother and author who moves with her family to a small town, into a house with a terrible past.

The Tourist (March 4, Prime Video)

Irish actor Jamie Dornan (“The Fall,” “Belfast”) stars in this six-episode thriller as a man who, after being run off the road in the Australian outback, wakes up in hospital with no memory of who he is. Bad things happen as he travels from place to place following clues to his identity — with the help of cafe waitress Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin) and probationary constable Helen (Danielle Macdonald) — with bad men after him. But why do people want to kill him and does that mean he himself is a bad person? Our perspective on that changes from episode to episode. In the end, the question becomes whether the man, granted a seemingly clean slate, deserves that second chance. Helen, meanwhile, gets a second chance of her own, blossoming from self-doubt, self-sabotage and subjugation by her needy, controlling fiancé Ethan (Greg Larsen) into an appreciation of her own worth. Macdonald and Dornan ground the mystery and the action in “The Tourist” with emotionally resonant performances that make it easy to invest in their characters. From brothers Harry and Jack Williams (“The Missing,” “Fleabag,” “Liar”), the series is a dynamic, sometimes violent ride that can also be funny as hell.

Outlander (March 6, 9 p.m., W Network/StackTV)

It’s a marvel sometimes to think that Claire and Jamie Fraser are still standing after enduring wars, kidnappings, torture, rape and multiple near-death experiences, both his and hers, but the sixth season of the time-travel drama is finally here. It’s been the longest droughtlander yet, a 22-month wait. Has it been worth it? Based on the four episodes I’ve seen, there’s a lot here to engage the hearts and minds of fans. Life on Fraser’s Ridge in North Carolina in 1773 seems nominally peaceful, but Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) know that the American Revolutionary War is coming and that Jamie will have to choose a side. Claire is still dealing with the trauma of her abduction and sexual assault by Lionel Brown and his men last season, and not in the healthiest of ways. Meanwhile, Fergus (Cesar Domboy) is consumed by guilt that he wasn’t there to protect a pregnant Marsali (Lauren Lyle) from Brown’s men. And there are some tensions with new settlers on the Ridge, including Tom Christie (Mark Lewis Jones), an old rival of Jamie’s from Ardsmuir prison, his daughter Malva (Jessica Reynolds) and son Allan (Alexander Vlahos). Ian Murray (John Bell) has some reckoning of his own to do with events from his time with the Mohawks, while Roger (Richard Rankin) and Brianna (Sophie Skelton) are settling back into life in the 1700s after last season’s failed attempt to go back to their own time. Season 6 has just eight episodes instead of the usual 12 to 16, but I expect they’re going to be jam-packed. And if you’ve read the books, you know there’s more hardship ahead for Jamie and Claire.

Odds and Ends

“The Nature of Things” continues its quest to bring scientific facts to the masses with “Carbon: The Unauthorized Biography” (March 4, 9 p.m., CBC and CBC Gem). The doc anthropomorphizes the element, using the voice of Sarah Snook of “Succession,” highlighting its importance as a building block of all life, as well as inanimate matter, but also its destructiveness as carbon dioxide overwhelms the planet.

This week’s Netflix offerings include the thriller series “Pieces of Her” (March 3), an adaptation of the 2018 novel in which a daughter (Bella Heathcote) tries to suss out her mother’s (Toni Collette) violent past; the docuseries “Worst Roommate Ever” (March 1), true stories about actual roommates from hell; and the reality series “Making Fun” (March 4), in which Jimmy DiResta and pals make children’s weird ideas for inventions into actual things.

If you’re a “Big Brother Canada” fan, the competition is back for a 10th season — where the heck did the time go? — March 2 at 8 p.m. on Global and StackTV.

Speaking of long-lived series, Season 9 of the romantic period drama “When Calls the Heart” is on Super Channel Heart & Home on March 6 at 8 p.m.

FX debuts the fifth and final season of the critically acclaimed family comedy “Better Things” on Feb. 28 at 10 p.m.

Here’s one I would have loved to screen but just could not get to: the BritBox original “Murder in Provence” (March 1), starring Roger Allan of “Endeavour” and Nancy Carroll of “Father Brown.”

And finally, if you’d like to see a young(ish) Canadian lad make good, Toronto tenor Conor Murphy (who has sung the national anthem for the Toronto Maple Leafs, including the night Zamboni driver David Ayres was in goal) is one of three singers featured in the special “Trinity: Classically Irish” on PBS March 6 at 3:30 p.m. (it repeats March 8 at 8 p.m.).

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time and I’ve verified the times where possible, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste. The Odds and Ends section includes shows that I have not watched.