SHOW OF THE WEEK: Dopesick (Nov. 12, Disney Plus)
If you watched Alex Gibney’s docuseries “The Crime of the Century” earlier this year you’ll already be familiar with the facts about America’s opioid crisis, a staggering tragedy that began with the pushing of OxyContin in the mid-1990s as a pain relief wonder drug.
This miniseries, created by actor, writer and director Danny Strong (“Empire”), dramatizes the Oxy epidemic. The three episodes made available for review range from 1986, when Purdue Pharma first came up with the concept of a new time-release opioid, to 2005, when Virginia prosecutors launched a grand jury investigation of the company.
Strong focuses on seven key characters from different sides of the crisis, some real, some invented: Purdue president and chief Oxy champion Richard Sackler (Michael Stuhlbarg); Appalachian doctor Samuel Finnix (Michael Keaton); his patient, miner Betsy Mallum (Kaitlyn Dever); Purdue sales rep Billy Cutler (Will Poulter); DEA agent Bridget Meyer (Rosario Dawson); and Department of Justice investigators Rick Mountcastle (Peter Sarsgaard) and Randy Ramseyer (John Hoogenakker).
Sackler is portrayed as part businessman, part evangelist, pushing employees to sell ever-increasing amounts of “the greatest painkiller in the history of human civilization.”
Purdue sales reps like Cutler relentlessly market Oxy to doctors and pharmacists as a safe drug that’s virtually impossible to abuse while Purdue-bankrolled pain associations spring up around the country to preach the narrative that the real tragedy in America is the under-treatment of pain.
And Finnix just wants to help patients like Betsy, injured in a mining accident, and at first Oxy does that — until it doesn’t and they need ever higher doses to control the pain. Meanwhile, people like Meyer, Mountcastle and Ramseyer attempt the near impossible task of holding Purdue to account.
We already know how the story ends, with addiction, drug-fuelled crime and death — or rather, doesn’t end, since the opioid epidemic is ongoing, fed not just by OxyContin but by drugs like heroin and fentanyl.
It’s an important story to tell but also a complicated one and breaking it down into manageable chunks makes sense, particularly when they’re handled by such a capable group of actors. But sometimes the focus is too diffuse, with episodes jumping back and forth between characters and time periods, diluting the show’s emotional impact.
Still, it’s a worthwhile piece of television.
Disney Plus also has the “Home Alone” movie update “Home Sweet Home Alone,” Olaf the snowman recreating beloved Disney tales in “Olaf Presents” and Season 2 of “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” (all Nov. 12). Plus the blockbuster Marvel movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” starring Canada’s Simu Liu, will debut on Disney that day along with a making-of docu-special about “Shang-Chi,” “Marvel Assembled.”
Short Takes
Shetland (Nov. 9, BritBox)
It’s been a long wait for Season 6 of this Britcrime series set in Scotland’s Shetland Islands and, based on the single episode made available for review, I’d say it was worth the wait. Douglas Henshall is back as quietly resourceful detective Jimmy Perez, backed by colleagues Tosh (Alison O’Donnell) and Sandy (Steven Robertson, an actual native of Shetland). Jimmy faces a challenging case when a local lawyer is shot dead in his home with an unregistered weapon and no witnesses. Potential suspects include a drug abuser who lost a custody battle for her kids, the sister of a murder victim whose killer the lawyer defended and an ex-soldier whose case he refused to touch. Throw in a true crime-obsessed teenager who’s interfering with the case and a hobby photographer whose drone might have captured pictures of the killer, and you’ve got a satisfying puzzle.
Black Liberators WWII (Nov. 11, 9 p.m., History/STACKTV)
Among the more than 1 million Canadian soldiers who fought in World War II were some who did so despite being treated as second-class citizens in the country they were fighting for. But thousands of Black soldiers enlisted anyway and contributed to some of the most important campaigns of the war. This documentary focuses on six of them: Robert “Bud” Jones, John Olbey, Sam Estwick, Calvin Marshall, Welsford Daniels and Owen Rowe, who volunteered to fight for Canada along with other Black Caribbeans. It’s thanks to Rowe’s daughter, Kathy Grant, that we get to hear about the men’s experiences in their own words, since she recorded interviews with them as part of the Black Canadian Veterans Stories of War project. The men are all dead now except for Olbey who, as of this writing, was 99 years old and living in Chatham. The men’s testimonies reinforce the fact that war truly is hell, but it was also a reprieve from the discrimination these Black soldiers experienced at home — and, to Canada’s shame, continued to experience when they returned from battle. But the doc isn’t about that; it’s about what these particular men achieved and, like other veterans, their stories deserve to be told. As Leslie Estwick, daughter of Sam — who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and became a pioneer in radar technology — puts it, “The history of Canada is the history of everyone in it.”
The Shrink Next Door (Nov. 12, Apple TV Plus)
Apple TV throws its hat into the ring of podcast TV with this series adapted from the Wondery podcast of the same name. Both podcast and show are based on the true story of a man whose life was infiltrated by his psychiatrist for almost three decades, to the point the doctor took over his house and part of his business. In the eight-episode show, of which I screened three, Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell get to flex their acting muscles, with Rudd playing charismatic shrink Dr. Isaac Herschkopf and Ferrell as Martin Markowitz, a successful but insecure business owner who meets Herschkopf when he seeks treatment for panic attacks. Rudd is particularly captivating as we watch him insidiously turn himself into the most important person in Marty’s life. Kathryn Hahn (“WandaVision”) also does great work as the one person who can see through Herschkopf’s demeanour of professional solicitude, Marty’s sister Phyllis.
Yellowjackets (Nov. 14, 10 p.m., Crave)
From the opening minutes, when we see a terrified young woman running through woods and tumbling into a death trap, we know the girls of the Yellowjackets New Jersey state champion high school basketball team got up to some very bad things when they were stranded by a plane crash for 19 months. The what, why and how are teased out in flashbacks to 1996 in this Vancouver-shot Showtime series. Meanwhile, in 2021, we follow four of the now middle-aged teammates, played by Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress and Christina Ricci. Part of the fun of the show is watching these women go about their lives knowing their seeming ordinariness belies dark secrets. But the past won’t stay buried. A woman claiming to be a reporter is asking questions, and vaguely threatening postcards arrive, suggesting someone hasn’t forgotten or forgiven what happened in ’96. With these capable actors at the controls — alongside the ones who play their younger selves, Sophie Nelisse, Sophie Thatcher, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Samantha Hanratty — you can buckle in and enjoy the ride.
Odds and Ends
Think back to when the pandemic began and the sudden drop in things like traffic and air flight, and other noisy activities. “Nature’s Big Year,” the Nov. 12 “Nature of Things” broadcast (CBC, CBC Gem, 9 p.m.) explores how that inactivity affected various animal species, from wolves in Bighorn Backcountry in Alberta to loggerhead turtles in Florida to hedgehogs in Nottinghamshire, England, to great grey owls in Balmoral, Manitoba, to blackbirds in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to snow geese on the St. Lawrence River. It’s likely no surprise that the lesser the human activity the better off the animals are.
Amazon Prime Video has a couple that sound worthwhile. The docuseries “Always Jane” follows transgender teen Jane Noury and her supportive family (Nov. 12) while the documentary “Pharma Bro” (Nov. 11) is about Martin Shkreli, the so-called “most hated man in America,” known for raising the price of AIDS drugs 5,500 per cent.
Netflix has Season 2 of “Gentefied,” the well-regarded series about a Mexican-American family in Los Angeles, on Nov. 10.
AMC Plus has the U.K. murder mystery “Ragdoll” (Nov. 11).
Corus Entertainment channels have several offerings, including the special “Adele One Night Only” on Global TV Nov. 14 at 8:30 p.m.; “Great Escapes With Morgan Freeman” (Nov. 14, 9 p.m., History), in which the actor hosts tales of history’s greatest jail breaks; and animated sci-fi series “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” (Nov. 13, midnight, Adult Swim).
NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time, and reflect information provided to me and verified 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.
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