“Dopesick” Television That Matters

Not many shows have affected me in the way that the 2021 Hulu series Dopesick has. It takes a holistic view of the impacts of a drug called Oxycontin and the pharmaceutical company the created it (Purdue Pharma). Peter Saarsgard (Garden State), Michael Keaton (Batman, Spotlight), Will Poulter (We Are The Millers), Kaitlyn Dever (Book Smart), Rosario Dawson (Clerks 2), and Phillipa Soo (Hamilton) lead an incredible cast that conveyed the depth and breadth of loss that this country has experienced this last 25 years due to the opioid crises. The human condition is on full display in this true story that explores the weight of greed, the hurt of pain, the fight for truth, and the love of fellow man. I don’t want to say anymore because I think you should just watch it, but I think this quote conveys a lot that we should consider.

“Addiction does the exact opposite of what connection does, right? Addiction tears apart…Part of the reason we relapse is because of pain. There’s some kind of pain that’s in a lot of us, or all of us, we just don’t want to feel anymore. And further we fall into addiction, pain says to us, hell, we’d be better off just feeling nothing at all. So we go numb. And our souls go numb. Now we’ve got a real problem. You know, pain is just pain. Not good, not bad, just part of being a human being, and sometimes good can come out of it. And if we’re brave enough, and willing to go a little deeper, work our way through it, and try to overcome it, well, we just might find our better selves.”