Given our collective, at times morally dubious, bloodlust for all things true crime, one would safely assume that the story of the man considered to be the most prolific serial killer in recorded history would have already been given the podcast, documentary and miniseries treatment. But the name Charles Cullen has mostly been absent from the genre, the hows and whys of which might be somewhat explained by the intermittently effective Netflix drama The Good Nurse, a mixed bag of shock, horror and frustration.
Because telling the story of Cullen is far from easy: his crimes are scattered, his victim count unknown and his motives mysterious. The beats of his story don’t fit into the slick structure we know too well, and in this cold and surprisingly cynical film, we see the struggle of trying to make them. Between the 1990s and the 2000s, Cullen, as a nurse, killed at least 29 people but authorities believe the number to be closer to 400 – he was a silent killer who used intravenous tubes to poison patients. He’s played by Eddie Redmayne at the tail end of his killings, a new hire at a New Jersey hospital in the early 2000s. He is paired up with Amy (Jessica Chastain), a wearied single mother working night shifts while trying to hide her cardiomyopathy.
