The latest scripted true-crime series has arrived, offering a fictionalized retelling of the opioid epidemic from top to bottom. Painkiller is Netflix's latest star-studded limited series, adapted from the nonfiction book Pain Killer by Barry Meier, and the New Yorker article “The Family That Built an Empire of Pain” by Patrick Radden Keefe. The six-episode show follows Purdue Pharma and the development and release of the drug OxyContin, which was followed by a massive increase in the use and abuse of opioid drugs. In addition to depicting major moments in the drug's timeline, the series also addresses the public health crisis by exploring the victims and families who were devastated by the epidemic, the middlemen who connected Purdue Pharma to doctors, and the investigators working to get justice against the billionaire family behind the company.
To tell the story of Painkiller, the miniseries utilizes both fictional depictions of the top executives at Purdue, and composite characters representing hundreds of thousands of people affected by the crisis. “Even the fictionalized elements of this show are grounded in the knowledge that the painful repercussions of opioid addiction are playing out across America every day,” says executive producer Eric Newman in the press notes. “That’s what lies at the heart of Painkiller; trying to understand how this all started, so that we can maybe finally stop it.”
