Netflix has released the trailer for its highly-anticipated drama series, Painkiller, which explores the origins and aftermath of the US opioid crisis.
The limited series, which arrives on the streaming platform on 10 August, is inspired by true events and features a star-studded cast that includes Uzo Aduba, Matthew Broderick, and Taylor Kitsch. Keep reading for everything you need to know about the upcoming drama.
What is Painkiller about?
Painkiller is a fictionalized telling of events and explores "some of the origins and aftermath of the opioid crisis in America, highlighting the stories of perpetrators, victims and truth-seekers whose lives are forever altered by the invention of OxyContin," according to the synopsis. Each of the six episodes opens with a testimony from a family member who has lost a loved one to the opioid crisis.
The drama, which is created and written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, places a particular emphasis on Purdue Pharma, the company that manufactured OxyContin, and its former president Richard Sackler, while also looking at those who attempted to bring down the company and those whose lives were greatly impacted by the drug.
The series is based on a book of the same name by journalist Barry Meier, as well as the New Yorker Magazine article about the Sackler dynasty, The Family That Built an Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe.
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Director Pete Berg said: "Everyone knows that the opioid crisis is bad. But this is the origin story of the collision between medicine and money that allowed it to happen.
"One of the many things that I thought was missing [from the conversation about OxyContin] was the introduction of the drug into mainstream medicine. How Arthur Sackler, this psychiatrist from New York who specialized in lobotomies, started to realize that the future was in pills — specifically in advertising pills. Whoever could market their drug better was going to make the most money," Pete told Tudum.
Executive producer Eric Newman, the showrunner of Narcos and Narcos: Mexico, added: "It's certainly not just [about] the Sacklers. It's the political machine. It's the pharmaceutical industrial complex.
"You can't understand the epidemic unless you look at all of the participants. The people who did it, the people who let it happen, the people who suffered from it — and the people who blew the whistle on it."
Who stars in Netflix's Painkiller? Meet the cast
Matthew Broderick stars as Richard Sackler, a scion of the billionaire family and senior executive at Purdue Pharma, while Uzo Aduba plays Edie, an investigator for the US Attorney's office who starts asking questions about the new drug, OxyContin.
Meanwhile, West Duchovny plays Shannon Schaeffer, an ex–college athlete who's recruited by veteran pharmaceutical sales rep Britt Hufford, played by Dina Shihabi, to join Purdue Pharma.
Rounding out the main cast is Taylor Kitsch as hardworking family man and business owner Glen Kryger whose life is completely changed following an injury.
There are also a number of guest stars, including Jack Mulhern, Clark Gregg, Sam Anderson, Noah Harpster, Ana Cruz Kayne, Brian Markinson, John Ales, Johnny Sneed, Tyler Ritter and Carolina Bartczak.