Matthew Broderick (Daybreak (2019)) stars as Richard Sackler, scion of the billionaire Sackler family and CEO of Purdue Pharma, and Uzo Aduba (Orange Is the New Black) plays Edie, an investigator leading the case against Purdue.
Taylor Kitsch (The Terminal List), Dina Shihabi (Archive 81) and West Duchovny (Saint X) also star in the six-episode series premiering Thursday, August 10 on Netflix.
Based on Barry Meier's book Pain Killer and Patrick Radden Keefe's New Yorker Magazine article The Family That Built an Empire of Pain, Painkiller explores some of the origins and aftermath of America's opioid crisis, highlighting the stories of perpetrators, victims and truth seekers whose lives have been forever changed by the invention of OxyContin. An investigation into crime, accountability, and the systems that have repeatedly failed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
In the trailer, Broderick's Richard advertises OxyContin, which became the No. 1 opioid in the country, and how people "run away from pain, run away from pleasure... if we put ourselves there, between pain and pleasure, we never have to worry about money".
Uduba’s Edie asks “How can something legally prescribed be killing so many people? … It doesn’t just kill people. It destroys the families and friends. They are doing the exact same thing as every crack dealer in America, except they are getting rewarded for it.”
Painkiller was created by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, who also act as showrunners. Eric Newman, Fitzerman-Blue, Harpster, Alex Gibney and Pete Berg direct, and Berg directs all episodes.
Newman explains in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum that the story continues to be urgently relevant. “The story is still going on. It’s playing out in real time, and I imagine that it will continue to play out long after us. It’s a story that’s so big and so awful that it deserves to be told as often and as loudly as it can be.”
Watch the trailer for Painkiller below.
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