Painkiller on Netflix: The shocking crisis that's plagued the US for more than two decades behind new drama
manchestereveningnews.co.ukNetflix's latest limited series is a fictionalised re-telling of a drugs crisis which has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans since the late 90s.
Painkiller, created and written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, follows the perpetrators, victims, and truth-seekers whose lives are forever altered by Purdue Pharma, the company behind OxyContin.
The prescription drug is used to treat severe pain, including after an operation or a serious injury. The series explores the aftermath of the opioid crisis in the US and offers an examination of crime, accountability and the systems that have repeatedly failed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
It's based on the book Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic by Barry Meier and the New Yorker article The Family That Built an Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features. Set in the 1990s, Matthew Broderick, the star of 80s blockbuster Ferris Bueller's Day Off, portrays Purdue Pharma president, businessman and billionaire Richard Sackler.
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