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Addiction is a curse that ruins not just a single person who is suffering from it, but also everyone who cares about them. This continual dependency eats away at one’s soul, becoming harder to get rid of at later stages, and the guilt and the sadness make life excruciatingly painful. It becomes even worse when you realize this enslavement wasn’t even your fault, to begin with - something that happened to thousands of people and their families in the late 1990s due to corporate greed.
Netflix’s upcoming drama series Painkiller documents real-life accounts of everyone affected by the massive opioid crisis post-1996. Taking inspiration from Patrick Radden Keefe's New Yorker article "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain" and Barry Meier’s novel Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic, Painkiller will bring into light the origins and aftermath of America’s biggest opioid epidemic. The new drama offers a closer look at criminal behavior, liability, and the systems that have consistently failed hundreds of thousands of Americans for several years. It takes into account how several families are still traumatized by actions taken under the influence of selfish desires, cover-ups, and lies that protect the ones responsible for nearly a decade.
Executive produced by Eric Newman (Narcos) and Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights), the new addictive drama is soon to arrive on Netflix. So before you gear up to binge-watch the upcoming limited series, let’s have a look at the release date, plot, cast, trailer, and everything else we know so far about Painkiller.
Editor's Note: This piece was updated on August 7.
When and Where Is Painkiller Premiering?
All six one-hour episodes of the limited series will premiere on Thursday, August 10, 2023. Netflix typically drops its content at 3 a.m. ET and 12 a.m. PT. Since this is a Netflix original series, you will need a Netflix subscription in order to watch the new series.
Is There a Trailer for Painkiller?
On July 11, 2023, Netflix released the official trailer for Painkiller, as we find an investigator for the US Attorney's office questioning the introduction of the new so-called wonderdrug OxyContin. On May 8, 2023, five first-look photos for the upcoming drama series were also released along with the premiere date.
What Is the Plot of Painkiller?
With a particular emphasis on the controversial acts of Purdue Pharma, the company that manufactured OxyContin, and even more so on Richard Sackler (played by Matthew Broderick), former President and board chair of the company, the new Netflix series Painkiller examines the genesis of America's opioid crisis. The series will cover the stories of several characters who were involved in the early stages of the creation and spread of the drug, including the Sacklers, those attempting to bring them down, such as Uzo Aduba's Edie, and those who were adversely impacted by the drug, like Taylor Kitsch's Glen, a mechanic who suffers a debilitating back injury at work.
Painkiller also follows the lives of a few medical sales representatives or the folks Purdue paid well to get physicians to prescribe more of their (very addictive) medicine, as well as people who were hooked to opioids after their doctor informed them it was okay to do so because the doctors were convinced that it was safe to use as well.
The official synopsis of the series reads:
“A fictionalized retelling of events, Painkiller is a scripted limited series that explores some of the origins and aftermath of the opioid crisis in America, highlighting the stories of the perpetrators, victims, and truth-seekers whose lives are forever altered by the invention of OxyContin. An examination of crime, accountability, and the systems that have repeatedly failed hundreds of thousands of Americans, Painkiller is based on the book Pain Killer by Barry Meier and the New Yorker Magazine article ‘The Family That Built the Empire of Pain’ by Patrick Radden Keefe. Executive produced by Eric Newman, Pete Berg, Alex Gibney, and showrunners/creators Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster. Starring Uzo Aduba, Matthew Broderick, Taylor Kitsch, Dina Shihabi, and West Duchovny.”
Who Is in the Cast of Painkiller?
The cast of Painkiller includes some well-known talents from the acting industry. Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) portrays Richard Sackler, patriarch of the billionaire Sackler family and President and board chair at Purdue Pharma. Orange Is the New Black star Uzo Aduba will play Edie Flowers, a righteous lawyer at the US attorney's office who is investigating the new Purdue narcotic OxyContin. In a statement released via Netflix Tudum, Peter Berg called Edie “...our guide as we unpack the complexities of what Purdue did and how the opioid epidemic started and then spread.” Berg also had this to say about Broderick's take on Sackler:
“[He] certainly doesn’t think that he’s the bad guy in the story of his life, and one of the really interesting things about Matthew is that he’s just an incredibly nice and kind person, which he brings to playing a character who’s morally questionable. He’s found a whole other dimension to what could have been a somewhat one-note character.”
West Duchovny (The Magicians) plays Shannon Shaeffer, a former collegiate athlete who has joined the Purdue sales team as a new hire, while Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) will play the role of Glen Kryger, a hardworking family man and mechanic whose life is upended after a crushing back injury. Kitsch is also set to reunite with Peter Berg and Netflix for another limited series, American Primeval. Carolina Bartczak (Moonfall) will play Glen's wife, Lily Kryger. Dina Shihabi (Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan) will be seen as Britt Hufford, a seasoned sales representative who serves as Shannon's mentor. Tyler Ritter (The McCarthys) portrays US Attorney John Brownlee, Edie Flowers' new supervisor, while John Rothman (One Mississippi) plays Mortimer Sackler, a Purdue Pharma co-owner and Richard Sackler's uncle.
Who Is Making Painkiller?
Peter Berg, known for his work on The Leftovers and Friday Night Lights, is the director of Painkiller. Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster are serving as the showrunners and writers of the series. 'The Family That Built the Empire of Pain' author Keefe, series director Berg, Eric Newman, and Alex Gibney all act as executive producers for the show. Meier, the author of Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic, also acts as the consulting producer. The Crime of the Century (2021), a documentary by Gibney about the American opioid crisis, was released before Painkiller. The new series benefited a lot from Gibney's experience working on the movie.
When and Where Was Painkiller Filmed?
Production on Netflix’s upcoming limited drama series Painkiller began in Toronto, Canada in April 2021 and wrapped up in November 2021.
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