Official Netflix Trailer for “Painkiller” [VIDEO]

Painkiller, a fictionalized telling of real events, 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. Painkiller, premieres August 10.

Why Painkiller and its story continues to be so urgently relevant:

Says Newman: “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.

Over its six episodes, Painkiller director and executive producer Pete Berg set out to unpack the “how” and the “who” of the epidemic:

“Everyone knows that the opioid crisis is bad,” Berg says. “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.”

The tone of the series as a model for the very drug it portrays – extreme, yet intentional.

Newman states, “We wanted to mirror the effects of opioids: the warmth and the hope and the relief of taking a pill that’s going to deliver you from your suffering and then watching it become suffering.”

Driven by Berg’s success in documentary storytelling, each episode begins with a testimonial from a family member who has lost a child to the opioid epidemic.

“We wanted to make sure people knew upfront that there might be some farcical moments in this show, but that we don’t think there’s anything remotely funny about the Sackler family, Purdue, and the opioid crisis,” says Berg.

Netflix’s new limited series inspired by real events based on America’s opioid crisis, premiering on Thursday, August 10, 2023.

From Executive Producer Eric Newman and Director/Executive Producer Pete Berg, and starring Uzo Aduba, Matthew Broderick, Taylor Kitsch, Dina Shihabi, and West Duchovny.

About PAINKILLER:

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.

Series Credits

Episodes: 6 episodes x 1 hour

Executive Produced by: Eric Newman, Pete Berg, Alex Gibney and Creators / Showrunners / Writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster

Directed by: Pete Berg

Consulting Producer / Based on the book by Barry Meier

Executive Producer / Based on The New Yorker Magazine article ‘The Family That Built the Empire of Pain’ by Patrick Radden Keefe

Starring: Uzo Aduba, Matthew Broderick, Taylor Kitsch, Dina Shihabi, West Duchovny, John Rothman

Guest Stars: Clark Gregg, Jack Mulhern, Sam Anderson, Ana Cruz Kayne, Brian Markinson, Noah Harpster, John Ales, Johnny Sneed, Tyler Ritter, Carolina Bartczak

Filming Location: Toronto