TV Talk: Netflix debuts its own ‘Dopesick’ with oxy drama ‘Painkiller’ from writers of Mister Rogers movie

Netflix largely abandoned its HBO-wannabe roots, forsaking highbrow, quality shows for more middle-of-the-road fare with broader appeal. But every now and then Netflix still attempts higher caliber programming, most recently with 2021’s “Maid,” the story of a young woman who flees an abusive relationship and tries to build a new life for herself and her daughter.

Netflix’s latest, “Painkiller,” is also an attempt to explore an important, real-life issue, this time a chronicle of the opioid crisis inspired by the book “Painkiller: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic” by Barry Meier, and The New Yorker article “The Family That Built the Empire of Pain” by Patrick Radden Keefe.

The challenge for Netflix is Hulu got there first with the 2021 Michael Keaton-starring limited series “Dopesick,” which won Emmys for Keaton’s performance and cinematography in its retelling of the Sackler family’s role in the Opioid crisis.

Once you get past a few of the same contours in the first “Painkiller” episode – Taylor Kitsch as a family man who gets hooked on oxy, this show’s version of the Keaton character in “Dopesick;” Matthew Broderick as the villainous, odd Richard Sackler, who cares about making money more than his family’s reputation; the Purdue Pharma reps, young women who entice doctors to prescribe OxyContin by taking them to dinner and buying them gifts – this Netflix limited series manages to stand on its own. At six episodes, compared to eight for “Dopesick,” “Painkiller” tells its story with more expediency.

In the hands of director Peter Berg (“Friday Night Lights”) and writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, who wrote 2019’s Pittsburgh-filmed, Tom Hanks-starring Mister Rogers movie “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” “Painkiller” tells its story in a darker, angrier more cynical fashion, befitting the crisis it depicts.

In addition to the writers and Berg, documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, who was behind the HBO opioid crisis documentary “Crime of the Century,” is also among the “Painkiller” executive producers.

“Painkiller” is told through the recollections of Edie Flowers (Uzo Aduba, “Orange is the New Black”), a composite character of a lawyer working for the Roanoke, Va., U.S. Attorney’s office who in 1998 investigates the over-prescribed new drug OxyContin. Aduba’s Edie burns with a fierce, righteous anger about the whole situation, from the uncaring, irresponsible Sacklers to the U.S. government’s willingness to cut a deal that results in no one taking responsibility for the deaths of more than 300,000 Americans.

“Opioids don’t destroy just the lives of those who use them,” Flowers says. “They destroy the lives of everyone in their orbit.”

Where “Dopesick” treated the result of the government’s case with a that’s-how-it-goes shrug, “Painkiller” responds with loathing and indignation that the system protected the wealthy at the expense of their victims.

“Dopesick” hopped around through time in a somewhat confusing manner but “Painkiller” is largely chronological. And while Broderick’s Richard Sackler is an uncaring weirdo similar to Michael Stuhlbarg’s cartoonish villain in “Dopesick,” “Painkiller” offers more insight into the same character.

Throughout “Painkiller,” Broderick’s Richard communes with the ghost of his uncle, Mortimer Sackler (John Rothman), as “Painkiller” suggests Mortimer’s misdeeds laid the groundworker for Richard’s OxyContin.

Perhaps the smartest thing the “Painkiller” producers do is to begin each episode with the parent of an actual victim of the opioid crisis talking directly to the camera and briefly sharing the story of their son or daughter who became addicted to oxycontin and died at a young age. It’s incredibly moving — more so than any of the scripted drama that follows.

Pittsburgh native in ‘Love in Taipei’

Actress Chelsea Zhang, a Pittsburgh native and former North Allegheny High School cheerleader captain who got her first break with a role in the filmed-in-Pittsburgh 2012 film “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” co-stars in the new Paramount+ rom-com “Love in Taipei,” streaming Aug. 10.

Based on the novel “Loveboat Taipei” by Abigail Hing Wen, the movie follows a young American woman, Ever (Ashley Liao), who is sent by her parents to a cultural immersion program in Taipei where the prospect of romance soon blossoms with two boys. Zhang plays Ever’s friend Sophie. She was unavailable for an interview due to the ongoing actors’ strike.

‘DTN’ visits Carnegie Museum

Next week PBS will air new episodes of “Donkey Hodie” that bring aboard Trolley from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and a new Mr. McFeely-like character, Turtle-Lou. In addition a new episode of “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” features a visit to Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

In Monday’s “DTN” episode (9 a.m., WQED-TV), the live-action interstitial between animated stories features Red Sweater Kid Sam Lynch-Liendo of Bethel Park visiting the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems to see its collection of rocks. Lynch-Liendo, 12, has appeared in multiple live-action “DTN” interstitials since 2017, including “Visit to the Dentist,” “Going Camping” and “Visit with a Percussionist.”

Next week’s Carnegie Museum segment also features museum education writer Jessica Romano and museum educator Pat McShea.

Kept/canceled

Amazon’s Prime Video renewed “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” starring former Carnegie Mellon University student Lola Tung, for a third season.

PBS renewed “Great American Recipe” for a third season.

Apple TV+ canceled “City on Fire” after a single season.

Channel surfing

This summer’s live-action “Little Mermaid” remake will arrive on Disney+ Sept. 6. … The “Stand Up to Cancer” fundraiser returns as a one-hour special at 8 p.m. Aug. 19 on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC featuring celebrity appearances by Elizabeth Banks, Don Cheadle, Katie Couric, Tig Notaro, Jimmy Smits and Justin Timberlake. … Meryl Streep and Ashley Park perform “Look for the Light,” written by Sara Bareilles, Benj Pask and Justin Paul, in the Aug. 15 episode of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” with the song available for purchase as a digital download on Aug. 16. … “Pittsburgh Today Live” regular Mikey Hood gave birth to a son, Logan Michael Oliver, after 30 hours of labor.