Recently I’ve found myself watching a bunch of TV series which have a similar theme. The shows are Dopesick and The Dropout on Disney+ and WeCrashed on Apple TV+. They present events you know happened but it means more when someone puts it on the screen and presents it to you thus forcing you to reflect on it.
Dopesick, A Dystopia
Let’s discuss Dopesick first, as it’s a different series to the other two, but I didn’t want to leave it out. Dopesick is less a show about personalities and swings closer to being a dramatised documentary, as it’s based on the non-fiction book of the same name, and it is all the more fascinating for it.
I’ll warn you now, you will find it depressing via both the personal stories woven through the series and the level of organisational dysfunction and the capability of that to ruin lives. You won’t believe the level of gaslighting the combination of forces allows to happen.
Dopesick covers the story of America’s addiction to opioid pain medication due to a singular company miss-selling a highly addictive drug as non-addictive. You see unfolding a grand calamity through the actions of individuals and the failure of institutions that is similar to the financial crises but it’s the health of your fellow man that is being put at risk.
The show is hard to watch, because of the subject matter and because the dramatic elements serve a documentary-style discussion of the facts, but it is a fascinating show. You will despair about the failings of the human condition.
WeCrashed, A Love Story
WeCrashed is just a brilliant series. You can enjoy WeCrashed without looking at it in abject horror because it’s not about human health. It’s still horrific in the levels of money and greed sewn into the story, but it’s a different form of crazy.
WeCrashed is essentially a love story. A delusional millennial love story.
It’s sort of like a love story bound up in drugs, but the drug is the heady, delusional and crazy ‘how was that allowed to happen’ growth of WeWork. Jaret Leto and Ann Hathaway are completely enthralling in their roles and they carry the whole thing. It’s just nuts how a singular individual was allowed to delude themselves into believing a company built on long-term property deals could follow a profit-less growth model like an infinitely expandable digital business and everyone allowed him to do it.
WeCrashed shows how a company sold millennials a revolution as empty as a spent beer tap
David Grossman, https://www.gq.com/story/wecrashed-review-wework
WeCrashed is a grand, crazy tale that is well written, with enthralling characters. You’d think it was a gloriously crazy, unbelievable comedy if it was pure fiction. You’re totally astounded by it since it’s based on true events.
The Dropout, A Horror Story
The Dropout is a TV series that is nothing short of genius. The Dropout tells the story of the rise of Elizabeth Holmes as the CEO of Theranos, who promised to revolutionise healthcare via an idea she made up on a scrap of paper and insisted it could exist through magically willing it into existence.
Literally, like Yoda.
It goes beyond the dramatisation of the events but crosses over into being a sort of personal horror story as Elizabeth Holmes goes from a heartfelt delusional young woman to one who adopts a more sinister form of delusion that is unsettling to behold. Amanda Seyfried’s performance is literally transformational as she initially delivers a great performance, but at least she’s recognisable, but goes on to make herself almost unrecognisable from any role she’s done before.
The level of self-delusion the central character is able to maintain and how that is supported by investors and people around her in order to support a narrative everyone wants to be true goes beyond fascinating to feeling uncomfortable.
The religion of the market
The enthralling element of WeCrashed and The Dropout specifically, is the religion of stock market growth and the messianic trappings of US CEO culture. That is what’s at the heart of both the stories. The narrative of unicorn companies, the investors who want to be in at the right time and see the growth, the employees who get wrapped up in the cult-like fever of working for a company with altruistic missions (despite being an office space company) and the adoration of their leaders as if it is their personal lives that are being transformed as they get wrapped up in the traps of being the purpose-driven generation.
They work 80 hours a week for free beer and T-shirts.
WeCrashed on Millenials
It’s all the more interesting because I’ve never experienced anything like this in the UK. It would appear alien and strange if it wasn’t for the fact I have experienced US corporate culture more recently and while there is nothing close to the insanity that is on display in these TV series you can see the embryonic elements that allow these things to happen.
The stories of how everyone wants to find the next tech startup unicorn and the religious fever that surrounds them are enthralling. Even when the elements of said companies obviously can’t be the same because they’re dealing with structural differences.
It’s a glorified mass delusion.
And, Finally…
Ultimately, Dopesick, WeCrashed and The Dropout are three TV series that are different in how they approach their stories but each one is fascinating in its own right. In these crazy times of being deluged with great TV content, I recommend you carve out the time for all three.
If I was forced to pick one out of the three? It would probably be The Dropout. It was just scarily enthralling but it’s a very close call as each series is very different.