I remember when the story broke being somewhat interested, and then I read Carreyrou’s book Bad Blood - and became a Theranos obsessive. I also watched The Inventor - but skipped the podcast that the Hulu series is based on.
I like how the first episodes get into how deeply weird Holmes was. She’s barely running, but insists on finishing the race - much to the dismay of her classmates. She comes across as one of those “I want to do it myself!” types. Her stern admonition of her HS classmates in China for speaking English conveys her weird rigidity of “rules,” which of course applies to others but not Elizabeth herself.
I also enjoyed Stephen Fry as Ian, who along with Edmond and Ana, are clearly uncomfortable with the unfolding scam that is Theranos.
I’m not familiar with Amanda Seyfried as an actor, but she get props for conveying Elizabeth as such a weirdo. The random dance scenes, awkwardness, and even how Elizabeth morphs from weird outsider to cold-blooded Silicon Valley CEO is done well. The actor playing Sunny does a good job as well, and the random jackassery from the VC bros and Larry Ellison are alternately laughable/scary AF.
Now I am.
I still don’t know if she was a cold-calculating scammer or a prime example of Dunning-Kruger woefully out of her depth yet insisting she knew what to do. Either way, she sounds as crazy as Jerry Springer guest (she’s got the eyes for it).
Yes, my wife and I are watching and enjoying it. We’re about halfway through it.
Yeah, I didn’t know a whole lot about Holmes and the whole Theranos story, and it’s not entirely clear, at least at around the haflway point of the series, how much of what she did was an honest attempt to “fake it till you make it” how much was believeing her own hype, and how much was straight-up con job.
I’m enjoying it. It’s got that slightly satirical tone that seems to be the default for docudramas these days.
I wasn’t crazy about Amanda Seyfried at first—she doesn’t look or sound like Holmes—but she does a great job conveying Holmes’s weird intensity.
The series is masterful at showing exactly how Holmes was able to get away with her fraud as long as she did. The most recent episode focusing on the Walgreens executives really captured her ability to manipulate people by playing on their FOMO (fear of missing out).
I love Stephen Fry as Ian Gibbons. Knowing what eventually happened to Gibbons makes that character’s storyline especially tragic.
My wife and I binged the first 4 episodes on the weekend and thought they just ended it in the middle, then realized some genius came up with releasing episodes ONE PER WEEK. What kind of monster does that?
Hulu does it so you keep paying out that monthly gouge. They don’t really have much of a catalog (like Netflix does), so when they have a winner, they string you along for as long as possible. I usually beat their game by just putting the subscription on hold until the series is over, then binge watch it.
I’m enjoying The Dropout, partly because I had just finished reading Bad Blood (Amazon link). As I was reading it, I’d ask my wife who is (was) a lab technician in a medical lab if what they were doing was like her lab; “no, it’s seriously wrong!” She normally doesn’t watch these kinds of shows, but she’s into this one now.
I always liked Amanda Seyfried in Big Love and Mama Mia; I thought she was brave to say her slightly vulgar line as a teenage girl in Big Love“I let him (my boyfriend) finger me on the roller coaster”. Here’s the New York Times gift interview with NYT Women of the Dropout (a gifted article).
I just binged all 8 episodes. I think it’s really good, and unlike so many made-for-streaming series it doesn’t feel like it drags in the middle. Things are helped along by its broad base of supporting characters, many presented as with depth and competing motivations that drive events in their own way and without feeling diluted or disjointed from the main plot. That many of these characters are “normalish” (or at least what’s emphasized about them is their humanity, their ordinary mortal status as it were, rather than their wealth and power, even for those who clearly have means) also helps a lot.
By way of contrast, I just could not bring myself to care at all about the characters in Super Pumped (which focuses on Uber), because they either appeared as mere cutouts, lacking any depth and just there to fill a singular role, or worse, they were mega-millionaires and billionaires struggling against other mega-millionaires and billionaires, all cut from the same libertarian fabric, presented unironically and without critique (of their politics, at least). I honestly don’t give a &#@$ about the struggles of ultra wealthy battling it out against other ultra wealthy. But, again, that was Super Pumped.
With The Dropout, there are times, even, where I could empathize and sympathize with Holmes, while at the same time never feeling like I was being expected to agree with or endorse her as a person.