The Dropout Show Recommendation. I followed the Theranos company pretty closely even before it exploded. But I really had no idea the crazy that was going on and didn’t until I watched the Hulu show The Dropout. “In a tale of ambition and fame gone terribly wrong, Elizabeth Holmes develops healthcare technology that puts millions of patients at risk and loses everything in the blink of an eye.” But it was pretty clear that Elizabeth’s number one life goal was to become a billionaire. Oh, and by the way, she figured she needed to invent something in order to make that happen. Thus, Theranos.
The Dropout is a limited run series diving into the world of Theranos in an attempt to find out exactly what went wrong. It’s also a show that sort of feels like the show Doctor Death, even though Elizabeth Holmes isn’t killing people… the question is, is she wittingly or unwittingly hurting people? Was it all an accident? Was she complicit in some snowball? Or did she go in, fully aware, and cognizant of what she was doing?
The Dropout Overview
Basically, the overall premise of the show is that it’s unbelievable that we found ourselves following this “college dropout” down this primrose path towards medical nirvana. But it seems to be giving Elizabeth a lot of leeway in believing her stories intrinsically. The show was based on ABC News’ podcast of the same name, The Dropout, and was a really intriguing listen, if you haven’t checked it out already. It sort of felt like it was a strange, Rocky for the biomedical story… an underdog fight against the innovation recalcitrant for the ages. But I found that when the story morphed from an underdog, love fest, over to a much more laser focused antagonist for the ages drive it soars.
And yet, like I mentioned already, Elizabeth is similar to Christopher Daniel Duntsch of Dr. Death, in that she is hard to pin down. Was she just really driven and motivated – so much so that she ACCIDENTALLY hurt people? Or was she willingly hurting people? When the show shifts into the land of no return, it really goes for the jugular. We can dispense with all of the weird and quirky, “Mom I plan to be sexually active in college” kookiness. Here’s where Holmes goes off the rails. Startups demand progress. Lots, and lots of progress. Gains demand gains, and even more gains. And soon Elizabeth finds herself at the bottom of an ever-deepening pit. By faking out one investor, she finds herself juking out another ten minutes later.
The Dropout Acting Chops
Let’s talk about Seyfried’s turn as Elizabeth Holmes. Personally? I thought she crushed this role. I mean, I haven’t seen Holmes talk much outside of her deposition videos and a few interviews here and there. So I can’t say for certain. But Holmes is such a strange character. Quirky and egg-heady by turns. Her affected deep voice, and that weird way she seems to clinch her jaw as she gets more emotive? Seyfried just imbues the essence of Elizabeth, it’s really uncanny. The absurdity of it all, and yet the factual truth of this, that this weird thing really did happen in spite of its strangeness, all this is captured in her performance.
If you’ve already seen The Dropout, and you haven’t seen Dr. Death yet? You have to check that out. They are definitely cut from the same investigative chop though handled differently. Both are definitely character studies of the extreme. Both interesting. And both worth your time. At least I thought so.
Edited by: CY
