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"Corruption is real, greed is real, and many times these companies get away with it.“, reports Pete Berg about the production of the series he directs, Empire of Pain (Painkiller). At Netflix two weeks ago in 2nd place in the Global Top 10, it already accumulates 7,2 million views on the platform: the story of Império da Dor addresses the impact of opioid medication OxyContin, sold by the company Purdue pharma, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths in the US. See more below: o1722
The story told in Empire of Pain 2h511
In the early 2000s, the company Purdue pharma was looking to increase sales with its newly created drug, OxyContin. For this, invite Shannon Schaeffer (interpreted by west duchvny) to “make the minds up” of doctors and get them to look favorably on the drug. He is a fictional character, used to represent the influence of Purdue, which began to profit more from the opioid through its ments.
he s Richard Sackler (Matthew broderick) and manage to make the drug consumed on a large scale. To show the effects of this attack on opioids (a substance indicated for the treatment of pain, but which also contains narcotics, such as heroin), the series features Glen Kryger (Taylor kitsch): the character is one of the victims of OxyContin, starting to use the drug after a medical prescription.
The investigation has the character Edie Flowers (Uzo Aduba), which works to understand how the Sackler family (which owns Purdue) was so successful in spreading the drug. After use, the series says that people tended to become easily addicted, starting to consume more and more opioids, until they died from addiction.
Being somewhat similar to dopesick (miniseries of the platform of streaming Hulu), Império da Dor has a narrative focused on the family who suffered with the substance, from the point of view of those who became addicted to the drug.
The series sticks to other productions already made about OxyContin, such as the book Pain killer (2018) of Barry Meier, and in the article The Family That Built the Empire of Pain (The family that built the empire of pain, in free translation), published by the magazine The New Yorker.
Building on that , she tracks how various US government agencies let the drug without stricter regulations. The result of this was the increase in the opioid crisis: more than half of the children who died from consumption of some substance in 2018, in the USA, ingested this type of drug, according to the specialized journal Pediatrics. Still, data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) show that more than 82 people died from opioid overdoses in 2022 alone.
What did the director of Empire of Pain tell you about the production of the series? 3n2a2l
80 families living in the city of Los Angeles reached out to Berg to talk about how the OxyContin influenced their lives. Relatives of overdose victims were initially invited to tell the stories that disturbed their family ' lives. “People who have it all, thousands and thousands of families destroyed by opioid addiction“, said the producer of Painkiller the magazine Veja.
Berg also spoke about the choice of actors for the series, which has the presence of Matthew broderick, which gives life to one of the of Pursue, responsible for popularizing OxyContin. Placing Broderick — known for playing Ferris Buller em Enjoying Life Swept (1986) — to act in the series was a smart choice, according to the production director for Netflix.
“[…] The idea that Ferris Buller could be one of the biggest drug dealers in the world was very interesting.
Pete Berg
Director of Empire of Pain (Netflix)
About Edie Flowers, attorney general of the United States, Berg limited herself to saying that she had made the right choice for the actress who plays her, Uzo Aduba. She has acted in Orange is the New Black , the Susan, whose character was far more irreverent than his role in the new miniseries.
What is Pete Berg's opinion on the impact of opioids? 5g493w
Purdue Pharma's power, in Berg's view, is enough to get the company out of the woods.
We can show that and let the audience, if they're interested, see how big pharmaceutical companies can operate if they're not controlled.
Pete Berg
It is estimated that, each year, 100 people die as a result of the use of opioids. Therefore, Berg hopes that people will take more responsibility when thinking about drug use. “People make a lot of money thanks to what we put in our bodies“, he opines in relation to the ingestion of pharmaceutical products.
And then, already checked Empire of Pain? Tell us in the comments of showmetech!
See also:
Source: Veja | IndieWire | Netflix | The New York Times | Vulture | CDC
reviewed by Glaucon Vital in 27 / 8 / 23.
