Netflix has released the trailer for its upcoming drama series Painkiller, a fictionalized telling of real events, which explores some of the origins and aftermath of the opioid crisis in America.
According to the official synopsis, the show, from executive producer Eric Newman, the showrunner behind Narcos and Narcos: Mexico, highlights the stories of perpetrators, victims, and truth-seekers whose lives are forever altered by the invention of OxyContin.
The cast includes Matthew Broderick as Arthur Sackler, a psychiatrist from New York who specialized in lobotomies and started to realize that the future was in pills, specifically in advertising pills (he is also scion of the billionaire family and senior executive at Purdue Pharma, Uzo Aduba as Edie Flowers, an investigator for the US Attorney’s office who starts asking questions about a new drug, OxyContin; West Duchovny as Shannon Schaeffer, an ex–college athlete who’s recruited by veteran pharmaceutical sales rep Britt Hufford (Dina Shihabi) to join Purdue Pharma; and Taylor Kitsch as Glen Kryger, a hardworking family man and business owner whose life is upended after an injury.
The song used in the trailer is Chris Isaak’s “Baby Did A Bad Thing”.
Season 1 of Painkiller, consisting of six episodes, all directed by Friday Night Lights’ Berg, premieres on Netflix on Aug. 10.
