You might have engaged in many courtroom drams, but Dopesick Season 1 had a different tone and an element setting it.
The story is about opioids falsely marketed by one of the major Pharma giants named Purdue Pharma.
The medical issues that this drug has caused made people associate and fight back against the company’s wrongdoings.
The show depicted how big giants often get surpassed through the courtroom procedure either by some odd means or by using loopholes in the system and continuing with their business.
The same thing happens here as well because the company has got numerous lawsuits filed against them in more than 25 states was still positively selling that drug in the country without any hindrance from the authorities.
Dopesick Season 1 Recap- The Battle Against the Purdue Pharma
Dopesick Season 1 is a complete package of courtroom drama with enough of things that have been showcased about how Pharma giants everywhere around the world procure drugs, even if it isn’t good for the consumer, still sell for mere profits that they get.
The show becomes very relatable because it showcases how ordinary people like you can join hands against prominent industrialists’ wrongdoings and fight for the greater good.
Dopesick Season 1- Billy’s contract is terminated(Image Credits- Hulu)Dopesick Season 1 constricts its story against the plunge of ordinary people against the pharma giant Purdue Pharma, who was responsible for the opioid crisis in America.
The limited show ended with a positive outlook as it showed us a ray of hope that we can make sustainable changes if we fight together.
The ray of hope for the people multiples when Dr. Art Van Zee joins them in their protest; Finnix too joins them because he wants to get his medical license back.
Brownlee comes with a piece of solid, strong evidence against the Purdue lawyers; the former claims that Friedman, Udell, and Goldenheim have a greater perspective in this case, but the prosecutors claim that the trio had presented a false data of testimony in the court, but that doesn’t seem to make any sense now.
Well back at Purdue, Billy’s contract has been terminated by the higher authorities of Purdue Pharma.
They believe that Billy is responsible for the stolen tape.
While Billy is constantly refusing to accept the allegations that were made against him, if we think it from a point bleak, it should have been Billy only who must facilitate the stealing of tapes if he hasn’t stolen it himself by all means.
When Billy’s former boss Mountcastle and Ramseyer, asks him about the tape, he says that he has not stolen the recordings but hints that the tapes must have got damaged.
But, things start to take a toll as soon tapes at Mountcastle’s office, which would undoubtedly worry the Purdue executives.
As we approached the Dopesick Season 1 finale, we saw that the story started to change its tone, as Purdue began to use every tool that would act as damage control to their lost brand value.
That move was quite evident because that would be the only thing a healthy, established company would ever do to save itself from getting deep down in the grave of the market.
The season ended with Brownlee getting a $600 million settlement with Purdue Pharma, but later, he was fired off from his positions after the Sacklers too were exposed to be guilty in this chain.
Dopesick Season 1 Ending Explained- Were Purdue’s Successfully in Crushing the Uprising Against Them?
To start with what happened with Purdue Pharma, you should know some pretext of the same.
Purdue Pharma, one of the biggest Pharma giants, manufactured an opioid-based drug named OxyContin; this drug was launched into the market with the explicit intention of capturing a huge market base that would attract a considerable amount of money.
Richard Sackler is here retorted to the inappropriate marketing strategy adopted by the company to sell off this drug.
When people realized that this wasn’t going right on their side, they protested and rose against the giant. But, Purdue was well aware of the system and tried all their ways out to prevent this matter from reaching the court.
They tried implementing practices like settling a money deal with the people, but that didn’t really go well for them, and finally, the things were on the judge’s table.
Well, the makers of Dopesick Season 1 didn’t try to tell us what doesn’t happen but showed us what happens.
Purdue did what any other big company would do; they started to use the loopholes inside the system and mend their ways out.
They even tried to tamper with the evidence that would have circumstantially proved them guilty in court.
The only punishment they were given out was three company executives were executed with some minor changes.
They were dispelled from the company, but nothing happened with the higher authority.
The lawyers of Purdue tried to humiliate the testimonials in the court and tried to sideline many of them by making situations favorable so that they would never reach court.
Still, Purdue is one of the largest Pharma companies globally and continued to sell opioids until 2019, being the fact that the company had got dozens of lawsuits filed against them in over 25 states.
Dopesick Season 1 Finale- Does Finnix Find Redemption?
As we approached the finale of Dopesick Season 1, we saw a sudden abrupt transformation of Dr. Samuel Finnix, who had been one of the most respected doctors in the Finch Creek community, has now got transformed into a junkie.
The reason here, too, stands very obvious and isn’t surprising.
He does every possible thing to help his patients who are struggling with the addiction; in the process, he could not save one of his patients Betsy who died of an overdose.
The thing that made him regretful, but we know that he didn’t do that intentionally. He had a pure intention to help people out, but sometimes the items don’t work, which happened in Betsy’s case.
After the death of Betsy, we saw that Finnix became more conscious about the redemption process and started helping Elizabeth in this process.
The thing that made Finnix do all this was he, too, had been the victim of this addiction, and so did he wanted people to get rid of this as soon as possible.
Towards the end of Dopesick Season 1, we saw that Finnix could get over his addiction and get his medical license back.
Also, he set up various clinics to provide Suboxone treatment to the patients who are victims of this addiction.
The speech Finnix gives at the show’s end provides a ray of hope to the people who have got addicted; it’s great to listen to a person who had gone through all these things and has now finally been out of all this.
He gives hope to people that though things are tough but aren’t impossible, if you are determined to end this up, you could certainly do that.
The show ends with a positive note that you need to embrace your pain and embrace joy within you; when the pain is gone, you are the best and the happiest version of yourself.
