The One To Start With, The One To Stay With – As the opening episode of Painkiller begins, Richard Sackler (Matthew Broderick) wakes up and looks around his mansion. He struggles to get the smoke alarm to go off. With help from his housekeeper, he manages to get it turned off. Edie Flowers (Uzo Aduba) meets Brianna Ortiz (Ana Cruz Kayne) and Bill Havens (Ron Lea). They have the next five hours so Edie wants to make the most of it. They begin talking about the states and cities that are suing Purdue Pharma for their role in starting the opioid epidemic. Brianna explains they’ve consolidated those lawsuits into a single case hoping to bring justice for once and for all.

Edie isn’t satisfied with just getting money. She thinks they’re wasting her time because she has been there before and knows how it’ll end. Edie is shown Richard Sackler’s taped deposition. Brianna tells her that things are different now because they’re big-game hunting. Edie wants another chair because Richard was sitting in that one. Once she gets a new chair, she asks what is next. Edie first heard about OxyContin because of an x-ray machine in Hillsville, Virginia in 1998. She visits Dr. Coyle there and explains she is an investigator with the US Attorney’s Office in Roanoke. Part of her job is to track down doctors who bill Medicaid for procedures they don’t perform.

Edie knows he has been lying so the doctor quickly says he can pay it back. She looks at his files. In Mount Airy, North Carolina, Glen Kryger (Taylor Kitsch) works at his mechanic shop and gives orders to Tyler. Mike arrives to close up so Lily Kryger (Carolina Bartczak) takes care of him. Mike tells them that Maggie left and took everything but the truck. After he leaves, Lily takes a call and informs Glen that his order from Italy has arrived. Glen worries about the $8,000 price tag. He goes back outside to tell Tyler (Jack Mulhern) to stop messing around. When Glen tries to get him out of the machine, he ends up falling and hurting his back.

He is taken to the hospital where he receives surgery. After the surgery, Glen learns everything went well. He is told more about the medications he will be taking. Dr. Hartman tells him he’ll use Vicodin for the pain before leaving. Edie tells Brianna and the others that Richard attached himself to an endless supply of customers. Glen goes to therapy and complains about the pain. He is reminded that this is his reality now. Edie believes this whole thing started when someone in the Sackler family realized there was big money in sales and marketing. She goes on to accuse Arthur Sackler (Clark Gregg) of starting the whole thing.

He developed a new pill that he called a lobotomy in a bottle. Once he realized he was a better salesman than doctor, he bought a drug company and the country’s largest medical advertising company. When they got the contract for Valium, they hit the jackpot and helped create the world’s first blockbuster drug. Arthur was very interested in building a legacy. As for his family, they couldn’t wait for him to die. He drove himself to the emergency room on May 26, 1987 and told them he was having a heart attack. He ends up dying. Edie explains that Richard unleashed a monster and made them billions.

Richard had a plan and needed one key ingredient, but his dysfunctional family stood in the way. The Sackler family learns that Arthur was deep in debt. He had several businesses and added their names to many of them. It is recommended that they liquidate to pay the debts because they’re sizable. Richard thinks they should give them everything in exchange for Purdue. He is told Purdue only has MS Contin which is a niche drug for people with cancer. Richard believes they can do well with Purdue because they understand pain. He goes on to explain that people run from pain and run toward pleasure.

Richard argues that they can become gatekeepers for everyone who wants to get away from pain. They will change the world and never have to worry about money ever again. Edie is asked what she thinks motivated Richard Sackler. She doesn’t think it matters though. Work is the thing that motivated her. In Roanoke in 1998, she receives a letter from the Jessup Correctional Institution. While playing Tomb Raider, she has to call the helpline because she gets stuck. During the meeting, Edie says she is a bureaucrat and bureaucracy is what holds them together. Then, she asks the doctor for copies of every invoice over the last two years.

She goes through them to find out when she was lied to. Edie tells Brianna that not a lot of people had heard of OxyContin in 1998. In Norwalk, Connecticut, Richard takes his dog Unchie to work so he can find a blockbuster drug. He wasn’t starting from scratch since Purdue had been making the morphine-based painkiller Oxycontin for over 15 years. Richard works with Dr. Robert Kaiko (Matt Baram) to create a painkiller that people associate with improved well-being and life. He wants to create something new. Edie explains that they took one type of heroin wrapped in a time-release coating and swapped it for a much stronger one.

Richard, Kaiko, and others watch a group of people being studied. When the participants are asked about oxycodone, they don’t really know what it is. Richard thinks it is good that they’ll have a clean slate with oxycodone. He argues that the drug will be very safe when used under the supervision of a physician. Edie suspects this could’ve been stopped then if Raymond or Mortimer had said something. Richard tells Mortimer (John Rothman) and the others how they’re going to give people their lives back. Edie says that was only half of the plan and it wasn’t the worst half. Richard began putting together a sale force to market OxyContin.

They hired good-looking college graduates who could speak a doctor’s language before programming them. Shannon Schaeffer (West Duchovny) says hi to Frank before her mom belittles him for sitting around all day. Shannon looks at a card she has for Britt Hufford (Dina Shihabi) who works for Purdue. She goes to the seminar and listens to Britt speak about pain and OxyContin. After the seminar, Britt tells Shannon she made the right decision by coming there. When Shannon asks about her paycheck, Britt recommends staying with her since other girls have when they’re trying to get on their feet. At home, Glen continues struggling with his pain.

Lily has to come in and help him. Glen tells Tyler to come get a good look at this. Lily assures Glen that he is going to be fine. Shannon moves in with Britt. They share a toast to Shannon’s new life. Britt lets Shannon smell her shoes and says they smell like money. Glen and Lily go back to Dr. Hartman who wants to start him on OxyContin. Hartman explains that it last 12 hours before wearing off. Glen is told to take one in the morning and one before going to bed. Hartman insists it is just as safe as any other opioid. Edie wants to speak to Dr. Coyle who isn’t happy to see her. She asks him about OxyContin because he has been prescribing it a lot recently.

Edie asks him to tell her about the drug in question. Glen searches for something under his couch. Britt and Shannon party.

 

Painkiller Review

The opening episode of Painkiller left a lot to be desired. While this is an important story to tell, the series didn’t do a good job of telling it in the first episode. It may develop better later on, but the story is all over the place at this point. It doesn’t help that some of the performances are not perfect and many scenes are overly cheesy.

The show probably made a big mistake by creating a composite character with Edie Flowers and making that character as unlikeable as possible. The script makes the character behave in unrealistic, unsympathetic ways to the point that I’d probably cheer Richard Sackler over her. If that is happening, there is something wrong with the script.

The pacing is incredibly slow even though there are only six episodes. It took Glen Kryger forever to get hurt even though everyone could see what was coming. The series is also trying to juggle too many concurrent storylines and got messy near the end. That may be another issue in future episodes. Overall, this was a disappointing start to Painkiller but that is pretty typical for Netflix now.

The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Painkiller can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.