In this weekly column, Wingspan’s Editor-in-Chief talks about the Hulu show, The Dropout, inspired by the true story of Elizabeth Holmes.
The Dropout: the first three episodes
The story of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, first captured by investigative reporter John Carreyrou in what became the book Bad Blood, is cinematic in and of itself- before any creative liberties or Oscar-nominated actors are added to help push the thrill along. That being said, there were so many different ways Hulu’s The Dropout could’ve gone wrong.
The Dropout could have been the same mess as Netflix’s Inventing Anna; a haphazard attempt to capture the story of a woman too complicated to be examined in a vapid, black and white lens. I was wary that the show would glamorize Holmes and turn her into some feminist anti-hero and fail to develop any of the depth within the cautionary tale that is Theranos’s disastrous fall from grace.
Luckily, that’s not the case with The Dropout. Within the first four episodes, screenwriter Liz Merriweather pieces together a brilliantly paced, deeply entertaining, near-thriller, examining the story of Elizabeth Holmes with careful nuance without ever resorting to putting Holmes in an undeserved sympathetic light.
Right off the bat, the casting is absolutely incredible- Amanda Seyfried manages to capture Holmes’ absurd mannerisms and quirks without creating a Saturday Night Live character out of her, grounding the role within the insane plot.
The writing is phenomenal and the pilot reads like a comic book character’s origin story, slowly establishing the context in which Holmes was raised. The show is in large part chronological, and we first see Seyfried as an 18-year-old Holmes, freshly admitted to Stanford. We get introduced to her already cocky and somewhat off-putting ambition with scenes that provide some insight into her characterization and the mindset that eventually created Theranos.
As episode five drops Thursday night, I’m looking forward to seeing how the show tackles the story of Ian Gibson, who played a major role in the fourth episode. Each episode so far has been cinematic, with excellent pacing akin to a psychological thriller. The Dropout has genuinely proven to be good television- a must-watch for anyone, even those who have no interest in the Theranos scandal.