Recommended: The Dropout on Hulu
What's The Dropout About?
Based on the ABC News podcast of the same name, this docudrama chronicles the meteoric rise and crash of Elizabeth Holmes, who took millions from investors and Wall Street by claiming to have developed a breakthrough medical device, which she hadn’t.
Who's Involved?
Why (and to whom) do we recommend it?
It’s not hard to see why Kate McKinnon, who was originally cast as Elizabeth Holmes, left this project. Though there are comedic notes to this production, in the end it’s basically “what if Nightline made a docudrama?” (McKinnon is much better suited to an outsized role like Carole Baskin in Joe v. Carole, also premiering this week.) Seyfried, whose modeling career comes in handy here, plays a villain who is remarkably bland on the surface as she shapes her image and her message to give venture capitalists what they’re looking for. Pushing down her suffering, her secret relationship with Sunny and, above all, the truth about her non-operational device, Holmes managed to string along a lot of folks with her promise that “one tiny drop changes everything.” To some degree The Dropout is just a re-enactment of the public record — re-enactments of Elizabeth’s court deposition do a lot of the series’ expositional heavy lifting — but there is something strangely compelling about watching an actor portraying the purveyor of this audacious corporate fraud.
Pairs well with
TOPICS: The Dropout, Hulu, Alan Ruck, Amanda Seyfried, Dylan Minnette, Elizabeth Marvel, Kate Burton, Laurie Metcalf, LisaGay Hamilton, Liz Meriwether, Michaela Watkins, Michel Gill, Naveen Andrews, Sam Waterston, Stephen Fry, Utkarsh Ambudkar, William H. Macy