Hulu Series The Dropout Is Spellbinding Display Of Corporate Greed, Polysemous Morality, And Wanton Abuse Of Public Trust

Sam Waterston as George Shultz and Dylan Minnette as Tyler Schultz in a moment of time that will forever be discussed at Thanksgiving dinner. All photos courtesy of The Dropout IMDb

“What would you attempt to do if you knew that you could not fail?” Pastor Robert Schuller and favorite quote of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes

Quote mining can be a dangerous business practice, especially when the quotes we choose to empower ourselves and each other allow us to believe and live in the blissful ignorance of our own biases without the inconvenience of thinking about others’ needs or wants. In The Dropout we see how unsustainable this sort of business and ethical habitude is and how it can eventually take an entire corporation down, one inspirational quip at a time.

A family of WASPs in their natural environment, an uncomfortable family get-together.

Most of us have watched at least some of the news coverage or listened to a few podcasts about the rise and fall of Theranos but Elizabeth Holmes’ backstory seemed to be missing a few pieces that would help explain her odd behaviors, the erosion of her empathy towards employees and patients, and her strange relationship with COO Sunny Balwani (Naveen Andrews). The Dropout goes to very intelligent and credible lengths to paint a more human picture of Holmes and the early trials and abuses that helped shape her into the near robot-in-human-form she became.

Dylan Minnette as Tyler Schultz and Camryn Mi-young Kim as Erika Cheung.

The series dives deeply into Elizabeth’s relationship with her parents and younger sibling, a relationship that involved supporting business and entrepreneurial endeavors but lacked the softer things in life like physical and emotional affection (which can make relating to other humans very difficult.) In meeting Sunny, she found everything she was looking for; someone to relate to, someone to protect her, and someone to put up with her odd behaviors. That all came at a cost, but with Sunny’s help both physically and financially she was able to keep Theranos afloat and convince investors to start believing in her and conversely her company. Unfortunately, the complex manipulative behaviors interpersonally between Elizabeth and Sunny and towards Theranos employees are ultimately what led to the company’s downfall, with Tyler Schultz and Erika Cheung being the agents of chaos Holmes and Balwani never saw coming.

Stephen Fry as Ian Gibbons

The series also goes into great detail about the Wallstreet Journal’s expose on Theranos and all the harassment the whistleblowers suffered for daring to speak out in defense of patients everywhere. From being followed and spied on by private detectives to restraining orders, lawsuits, and personal threats, Sunny and high profile attorney David Boies (Kurtwood Smith) did everything they could to intimidate and silence witnesses and to some degree, it worked. That is until Boies and the legal team from Theranos had a sit down with WSJ reporter John Carreyrou (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and senior editor Judith Baker (LisaGay Hamilton) to try and intimidate and silence them and ended up looking like incompetent idiots. Well played, everyone.

All in all The Dropout is a satisfying series that offers insight into the lies, drama, and trauma that built Theranos and the truth that brought it to its knees. The cast is absolutely brilliant (Amanda Seyfried is genuinely phenomenal) the music is the embodiment of Holmes and the storyline is tight. The Dropout is streaming on Hulu, right here, right now, so give it a go.

Amanda Seyfried with her dog Finn and…someone very important but I don’t know who.