Limited Series – The Dropout

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Rob A Captivating miniseries about the true story of Elizabeth Holmes, Sunny Balwani and Theranos, a fraudulent medical device maker founded by a 19 year-old Stanford dropout. Amanda Seyfried, whom I consider to be this generation's Michelle Pfiffer, and William H. Macy (honestly looking awful here I barely recognized him) knock it out of the park. The supporting cast, including Sam Watterston, were all fine as well. The production appeared to have a big budget and is a manageable 8 episodes. I binged this one in 24 hours. (Holmes and Balwani are both serving long prison sentences today and deservedly so.) Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/21/25 Full Review Moody C I read the book and watched all the documentaries on Theranos ever since 60 Minutes first aired this incredible story. Knowing the full story very well beforehand, I was still hooked watching this series and cannot stop watching. Usually, I like to go on my iPad and multi task while streaming but not for this series. It's what binge watching dreams are made of. While Seyfried is amazing, I feel the story itself is so fascinating that you cannot stop watching. When I read the book, I cud not stop reading it and finished it in only a few days. Some viewers complain that the series was too long but I was surprised this is only one season. Really needed two seasons to tell the full story. One thing missing in the series is how Holmes led the inspectors in a wild goose chase to mislead them which wud been entertaining to watch but they didn't even show inspection and just showed the result as something Carreyrou read. When the series ended, it had a bunch of postscript notes which is a sure sign they needed more episodes to finish telling the story. I mean, who wants to read these notes when they can watch it on TV? In the series, they made Dr Fuisz along with others instrumental in uncovering the fraud but while that makes for fuzzy viewing, watching this band of rebels fight against Holmes, it was really Carreyrou from WSJ who singlehandedly brought the company down with his story supported by some sources namely former intern, Tyler Shultz. Seyfried is perfectly cast for her huge eyes which Holmes has but they didn't go the distance for detail since Holmes has these striking light blue eyes and Seyfried has pale green eyes. Lastly, on the last episode, Holmes' lawyer tells her she "hurts people" which is accurate except a crowd was chanting that when she tried to make a comeback by showing her new Edison at an expo. Having the lawyer say that makes zero sense since the laywer herself hurt a lot of people by continuing to work there despite knowing the truth and by threatening former employees with lawsuits. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/12/24 Full Review Harlan C This series sticks with you. It is timely and relevant for those with any kind of job or responsibility. It is a very effective character study of Elizabeth Holmes and the people she interacted with. The extremely well crafted writing leaves room for consideration of all the forces that led to her downfall. The direction is crystal clear and makes all of the turning points for Holmes and Theranos very understandable. The show does not drift into complicated discussions of pathology, science or the corporate world. It balances gripping and insightful character insights with the looming threat of consequences. I also liked how the show does not sympathise with Holmes, but very much allows room for us to see why she became the way she did. It is heartbreaking, disturbing and very very concerning. Pitch perfect casting all round supports this well told story. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/04/24 Full Review John M Fascinating story and amazingly well cast. Only reason this isn’t 5 stars is just the pacing of the whole season. There was a few too many moments that just dragged on, definitely could have benefited from some tighter editing. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/07/24 Full Review Consuelito B Tremendamente fresca. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 07/18/24 Full Review EDGAR S Increíble que esta historia sera realidad, aquí es cuando la realidad supera la ficción. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/18/24 Full Review Read all reviews

The Dropout — Limited Series

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