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A few weeks after the release on Apple TV+ of WeCrashed, The Dropout confirms the appetite of series producers for the very contemporary subject of the turbulence that has shaken the 2.0 economy in recent years.
The creator of this new series produced by Hulu, Elizabeth Meriwether, may come from the world of comedy (we owe her the very cult New Girl et Sex Friends), it is with serious sharpness that she works to untangle the threads of the Theranos affair. The scenario of The Dropout is inspired by the eponymous podcast produced by ABC News, which, in line with the great investigative podcasts at the Serialtraced in 2019 the setbacks of a medical start-up founded by a 19-year-old Stanford student, Elizabeth Holmes.
Richly documented, the ABC podcast serves as the basis for a “file” miniseries, in the sequel to Dopesick and great American investigative stories; the interest of The Dropout being that it goes far beyond this program by making a thick mystery emerge from the personality of Elizabeth Holmes, a form of sociopathy which is reminiscent of the way in which David Fincher filmed Jesse Eisenberg in the role of Mark Zuckerberg (The Social Network2010).
“The Dropout” is the story of a deception that originated in a sick ego
The Dropout is the story of a deception that finds its origin in a sick ego, that of a brilliant science student convinced of having had the idea that will make her the “next Steve Jobs”, as the magazine titled it Inc. about him in 2015. The idea, a box allowing to practice a battery of medical analyzes using a simple drop of blood, will never succeed. This will not prevent the founder of Theranos from continuing to raise funds from investors seduced by this young visionary woman and terrified at the idea of being outdated or, worse, replaced.
Airy realization
In contrast to WeCrashed or, in the same genre,Inventing Annatwo series that willingly link the failings of their heroes to the flaws of capitalism, The Dropout rarely seeks to justify the headlong rush of its heroine: on the contrary, the series makes Elizabeth Holmes the product of her own neuroses coupled with the ambivalences of an era where value is measured by economic success. Without ever sinking into the sordid contemplation of his fall, The Dropout seeks above all to understand what animates its main character.
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