by Maureen McCabe
If you’re going to pick one show from Tv’s currently crowded lineup of idealists turned scammers and morally ambiguous people doing bad things, then The Dropout is the one to choose. The eight episode series created by Elizabeth Meriwether, based on the eponymous podcast of the same name by Rebecca Jarvis. is streaming now in its entirety on Hulu. Not only is the subject matter fascinating and topical, but the series is able to make the esoteric world of health care tech compulsively watchable. It does an excellent job of dramatizing the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, the world’s youngest female self-made millionaire, and her blood-testing company Theranos, which was poised to revolutionize the health care industry by being able to run hundreds of blood tests from a single drop of blood. Her innovative machines were supposed to make costs less inexpensive, provide quicker diagnoses and render the process of lab-testing less painful for patients, all of which would have been truly amazing if only the tech had actually worked. Before its inglorious demise, Theranos raised nearly $100 million in venture capital funding, attracted the likes of George Shultz, Jim Mattis, venture capital investor Don Lucas, and Henry Kissinger to the board, and made Holmes a feminist and entrepreneurial icon.
The Dropout carefully charts Elizabeth Holmes’s journey from nervous, socially-awkward teenager to ambitious Stanford student to college dropout/start up darling to wealthy CEO to criminal fraudster. Along the way it provides glimpses of her life that give some insight into what drives Holmes, especially her father’s job loss when she was a teenager, which plays into her desire to both help people and make significant money, her mother’s advice to just “move on from it,” given after Holmes is sexually assaulted in college and not believed when she tries to report it, and her innately driven determination, evident even as a very young, untalented runner. The poignancy of these scenes, combined with Amanda Seyfried’s masterful performance, do what seems like it should be almost impossible, make Holmes appear at least somewhat sympathetic, without losing sight of her cold relentlessness and willingness to lie and commit fraud. Sometimes in shows about charismatic criminals, there’s a danger they may come off as too engaging, too attractive, while their victims are shunted to the side. The Dropout makes excellent use of the heroic Tyler Shultz and Erika Cheung, former Theranos employees turned whistleblowers, to explain how dangerous and potentially life-threating Holmes and their employer’s deceit really was. It took a great deal of courage for Shultz, appealing played by Dylan Minette, and Cheung, Camryn Mi-young Kim in a in a lovely, fragile performance, to come forward against the vengeful, litigious Theranos and the young actors portraying them demonstrate both their real-life counterparts’ bravery and the toll that bravery took on them. Likewise, Wall Street Journal writer and author of the expose Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Start-up John Carreyrou (a likeably low-key Ebon Moss-Bachrach) determinedly breaks the story of Theranos’ fraud with the help of Shultz and Cheung in the face of ever more ominous threats of lawsuits and career-ending reprisals. Despite her charisma, which she deftly wields to further her aims and entice investors, and the sympathy some of her more painful experiences engender in the viewer, The Dropout rightfully never lets Holmes off the hook for her crimes. Indeed, the last episode fittingly ends with former Theranos henchwoman and attorney Linda Tanner (Michaela Watkins) yelling at Holmes, “You hurt people, you hurt people,” while an oblivious Holmes babbles on about her plans for a new life with her new boyfriend and new dog.
The writing is engaging and sometimes darkly funny, portraying the seminal events in Holmes’ life and career against a soundtrack of great indie songs of the ‘00s. If at times it feels like the material is stretched a little thin to fill the entire eight episodes, chances are you won’t mind spending a little more time with the excellent cast. Amanda Seyfried is incredible as Holmes in all her incarnations, employing her sweet face and youthful features to believably portray a teenage Elizabeth, before switching to a wide -eyed stare and artificially lowered voice to convey Holmes at her most off-putting CEO best. Naveen Andrews gives a standout performance as Sunny Balwani, lending him a certain pathos as Elizabeth’s lover and protector, while not shying away from detailing his explosive temper and cutthroat cruelty when dealing with staff and shareholders. Laurie Metcalf as the doctor who’s always had Holmes’ number, and William H. Macy as her former, equally unimpressed, neighbor who becomes a fierce antagonist, are delights. Sam Waterson, portraying George Schulz, who comes off as stubbornly and somewhat meanly unable to admit he’s wrong in Bad Blood, gives a nuanced performance as a man who strenuously wants to believe in something that has the potential to greatly aid humanity. Michael Ironside turns Don Lucas into a stern, but kindly, father figure and Stephen Fry as the doomed chemist Ian Gibbons is nothing short of heartbreaking.
In January 2022, Holmes was found guilty of four of the seven counts of criminal fraud against the company’s investors, although disappointedly not those against consumers. She will be sentenced for her crimes in September 2022, so in a way her story feels unfinished. (The trial against Balwani, who Holmes has blamed for most of Theranos’ wrongdoing, is still ongoing.) While there are no plans for another season of The Dropout by the showrunners, Amanda Seyfried has said she’s keen to continue playing Holmes and there’s no doubt that the aftermath of Theranos’ implosion would make for another riveting series.
