Plot: Money. Romance. Tragedy. Deception. Hulu’s 8-episode limited series “The Dropout,” the story of Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried) and Theranos, is an unbelievable tale of ambition and fame gone terribly wrong. How did the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire lose it all in the blink of an eye?
Review: Back in the old days of the 1980s and 1990s, network television movies were all about the sordid true stories of sensational crimes that swept the nation. Mostly TV veterans graced these roles in pulpy and melodramatic tales of backstabbing, murder, and deception. In recent years, these adaptations have evolved thanks to marquee streaming platforms and true crime podcasts resulting in limited series diving deep into the psyche of some of the most controversial criminals. This month alone we have gotten a look at Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in Showtime’s Super Pumped and soon will see John Cameron Mitchel and Kate McKinnon in Peacock’s Tiger King adaptation Joe vs. Carole as well as Renee Zellweger in NBC’s The Truth About Pam. All have taken unique approaches to their stories with some deadly serious and others rooted in dark comedy. Hulu’s The Dropout, chronicling Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, blends the drama with an undercurrent of humor thanks to the creative team behind it. The result is a very interesting look at a story that has already been told multiple times.
The Dropout is told in a shifting narrative framed by a deposition in 2017 where Holmes was questioned about the events surrounding her crimes of fraud. The series then shifts back to Holmes’ high school days, an exchange program in China where she met future lover and coworker Sunny Balwani (Naveen Andrews), and her time at Stanford leading to her founding of Theranos. Amanda Seyfried portrays Holmes as socially awkward yet brilliant with a focus on becoming the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. She listens to music constantly on her iPod which allows for a lot of late 90s songs to pepper the soundtrack. Holmes quotes Yoda and struggles to maintain relationships, socially or professionally, but still seems a sympathetic person who truly wants to invent something that will change the world. On the flipside, Naveen Andrews portrays Balwani as manipulative and a contributor to Holmes’ eventual crimes.
If you are questioning how this story could fill eight episodes worth of programming, rest assured that the writing team has more than enough material and knows where to focus. The first episode plows through several years’ worth of Holmes’ early life while subsequent episodes slow down to focus on the early days of Theranos and Holmes pursuing financing from venture capitalists while balancing her web of lies and deceit while also enjoying the praise and acclaim from the world around her. While only the first seven episodes were made available for this review, you never feel that the series is overstaying its welcome as it manages to maintain a dramatic momentum that keeps this from seeming repetitive. While Elizabeth Holmes is still in court today, The Dropout never tries to wrap it up in a neat package and leaves threads hanging while diving into elements of these people we have not seen before.
With a massive cast of talented actors including William H Macy, Laurie Metcalf, Elizabeth Marvel, Stephen Fry, Michael Ironside, Bill Irwin, Dylan Minnette, Alan Ruck, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Sam Waterston, Kurtwood Smith, Anne Archer, and many more, this series is stacked with big screen caliber talent. But, it all hinges on the absolutely mesmerizing performance from Amanda Seyfried. While Seyfried and Naveen Andrews are stellar when on screen together, Seyfried is so good that you cannot look away when she is on screen. I questioned whether Seyfried could pull this role off when she was initially cast, but she makes you actually feel sorry for Holmes in one scene before being Zuckerberg-level scary in the next. The scene where Holmes practices the deep voice that would become her persona to the public is a turning point in this series that is also one of the best moments of acting Seyfried has ever delivered.
The 2019 HBO documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, showed the world the dual sides of Elizabeth Holmes in an affecting two hours. Holmes has also been the subject of countless exposes on news programs as well as a potential project from Jennifer Lawrence and Adam McKay. The Dropout, which was initially set to star Kate McKinnon in the lead role, comes from Elizabeth Meriweather who is best known for the sitcom New Girl. With direction on the first episode by Michael Showalter (The Eyes of Tammy Faye), it is odd to see how many comedy veterans are involved with the writing and direction. Still, they manage to make this series feel like a true underdog story as it builds a house of cards that we all know is going to come crashing down.
The Dropout is one of the best true crime adaptations in recent memory thanks to a balanced look at the good and bad elements of who Elizabeth Holmes is and who she wanted to be. Amanda Seyfried is stunning and sometimes chilling as Holmes and Naveen Andrews is great as her co-conspirator and lover. By creating a series that gives us so much insight into who Holmes was, it is hard to not be left with so many more questions by the end of this series. Was Elizabeth Holmes a genius who flew too close to the sun or just a master manipulator who got caught? We may never really know the truth but this is a deeply fascinating look at what we do know. While Holmes and Theranos failed to follow through on their goal, The Dropout serves as a testament to what they tried to do while never celebrating their crimes.
The Dropout premieres on March 3rd on Hulu.