empathy, television, opioid epidemic, Dopesick

This contribution looks at the ways in which the contemporary TV miniseries format – with its cinematic production quality, long episode run-time, and A-list actors playing well-rounded characters – is uniquely equipped for empathetic and in-depth dives into major societal issues. Most recently, TV miniseries and docuseries devoted to the opioid epidemic in the US present an emerging and powerful case study of the miniseries format’s ability to elicit empathy: The Pharmacist, Dopesick, The Crime of the Century, American Rust, and Mare of Easttown frame the opioid crisis in humanizing and destigmatizing terms. These miniseries are specifically built on in-depth empathetic portrayals of communities decimated by opioids as well as destigmatizing depictions of individual OxyContin (ab)users and their families. This is enhanced by an edifying juxtaposition of well-meaning doctors and helpless rural communities pitted against and swallowed by systemic, Big-Pharma greed represented by the Sackler Family and Purdue Pharma. Overall, then, the miniseries format enables its creators to raise awareness about and understanding of addiction as a systemic issue, and help the viewers empathize with the victims of the opioid epidemic instead of blaming them for their choices.