I went to school at SUNY Albany, where one night, after a tragic loss in a Super Smash Bros. tourney and my first-ever puff of weed (which I immediately declared ‘incredible’ to a room full of laughing strangers), a guy nicknamed ‘Sloppy’ asked if I wanted to take ‘oxy.’ Unfortunately for Sloppy, he’d picked the wrong candidate for hillbilly heroin (a well-known term for OxyContin—keep up, jabroni).

Years later, Dopesick finally made me realize just how insane the OxyContin epidemic was—and thank God my younger self was too busy perfecting my Super Smash Bros. wavedash to entertain a crippling opioid addiction.

For those of you living under a pharmaceutical rock, Dopesick is about the Oxycontin epidemic. The show explores pharmaceutical giant Purdue Pharma’s creation of OxyContin and the dishonest, aggressive tactics they used to market it to doctors. Their main selling point was Oxycontin wasn’t addictive or harmful despite its strength. LIES. Oxy’s one hell of a drug, my friends. I’m clearly all talk, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited when my doctor recently prescribed me Oxycodone for a foot injury. Giddy, I thought it might be the same as Oxycontin, but sadly he said, “No we don’t want you strung out.” Whatever, narc.

Similar to Apple Cider Vinegar, Kaitlyn Dever is next level in this show. Watching her struggle with addiction, it’s hard to believe she’s acting. I say that knowing nothing about addiction or acting, but I’ve never seen someone look as uncomfortable as Dever—besides the time I took an 11-hour flight while locked in a battle with diarrhea. 

That’s right jabroni, a battle. A grueling, Pepto-filled battle—waged at a staggering 30,000 feet. Was I brave? Sure. But sometimes bravery can only serve you so much. 

It’s a fate I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. Besides Purdue Pharma, of course. 

Freakin’ sacks of shit.

Kaitlyn’s character falls into Oxycontin addiction after her local, caring doctor played by Michael Keaton prescribes it for a back injury. Keaton’s almost like the perfect Dad meets a doctor and you guessed it, he gets addicted too. The show follows their wild downward spirals and Keaton’s story in particular is next fucking level. At one point, he’s taking hundreds of milligrams daily, operating on patients incorrectly and beating the shit out of his Pharma sales rep.

Keaton ends up in rehab, and at one point, he seeks out the pharma sales rep he assaulted. Prior to the assault, they were basically friends. The reunion is somber, and the sales rep, played by Will Poulter, is clearly rattled—not because of the assault, but because he knows exactly what he did to Keaton. He sold him something that ruined his life.

Keaton isn’t upset, though. He drops some wisdom about life’s unpredictable turns before making it clear he didn’t bring Billy in for a lecture. Instead, he hits him with the most insane request possible—asking for more Oxy.

It’s an absolutely wild, mic-drop moment. And the final straw I needed to purposely injure my foot again—no narc doctor was gonna stop me.

Despite the hour-long episodes, Dopesick is insanely bingeable. And if you enjoyed Kaitlyn Dever in Apple Cider Vinegar, she crushed it in this underrated Hulu Original that’s definitely worth checking out too.

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Seth Borkowski is a NYC-based writer, podcaster, and paranormal enthusiast. He’s the host of The Spiritual Skeptic, a comedy podcast exploring aliens, spirituality, and other weird shit too.