Those who want more of the Theranos story can get their fill now that The Dropout, a miniseries starring Amanda Seyfried as founder Elizabeth Holmes, has launched on streaming service Hulu. Premiering on March 3, the series currently has a 7.4/10 rating on IMDb.com and follows Holmes’ journey as she drops out of college at age 19 to start her health care technology company, and subsequent fall from grace as the technology developed by the company turns out to produce unreliable and inaccurate results. The series also stars Naveen Andrews as Holmes’ former business partner and lover Sunny Balwani.
Early reviews suggest the series is worth watching, though it likely won’t be for everyone. Though many praised the actors’ performances, plenty of viewers were turned off by the show’s attempt to make them “feel bad” for Holmes, who not only duped investors and numerous other business partners with her supposedly revolutionary bloodstick lab-on-a-chip technology, but also put unknown numbers of patient’s lives at risk due to the resulting inaccurate test results.
A federal jury convicted Holmes of four counts of fraud on Jan. 4, each with a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, while Balwani’s trial for his role in the scandal began March 9. Holmes still awaits sentencing.
A feature film on the scandal starring Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes is also still in the works. Bad Blood, based on the book of the same name by The Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, who first exposed the Theranos scandal, is currently in pre-production, according to IMDb.com.