The Dropout review: More Elizabeth Holmes scandal drama isn’t a bad thing

Many people know the tale (and crime) of Elizabeth Holmes. After all, the former-Theranos-CEO-and-scammer has been the subject of not only a federal grand jury but two books, two podcasts, two documentaries, an episode of 60 Minutes, Several pieces of investigative journalism. Now, just as she’s been found guilty on four counts of defrauding investors, Holmes’ meteoric rise and fall is also the subject of Hulu’s new miniseries The Dropout.

Such a pipeline is not uncommon these days — this season of TV alone will see a handful of shows like Invention of AnnaOr WeCrashed, These stories are so grabby that they can’t be condensed to one medium.

Like some other projects, The DropoutThis company boasts several big names. Elizabeth MeriwetherNeue GirlMichael Showalter and he wrote the pilot.Tammy Faye: The EyesOver half the episodes were directed by author ( Amanda Seyfried stars as Elizabeth Holmes, who’s joined by Lost’s Naveen Andrews, Stephen Fry, Law and OrderSam Waterston stars as the legendary actor Succession’s Alan Ruck as various members of her brain trust. This was in addition to many other high-profile character actors from the seven episodes, out of eight that were shown to critics.

The delay in TV means that viewers will still care about the story, and the show might offer more insight on an issue that is well-resolved by the public. Is it? The DropoutDo you have the skills? It might depend on how much you’ve engaged with the story so far.

The gist of Elizabeth Holmes is here

Photo: Beth Dubber/Hulu

The only thing I can say about Elizabeth Holmes is that she was a fraudster Mad Libs. She dressed as Steve Jobs, which was intentional. she did funny vocals. She made an … app? And is in … jail? Hiding? Because it was … bad?

Mostly, I registered her as one of a long line of 2010s grifters-turned-media sensations, the sort that became popular fixations because we love a story where we can’t make up our mind over who the bigger fool is: The scammer in their hubris, or the rich people who let them fly so far over clearly empty promises.

So The DropoutAt first, it was a bit frustrating. It’s framed via a deposition of Holmes in 2017, after everything has gone wrong for her — then it’s essentially a biopic delivered piecemeal, speeding through her early life just slowly enough to convey her unusual drive and unorthodox obsession with tech tycoons like Steve Jobs, and stopping to linger at the moments that lead to the formation of her company, Theranos.

This structure presumes you’re familiar with the material in a way that I am not. Theranos was a new term to me. didOr was meant to (ironically this is a large part of the real problem). It’s not enough to derail me — The Dropout It is quite simple, as it seems. The Social Network but with less style — I just don’t know how I would sell it to anyone who wasn’t already interested in the idea of “an Elizabeth Holmes show.”

Which is a shame because Holmes, as interpreted by Amanda Seyfried, is a marvelous character: sympathetic yet horrible, a moral invertebrate who isn’t without compassion but also willing to compromise on just about anything if the imagined ends seem good enough. As Seyfried said, almost everyone involved with the story is a savant. The Dropout is turning out stellar work, it’s just unfortunate that the show, like its subject, is wholly given over to tautology. The Dropout Your time is valuable because Elizabeth Holmes was a worthy writer, podcaster and documentarian. Holmes was like many grifters and got the money and time she wanted because she said so. —Joshua Rivera

If you’re familiar with the basics about Theranos’ implosion

Photo: Beth Dubber/Hulu

If, like me, you were to have only read the initial headlines about Elizabeth Holmes (and maybe a stray follow up or shared tidbit from a sister well-versed in the podcast world in the years since), it’s easy to miss just how massive the lies being peddled by Theranos were. John Carryeou’s initial report in the Wall Street Journal is damning, and yet only just the tip of the iceberg.

In the years since, Holmes’ name has been synonymous with a type of obvious fraudster, fraudulent in everything from her blood testing machines to her voice. Here are some things I admire about Holmes The Dropout is the ways it is able (and, sometimes, can’t) pull back on the idea of her crimes being self-evident. Like a would-be advisor admonishing her for quoting Yoda seriously, that’s not really the problem, is it?

As Elizabeth, Seyfried’s performance rarely makes the CEO compelling as a people person; the script does more of the lifting than Seyfried in terms of showcasing Elizabeth as an inspirer of men (and women). What she is good at is switching between power players and victims. Her constant churning of flimflam can power bullshit factories like Holmes’s is what she excels at: strategically crying before her board in order to retain her CEO position, or swiftly shifting blame to her underlings.

It’s a delicate line to walk, certainly, but one that the whole show hinges on. It’s a delicate line to walk, but one that the whole show depends on. Dropout is constantly localizing the impetus for the conspiracy to Holmes and Balwani, it’s careful to show how the structure of the bureaucracy provided cover the same way a funhouse hall of mirrors does. Within the bounds of the scripted drama, it’s hard to know how much of the established fact is even being ginned up.

It is possible that this should be the case. You should be proud of it. The DropoutThe best part about Sunny and Elizabeth’s micro decisions is how they balance the macro consequences of their actions. Dropout’s Elizabeth is constantly reminded that she’s an underdog — as a dreamer, a young person, and particularly as a woman. However, the show does not allow her to hide or pretend that she is trying to achieve greater prominence. This can eat up quite a bit of oxygen on the show. The first seven episodes have a great step-by–step play-by–play. The DropoutThis gives you an idea of the support that many could give a lie like this. This more than any other reconsideration of scams, it balances and excuses the original lie. And yet I still have very little sense of the people whose blood was actually on the line — or, frankly, if that comically deep voice was anywhere close to the real thing. —Zosha Millman

You could inhale every Theranos tale.

Photo: Beth Dubber/Hulu

Sometimes when you’re so familiar with a subject, dramatizations of it wind up falling flat since they simply retread a story that you’ve already seen told in better, more interesting ways. But showrunner Elizabeth Meriwether, and Michael Showalter understood the importance of series. Dropout isn’t to recreate the reality of what happened beat-by-beat, but turn these events into art that reflects the essence of that reality.

When Amanda Seyfried’s Holmes dances seductively at a Steve Jobs poster in her teenage bedroom or rubs an iPod all over her face in her college dorm, never for a second did I believe the Silicon Valley entrepreneur actually did these things (though I’d love to be proven wrong). Yet these off-kilter moments perfectly capture Holmes’ famously unsettling presence and obsession with Jobs. Dropout clearly isn’t afraid to make on-the-nose creative choices in its dramatization of Holmes’ journey. But with Seyfried’s riveting performance as an anchor, I found myself not caring whether the show landed every swing or delivered a revelatory perspective on the founder; it was just a delight to watch.

Though Seyfried’s Holmes is a charismatic, compelling lead, Dropout never asks viewers to fully sympathize with her — nor does it let them forget how dangerous the frauds she perpetrated were. As the series develops, The Dropout dedicates increasing time to its supporting cast, a decision which highlights the scale of those impacted by Holmes’ actions and the very real cost of her con. This is particularly true for the show’s depiction of Ian Gibbons (Stephen Fry), Theranos’ chief scientist who took his own life the night before he was scheduled to testify in court about the company’s “revolutionary” blood-testing tech, which in reality never worked. Fry’s portrayal of Gibbons is heartbreaking and one of the many exceptional performances by the cast.

By embracing both the absurdity and gravity of Holmes’ story, Dropout Theranos is covered in an entertaining, well-paced, and often hilariously comedic manner. It may not add anything to what I already knew about Holmes, but it doesn’t feel like a predictable rehash of previous reporting either. At a time ripe with retellings of stranger-than-fiction fraudsters and CEO flameouts, The Dropout stands out as one of the few worth watching — even for those already intimately familiar with the case. —Sadie Gennis

These are the three first episodes The Dropout They are available now on Hulu. Every Thursday, new episodes are added to Hulu.