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Dopesick: How to watch the drama series online in Canada

Michael Keaton leads a stellar cast in this chilling new drama.

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Alexandra Plesa

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Greed has side effects. That’s the idea behind Dopesick, a new series that invites viewers to take an inside look at America’s opioid epidemic. With an impressive cast led by Michael Keaton, Dopesick tells the story of painkiller addiction from multiple angles.

At the centre of the narrative is the company that gained a (bad) reputation for hooking America on opioids. Dopesick shows how the company’s race for profit had a devastating impact across the whole country. That makes for compelling television, regardless of how little or how much you know about the opioid crisis. Settle in for a harrowing but insightful watch.

When does Dopesick come out?

The drama series arrives on streaming services in Canada on Friday November 12, 2021.

How to watch Dopesick online in Canada

Dopesick will premiere exclusively on Disney Plus as part of the platform’s Disney Plus Day line-up. The show is streaming on Hulu in the US and distributed internationally as a Star original.

Besides Dopesick, subscribers excited for Disney Plus Day will also be able to watch popular titles like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Jungle Cruise, Olaf Presents and more. Subscriptions to Disney Plus costs $11.99 a month or $119.99 annually, but if you act quickly you can take advantage of a limited $1.99 Disney Plus Day deal for the first month for new or returning customers.

The service doesn’t offer a free trial at the moment, but there are no strings attached. In other words, you can cancel your subscription any time.

Disney Plus offers a generous collection of TV shows and movies, including titles from subsidiaries like Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and National Geographic. A big chunk of the library is family-friendly, but you can stream titles targeted to adults, like Dopesick, via the Star channel. Other highlights on Disney Plus include Only Murders in the Building, Grey’s Anatomy, WandaVision, Nomadland and Free Guy.

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Dopesick preview

Dopesick tells a sprawling story, starting in the 90s and jumping at various points through time as the opioid crisis gets worse. The show aims to paint a comprehensive picture of how the crisis kicked off, who is responsible and how many people ended up suffering devastating consequences.

Viewers get glimpses inside the boardrooms of “Big Pharma,” the hallways of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and at users who were prescribed pills and became addicted.

It all starts with Purdue Pharma’s release of “miracle drug” OxyContin, with the Sackler family-owned company pushing the product with claims that it only causes addiction in fewer than 1% of patients. A few years later, government investigators and DEA agents take on the company after linking OxyContin abuse with crimes, overdoses and child abandonment.

At the same time, Dopesick zooms in on a mining town in Virginia to show the damaging effects of opioid addiction on the communities ravaged by the crisis.

The series is inspired by Beth Macy’s non-fiction book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America. It has a tremendous cast, including Keaton, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg, Will Poulter, Rosario Dawson, Kaitlyn Dever and John Hoogenakker.

Dopesick premiered a few weeks ago in the US to positive reviews and currently has a 79% score on Rotten Tomatoes. This is a complex and intricate series—one that deserves the viewer’s full and undivided attention. In return, you’ll be rewarded with a compelling, and often infuriating, tale. The fact that it’s based on true events only makes it more devastating.

Dopesick trailer

Image source: Hulu

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