TV Series Review: THE DROPOUT

Amanda Seyfried and Naveen Andrews

A riveting account of disgraced CEO Elizabeth Holmes and her doomed company Theranos, The Dropout is just short of impossible to stop watching. And when it ends after eight episodes, you'll still want more. 

Starring so many familiar actors it's hard to name them all, the obvious standout is Amanda Seyfried who deserves an Oscar, an Emmy, a Golden Globe and whatever other awards exist for her no-holds-barred performance as the charming, duplicitous, sociopathic Holmes. 

In case you've been on another planet for the last few years, the true story concerns a young, brilliant Stanford University student with a burning ambition to make her mark on the world. She does it by inventing a new blood-typing system that promises to revolutionize the medical industry. Somehow, at the age of 19, Holmes convinces lots of very rich people to back her start-up venture. (For example, Rupert Murdoch gives her $165 million.)

Finding success quickly, she leaves college before graduating -- hence the title -- and soon enough has hundreds of employees. Sadly, it's all a sham. The idea doesn't work but she keeps up the charade by lying and cheating, aided by her business partner/lover Sunny Balwani (Naveen Andrews), all the while imperiling the lives of patients whose doctors used her product for incorrect diagnoses. 

Along the way we are treated to an inside look at the lives of the very rich, very selfish and very impressionable young people who worshipped at the twin altars of money and green kale smoothies. Holmes's ultimate downfall, many years in the making, is delicious. (Those smoothies apparently are not, but everyone drinks them anyway.)

See it on HULU.