HBO has released the trailer for The Crime of the Century, a new two-part documentary about the opioid crisis from Going Clear‘s Alex Gibney, ahead of its HBO Max release on May 10.
Also called the opioid epidemic, the crisis began in the late ’90s due to an increased number of prescribed painkillers. Between 1999 and 2017, nearly 400,000 Americans died of prescription or illicit opioid overdose.
Already plenty of non-fiction and fictional interpretations have been developed about the crisis, including PBS’ docuseries Do No Harm, the Russo Brother’s Cherry based on Nico Walker’s novel, and even a Sesame Street resident whose mother struggles with opioid addiction.
Similarly, Netflix’s The Pharmacist, a true-crime documentary about a man’s pursuit for the pill mill that caused his son’s death, was released in February 2020 to reasonable critical success. A more intimate presentation of the crisis was released last summer as the streaming giant’s The Business of Drugs (a multi-part series about the War on Drugs whose finale addresses opioids).
Now, HBO released the trailer for its own addition to the discourse. The Crime of the Century, a two-part documentary tracks how prescribed opioids like OxyContin and Vicodin surged from drastic procedures to All-American pills.
The movie’s trailer claims that the rise in prescribed opioid use was not from organic growth but a motivated business choice determined by corporate greed and an irresponsible disregard for patients’ long-term health. The movie has been directed and produced by Alex Gibney (the Academy Award-winning documentarian behind the Scientology exposé Going Clear). The Crime of the Century arrives on HBO Max on May 10.
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