The true story of the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes as she builds Theranos and a device that could have revolutionized the medical world. Instead, she lies and scams multiple patients by telling false information about their health which cost them their lives.
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- grantssMay 15, 2025Slow start but riveting viewing by the end. Elizabeth Holmes always wanted to be a billionaire. Before the age of 30, she was, due to being founder and CEO of biomedical company Theranos. Theranos promised to revolutionise healthcare through being able to run dozens of tests instantaneously on a small machine from a drop of blood. Publicly the company appeared to be delivering on that promise. However, the reality was quite different. An enthralling, engaging and edifying mini-series on the Theranos scandal of the mid/late-2010s and in particular on its founder, Elizabeth Holmes. Quite riveting viewing as the events unfold, especially once things start to unravel. It isn’t always that interesting though. The first three episodes, largely showing Holmes’s teen years, Stanford, her meeting Sunny Balwani and her setting up Theranos are okay but quite dry. It’s only once the company is in full flight and, especially, when the reality starts to diverge from the vision that things get interesting. These episodes also reveal the complexity of Holmes’s character. Initially she’s presented as driven, single-minded and quite transparent but as things progress we see other sides to her. This complexity is well portrayed by a great, highly convincing performance by Amanda Seyfried as Holmes. Stellar supporting cast – Sam Waterston, Naveen Andrews, William H Macy, Kurtwood Smith, Anne Archer, Stephen Fry, Laurie Metcalf, amongst others – doesn’t put a foot wrong. One disappointment is that the series doesn’t cover the later legal proceedings as these provide closure to the story. These were still ongoing while the series was being filmed so the outcome was not known at the time but some of this could have been included. Or a Season 2 added… If you enjoyed this I suggest you watch Alex Gibney’s documentary on the Theranos saga: ‘The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019)’. This is even more enthralling than the series.
- Luke EricksonDecember 10, 2024Who doesn't love a good sketchy business origin story. The book was better but this was still a fun ride. This lady is crazy and Amanda Sevfried nails it.
