REVIEW: DOPESICK

A lesson in jargon in screenwriting. Now streaming on #Hulu. No Spoilers. ​

First of all, America... Not sure what else to say. When the doctors are fooled, the FDA is in on it, and all of the scholarly articles tell us oxy is ok, what is our country to do?

Sidebar: Folks didn't give AF about the crack epidemic. We know why. Crackheads went to jail. Oxy abusers got a lawsuit against the company poisoning their streets. I guess the government won't bring a lawsuit against themselves. #idigress

Now, to dialogue. DOPESICK is about an industry (medicine and pharmaceuticals) that laypeople may not understand. In the pilot, the writers repeat the same information over and over as if we are the pharmaceutical sales reps being trained to sell the drug. Some may consider this on the nose, but it's purposeful. 

Sometimes when your subject matter might go over the heads of your viewers, you need to be on the nose. This happens often in science fiction. Ask yourself if it's important for the audience to keep up with the specifics. If so, do what you have to do my sprinkling that information throughout, delivered by different methods and different characters.

Have you watched? What information made your jaw drop? For me, it was creating a symptom to cause upping the dosage of oxy. Like... realllyy??!!

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author

Shannan E. Johnson is a former creative executive at The Syfy Channel turned CEO + Head Consultant of The Professional Pen, a script consultancy that develops screenwriters from idea to pitch to become more confident storytellers ready for a professional screenwriting career, and consults with scripted development teams at entertainment companies to streamline their notes process to get to pre-production more efficiently.