The Dropout True Story (& Everything The Show Changed)
Trigger warning: This article briefly discusses suicide.
Hulu’s The Dropout tells the story of how convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes tricked many into believing her company Theranos’ products worked, but the limited series changed a few key things from the true story. The eight-part miniseries is based on the podcast of the same name produced by ABC News and hosted by journalist Rebecca Jarvis. The Dropout was adapted for television by New Girl creator Elizabeth Meriwether, and it stars Amanda Seyfried and Naveen Andrews in the respective roles of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.
The biographical drama starts telling the story somewhat chronologically, showing Elizabeth Holmes as a determined teenager who doesn’t have many friends as she is focused on becoming a billionaire and changing the world. Twin Peaks: The Return star Seyfried shines as Holmes, going as far as nailing the manufactured deep voice the former Theranos CEO is famous for. It's so well done that The Dropout’s Seyfried’s Holmes and the actual Elizabeth Holmes as heard on the ABC News podcast can be mistaken for one another. To convey the podcast’s analysis of Theranos’ many red flags as they became apparent to different people in the company, The Dropout uses temporal jumps. This way, viewers get the Theranos employees’ points of view while also learning behind-the-scenes plot points from the beginning, such as Sunny and Elizabeth’s romantic relationship.
Related: Every Song In The Dropout
The use of temporal jumps between 2017, when Holmes’ testimony in the government investigation into Theranos’ fraudulent schemes takes place, and various years before that, which show how Theranos came to be, let The Dropout mirror the
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