Review of the series "The Dropout" - a tragicomedy about a pseudo-startup with Amanda Seyfried
An ironic biopic about a determined woman who spent millions of dollars on an unrealizable business project.
A gray mouse with a love for funny sweatshirts and the literary name Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried) dreamed all her life of becoming the next Steve Jobs and changing the world. At the university, the girl had the idea of a revolutionary startup: a small device resembling an iPod in size and design, and a glucometer in functionality. Just one drop of blood is enough for the device to start the analysis, and after a few seconds, a comforting (or not so) diagnosis appears on the computer screen. On paper, Holmes' venture sounds so impressive that the newly minted CEO quickly finds investors and a team of specialists and turns her Theranos company into a brand that is in no way inferior to the big technology corporations in popularity. True, soon Elizabeth and her closest associates will find out that the idea is not so easy to bring to life, so during the foreign pitching to investors, the inventors deliberately deceive.c
A gray mouse with a love for funny sweatshirts and the literary name Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried) dreamed all her life of becoming the next Steve Jobs and changing the world. At the university, the girl had the idea of a revolutionary startup: a small device resembling an iPod in size and design, and a glucometer in functionality. Just one drop of blood is enough for the device to start the analysis, and after a few seconds, a comforting (or not so) diagnosis appears on the computer screen. On paper, Holmes' venture sounds so impressive that the newly minted CEO quickly finds investors and a team of specialists and turns her Theranos company into a brand that is in no way inferior to the big technology corporations in popularity. True, soon Elizabeth and her closest associates will find out that the idea is not so easy to bring to life, so during the foreign pitching to investors, the inventors deliberately deceive.
Still, Dropout isn't just a fun underdog success story. The gender issue in the new Hulu series is as important as the corporate one. In big business, a man's mistake is just an oversight, an excusable inattention. To a woman, this environment, on the contrary, is unfriendly and cruel. The slightest miscalculation leads to a complete collapse and loss of all credits of trust, and an insufficiently respectable appearance causes indifference of colleagues and investors. The world of the 00s is a great era of startups, crazy ideas and colossal risks, but even in it, ready for everything new, Elizabeth will have to bite her chances and be two steps ahead of men.
Of course, this situation does not justify Holmes in the least: a startup is a startup, deceit is deceit, and cheating investors and colleagues is objective disgusting, whatever one may say, even in a pigsty. The “retired” is not interested in rehabilitating Elizabeth, but the creators are trying with surgical precision to deconstruct her personality and understand what motivated one of the main swindlers of the century. Instead of the familiar hits that play in every second film about the 00s, the speakers here are bursting with hits by Justin Timberlake and the motivational garage rock of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Music is not part of the general cultural landscape, but the plane that sets the character of the heroine and dictates her further actions.c
Of course, this situation does not justify Holmes in the least: a startup is a startup, deceit is deceit, and cheating investors and colleagues is objective disgusting, whatever one may say, even in a pigsty. The “retired” is not interested in rehabilitating Elizabeth, but the creators are trying with surgical precision to deconstruct her personality and understand what motivated one of the main swindlers of the century. Instead of the familiar hits that play in every second film about the 00s, the speakers here are bursting with hits by Justin Timberlake and the motivational garage rock of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Music is not part of the general cultural landscape, but the plane that sets the character of the heroine and dictates her further actions.
This article was sponsored by Maryanne Petrone
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