The Dropout: What the Must Watch reviewers think
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review The Dropout on Disney +.
Amanda Seyfried stars as an entrepreneur who develops healthcare technology that puts millions of patients at risk and loses everything in the blink of an eye.
Disney+
Hayley says: "Infinitely more watchable than other scammer shows"
"I accidentally watched three episodes in a row so it must be a Must Watch. We’ve reviewed lots of shows on scammers and fraudsters — like The Tinder Swindler, and Inventing Anna — none of which I liked. This isn’t perfect but I find it infinitely more watchable than other scammer shows we have watched recently. I think it's because the story is so nuts.
"Anyone who has read science and tech magazines, like WIRED, or anyone who is interested in the world of medical science will have heard of Elizabeth Holmes. It’s an amazing story partly because of the lying and the swindling but what is more fascinating is the depths of her manipulation.
"When this show was announced, lots of people were asking ‘is Amanda Seyfried going to do the voice?’. This is because Holmes famously changed her voice, making it deeper, supposedly so that she would be seen to be taken more seriously. So if you were one of those people, strap in: there is a whole episode of this show devoted to her practicing her new weird voice in the mirror."
Disney+
Scott says: "I watched it all in one go"
"This series couldn’t be any more noughties if it had tried. There’s a new Dido CD in the car. There’s a report about Enron on the news. There’s even a poster of Steve Jobs between two iMacs on the wall of Elizabeth’s house.
"But this series does become extremely watchable, because you follow one person’s journey from saying one lie to saying a bigger one, to then having to cover the first lie with a bigger one to not reveal the second. It gets to the point of you wondering ‘when is the dam going to burst?’
"This is a show that doesn’t feel like you are taking a long time to watch it. I watched it all in one go. I would recommend listening to the podcast also called 'The Dropout' for a bit of context."
Disney+
The Dropout is available now on Disney +.
Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds and all other good podcast providers.
This week, the team also review The Ipcress File on ITV and The Witchfinder on BBC iPlayer.
