Is Painkiller‘s Glen Kryger In retaining with a True Person?

Netflix’s Painkiller, a fictionalized story of the Sackler household’s culpability on this nation’s on-going opioid crisis, makes for some tough staring at. In retaining with Patrick Radden Keefe‘s Original Yorker memoir “The Family That Built an Empire of Exertion” and Barry Meier’s nonfiction e book Exertion Killer, the six-episode series follows an ensemble forged of characters that revolves around Pardue Pharma, the Sackler-owned firm that offered increased and increased dosages of OxyContin into the inhabitants through medical doctors by downplaying the drug’s addictive properties.

There were an estimated 300,000 overdose deaths linked to opioid addiction, and the gathering of lives impacted by this epidemic is even increased. In Painkiller, the human toll is illustrated through Glen Kryger, a mechanic played by Friday Evening Lights superstar Taylor Kitsch. After being injured at work, Glen is prescribed OxyContin by his physician, and almost in an instant turns into addicted.

Glen’s addiction causes serious hurt to his relationship with his companion and his stepson, and his downward spiral is one amongst the extra difficult storylines in the camouflage. Painkiller ends with Glen residing in a motel, certain to beat his addiction and restore his marriage.

Sadly, in an all-too-life like twist, Glen relapses after discovering some tablets, and dies by overdose in the final episode.

Is Glen Kryger a precise particular person?

As effectively as to depicting valid folk like Richard Sackler, Painkiller deploys a complete lot of composite characters to position a human face on the affect of the opioid crisis from a pair of angles, alongside side pharma gross sales fetch Shannon Schaeffer (West Duchovny) who’s incentivized to push OxyContin, and attorney Edie Vegetation (Uzo Aduba) who leads the correct fee towards Pardue.

Glen Kryger is one other character who has been written to signify a yell and hugely necessary factor of the memoir. The necessary facets of his character and memoir are fictional, nonetheless they echo a soberingly excessive collection of valid-existence experiences.

“There’ve been tens of hundreds of Glens; factual hardworking household folk who received hurt, on the general unintentionally, who were in effort and were prescribed OxyContin, in particular aid in the times when no one knew what OxyContin became as soon as,” explains Painkiller director Pete Berg.

“He factual received caught in the earn of addiction,” he continues. “There are tens of hundreds of Glens so when folk tell, ‘Is Glen a composite character?’ I tell, ‘More or much less certain and no.’ I’ve identified Glens. I’m certain you’ve identified Glens or when you happen to don’t know them personally, you know any individual that does.”

“Taylor Kitsch has some very terminate non-public connection to folk who’ve been hooked on OxyContin and appreciate in spite of all the pieces struggled,” Berg added. “It became as soon as something I thought he would connect to moderately intensely. I in spite of all the pieces like working with him, and I’ll proceed to work with him, nonetheless as soon as we had an thought of where these exhibits were going, he became as soon as my first call.”

Kitsch himself has spoken about how he felt an obligation to portray addiction sensitively, because it has affected folk in his existence, announcing: “Unfortunately, I specialise in we’re all one diploma away from any individual who’s an addict.”