New Netflix Show Dethrones ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ and ‘Suits’ as No. 1 Show

The new Netflix original series Painkiller works fast. In its first weekend, it dethroned the two series that were dominating Netflix’s charts beforehand – The Lincoln Lawyer and Suits. At this rate, the show may prove to be the most-talked-about TV event of the summer.

Painkiller is a limited series about the rise of opioid addiction in the U.S., focusing particularly on Purdue Pharma and its manufacturing of OxyContin in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It stars Uzo Aduba as investigator Edie Flowers and Matthew Broderick as Purdue executive Richard Sackler. Other stars include Sam Anderson, Clark Gregg, Taylor Kitsch, Carolina Bartczak and Tyler Ritter, among others. The show has six episodes, all of which premiered on Friday.

Painkiller is based on Barry Meier’s non-fiction book Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic, as well as a contemporary article in The New Yorker by Patrick Radden Keefe titled “The Family That Built an Empire of Pain.” Both works characterized Sackler and his family as the knowing architects of this crisis and the show puts a dramatic, fictionalized spin on it.

While Painkiller is drawing in plenty of viewers, it is not an overwhelming critical success so far. The show has an average rating of 6.1 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes, with only 44 percent of reviews counted as “positive” overall. Critics generally say the series fails to maintain a cohesive tone and stumbles over its own story a bit in the process.

Nonetheless, Netflix is likely pleased to have a new original series back in the top spot again. The charts have been dominated recently by The Lincoln Lawyer – a Netflix original legal drama that dropped its latest batch of episodes on Aug. 3 – and Suits – the USA Network drama that is best known to most for starring Meghan Markle. Those shows are now in the number 2 and number 3 spot respectively, and judging by the buzz on social media, they are still going strong.

Netflix licensed Suits and added it to the catalog this month, but with the Hollywood labor strikes still ongoing, the company is likely eager to prioritize its own content while it can. The work stoppage among writers, actors and other unions will begin effecting the output very soon in a noticeable way, and at that point Netflix won’t have new productions coming out to generate big surges in viewership like this one. Even now, the strike prevents the cast of Painkiller from promoting the show, which is undoubtedly taking a toll on its viewership to some extent.

Painkiller is streaming now on Netflix, and as a limited series, it is already complete with no more installments expected. The Lincoln Lawyer and Suits are streaming there as well.