--- title: "The Dropout" year: 2022 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-dropout" fi1m_score: 70 critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 14 published: "2026-09-17T04:28:44.164402+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T04:29:13.355597+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Dropout (2022) Created by Elizabeth Meriwether · MPA TV-MA · Drama **Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 71 from 14 reviews *In a sentence:* A woman lowers her voice an octave and Silicon Valley hands her the cheque > Amanda Seyfried is remarkable as Elizabeth Holmes, and the series around her is careful, well made and a little too tidy. It tells you what happened at Theranos, clearly and in order, and stops short of telling you what it thinks. ## Synopsis Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried) is a Stanford chemical engineering student who drops out at nineteen to start Theranos, a company promising to run hundreds of blood tests from a few drops pricked from a fingertip. She has the pitch and the investors’ phone numbers; she does not have a machine that works. Sunny Balwani (Naveen Andrews), an older, wealthy man she met on a summer programme in Beijing, arrives first as adviser and then as partner and enforcer. Ian Gibbons (Stephen Fry), a chemist who joins early, believes the device can be built and keeps saying so. The opening episodes follow her from a teenage bedroom through Palo Alto garages and boardrooms, as the money arrives faster than the science does. ## Review Elizabeth Meriwether’s eight-part series tells the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, the company that promised to run a full panel of blood tests from a single drop taken at the fingertip, and could not. It begins with the teenager and ends with the woman the world knows, and it goes there in order, one step at a time, with the dates on screen. It is well acted, handsomely made and as clear as a textbook, and that is our reservation as well as our praise. It shows you what happened. It is less sure what it thinks about it. Amanda Seyfried carries it, and carries it further than the script sometimes asks. She plays Holmes as a person who has decided what a founder looks like and is building one from the outside in: the stare that does not break, the dancing alone in an office, and the voice, which drops over the episodes from a young woman’s to something an octave lower and sanded flat. Seyfried lets us see the effort every time. There is a scene where she practises the new voice in a mirror and gets it slightly wrong, and we squirmed, and then felt uneasy that a series about a woman who put patients at risk had made us embarrassed on her behalf. Claire Parkinson’s costumes do the same job more slowly, the black turtleneck arriving not as a decision but as a habit. Naveen Andrews plays Sunny Balwani, the older man with money whom she meets in Beijing and who becomes her partner in both senses, as someone who mistakes bullying for loyalty and cannot tell when the mistake has stopped being useful. He is frightening in small rooms. Stephen Fry, as the chemist Ian Gibbons, is the person the series wants us to worry about, a scientist who believes the machine can be made to work and keeps saying so to people who have stopped listening. Fry plays him quietly, and it is a fine, sad, unshowy piece of work. Cat Smith builds Theranos as a great deal of white wall and glass, so the labs where the machines do not work look exactly like the boardrooms where people are told that they do. Blake McClure, Michelle Lawler and Jonathan Furmanski share the photography across the episodes and keep to one look, bright and even, with the shadows saved for the basement and for Holmes’s face when the door shuts. Anne Nikitin’s score sits spare and slightly off-key under the pitches, which is the right choice. The editors, David Berman, Susana Benaim and Steve Welch, cut the demonstrations tight, above all the one in the second episode where the machine fails in front of a room of investors and a lie is decided on in seconds; that is the sequence where the whole series clicks into place. Michael Showalter, Francesca Gregorini and Erica A. Watson direct, and you could not tell from the screen where one hands over to the next, which for a series is a compliment. The trouble is the first three episodes, which spend a long time on Holmes’s childhood and Stanford years, offered as explanation, and the pace only picks up once there is a company to lie about. Some critics have found the series too fond of her. We would not go that far, but it does give her hurt a great deal of screen time and her victims relatively little, and when the patients finally appear they are brief. The people who built Theranos are shown, and so is what they did. The question the series never quite asks is why so many clever, rich adults wanted so badly to believe a twenty-something with no product. It has the material for that. It moves on. There has been a run of these lately, series about founders who told the truth last, and this is the neatest of them and the most disciplined, with a lead performance the others do not have. Watch it for Seyfried, who is doing something difficult and does not drop it once in eight episodes. Just do not expect the series to be angrier than you are; it seems to have decided that was your job. *Fi1m score 70, published 17 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (14) - **Vulture** (85/100, inferred): The series succeeds as a scam show by delivering nuanced portraiture of Elizabeth Holmes through Amanda Seyfried’s layered performance and by effectively capturing the gradual snowballing of the fraud from sincere ambition into deception. It stands out among similar recent shows for balancing gravity with humor without oversimplifying its themes. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-dropout-hulu-series-review-elizabeth-holmes-theranos.html) - **The Telegraph**, Anita Singh (80/100, inferred): The series tells the story of Elizabeth Holmes straightforwardly and chronologically, slowly drawing the viewer in with high stakes and an enthralling rise. It features an excellent supporting cast. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2022/02/25/dropout-review-enthralling-tale-silicon-valley-guru-duped-joe/) - **Variety** (80/100, inferred): The series succeeds as a sharp, well-edited portrait that makes Holmes understandable without excusing her, thanks to Seyfried's viscerally effective performance and strong supporting work. It avoids the pitfalls of similar true-story shows by staying focused and concise. [Read](https://variety.com/2022/tv/reviews/the-dropout-review-amanda-seyfried-elizabeth-holmes-1235189599) - **Evening Standard** (75/100, inferred): The show is a compelling character study that lives and dies on Seyfried's performance as a pitiful but never pitiable Holmes. It avoids exonerating her or turning her into a girlboss figure. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/the-dropout-review-elizabeth-holmes-amanda-seyfried-theranos-disney-plus-b984658.html) - **The Guardian** (75/100, inferred): The series plays the story straight, possibly too straight, but the jaw-dropping tale of fraud saves it. Amanda Seyfried gives a hugely skilful performance as Elizabeth Holmes that keeps the viewer's attention and even sympathy. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/mar/03/the-dropout-review-another-mind-blowing-portrait-of-a-great-american-fraudster) - **The Hollywood Reporter** (75/100, inferred): The Dropout stands out for its excellent, enigmatic lead performance by Seyfried and a superb ensemble that captures human-scale elements of the deception. It offers bloody good performances even if the story covers familiar ground. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/the-dropout-review-1235099451/) - **Empire**, Beth Webb (70/100, inferred): The Dropout is a nuanced character study of Holmes as a driven, trance-like figure whose ambition leads to her undoing. Seyfried delivers an unshakeable lead performance supported by a strong cast, making it a fascinating watch. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/the-dropout/) - **IndieWire**, Steve Greene (70/100, inferred): The Hulu series offers a largely straightforward, surface-level account of the Theranos scandal that remains compulsively watchable thanks to strong lead performances. It functions more as a primer than a deep dive into the events. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/the-dropout-review-hulu-theranos-show-1234702124/) - **Radio Times**, David Craig (3/5): The series is a vanilla, by-the-numbers retelling that fails to capture the magnetism or depth of the real scandal despite strong supporting turns. It relies on the inherent interest of the true story rather than bold creative choices or insightful writing. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/dropout-review-amanda-seyfried-hulu/) - **The Times** (60/100, inferred): The first three episodes feel like heavy pre-mitigation but later episodes gather pace showing Holmes's ruthlessness. Amanda Seyfried is hypnotising as Holmes. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/the-dropout-review-flimsy-opening-episodes-still-show-potential-k030jb8ts) - **The i Paper**, Emily Baker (30/100, inferred): The series portrays Elizabeth Holmes with too much admiration, framing her as a lone female warrior in a male-dominated world rather than interrogating her fraud and risks. It drags with dawdling dialogue despite Seyfried's strong performance. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/the-dropout-disney-review-elizabeth-holmes-amanda-seyfried-1495885) - **Paste**, Kathryn Porter (9.0): The critic deems it the best 'scammer show' yet, praising its balanced approach that avoids forcing sympathy and its captivating portrayal of ambition and downfall. It singles out the excellent cast performances, especially Amanda Seyfried, Naveen Andrews, and Stephen Fry. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/the-dropout/the-dropout-review-elizabeth-holmes-theranos) - **Collider**, Robert Brian Taylor (B): The critic finds the series a sturdy but overly straightforward drama that dutifully covers the facts of the Theranos scandal without much deeper insight into Holmes' psyche. It praises the strong ensemble cast, particularly Stephen Fry's soulful performance as Ian Gibbons. [Read](https://collider.com/the-dropout-review-amanda-seyfried-hulu/) - **/Film**, Shania Russell (75/100, inferred): The critic calls it a highly watchable miniseries with strong performances that goes beyond simple retelling by exploring why people enabled Holmes and the human elements in her orbit. It notes some faltering but ultimately finds it intriguing and a strong example of the true-crime genre. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/780072/the-dropout-review-amanda-seyfried-channels-elizabeth-holmes-in-this-highly-watchable-miniseries/) ## Details - **Created by:** Elizabeth Meriwether - **Creator:** Elizabeth Meriwether - **Director:** Michael Showalter, Francesca Gregorini, Erica A. Watson - **Writer:** Wei-Ning Yu, Elizabeth Meriwether, Dan LeFranc, Hilary Bettis, Liz Heldens, Matt Lutsky, Liz Hannah - **Story:** Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Elizabeth Meriwether - **Teleplay:** Elizabeth Meriwether - **Cinematography:** Michelle Lawler, Blake McClure, Jonathan Furmanski - **Editor:** Steve Welch, Susana Benaim, David Berman - **Music:** Anne Nikitin - **Production design:** Cat Smith - **Costume design:** Claire Parkinson - **Producer:** Hilary Bettis, Amanda Seyfried, Megan Mascena - **Cast:** Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes; Naveen Andrews as Sunny Balwani; Elinor Gunn as Interviewer; Robert J. Chu as Police Officer; Jack Buckley as Cute Guy; Dave Kumar as Officiant; Piper Major as Nurse; David Danipour as Grad Student - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 3 March 2022 - **Genres:** Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7rlZLw9m10 ## Where to watch in the US - Disney+: streaming, uhd - Hulu: streaming, uhd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Golden Globes 2023: Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley* (2019): The documentary version, with the real Holmes and the real machine not working. - *Shattered Glass* (2003): A young man lies to clever people who want to believe him; compact and cold. - *Quiz* (2020): A British fraud told in three tidy parts, funnier and kinder than you expect. - *The Social Network* (2010), Fi1m 91: The founder myth done as a courtroom argument, fast and unforgiving. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-social-network.md) - *Bad Banks* (2018): German finance drama where ambition eats everyone at the table, slowly and well. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-dropout