Not all badass women are created equal. Some are downright scary in their mix of ambition, persuasive power and lack of empathy. Exhibit A: Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried). The Stanford dropout and 2003 founder of the billion-dollar pharmaceutical Ponzi scheme Theranos, is a very bad badass. Based on the ABC News true-crime podcast, the miniseries executive produced and frequently directed by Michael Showalter (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”) dives in to the making of a modern monster in a messy blond bun and a Steve Jobs black turtleneck.
The eight-episode format stretches out the Horatio Alger story that begins in a hurry, and gets perhaps the closest to what makes Holmes tick in the early days. A studious nerd behind thick glasses with a galumphing gait, this daughter of an emasculated Enron exec (Michel Gill) and a controlling mother (Elizabeth Marvel) strives and strives again to achieve her place among the pasty white male tech pantheon of Jobs, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg.
Like Facebook or Apple, Theranos emerged from a university incubator. The germ of an idea at its core had the potential to change health care — a multi-factor blood test available from a pin prick with rapid results. For the needle-phobic, like me, Elizabeth and her mother, Theranos promised to be a game-changer. There’s only one problem, but it’s a big one: As we discover in episode after episode, Holmes has no idea how to achieve the technical results she promised — and finds her…
