Amanda Seyfried plays the title character in The Dropout, the 2022 Hulu miniseries about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Elizabeth Meriwether created the show, which is based on the ABC Audio podcast of the same name hosted by Rebecca Jarvis. The story tracks Holmes from Stanford dropout through fraudster, with Seyfried’s Holmes at the center of it.
Seyfried carries the show. Her Holmes is both warm and guarded, a woman who believes her own pitch. The show leans into how her childhood shaped her choices, reaching back to her preteens before the story turns to her exposure as a fraud. The ensemble cast is full, with Elizabeth Marvel, William H. Macy, Stephen Fry, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Bill Irwin, Utkarsh Ambudkar, LisaGay Hamilton, Michael Ironside, Laurie Metcalf, Anne Archer, and Sam Waterston filling recurring roles.
The series premiered on March 3, 2022, and ran eight episodes across one season, ending in April 2022. Critics praised the writing and the performances of the cast.
Trailer, via Hulu.
The Story, From Dropout to Fraudster
The show opens with Holmes as a Stanford dropout and moves through her founding of Theranos, her rise as a tech star, and the crash that followed. The series touches on the experiences that likely motivated Holmes’s deceptions, tracing her path from childhood through her time at Stanford and into the company’s collapse.
The show’s structure is straightforward: Holmes’s story is told chronologically, with flashbacks and present-day scenes weaving together. The show makes a case for why a smart, ambitious woman might believe her own promises, even as it documents the lies that brought her down.
Seyfried’s Performance
Seyfried’s Holmes is a woman who is not entirely a monster. She is earnest, charming, and deeply committed to a vision that proves false. The performance holds the show together. Seyfried’s Holmes is both warm and guarded, which makes the later scenes of exposure all the more devastating.
Balwani and the Ensemble
Naveen Andrews plays Sunny Balwani, Holmes’s partner. The recurring cast is full, with Elizabeth Marvel, William H. Macy, Stephen Fry, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Bill Irwin, Utkarsh Ambudkar, LisaGay Hamilton, Michael Ironside, Laurie Metcalf, Anne Archer, and Sam Waterston filling recurring roles.
“The show touches on experiences that likely motivated Holmes’s deceptions, starting from her preteens and all the way to her exposure as a fraud.”
Where It Falls Short
The show does not fully explain how Holmes’s technology was supposed to work or how it failed. It treats the science as background rather than central to the story. That choice makes it a character study more than a technical investigation, which is fine for a miniseries but means the show is at its best when it focuses on Holmes herself rather than on the company’s actual workings.
The pacing can slow in the middle episodes. Some scenes feel like filler, with extended sequences that do not advance the plot in a clear way.
Our Verdict
The Dropout is a strong character study that leans on Amanda Seyfried’s performance to carry a story that sometimes lacks the scientific detail its subject demands. The show is at its best in the scenes with Seyfried, and at its weakest when it drifts from her.
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