The Dropout

I was a banker for 40 years. I got my start in San Francisco during the heyday of the 1970s when guys with Beatle haircuts and plaid suits tried to upend the finance industry.

Out of that group came Apple, the Home Shopping Networks, etc., and the seed capital and business practices for what is now the Silicon Valley. What also came out was lots of bankruptcies, shareholder lawsuits, and corporate money spent on drugs, sex and rock and roll.

Elizabeth Holmes didn't surprise me. She wasn't much different than those 1970s bankers in plaid three piece suites and Beatles hair cuts. She had the same arrogant attitude, the same way of talking around a problem rather than answering a question and the same failure to appreciate the idea that most people earn their livings by working for them. Privileged. White, Young,

In this series, Seyfried captures the attitude, the creepy lack of self awareness, the naked ambition and the voice. She shows us that the facade without a person inside. She plays the role as If it were written for her, and reveals acting ability I have never seen in her.

The other cast members are good (especially Bill Macy) but it's hard to divert our eyes from the train wreck of a character Seyfried makes of Holmes. And she does a really good job of it.

See it for her acting, but you might enjoy it more if you know the story,

With the exception of the bad chinese (maybe that's also intentional, who knows), Amanda Seyfried is great at portraying Elizabeth Holmes. She looked like her, she got the weird and awkward manner, the deepen of the voice. You look at her and think that she is Elizabeth Holmes.

Story itself is good. It moved in quick pace and everyone they got are amazing. The one that played Edmund Ko, Stephen Fry as Ian Gibbson, are standouts for me. Sunny was also great.

It does give sympathetic look on Elizabeth but also don't completely erase her fault and crime. There are indeed bad bloods on her hands.

We all know the story of Elizabeth Holmes, but this series details with great interest the ambitious drive that drove her to be a self-made billionaire, and stay on top at all costs. It is this passion that Holmes oozes that enticed me to watch in wonderment on how she pulled it off.

This all works thanks to the writers in succeeding by making Holmes a fascinating character with all her quirks and downfalls. Most importantly is Seyfried's performance as Holmes, where sometimes I kept thinking that Elizabeth Holmes was playing herself!

Looking forward to seeing how far this series delves into the mindset of someone whose dreams are shattered, and the destructiveness nature in which they will do anything to survive in the high tech corporate jungle.

This is my fourth foray into "Elizabeth Holmes" territory. I listened to the audio book of "Bad Blood," by the WSJ reporter who broke open the story of Theronos' fraud. I watched the documentary. I skimmed the "Bad Blood" book version and now I am watching this version.

All are worthy of consumption. "The Dropout" is by far the most fictionalized version, maybe even the only fictionalized one, but it still draws heavily from RL characters, situations, and conversations. I think it plays a vital role, in that it is the only one that gives Holmes something of a character arc. Yes, her deeds were heinous, but this company was not the brainchild of a 30- or 40-something Silicon Valley type.

It's important to remember that Holmes was a teenager when this company took root in her mind. And yes, her relationship with Sonny Balwani was established by then. But he is not the only one who seems unable to listen to what she is communicating. Her parents and brother all tiptoe around it, as do the middle-aged and elderly men who rally to her side. And that is not a condemnation of them, but rather a commentary on how family and relationship dynamics play an outsize role on personal decisions made in a business context. Especially when so much is at stake.

By the time the series hits its peak a Jenga Tower has been born. Everyone, Elizabeth included, is afraid to pull out a piece. The powerful men (and it is telling that one of the episodes is titled "Old White Men') who sit on her board are all-in, die-hard, a more than a little intense. She is really running with the big d0gs.

I watched videos of Elizabeth Holmes and I have to say that Amanda Seyfried's performance was spot on. I had no clue who Elizabeth Holmes was and had never heard of Theranos.

It's absolutely unbelievable to me that all these stupid men actually believed this woman without ever seeing the machine in action. It's sad that because of sociopaths like Elizabeth giving women a bad name others probably suffered.