How is The Dropout, the series about the scammer who dazzled Silicon Valley

The owner of -probably- the biggest eye in Hollywood- uses them like never before in this story. Through them he shows us passion, ambition, desperation. He manages the orbits, the lashes, the pupils, and on all the sets he speaks. He rehearses how to look, and in this way he encourages communication tycoons and former secretaries of state. He strengthened himself, collapsed, recalculated. Appearance as an important point of his language.

Promoted with a hypnotic close-up of the diameter of Amanda Seyfried’s eyes, The Dropout was added to the list of many fashion series revealing the almost handmade construction of a crook that existed in real life. In this case, the scammer does not use Tinder, nor the art of camouflage on Instagram. It uses blood, “one drop, just one”. It promises to change the analytics industry.

“What if you had your blood tested at home?”asked the 19-year-old Stanford University dropout asking his parents to invest his college money in what could be a groundbreaking company. It plans a health accessibility system for everyone, via an “iPod-sized” device, a self-test without a syringe. The problem: Between saying and doing there can be a depth.

Convincingly, the story reflects the mental complexity of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the American biotech company Theranos. This year the billionaire was convicted of fraud and his modus operandi alerted a particular business culture to the belly of Silicon Valley. His skill at deceiving investors pushed this fiction about the incredible architecture of a lie.

What if aspiring to be a unicorn company is nothing more than an imaginary element with more illusion than existence? What if the desire to be a CEO was greater than the skills to be one? What if the entrepreneurial hunger for validation became the most dangerous weapon?

Using the Steve Jobs poster as a guide, the cunning weaver tries to move forward, but is left only with forms, as the saving machine will not go beyond a prototype. Firmly, he will develop attractive marketing as a young entrepreneur and achieve agreements with laboratories. The pressure of having to comply once and for all with such an invention will trigger suffocating situations.

The game becomes even more dangerous once that ambition has to do with human life. The blonde’s craft for manipulation will surely grow, as will lies, patchwork, flirting and corruption. Falsifies results, mixes blood, is destructive he is even more drowning that he sees himself on his own web.

The target locks into a demo. And history revolves around the despair of the impossibility of the concrete. What if such technology is possible, but it takes ten years to achieve? What if capitalist urgency does not think of patience? What if perseverance is not enough? What if for the glory of the business it was enough to look like? What if between goodwill and business there is no possible contract? Not the lie is the biggest problem: it’s the dose. Holmes uses it in many quantities, as a permanent remedy, where he needs infinite energy, ingenuity, memory and time to preserve nothing.

There weren’t too many narrative tricks to get into Elizabeth’s head. After the youthful trauma of his father’s dismissal of Enron (Michael Gill), there is no remorse for him, only intent to advance his own illusion. She has no time for love, even if she tries it on a bigger man, Sunny (Naveen Andrews) who will be her accomplice. The painting of the era is consistent: it focuses between 2000 and 2010, which is close to the past, the stretch that goes from “dumb” cell phones to the world opened up by the “smart”.

A few days ago, businessman Marcos Galperin, founder and director of Mercado Libredefined the Hulu series -based on a podcast- as that one “every entrepreneur should see”. Perhaps I am not mistaken with a specific purpose of the plot. In a world where millions crave their instant unicorn, not everyone is willing to feed a “foal” or listen to the truth: you don’t always get to the winged horse.

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Qualifications: Good.

Gender: Drama. stars: Amanda Seyfried, Naveen Andrews. creator: Elizabeth Merwether. Directors: Michael Showalte (on most stages). issue: a full season of 8 episodes, available on Star+.