The Dropout

Disney+

The rise and fall of US entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes is a mesmerising true story waiting to be told. This drama stars Mamma Mia!’ s Amanda Seyfried as the Stanford University dropout who started up Theranos, a company selling a revolutionary blood-testing kit. Theranos attracted investment from Rupert Murdoch and was once valued at $9bn, but Holmes is awaiting sentencing in the US on four counts of fraud, so you see where this ends up. The journey is worth it. The first three episodes are released today; it kicks off with Holmes as a socially awkward teenager driven by her father’s career failure and by the success story of Steve Jobs. Holmes is depicted by Seyfried as naïve, manipulative and so ambitious to become a big tech hitter that ethical considerations are overridden. British star Naveen Andrews plays Holmes’s lover and business partner Sunny Balwani – in real life his fraud trial starts later this month. Strong support comes from William H Macy, Laurie Metcalf and our own Stephen Fry as Holmes’s adversaries. VP