How to Fix a Drug Scandal has a two-pronged approach to telling this tale: One is to explore the stories of Farak and Dookhan from their childhoods to their ultimate criminal behavior and the consequences of it.
The other is to take aim at a potential government cover-up in which presumed wrongful convictions based on Farak and Dookhan’s tainted work were defended instead of vindicated, along with an undercurrent criticizing America’s “War on Drugs.” It’s also a tale of two cities: Boston in the urban east and Amherst in the rural west of Massachusetts, though the distinctions here don’t really add much to the story. The same can be said for the decision to compare Farak and Dookhan’s cases.
The focus may be on Farak with Dookhan’s story accompanying it for context, but there’s too much from both scandals for a feature-length documentary yet not quite enough to fill out all four episodes of this docu-series.
A two-part series–one focusing on the chemists and their character failings, one focusing on law enforcement personnel and their professional failings–would have given us a tighter, more focused, and more compelling narrative.
Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction, but most times it’s not. Sometimes people behave just the way you expect them to: They take advantage of an opportunity, they get addicted along the way (to the thrill of getting away with it, the accolades they receive, or the effects of literal drugs), they make mistakes, and they commit a series of small sins without the intention of harming others. And sometimes those small sins add up to be crimes that affect tens of thousands of people, as in the case of the new Netflix true-crime documentary How to Fix a Drug Scandal.
As the synopsis goes: “In 2013, Massachusetts State Police arrested 35-year-old crime drug lab chemist Sonja Farak for tampering with evidence. Over time, details emerged that Farak had been in fact using the drugs that she was tasked with testing. The scope of Farak’s addiction—and the number of people convicted as a result of her drug testing—comes to light, despite repeated efforts to suppress evidence in the case.”
Giving context to this case is the related investigation of state lab chemist Annie Dookhan, who was ultimately charged with obstruction of justice and falsification of academic records, but whose personal failings add a curious twist to the tale.
⇒ How to Fix a Drug Scandal Season 1
⇒ How to Fix a Drug Scandal Season 1 Episode 1
⇒ How to Fix a Drug Scandal Season 1 Episode 2
⇒ How to Fix a Drug Scandal Season 1 Episode 3
⇒ How to Fix a Drug Scandal Season 1 Episode 4
⇒ How to Fix a Drug Scandal - All Season's (Complete Episode)
