Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders, a documentary miniseries now streaming on Paramount+, revisits a chilling 1982 case where a number of people in the Chicago area were killed by poisoned Tylenol capsules.
Opening Shot: An old-fashioned boombox is opened, someone inserts a cassette tape, and presses play – giving way to an audio-video, montage of various scene-setting 1982 cultural touchstones. Like a lot of the episode that follows, it’s evocative of the period while also feeling a bit like padding.
The Gist: One of the largest-ever pharmaceutical recalls ever was caused not by human error, but actual homicide: the lacing of capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol with cyanide, killing seven people in the Chicago area (and inspiring several subsequent copycat crimes and accompanying deaths). Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders — not to be confused with the 2023 Netflix series Painkiller, which was a fictionalized take on the opioid crisis — explores the case over the course of five 30-to-40-minute episodes, starting with then-mysterious deaths in September 1982 (including three members of the same family as well as a 12-year-old girl).
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? There are any number of Netflix true crime docuseries this will bring to mind — The Pharmacist and Capturing The Killer Nurse are top of mind — although the ‘80s trappings may also remind you of something more retro: the old TV news-magazine format as seen on shows like 20/20 or Dateline NBC.
Our Take: The Tylenol murder case of 1982 has plenty of true crime touchstones: An extremely well-publicized case in its day that had far-reaching ramifications both positive (in terms of safety regulations) and negative (in terms of the panic that ensued in its wake), a period that’s both distant (over 40 years later) and subject to clear-headed recollection from those who were there; and a drawn-out investigation without easy open-and-shut resolution. The first episode of Painkiller doesn’t bring all of these elements at once; suspects don’t even enter the picture until episode two. Instead, the first installment focuses on the nightmarish few days where the extent of the drug-tampering became clear in the Chicago metro area, with multiple young and healthy people dying after taking a seemingly innocuous over-the-counter drug. This includes several members of the Janus family, whose surviving relatives provide interviews here, alongside police who were early on the scene and the nurse who first made the connection between the unexpected deaths and Tylenol. The reconstruction of the confusion and panic of those days in fall 1982 comes through with the show’s various first-person talking heads.
As a piece of documentary television, though, Painkiller is pretty standard-issue, and the reasons for making it five short episodes, rather than a single feature-length overview, feel more marketing-mandated than creatively motivated, especially in the first installment. While the contemporary interviews and actual period footage from old news broadcasts are compelling, it’s clear that Painkiller doesn’t think they’re quite enough, so there’s lots of filler footage and effects that attempt to give audiences something more to look at or listen to: Establishing shots of various locations, doctored to look older; cheesy old-timey slide-show noises for transitions; replaying and zooming in on the same clips to stretch them out. Sometimes the material feels spread so thin that the first episode appears to be sacrificing some of its play-by-play timeline clarity for the sake of crossing the 30-minute mark. This continues with subsequent episodes, which aren’t quite as padded out, but still don’t feel quite as structurally sound as the best true-crime docs. Still, the 1980s footage and new interviews have an immediacy and a pop that you can’t get from simply reading a Wikipedia summary. At times, Painkiller feels like a clip show of now-vintage news broadcasts, which makes it entertaining on a surface level even if it’s not as insightful or addictive as the genre’s best.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Joe Janus tearfully recalling how the murders tore his hopeful family apart.
Sleeper Star: The most engaging interview subject is Helen Jensen, the nurse who first investigated the deaths and put it together that the three Janus family members had all taken Tylenol from the same bottle. Her sense of outrage, both at the senselessness of the crime and the initial disinclination of authorities to take her seriously, is palpable (while still somehow remaining affable).
Most Pilot-y Line: There’s not a line so much as the volume of 1982 scene-setting.
Our Call: Though this isn’t an exceptional true crime series, it does provide the ins and outs that fans of the genre look for, and it’s not a huge time commitment. So true-crime acolytes can safely STREAM IT.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.