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Television Shows That Revolve Around an Addict/Addiction or Have an Addict as the Main Character?

ChemicallyEnhanced

Bluelighter
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I think I made a similar thread but about movies a while back.
I've been re-watching shows recently that I initially watched a long time ago (either when they first aired, or at least more than a decade ago) and noticed a bit of an addiction theme and now I want more lol.

Rewatched House MD, which while it's more a medical procedural (I saw someone describe it as "Sherlock Holmes but with medical mysteries" and I'd say that's accurate). I rewatched it because I love medical stuff and remember really liking the show when I binged it like 10-12 years ago...of course the main character is a Vicodin-addict.
Just got done watching Nurse Jackie* which is probably like the 4th time I've watched it through lol. It's just like a comfort show. Plus - Jackie is addicted to prescription opioids - I, entirely by coincidence, started watching it right as was becoming addicted to the Oxy and Lorazepam I was on.
Currently in the middle of re-watching Oz, which is a prison-show, not a drug or addiction show, but being set in a prison, there's a lot of that kinda thing going on.

Hmmm..other shows I've liked along the same subject would be Weeds (nothing to do with addiction, iirc, but the main character sells weed), I love(d) A&E's Intervention (a documentary series with an addict being the subject of each episode), Breaking Bad...probably others I just can't remember right now.

*Just yesterday, I noticed a page for "Untitled Nurse Jackie Sequel" on IMDb, which I'm excited for! Especially as most of the cast are back, including Edie Falco.
 
Some of the Sherlock Holmes series don't omit the fact that S.H. is a drug user.
One I liked very much is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett in the title role (he is my kind of guy, but he had lots of mental problems). Some episodes show him actually using or at least under the influence, and in others Dr. Watson finds paraphernalia.

One modern version of Sherlock Holmes, set in NYC, is Elementary where Johnny Lee Miller plays Sherlock Holmes as a recovering addict.

Maybe not really an addict, but definitely a colorful main character who is into booze and later some mysterious Chinese tea to ease the pain after being shot: the main character of Goliath (main actor is Billy Bob Thornton, but I guess that's an Amazon Prime series).
 
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Some of the Sherlock Holmes series don't omit the fact that S.H. is a drug user.
One I liked very much is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett in the title role (he is my kind of guy, but he had lots of mental problems). Some episodes show him actually using or at least under the influence, and in others Dr. Watson finds paraphernalia.

One modern version of Sherlock Holmes, set in NYC, is Elementary where Johnny Lee Miller plays Sherlock Holmes as a recovering addict.

Maybe not really an addict, but definitely a colorful main character who is into booze and later some mysterious Chinese tea to ease the pain after being shot: the main character of Goliath (main actor is Billy Bob Thornton, but I guess that's an Amazon Prime series).

"Amazon Prime series" - oh, 100% fine. Any show/series is fine, doesn't have to be TV.

What was it Holmes uses? Opium? I've only read one of the books (The Hound of the Baskervilles) but that was back in High School, so I don't really remember.
 
"Amazon Prime series" - oh, 100% fine. Any show/series is fine, doesn't have to be TV.

What was it Holmes uses? Opium? I've only read one of the books (The Hound of the Baskervilles) but that was back in High School, so I don't really remember.
The Goliath series is quite good. Like one story divided into several episodes, a total of 4 stories "cases, as the main character is a lawyer). In one season (case) people smoke something in a secret room that makes them have visions, and I always wondered what it was, something used by Native Americans.

Sherlock Holmes (the original) does both cocaine and opium, and I guess also heroin. All drugs that were legal back then in a way that perhaps benzos are today. His sidekick Dr. Watson, as a medical doctor, knows about the risks of addiction and tries constantly to keep Holmes from taking anything. Holmes uses drugs to deal with the boredom he feels when he's not working.
 
Hightown
The entire Power series (Power, Ghost, Raising Kanan, Force)
The Wire
Dopesick
Animal Kingdom
Bosch (the books are better though)
 
You could always check out the older shows drugs, inc and dope as well. They're more documentary style but good to watch.
 
Does the Dave Chappelle Show episode about Rick James, count? ( I saw it many years ago Alastair)
 
The knick by steve soderbergh,
The main character is a surgeon addicted to iv cocaine and it's an important plot point. It delves into other things also but i felt its portrayal of addiction was very real and the show is produced very well, so if you're triggered easily watch out! Clive Oven is phenomenal in this. In the second season heroin is introduced in the mix with not very good results. I think the main character was partially based of this gentleman:

" His operating room at Johns Hopkins Hospital is in Ward G, and was described as a small room where medical discoveries and miracles took place .According to an intern who once worked in Halsted's operating room, Halsted had unique techniques, operated on the patients with great confidence and often had perfect results which astonished the interns. Throughout his professional life, he was addicted to cocaine and later also to morphine, which were not illegal during his time. As revealed by Osler's diary, Halsted developed a high level of drug tolerance for morphine. He was "never able to reduce the amount to less than three grains daily" (approximately 200 mg). Halsted's addictions resulted from experiments on the use of cocaine as an anesthetic agent that he performed on himself."
 
I loved true detective with Matthew mchonehey and Woody Harrilson..

Drawing a blank but euphoria was aight
 
I always liked the show Cheers. Somehow I related to a bunch of alcoholics with nothing better to do than sit around a bar and drink beer and make fun of each other. Lol
 
Chris has a good Heroin arc in The Sopranos. The show is worth a watch regardless of that
 
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