What’s New: From ‘Dopesick’ to ‘Hightown,’ Three Shows About the Opioid Crisis

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Oct. 13, 2021 – ‘Hightown’ When Jerry Bruckheimer is considering a new project, he asks himself if he’d watch it on TV or leave his home to see it in a theater. If the project checks either box, his job is to get it to the screen. That’s what he saw in “Hightown,” a crime series now in its second season set on Cape Cod against the backdrop of the opioid crisis.

The story is filled with drug-trafficking, murder and a sex-addicted cop working the case. The series, on which Mr. Bruckheimer is an executive producer, stars Monica Raymund as Jackie Quiñones, a National Marine Fisheries Service agent who struggles with addiction and wants to be a cop herself.

Mr. Bruckheimer, whose resume includes “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “The Amazing Race” and the CSI: franchise says that getting shows made remains a struggle, even for him. For one, he says, nobody really knows exactly what the audience is going to turn to. But also, he says, “there’s always a very bright executive at a company who thinks he knows better than anybody and he’s gonna make his mark.”

“There’s a guy sitting in a Harvard business class right now who is going to come to Hollywood and certainly tell me how to make our shows and what ideas work.”