Echoes of contemporary decay: a Foucauldian analysis of tv series The Fall of the House of Usher (2023) and its portrayal of present-day opioids epidemic in the USA

Abstract

[eng] Amidst the opioid epidemic faced by the United States in the 21st century, the Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usher, released in October 2023, emerges as a stark critique of the pharmaceutical cartels’ power nets operating within capitalist greedy webs in the United States. With intricate sewing work in each episode richly replete with references to Edgar Alan Poe’s works, this Netflix series draws poignant parallels between the sins of the Ushers and those of the pharmaceutical industry in the United States, particularly the Sacklers and their company, Purdue Pharma. While continuing a mass media tradition adapting Poe’s oeuvre, this contemporary adaptation of the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839) reaffirms the American Gothic author’s timeless relevance without merely exploiting his macabre material, as it vividly mirrors his Gothic portrayals of societal darker aspects and literary style. Diving into the elaborate layers of Mike Flanagan’s last series, this research project will dissect its account of the pharmaceutical industry’s role in triggering and perpetuating the current opioid epidemic in the United States, while examining its literary and thematic connections to Poe’s work within a Foucauldian framework.