Documentaries are a great way to dig deeper into a subject or expand on a niche or specialization in a way that a book, magazine, or website can’t do. Documentaries feature well organized storytelling through the usage of music, interviews, and footage or images from other media sources.

Documentaries are often shorter in duration than traditional film, averaging about 90 minutes. In the digital age, we have seen platforms like Vice build their audience off compelling and interesting subject matter. Vice has become a staple in creating content for America’s underbelly, covering subjects like drug addiction/usage, gang activity, and corrupt corporations.

While Vice is great at creating content for millennials and Gen Z, ABC often creates documentaries for older generations. Which, if done well, can connect to the younger populous too. Therefore, I selected an ABC documentary titled Poisoned to be the subject of my blog post. This documentary presents a different perspective of the fentanyl crisis here in America.

“Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin, and 100 times stronger than morphine.”

— ABC's Poisoned

America has been battling an opioid crisis for nearly 20 years now and America’s youth are the most impacted. Fentanyl has increased in mainstream popularity over the last 10 years and has claimed the lives of average citizens and celebrities alike. The Poisoned documentary discusses the dangers of fentanyl because of its potency. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin, and 100 times stronger than morphine. The strength of this drug makes overdose very easy and claims the lives of people who were never seeking the drug due to fentanyl flooding the counterfeit drug market, which is why the documentary is titled Poisoned.

Poisoned makes use of interviews from families to illustrate to the audience that fentanyl overdoses happen at random and could affect any of the viewers in the same way. Poisoned shows us that if you have ever participated in recreational drug use, you could become addicted to or overdose on fentanyl. This is the perspective that really impacted me. Being poisoned to death by a powerful drug, a person never intended on taking, is destroying communities.
The documentary starts off showing celebrity victims such as Prince and Mac Miller. The music is also a subtle tool used to set the scenery, but also encourage the emotional reaction being solicited by the images on the screen. ABC produces their stories in a news format but has a high degree of media diversity. It uses aerial shots of the city of Nashville, which currently has the highest overdose death rate in the country, interviews with parents who have lost their children, and high-resolution photography and video clips that match the words of the narrator.

Poisoned is aimed at an older audience that may be unfamiliar with fentanyl. Increasing awareness for boomer grandparents and Gen X parents. I believe the main goal is awareness. Awareness from the older generations will help them identify signs of what to look for and understanding that all ages and demographics have been affected by this epidemic, with the hope that we can slow the loss of life fentanyl is causing.