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If you like true crime and drama, then The Dropout is a great show for you to get into. Starring Amanda Seyfried, this tale tells the rise and fall of real-life dropout and fraud Elizabeth Holmes and the company of Theranos, which she founded. It is a very interesting story and a perfect mini-series to binge on a rainy day.
If you are in Canada, you might be a little worried as all eight episodes of the series are all on Hulu, which is only available in the U.S., but thankfully there are a few ways for you to watch the show. You just need the help of a VPN service, and this article is going to walk you through how to watch the Dropout in Canada.
How To Watch The Dropout In Canada
It streams exclusively on Hulu
If you want to watch the Dropout in Canada, then one of the only places you can find it is on Hulu. Since Hulu is geo-locked and only available in the United States, you need to use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN.
Or catch The Dropout On Apple TV
The Dropout is also available on Apple TV as well, which can be watched in Canada, all you need is to create an account and sign up either for a free trial (and with the eight episodes, you should be able to watch it during the free trial period) or you can pay $6.99 to get a one-month subscription and watch the mini-series.
You also don’t need an Apple Device to watch Apple TV because it can be watched in a web browser. So just log in and then start watching the entire series right from your home computer.
You might need a VPN to watch in Canada
A VPN is a service that keeps your privacy and your security safe on the internet, and it also allows you to change your server location, so it looks like you are online anywhere. You can use this method to overcome geographically locked websites, including Hulu. But not all VPN services are created equal, and you need to make sure you are picking the correct one for your needs.
Here are some of the best VPN services that you can use, and once you pick one, you will be well on your way to watching The Dropout!
The Best VPN Services
Proton VPN
If you are looking for a VPN that does everything you need it to and nothing you don’t, then look no further than Proton VPN. Proton VPN doesn’t just give you a perfect user experience for both experienced users and first-timers alike, but it also gives you a very feature-rich free trial that allows you to use a paired-down version of the service.
Plus, having an account with Proton VPN will give you Proton Mail, which is a secure email service, as well as the ‘Stealth’ feature, which provides additional security measures. If you decide that you want to go for the paid version, then you can do that too.
The cost of using Proton VPN plus is 4.99 euros per month or 119.76 euros per year. So it is certainly one of the best VPNs to use if you find yourself on a budget.
SurfShark VPN
SurfShark is a pretty good VPN that might still be a newcomer to the scene of VPNs, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good enough for your needs. Surfshark supports the wire guard protocol, and it also has a wide collection of features, not to mention antivirus protection that it offers at an additional cost.
But the real reason many people try SurfShark VPN is that it doesn’t have a limit on how many devices you can use with a single subscription. While several VPNs allow you to use anywhere between 5-10 devices at a time, you can protect everything with one subscription, which is great if you have a large variety of devices that you want to have protected.
SurfShark comes in price-wise at anywhere from 2.49 USD to 12.95 USD per month, depending on if you want to go month per month or pay for the first two years of your subscription all at once. But it is well worth a purchase, and it will allow you to download, upload, and watch geo-locked content all you want.
Try Surfshark RISK-FREE for 30 days!
TunnelBear VPN
The name and the surprisingly cute logo might cause you to pass on this VPN, but you’d be missing a fantastic experience if you do.
While it is a much more stripped-down version of other entries on this list, it is a very easy-to-use VPN and also comes with a limited free option, which allows you to test out the VPN first. Perfect if you are a beginner and want to see what you are getting before you pay.
You get unlimited connections with your subscriptions, the privacy policies for TunnelBear VPN are excellent, and it comes with adorable bears! What’s not to love about it?! Plus, the layout is extremely well-designed and beginner-friendly, and TunnelBear is also subject to independent audits as well, so your data is kept even safer.
For the unlimited plan, you can pay $9.99 a month for a monthly payment, $4.99 a month for a one-time yearly payment of $60, or a $3.33 a month payment billed as $120 for three years of the service.
Those prices aren’t anything to ignore, so you might as well give TunnelBear a serious try because it is a contender that can hold its own with the larger VPN services.
What Is The Backstory Of The Dropout?
The Dropout tells the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, and if you like digging into the meat of true crime stories, then here’s the background and the real events that inspired the television show. Elizabeth sought to democratize healthcare and also had a massive fear of needles.
Due to this, she wanted to find a way to use small amounts of blood (like the blood from a finger prick) to perform medical blood tests that traditionally required large amounts of blood.
Despite being told by many medical professionals that her idea was impossible, she founded the company ‘Real-Time Cures’ in 2003, which was later renamed Theranos. She managed to raise over $92 million to fund the firm and also recruited several prominent people to form her board of directors.
She promised that her Edison blood testing machine could take anywhere from 1-10 drops of blood. She would run the data from the drops through the internet and through Theranos’s own system and said it could detect over 1,000 diseases on those small drops, eliminating the need for massive blood tests and needles.
Soon she was the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire in 2014, but things quickly started to go wrong soon after. An investigator at the Wall Street Journal got a tip from a medical professional that Theranos’s machines seemed suspicious.
Despite threats from Holmes, the Wall Street Journal published an article in 2015 that stated how the devices gave inaccurate results, and Theranos has been using other commercially available machines for the tests they had done.
More investigations followed, and more problems were exposed until, eventually, Homles was convicted of fraud for taking over 700 million dollars from investors in exchange for advertising a false product.
Eventually, in the federal grand jury case of U.S vs. Holmes, she was found guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and Theranos was dissolved in 2018.
The Dropout Mini-Series
The eight-episode mini-series on Hulu shows the story in more detail, while also delving into the circumstances and the past events that might have influenced why Holmes did what she did. It’s a critically acclaimed series and has also won several awards, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
It’s also interesting because it tries to present the events as a story, and it also delves into what Holmes might have been feeling as things didn’t work out like she had promised, how she was able to attract so many wealthy people to her project, and what her mental state was as her empire shattered and she lost everything within the blink of an eye.
How Can I Learn More About The Real Dropout?
If the television series was the first thing to whet your appetite for more of the story and the downfall of Elizabeth Holmes, then you might be happy to know that the television show was based on a true crime podcast, also called ‘The Dropout” It is a six-episode podcast done by ABC news and hosted by Rebecca Jarvis, and each episode is around 40 minutes long.
Not only does it tell the story of Elizabeth Holmes, but it also features interviews with former employees, investors, and patients, and it also includes several deposition tapes.
So if you want to hear the story straight from the people who were involved in the downfall of Theranos and the person who founded it, this is the podcast you will want to hear. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal journalist who broke the story, John Carreyrou, wrote a book during his time investigating the company and Holmes.
The book is titled “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup” and details his involvement in the investigation, his thoughts on Elizabeth Holmes, and the entire story at large. He also released a podcast in 2021 called “Bad Blood: The Final Chapter.”
This podcast of 20 episodes covers the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, going week to week as John Carreyrou and reporter Emily Saul go through the trial and give their thoughts on what occurred. Finally, another Apple TV documentary, “Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley,” shares the story of Elizabeth Holmes in a documentary format.
So as you can see, there are plenty of different resources that you can delve into if you want to learn more about the people and the case of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. If the mini-series provides the kickstart you need to go down the rabbit hole, then by all means, you should take the leap. There’s a lot to uncover.
Watching The Dropout In Canada
Whether you choose to watch The Dropout on Apple TV+ or by using a VPN on Hulu, you can’t go wrong after downloading a VPN. They are able to help keep you safe while online and also keep all your important data protected, and who doesn’t want a little more of that these days?
So pick your VPN, watch The Dropout, and then see what else you can find on Hulu!
