Comfortably Numb

Synopsis Comfortably Numbs gritty matter-of-fact approach will have many people think twice before popping a pill again. The stories dig deep into the world of prescription drugs and opioids the way no other police drama could. Based on the over 300 cases of Sr. Investigator M. Phillips, a leading New York State Narcotics Investigator who began investigating opiates long before many knew what they were. The stories are true, the people real. Comfortably Numb goes where no other police drama has since The Wire. The country has become awash in pharmaceuticals. We are a society refusing to deal with any type of pain, weight gain, sleep loss, or a disruption in our sex life. No matter what your problem, there’s a pill for all that troubles, you but very few ever imagined the troubles that those beautiful little pills would bring them until it becomes too late. Phillips takes the police procedural’s “ripped from the headlines” genre to a level never taken before. From the early days of medical professionals abusing and diverting drugs for personal use, to pharmacy students running a full-scale drug operation with the drugs stolen from the pharmacies in which they worked as interns, Comfortably Numb will make all who watch anything but comfortable. However, as the problem expands, the “war-on-drugs” approach of yesterday has proven to be as ineffective now as it has been for decades and Phillips is torn between not only right and wrong but also which lives are worth saving. Through his eye-popping storylines, Phillips shocks the senses of those unfamiliar with the breadth of the problem but exposes many of the reasons why we are losing the battle and why America has become “Comfortably Numb.” The episodes build around Phillips and his inner circle each week as he attempts to balance personal life and a career that has brought him into a world that most cops have never been. Phillips describes undercover work buying street dope as “easy, something anyone could do. But try spending 18 months undercover as a licensed doctor with a month to prepare, now that’s not easy.” Phillips becomes someone he never expected as a result of his articles in Sports Illustrated and ESPN, to his appearance speaking on steroids at the Tribeca Film festival. With each day, Phillips drifts further from his life as a cop into one that slowly forces him to walk a fine line between who he was and who he is becoming.