Netflix Tackles CIA’s Top Secret LSD Experiments In A New True Crime Series

Netflix has heard the message loud and clear: The people want more true crime stories. So, more stories about true crime the people will get.

Strong Island is in the running to be the network’s most important documentaries yet. And it’s being followed up closely by Errol Morris’ six-part docu-series Wormwood.

The show will take a look at the CIA’s secret LSD experiments conducted back in the '50s. Specifically, it will hone in on the case of Frank Rudolph Olson, a CIA employee who allegedly jumped out of a hotel window (with many believing he was actually pushed) and died after taking the drug. The series will follow Olson's son as he attempts to uncover the truth. “I was told... 'your father has had an accident,'” he says in the trailer. “But that was the cover story told by the CIA.”

The series takes on an interesting format—a blend of reenactments and interviews. The cast will include Peter Sarsgaard, Molly Parker, Christian Camargo, Scott Shepherd, and more. Morris, who’s directed documentaries like The Thin Blue Line and Academy Award-winning The Fog of War in the past, said this about the project, in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter: “In many ways, [it's] a personal family story, but in many other ways, [it's] a story of America's decline in the period following World War II. It asks the question: To what extent can a democracy lie to its citizens and still, in the end, remain a democracy?”

Find out for yourself December 15 when the series premieres on Netflix.