Beyond ‘You Can See Everything’: Essential Books, Documentaries, and Series on Theranos

You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s quasi-documentary about Theranos founder and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, has become one of the most talked-about films of the year. The movie centers on Fielder’s intimate interviews with Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, who hosted the comedian shortly before Holmes began her prison sentence in 2023.

Beyond its box-office numbers, the film has earned critical acclaim and emerged as a surprise awards contender. Rolling Stone critic David Fear wrote, “The film’s title comes from a promise that Holmes makes to Fielder about this endeavor; she’s so serious about total transparency that she texts him the same phrase minutes later. You Can See Everything makes good on the irony behind that pledge. As for viewers, you will likely have no idea what you have just seen, besides that it’s simply, unabashedly, unashamedly brilliant.”

Although the film begins with a recap of the final week of the Elizabeth Holmes saga, it deals only lightly with the intricate financial crimes that brought Theranos down. Fielder and Oppenheim appear to assume that viewers already know the broad outlines of one of the 21st century’s most notorious corporate scandals, choosing instead to examine Holmes’s relationship with Evans and probe larger questions about the nature of truth. For anyone unfamiliar with the founder of the failed blood-testing company, the works below offer a useful primer and a deeper look at the case.

Whether you left the film eager for more context or are preparing to see it because tickets remain difficult to come by, here is a guide to the most useful books, documentaries, and series to explore next.

‘Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup’

For an in-depth account of Theranos, John Carreyrou’s 2018 book Bad Blood is essential. His reporting for The Wall Street Journal helped bring the company down, and the book traces its story from founding to collapse. It reads more like a crime novel than a dense legal history. Carreyrou also hosted the follow-up podcast Bad Blood: The Final Chapter, which resumes the narrative around the start of Holmes’s criminal trial and is available through podcast platforms.

‘The Dropout’

The Dropout presents a fictionalized account of Theranos’s rise and fall, following Holmes as she founds the company and her relationship with company president Sunny Balwani. It also supplies context for You Can See Everything, which repeatedly references Amanda Seyfried’s portrayal of Holmes in the miniseries. The television adaptation grew out of an ABC-produced podcast of the same name hosted by Rebecca Jarvis and available on podcast platforms.

‘The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley’

You Can See Everything is not the only documentary released this year about a controversial Silicon Valley figure. Alex Gibney’s Musk, about Elon Musk, arrived in October to generally favorable reviews, although Musk dismissed it as a “psy op.” Gibney had previously turned his documentary focus to Theranos with 2019’s The Inventor, a more conventional account of Holmes and the company. Viewers seeking a straightforward complement to You Can See Everything can pair the films for an intense but compelling double feature.

‘Nathan For You’

Rather than staying behind the camera, Fielder becomes as central a character in You Can See Everything as Holmes does. The film references Nathan For You, the comedy series that established his blend of documentary and comedy, in which he plays a fictionalized version of himself and offers small businesses unorthodox ideas for success. Fielder also asks Evans why he would want to appear on a program about business scams.

‘The Rehearsal’

Because of legal restrictions, You Can See Everything includes significant reenactments, some of its strangest and most compelling sequences. Fielder’s comedy series The Rehearsal takes a similar approach, using sets and actors to help ordinary people “rehearse” difficult personal situations before they unfold.

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