'DR. DEATH' SHOWRUNNER ON WHETHER OR NOT WE CAN EVER UNDERSTAND A MONSTER
First Published on Collider.com
PATRICK MACMANUS ALSO EXPLAINS WHY THE SHOW'S SUPPORTING CHARACTERS WERE SUCH A GIFT.
The Peacock limited series Dr. Death is in many ways much more a horror story than a drama, but the villain at its center is all too real. Based on true events, as documented in the Wondery podcast, the series stars Joshua Jackson as Christopher Duntsch, a Texas physician who repeatedly crippled or killed patients in his care through surgeries which were either grossly incompetent or malicious. Thanks to the system, though, Duntsch was able to keep working — and hurting people — until two of his fellow doctors, Randall Kirby and Robert Henderson (played respectively by Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin), were able to expose him and put him behind bars.
In a one-on-one interview with Collider, showrunner Patrick Macmanus explained how he approached telling the story of Duntsch's rise and fall while being fully aware that explaining his motivations would never be truly possible, how important it was to examine both Duntsch the man as well as the reasons why he was able to keep working as long as he did, and how having figures like Kirby and Henderson eased the way in adapting the podcast.
Collider: So one of the aspects of this show that makes it so compelling is the fact that we want to understand why this person is who he is. For you, coming at it with the job of trying to dramatize this story, what was key to approaching that?
MACMANUS: You know, it's interesting that you asked that question because it was something that we talked about quite a bit, even before we had the writers' room — I'm talking three years ago, I think I got the podcast exactly three years ago next week — and my answer was that I genuinely don't believe we will ever be able to answer who Christopher Duntsch was and why he was, and it was not my intention, nor was it our writer's intention, once we got to the writers' room, to answer that question in full. Our intent was to present the story as best we could, and then allow audiences to take away from it whatever they would like to, because I just don't believe that we can answer why someone like Christopher Duntsch is or why he did what he did.