HOW THE ‘DR. DEATH’ TV SHOW TAKES ‘A DEEPER DIVE’ THAN THE POPULAR PODCAST
First Published on LATimes.com
HAVING AN INCOMPETENT SURGEON SOUNDS LIKE A NIGHTMARE, RIGHT?
For 33 patients of Texas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, it was a reality. Nicknamed “Dr. Death,” the story of Duntsch’s egregious medical crimes — and the healthcare system that failed so many by allowing him to practice — received the podcast treatment in 2018 from Wondery, the team behind “Dirty John.” Premiering Thursday on Peacock, the television adaptation features “The Affair’s” Joshua Jackson as the charming yet sinister Duntsch.
“In doing a television version of [‘Dr. Death’], we actually had the time and the opportunity to do a bit of a deeper dive into the story than the podcast was able to,” says showrunner Patrick Macmanus.
How is the series different from the podcast?
Beyond the podcast and the case’s key players — orthopedic surgeon Dr. Robert Henderson (played by Alec Baldwin), vascular surgeon Dr. Randall Kirby (Christian Slater) and Asst. Dist. Atty. Michelle Shughart (AnnaSophia Robb), who prosecuted Duntsch in 2017 — Macmanus had access to thousands of pages of research and hundreds of pages of court documents and interviews that allowed him to explore Duntsch’s life, while taking some creative liberties.
Some of the changes for the Peacock series — such as the names of the patients in the podcast who were harmed by Duntsch — were relatively minor. Others were more substantive:
The series’ final episode puts Duntsch on trial for gross malpractice — specifically the mangled spine surgery of Madeline Beyer (Maryann Plunkett) — and features a montage of victim statements about the effects of Duntsch’s “work.”
“There were a lot of interviews that the public were not privy to both on [podcast host and reporter] Laura Beil’s side [and] just in depositions and all the things leading up to trial, where we took the best of all of these people and put them into [different characters],” Macmanus says of the composites who deliver the testimony.
Macmanus and the writers team created several other composites in the series, including Kayla, a former paramour of Duntsch, and Chris, a fellow college football player and onetime friend.