# Dr. Death (2021)

> A medical true crime anthology in which each season dramatizes a different doctor whose surgical practice caused harm to patients.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/79308

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 16
- Episode runtime: 48 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, crime
- Created by: Patrick Macmanus, Ashley Michel Hoban
- Network: Peacock
- Cast: Joshua Jackson, Edgar Ramírez, Alec Baldwin, Mandy Moore, Christian Slater, Ashley Madekwe, Carrie Preston, Gustaf Hammarsten
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9179552/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: tense, clinical, unsettling, sober, propulsive

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series positively, with the first season's cast and storytelling considered stronger than the second season's.

## Synopsis

Dr. Death (2021-2023) is an American true crime medical anthology series created by Patrick Macmanus and Ashley Michel Hoban for Peacock, adapted from the Wondery podcast. Each of its two eight-episode seasons follows a new real-life surgeon whose confident hands hide dangerous incompetence. In the first season, Joshua Jackson plays Dr. Christopher Duntsch, whose ambitious spinal operations leave patients worse off, while Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater appear among the hospital staff and administrators who slowly start to question him. The engine of each season is the gap between institutional trust and mounting evidence: a patient advocate, played by Mandy Moore in the second season, pushes against hospital silence and professional loyalty as complaints pile up. Episodes alternate between the operating theater, courtrooms and investigative interviews, giving the drama a documentary-inflected texture. Set in modern American hospitals, the series carries a clinical, unsettled tone that is tense and sober rather than sensational. Its atmosphere of quiet dread and moral unease will appeal to viewers who enjoy Dirty John and ER, with fans of true crime dramatizations finding its measured pacing rewarding.

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