1) Not me reviewing a limited series about the way awful doctors have no consequences right in the middle of a pandemic where people don’t trust doctors!
2) I listened to this podcast last year (or the year before? what is time at this point anyway?) and I was absolutely riveted. I usually only listen to podcasts in very specific instances where I have a along stretch of time when I can’t do anything else — riding a bike, driving during a road trip, waiting in a long line for something — but I was listening to Dr. Death in my free time because the story was bonkers. I don’t love some of the artistic and directional choices in this Peacock Limited Series, but I’m also biased toward the bare bones storytelling of the podcast with Just The Facts and no dramatic license. If you’ve never listened to the podcast, I think the series is probably like 30% more enjoyable.
3) Oh wow a random penis. I didn’t even know you could put nudity on there because I thought it was an extension of NBC, as in basic cable with no dicks, but I guess they wanted to put the cock in Peacock forreal.
4) Whether Dr. Death was intentionally screwing up his patients or he had some physical limitations coupled with extreme hubris and narcissism, the fact that he was allowed to do it 30 times is terrifying. Medical error is like the 3rd leading cause of death and we can’t do anything about it!
5) Any woman who ever has sex with anybody is just not to be trusted, according to Every Narrative In The World. I don’t care what the story is, they will find a way to put a woman’s sex life on trial as a way to invalidate anything she has to say that isn’t even related to what she did with her good china.
6) Alec Baldwin is not likeable as an actor anymore. Please stop casting him. I don’t ever need to see a Baldwin do anything again in this life or the next.
7) If there’s a database that shows what complaints and malpractice issues a doctor has on his record, shouldn’t I, as the patient choosing a doctor, have access to that? Limiting access to hospitals and other doctors does not help me make an informed decision to pick the right healthcare provider. In any other industry, if you get bad reviews, you’ll eventually go out of business, because people stop going to you. But surgeons can leave sponges in people, slice an artery by accident, take out chunks of muscle, and nearly decapitate people, and we just have to trust that the hospital — whose bottom line depends on expensive surgeries — chose the best person for the job? When they have a financial and legal interest in covering their own ass? I don’t like that at all and I need to research politicians who are actively tackling it. I can’t think of any reason why there shouldn’t be more transparency into your surgeon’s history and past results.
9) Christian Bale really knows how to play an asshole who has the moral high ground.
10) I don’t really know if this kinda series is everybody’s cup of tea. I very much understand those folks who avoid things like this because they get anxious easily and they don’t need this extra stress of wondering if their surgeon is qualified. But, if you’re not that person, I still think this series moves so much more slowly than the podcast ,and the timeline is so clunky, you have to pay attention to it. I like to knit while I watch TV. I couldn’t do that, because the timeline jumps back and forth so much that if you look down when the “April 2012” cue comes up, you get lost and have to rewind. What surgery is this? Is this med school or his 4th hospital? Has he killed anybody yet? Dr. Death is not the kind of prestige television I need to be glued to the TV set for, and yet it forced me to sit there and stare at it against my will. And I don’t like that either. I say just listen to the podcast.
11) The only character you really care about is the Black woman who is about to go on vacation. They way they set up her story is the way they should’ve introduced all of his victims. Both of the “good” doctors are obnoxious pricks, the baby mama is white trash, his whole family is uptight Conservative Christian, and his best friend is a complete dumbass. Mamie Gummer almost made me feel a little something, but that’s mostly because misogyny and slutshaming get under my skin.
12) If you loved Dr. Death, let me know why! I’m curious and maybe I was ignoring the good things because it was too far away from the spirit of the podcast.
Score: 5.5/10 (The podcast is a solid 8 though.)
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