“What did you do, Paolo? What did you do to them?”
The first look at season two (below) of Peacock’s anthology series Dr. Death shows Mandy Moore confronting Edgar Ramírez, hinting at the sinister secrets that lie beneath the charming celebrity surgeon named Paolo Macchiarini, who rose to fame after performing the world’s first synthetic organ transplant.
The follow-up season to true-crime thriller Dr. Death, which starred Joshua Jackson as neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Duntsch, is also based on the hit Wondery podcast (season three) of the same name and this time around tells the true story of “Miracle Man” Paolo Macchiarini, who is described for the series as “a charming surgeon renowned for his innovative operations.”
Moore, in her next and darker TV turn following the end of her matriarch role on the beloved NBC family saga This Is Us, plays investigative journalist Benita Alexander, who approaches Paolo for a story. According to the synopsis, “the line between personal and professional begins to blur, changing her life foreve. As she learns how far Paolo will go to protect his secrets, a group of doctors halfway across the world make shocking discoveries of their own that call everything about Paolo into question.”
The eight-episode season, which launches in full Dec. 21, was written by showrunner and executive producer Ashley Michel Hoban. Luke Kirby, Ashley Madekwe and Gustaf Hammarsten round out the cast.
Executive producers for the UCP-produced series include Patrick Macmanus, Todd Black (Escape Artists), Jason Blumenthal (Escape Artists), Steve Tisch (Escape Artists), Taylor Latham (Escape Artists), Aaron Hart (Wondery), Hernan Lopez (Wondery) and Marshall Lewy (Wondery), Linda Gase and director Jennifer Morrison, who helmed the first four episodes. Laura Belsey directs the final four.
Peacock will also be releasing a companion documentary, Dr. Death: Cutthroat Conman, about the shocking rise and fall of Paolo Macchiarini on the same day the season releases. The documentary is from Maxine Productions and Universal Television Alternative Studio.
Edgar Ramírez as Dr. Paolo Macchiarini
Courtesy of Scott McDermott/PEACOCK
Mandy Moore as Benita
Courtesy of Scott McDermott/PEACOCK
In a note about the series, showrunner Hoban said the anthology series format provides freedom to explore variations on a theme. “Dr. Death is a show about systemic failures, and this season, these issues reach a global scale. Amid complex narratives, we’ve been fortunate to delve deeply into a story that, while entirely unique, remains surprisingly familiar, as it taps into a truly universal part of the human condition: illness. Even putting aside any recent global pandemics, we all know what it’s like to feel sick. It renders us vulnerable, small, in desperate need of help. A doctor we can trust.”
She continues, “This pursuit of trust and truth is what ties our two stories together this season. Two stories that, on the surface, may not seem to have much else in common: Doctors in Sweden on the verge of a breakthrough. A journalist in New York falling in love. However, both revolve around individuals made to feel small. They’re about people standing up to something bigger, for something bigger, and how their seemingly small choices ripple out into the world to give power and voice to those who have been made to feel powerless and silenced. These are stories that you don’t think could happen to you, until you watch this season of Dr. Death.”
Ramírez as Dr. Paolo Macchiarini and Moore as Benita
Courtesy of Peacock
