Dr Death lands on Channel 4 this month, and it’s one of the most chilling true crime series I’ve ever watched – read my review to find out why.
Based on the hit podcast from Wondery, Dr Death tells the shocking true story of Dr Christopher Duntsch. His patients put their trust in the young neurosurgeon… But, in chilling scenes, he is accused of being “either dangerously incompetent or a sociopath”.
This is no whodunit. From the start, the horrifying truth about Dr Christopher Duntsch is revealed – he’s dangerous and should not be practising. Is Duntsch incompetent or a sociopath? And why does the US healthcare system allow him to keep practicing? This is the dangling carrot.
Actor Joshua Jackson has come a long way since Dawson’s Creek, as he takes on one of the most horrifying characters of his career. If you’re a fan, you’ll probably go off him pretty sharpish as his portrayal of Duntsch – aka Dr Death – is all too realistic.
Read on for our Dr Death review…
Dr Death review: It’s a chilling tale bought to life
I know it sounds very wrong to admit that I love watching true crime dramatisations, but I really do. Probably for the same reason millions of you do too.
Most of us cannot fathom how or why a person could kill another human being. And therein lies the appeal of true crime dramas. What makes them tick? Why do they do it?
I’ve watched a LOT of true crime dramas, and documentaries. And Dr Death is up there with one of the best of recent years.
The Netflix film The Good Nurse told the story of American serial killer Charles Cullen. He murdered dozens of his patients during his 16-year nursing career working in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania medical systems before being arrested in 2003.
Similarly, Dr Death dramatises the crimes of Dr Christopher Duntsch, a Dallas spinal surgeon whose operating room blunders led to catastrophe at best and, at worst, death.
Patients entering the operating room of Dr Christopher Duntsch for routine spinal surgeries started leaving permanently maimed or even dead…
The tale follows two fellow surgeons and a young Assistant District Attorney who set out to stop him. The drama about the criminally dangerous neurosurgeon and the systemic failings that protected him also stars Christian Slater, Alec Baldwin, and Grace Gummer (aka Meryl Streep’s daughter).
Why I’m never going to the hospital again after watching Dr Death
Dr Death plays on our worst fears. We put our trust in the doctors and nurses who treat us in hospital. And they very rarely let us down. But, when they do it deliberately, it’s the most disgusting abuse of trust imaginable.
Unlike the stupidly glossy The Staircase on HBO, this feels all too real. Joshua Jackson is horribly arrogant and chilling as the doctor who believes he can do no wrong – even when his routine operations end in disaster.
With blood on the floor, and a patient left paralysed, he still insists he isn’t to blame. Most of us have worked with incompetent people… In my case, that might mean an embarrassing amount of spelling mistakes or missed deadlines. An IT specialist might lose an important file. But the consequences of a mistake when you’re a doctor are catastrophic.
Watching Dr Death made me realise how much faith we put in the medical profession. Cases like Lucy Letby are thankfully uncommon, but the thought is terrifyingly real.
Dr Death review: Not gory but grisly
Dr Death is eight hours of gripping drama. It hammers home every fear and insecurity that I’ve ever had about surgery. Duntsch was eventually accused of killing multiple patients and leaving dozens more injured.
We’re left fearing real evil, as surely the gifted doctor – with a PhD and an MD – wasn’t capable of so many deadly mistakes unless deliberate?
The series begins with Duntsch in jail, so we can rest easy. Duntsch was accused of injuring 33 out of 38 patients in less than two years before his license was revoked by the Texas Medical Board. In 2017, he was convicted of maiming one of his patients and sentenced to life imprisonment.
He is currently incarcerated in the US, with the earliest possible parole in 2045. He received life with 28 years minimum.
Dr Duntsch has been described as more butcher than doctor, but that gives butchers a bad name. Although the series doesn’t answer perhaps the most important question of why he did it, because there is never a logical answer. Do we care that Harold Shipman told himself he was practising euthanasia? Nope, he was a murderer whatever reason he told himself.
While this is thankfully not too gory… There are moments where your teeth will be on edge. And you will feel the horror of the other staff in the operating theatre.
That’s where the drama lies here – in Duntsch’s shocking lack of self awareness, in his colleagues attempts to bring him down, and in the vulnerability shown by his patients who were never the same again…
I’ll never be able to hear someone say “pass the scalpel” again, without shivering with fear.
Read more: As Litvinenko lands on ITV1, the top 10 true crime dramas still to come in 2023
Dr Death lands on Channel 4 at 10pm on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 at 10pm on Channel 4.
Will you be watching Dr Death on Channel 4? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix.