Like its predecessor “Dirty John,” a pioneer of the noir-journalism podcast, the Wondery crime series “Dr. Death,” which concluded recently, centers on a charming villain in medical scrubs. “Dirty John” gave us the story of John Meehan, a violent con man who preyed on women by posing as an eligible doctor looking for love. “Dr. Death” is about Christopher Duntsch, an accredited but incompetent Dallas neurosurgeon, whose wrongdoing was close to butchery. Between 2010, when he began his surgery practice, and 2013, Duntsch, then in his early forties, performed many operations that resulted in severe injury or death.
Why he did this, and how he was allowed to keep doing it, is the series’ central mystery. But it doesn’t always feel like the show’s central concern. Like “Dirty John,” “Dr. Death” wavers, at times uncomfortably, between entertainment, journalism, and commerce. Both series feature logo art that evokes horror movies or mass-market thrillers, advertising that approaches tastelessness, and narratives that occasionally verge on melodrama. They also both reached No. 1 on iTunes. Like their subjects, they can feel like slick movers dressed in respectable clothes.
No comments:
Post a Comment