Whether you are a fan of true-crime stories or just morbidly curious about them, there is no shortage of ways you can consume them. Even though the two most common are podcasts and documentaries, with Peacock’s Dr. Death you can pick and choose your entry point to the story. Based on a highly popular Wondery podcast, the anthology series is gearing up for Season 2, which tells the story of Paolo Macchiarini (Edgar Ramirez), a surgeon who used his patients for experiments that led to the deaths of several of them. Peacock is also releasing a companion documentary on the same date as the premiere, December 21.
The new trailer for Season 2 evokes the sentiment that the people around Paolo probably felt: He was too good to be true. A doctor who took on impossible cases and promised to use cutting-edge technology to save lives is all that a desperate family could ask for. However, investigative journalist Benita Alexander (Mandy Moore) decided to dig deeper and started to find overwhelming evidence that Macchiarini was willing to go pretty far in order to do his research.
Fans of the Wondery podcast will realize that Dr. Death skipped Season 2 of the audio series, which centered around Farid Fata, who was convicted of healthcare fraud and receiving kickbacks. Chances are, the team decided to go for the meatier story in case the series gets canceled, and considering that Big Pharma corruption stories were pretty much covered with Painkiller, Dopesick, and Pain Hustlers, it was probably the best decision to leave Fata for later.
‘Dr. Death’ Season 2 Is About Feeling Powerless and Silenced
Dr. Death was developed for television and showrun by Ashley Michel Hoban, who also wrote for The Girl From Plainville. In an official statement, Hoban expanded a little on what Season 2 of the anthology series is really about and how it uses universal themes to make it even more compelling:
“[The] 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.’ We truly hope you enjoy.”
Peacock premieres all eight episodes from Dr. Death’s Season 2 on December 21. On the same day, the companion documentary Dr. Death: Cutthroat Conman also debuts on the streamer.
You can watch the trailer below:
via Collider