“Dr. Death” review: A miscast Mandy Moore leads this murky medical thriller

The "This is Us" star joins Édgar Ramírez in season 2 of Peacock's true crime anthology.

In the penultimate episode of Dr. Death, former NBC News producer Benita Alexander (Mandy Moore) tries to pitch a story to Percy (Michael Maize), an editor at Vanity Fair magazine. Having discovered that her fiancé, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini (Édgar Ramírez), lied about pretty much every aspect of his life, Benita urges Percy to investigate how Macchiarini’s groundbreaking “biosynthetic tracheas” seem to be killing his transplant patients.

But Percy isn’t convinced. “There’s a story here, all right, but it’s not the one you’re selling,” he says, adding that no one wants to read a long investigative piece on complicated medical misdeeds. But her story, one of a journalist who fell for her “miracle man” doctor subject? That, says Percy, has potential: “Deception. Crossed lines. Secret affairs. I mean, that’s the through line to this other science-y sh--.”

The irony here is that in the new season of Dr. Death, the “science-y sh--” makes for compelling TV drama, while the sexy stuff flatlines. Based on the podcast of the same name, Peacock’s true crime anthology offers a chilling account of Dr. Macchiarini’s medical misconduct but ultimately suffers from a miscast lead and an underbaked central romance.

When Paolo Macchiarini arrives at Sweden’s renowned Karolinska Institute in 2012, he’s hailed as a pioneer in the field of regenerative medicine. Explaining his process for transforming plastic tracheas into living organisms with stem cells, Macchiarini tells a rapt audience that his work could lead to “a world where no human being will ever die while waiting for an organ donor.” Most of his colleagues — including Dr. Ana Lasbery (Ashley Madekwe), an ambitious cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Anders Svensson (Gustaf Hammarsten), the Institute’s head researcher, and Nils Headley (Jack Davenport), Karolinska’s Nobel-seeking provost — are dazzled. But Dr. Nate Gamelli (Luke Kirby), a classic-rock loving American expat, is skeptical: “The science doesn’t seem sound.”

A few thousand miles away and one year later in New York City, NBC News producer Benita Alexander is researching a piece on regenerative medicine for her next TV special. Her ex-husband (Jason Alan Carvell) is dying from cancer, and she’s longing to tell a story that’s “hopeful.” After reading a New York Times piece about a handsome Italian doctor helping a little girl named Hannah who was born without a windpipe, she tracks down Macchiarini for an interview. Forbidden sparks fly.

The eight-episode season traces Macchiarini’s misadventures through these dual timelines, hopping frequently between Stockholm, New York, Barcelona, Russia and beyond as his surgeries appear to succeed and his reputation flourishes. Meanwhile, Macchiarini’s secret romance with Benita blossoms into an engagement, and he convinces her to let him plan a lavish Italian wedding, which he says will be officiated by Pope Francis himself. Eventually, complications — emotional and medical — cause these treacherous tracks to collide: Dr. Macchiarini’s transplant patients get gravely ill and die in the weeks and months post-surgery, prompting Nate and Anders to dig into the results of his past clinical trials. And just as Benita is on the verge of uprooting her daughter, Lizzi (Celestina Harris), and moving to Spain with Paolo, the truth (or rather fiction) about her wedding emerges, sending her into a similar investigative spiral.

On its face, Dr. Death is a show about a love con, but the series never really gets a handle on the pivotal relationship that would ultimately help expose Macchiarini’s lies. In episode 1, Benita and her friend/colleague Amy (Judy Reyes, who deserves more than "concerned friend" roles), chant their cardinal rule: “You don’t f--- your sources!” In episode 2, Benita and Paolo fall in love via montage — flirty texts; clandestine rendezvous at his hotel; evening strolls through Manhattan debating the Beatles versus the Stones (ugh) — and she accepts his proposal. “Us together, it could cost me my job, my reputation,” admits Benita. “But I think this thing we have is worth the risk.”

Girl, what? Dr. Death gives us little more than this broadly sketched, flatly written foundation for Benita and Paolo’s romance, and leaves the central question — how on earth did an accomplished broadcast journalist fall for such a fabulist? — largely unanswered. The real Benita Alexander, who can currently be seen telling her side of the story in Netflix’s Bad Surgeon, is blunt and a little brassy; she’s got the no-BS edge of a woman who’s worked in New York news for over a decade. Moore is an earnest and appealing actress, but she’s miscast in this role. She looks out of place in New York City; the word “f---” sounds foreign on her lips. She’s obviously capable of great onscreen chemistry when paired with the right co-star (R.I.P. Jack and Rebecca), but Moore and Ramírez — who toggles between urbane charm and murmured menace — simply do not click.

It's a shame, because Dr. Death has all the elements that make medical true crime so nightmarish: Desperate people in need of a miracle; a charismatic, confident charlatan who makes it oh-so-easy for patients to believe; and a healthcare industrial complex that protects its own at almost any cost. When the new season focuses on Macchiarini’s obscene violation of his patients’ trust — as well as the very human tendency to believe the improbable rather than face the ghoulish truth — it’s grimly captivating. Jennifer Morrison (Once Upon a Time), who directs the first four episodes, effectively creates an atmosphere of mounting dread. One episode ends with Paolo and Ana talking in his office about his plans to expand his work globally. As their conversation continues, the camera slips out of the room and into the hallway, gliding down the stairs and coming to rest in Anders’ laboratory, where the scientist is shocked to discover that his eight lab rats — all of them implanted with one of Paolo’s synthetic tracheas as part of a clinical trial — have died.

The most powerful episode is based entirely at Karolinska, as a young, otherwise healthy Turkish woman named Yesim Cetir (Alisha Erözer) arrives for a new trachea after hers was damaged in a previous surgery. But Yesim suffers multiple complications after the transplant, and Dr. Gamelli is forced to perform nearly 200 corrective surgeries to keep her alive. (Macchiarini is traveling the globe drumming up new grants.) Over 50 harrowing minutes, we watch as the once vibrant, optimistic 22-year-old artist transforms into a broken and blind invalid who can barely hold a pencil. Kirby brings his rumpled charm and skeptical bite to Dr. Gamelli, whose flustered, righteous anger serves as a catharsis for the audience.

Benita Alexander's ordeal with Paulo Macchiarini is well documented. In addition to Bad Surgeon, Alexander — who now calls herself a "love con expert" — has told her story in specials on Investigation Discovery, ABC's 20/20 and The Con, and in her own podcast. Dr. Death may not reveal anything new, but it's a sobering reminder: Whether you're dealing with doctors or dashing men, it's always best to get a second opinion. Grade: C+

Dr. Death season 2 premieres Thursday, Dec. 21, on Peacock.

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