Dr. Death (TV Series) Like Magic (2023) User Reviews

She Ain't Not Investigative Reporter

[Mehki_Girl · 7/10 · 7 January 2024]

Watched the first season and you can't take your eyes off the screen and your jaw off the floor. J Jackson was brilliant playing a sociopath.

The second season isn't as good, Maybe because the Dr Death of this season was more suave and manipulative, convincing, and subtle... At least in the beginning.

I'm on the second episode and OMG, the investigative reporter, while having zero instincts of any actual *investigative* reporter and questionable ethics, this lady is a moron. What are fibroids??? Is it cancer??? What's debridement???

Is she 12? A moron? And idiot? How could she live that long, have lady parts all her life, and not know any of this? He's about to scrape the necrotic (that means dead, dummy!) tissue off your incision from your fibroid surgery. I'm a layperson and know this stuff!

I saw the documentary and it wasn't until he claimed he was really a sniper for the CIA and the doctor bit was a cover, did this moron wake up, so I'm guessing this portrayal is pretty accurate.

Not as good as season one, but still interesting because, folks, these doctors really did go around killing innocent people with impunity and no one tried to stop them.

Enter any medical establishment at your own risk! You may lose your life!

Couldn't make this stuff up - so they didn't

[jonathan-747-46162 · 8/10 · 29 January 2024]

As improbable as the storyline of this season may seem, it is indeed a reasonably accurate if condensed version of what actually happened during what became the largest medical scandal in Sweden since Thalidomide/Neurosedyn in the 60s. As of January 2024, the waves have yet to settle in the wake of what turned out to be a classic example of wishful thinking, groupthink, hunger for prestige, and plain old gullibility.

The series is very well-made, especially in terms of suspense that keeps the viewer eager for the next scene or episode. There's a subtle eeriness about the protagonist very skillfully portrayed by Édgar Ramírez, but it's Jennifer Morrison's direction that makes the lasting impression. I'd really like to see her continue into the thriller genre as a director and keep developing her obvious talent for the moving-image equivalent of an unputdownable page-turner.

As with all good drama, it also makes you think. How could an investigative reporter fail to investigate? How could a top medical institution fail to do due diligence into Dr. Miracle and his credentials? How could so many people fall for sweet talk and charm?

The takeaway from this season, apart from the sheer entertainment value of it all, should therefore be the often-forgotten maxim: If something seems too good to be true, it most likely is.

However, for the cineastic craftsmanship of this season, I'm willing to make an exception.

Absolutely Incredible: yet *ANOTHER* Dr. Death

[dfloro · 22 December 2023]

Season 1 of this NBC/Peacock series was based on the incredible true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch (played by Joshua Jackson), who was an extremely highly touted and richly compensated neurosurgeon in the state of Texas. He started out in Tennessee as a young stem-cell researcher looking at procedures for performing minimally invasive spinal surgeries for persons with chronic back and neck pain. But quickly learning that such researchers didn't get paid handsomely enough to support an ultra-luxurious (enough) lifestyle, he had decided to become a practicing neurosurgeon. Emphasize practicing, since as a fellow neurosurgeon there at Baylor Memorial Hospital, memorably played by Christian Slater, would eventually say about him, he was the most incompetent "butcher" of a surgeon that he had ever seen weild a scalpel. After turning his own BFF into a quadriplegic (!), he was finally tried and convicted for knowingly, maliciously maiming and killing at least a dozen patients in his career. The verdict: life in prison without parole.

Which brings us to Season 2. Now if you're like me, you'd naturally wonder how such a story lends itself to a second set of episodes. Because a highly touted stem-cell researcher from Italy, played by Edgar Ramirez, is receiving glowing accolades for 3D-printing biosynthetic body parts and somehow using live stem cells to make these Legos into living tissue. Of course, giving that process the critical consideration it richly deserved (by a transplant doctor played this time by actor Luke Kirby) reveals Ramirez' character to have largely invented credentials and an actual patient failure rate (like Duntsch) of essentially 100%. And here we go again!

Suspense and Shock

[kcwlsw · 10/10 · 24 December 2023]

Episode 5 of this second season just amped up the drama and intensity. I thought the season was already pretty good, but this episode cranks it up to an eleven. Multiple timelines, intrigue and depth to the already riveting storyline. I am now on the edge of my seat, bouncing between the past and present, trying to piece together the puzzle alongside the actors. Every actor's emotion feels raw and authentic. But hold onto your stethoscopes because the plot twists in this episode are next-level. Plot twist hits like a defibrillator shock. This episode gets under your skin and refuses to let go.