Watch Out, Dallas: Joshua Jackson Is DR. DEATH

The new Peacock series tells the story of a real-life killer doc.

By Meredith Borders · @mereborders · May 17, 2021, 2:44 PM EDT
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Joshua Jackson in DR. DEATH.
“He’s either the most incompetent surgeon I’ve ever crossed paths with, or he’s… a sociopath.”


I'm thinking it's the latter!

As a lifetime Joshua Jackson fan, a haver of Peacock and someone who very clearly remembers the case of the Dallas, Texas, neurosurgeon who maimed and killed several of his patients, I'm entirely in the bag for Dr. Death. The trailer for the 8-episode miniseries came out today, and it's got some Dexter vibes, no?


Maybe it's just that fourth-wall breaking right at the end, but either way, I am HERE for it. In Dr. Death, which premieres this summer on Peacock, Joshua Jackson (Dawson's Creek, Fringe, The Affair and a whole bunch of the slick teen horrors and thrillers of the '90s: Scream 2, Apt Pupil, Urban Legend, Cruel Intentions, The Skulls and Gossip) plays Dr. Christopher Duntsch, who was "was accused of injuring 33 out of 38 patients in less than two years before his license was revoked by the Texas Medical Board."

This thing's got an insane cast: Alec Baldwin, Christian Slater, AnnaSophia Robb and Carrie Preston all co-star with Jackson. Patrick Macmanus, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch, Taylor Latham, Hernan Lopez and Marshall Lewy produce, and the episodes will be directed by The Exorcist's So Yong Kim, American Horror Story's Maggie Kiley and Euphoria's Jennifer Morrison.

You can read more about Dr. Death on Peacock, and here's the official synopsis:

Based on Wondery’s hit podcast, DR. DEATH is inspired by the terrifying true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch (Joshua Jackson), a rising star in the Dallas medical community. Young, charismatic and ostensibly brilliant, Dr. Duntsch was building a flourishing neurosurgery practice when everything suddenly changed. Patients entered his operating room for complex but routine spinal surgeries and left permanently maimed or dead. As victims piled up, two fellow physicians, neurosurgeon Robert Henderson (Alec Baldwin) and vascular surgeon Randall Kirby (Christian Slater), as well as Dallas prosecutor Michelle Shughart (AnnaSophia Robb), set out to stop him. DR. DEATH explores the twisted mind of Dr. Duntsch and the failures of the system designed to protect the most defenseless among us.