A curious thing happens in the second half of Season 2 of the Peacock anthology series “Dr. Death”: the doctor in question largely disappears from the show. “I was wondering when one of us was going to ask — where the f—k is Macchiarini?” Nate (Luke Kirby), a fellow doctor attempting to expose the fraudulent surgeon at the center of the show, wonders aloud at one point.
It’s a pertinent question, both literally and figuratively within this adaptation of the podcast of the same name. While most of its first half focuses on the deceptive glamor of Dr. Paolo Macchiarini (Edgar Ramírez), a real-life surgeon who engaged in widespread scientific and medical misconduct, he rarely appears on screen in the latter stretches.