Drama
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a little like its titular character. It’s painful. It gets under your skin. And it just might leave a mark.
Christopher Duntsch and Paolo Macchiarini are renowned doctors, each using stem cells to perform what some are calling medical miracles. Duntsch is working on a cure for cancer while Macchiarini has seemingly found a way to eliminate the need for organ donors. Patients love them, their mentors revere them, and hospitals are begging to have them.
Except that it’s all a lie.
In Season One, after witnessing the aftereffects of Duntsch’s practices that left patients permanently disabled or even dead, Dr. Randall Kirby and Dr. Robert Henderson attempt to have the “good doctor” disbarred. And in Season Two, when Macchiarini’s patients begin dropping dead after receiving the “Miracle Man’s” transplant surgeries, his colleagues and reporter girlfriend, Benita, blow the whistle on him.
The series of events that follow are unfortunate to say the least. Although most of the folks involved really wanted to do good in the world, they allowed pride and greed to take over, and patients die as a result.
Peacock’s anthology series Dr. Death is based (through two seasons) on two real doctors who were sentenced to life in prison after committing malpractice and fraud. The show explores a doctor’s story each season and is rated TV-MA for language—we hear multiple uses of the f-word and other profanities—and for sex. Dr. Duntsch is married to a former stripper (we see her and other women on full display), and we see other unwed couples having sex onscreen. But it could also be rated for drug use since Duntsch and others use cocaine.
Plus, the show is dark.
In the first season, Kirby and Henderson aren’t sure if Duntsch is just a dangerous combination of incompetence and arrogance or if he’s actually a sociopath maiming his patients on purpose. The second season explores Macchiarini’s own form of quackery—conning patients, experts and even Benita.
But it’s not just the doctors’ ethics on trial here. The morality of several people comes into question. The doctors and hospitals who failed to suspend or report the guilty doctors know they did the wrong thing. But they also refuse to admit it since they could get sued—which would actually prevent them from helping more people in the future.
And the show’s problems cut deeper, too. Literally.
We see lots of blood in the operating room during surgeries. And more often than not, people die after Duntsch and Macchiarini promise to “fix” them.
Doctors may take the Hippocratic Oath—vowing to do no harm—but it’s clear that these doctors ignore it, and this show has clearly taken no such oath.
Dr. Paolo Macchiarini begins to perform “miracle” transplant surgeries using synthetic tracheas and stem cell research. Unfortunately, even as hospitals seek him out, his patients begin to perish.
We see lots of blood during surgeries. Macchiarini washes a significant amount of blood from his hands in a hotel suite, and we spot some bloody surgical tools nearby. A patient of Macchiarini’s (who received a donor trachea) begins choking and coughing up blood nearly two months after her surgery. Her fate is unclear since the camera cuts to black as we hear her gasping for air. Two cars get into a wreck in the background of one scene.
We’re told that Hannah Warren, Macchiarini’s latest patient, has an underdeveloped trachea, causing her to be blue when she was born. The 3-year-old has been committed to a hospital bed since birth. (Her quality of life is quite poor, and her parents are understandably scared for her life.) Benita, an investigative reporter and Macchiarini’s girlfriend, ponders how to tell her 9-year-old daughter that the girl’s father (Benita’s ex-husband) has a brain tumor. (Benita is on good terms with him and hopes that he’ll be part of the 6% who survive his condition.)
Benita and Macchiarini kiss and have sex (they remove clothing, but we only see them from the shoulders up). People joke about sex. Some women wear tight, revealing clothing at a club.
People dance at a nightclub and drink heavily (one woman has a hangover the next morning). Folks drink at several other venues throughout the episode.
Macchiarini states that he’s conducted trials on pigs, and he recruits a scientist who experiments on rats. The scientist says he names his rats because it helps him to remember that he’s not just dealing with numbers in a lab but with actual life-and-death situations.
A doctor laments that hospitals tend to focus too much on money instead of on life-saving research, and a colleague tells him that “competition fuels progress.”
We hear lots of discussion about stem cell research, and we’re told that Macchiarini is using cells directly from the patients. Benita is shocked to learn the Vatican (and Catholic Church) is funding a surgery that implements stem cell research. When a doctor asks Macchiarini how he transforms plastic organ grafts into living cells, Macchiarini replies it’s “like magic” (an answer which the questioning doctor clearly isn’t satisfied with).
Macchiarini quotes Genesis 2:7, where God breathes life into Adam. Stem cells are referred to as “God cells.” Many people say that Macchiarini’s work is a “miracle.” Benita calls Macchiarini’s pre-surgery rituals superstitious, but he responds that the rituals are more like prayer to him.
There are two uses of the f-word and one use of the s-word. God’s name is misused twice. We also hear singular uses of “b–tards” and “p-ss.” A man apologizes after swearing in Swedish.
Dr. Robert Henderson is shocked by the carnage when he performs a surgery to fix the mistakes made by Dr. Christopher Duntsch.
Several patients trust Duntsch’s promises to heal them, only to come out of surgery in worse shape than they went in. We see lots of blood and some organs during surgeries. Duntsch ignores offers for help from surgical staffers and later blames them for his botched operations. We hear that Duntsch has killed a few people and turned one man (who was supposedly his friend) into a quadriplegic.
A hole in Duntsch’s scrubs reveals he isn’t wearing underwear. A broken disco ball hangs in his medical clinic, and he drives a car with a damaged bumper. We also witness (and hear others talk about) his unconventional surgical methods that seem to cause more harm than good. All these incidents suggest that Duntsch is a much more violent man than he has led people to believe.
People lie and manipulate to cover up their own mistakes. People talk about a mass shooting. A man drinks alcohol and shows up to work drunk. Duntsch’s ex screams at him when he stalks her since she has a restraining order against him.
A woman says she leaves herself in God’s and Dr. Duntsch’s hands. Duntsch claims he will give a woman a “second life.” Duntsch’s dad says that pride is a sin and refuses to drink because of his religion (which Duntsch mocks him for, saying God has an “affinity for wine”). His dad also references a story from the Bible and asks his son to watch his mouth when Duntsch misuses Christ’s name. We hear multiple uses of the f-word and s-word. There are also uses of “a–” and “douchey.”
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a little like its titular character. It’s painful. It gets under your skin. And it just might leave a mark.
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