S01.E08: Hardwood Floors

[jenrising]

Quote

Duntsch's victims confront him as Henderson, Kirby and Shughart set out to put him behind bars.

 

[Darian]

When I binge I can never keep straight when happened when so my comments are general. I found this was excellent. Gives me flashbacks to being an RN and this one doctor we reported (nowhere NEAR the level of this monster). Non-linear narratives are popular (at one point, it was hard to publish anything that was linear, I swear) and too often, there's not really a point to it. It doesn't add anything to the story. I am picky about them for that reason. But here, hot it worked so well. It added to the emotional impact but not gratuitously, and made sense to tell it this way. It was such solid storytelling, imo. 

I did keep thinking back to a younger Alec Baldwin playing a surgeon with quite a God complex in the movie Malice. 

[krankydoodle]

I thought this lost some steam in the last episode or two (though maybe that's just because I tend to zone out during courtroom scenes), but I really enjoyed this show. The cast was fantastic, even the smaller roles like the circulating nurse in the early episodes and the various patients and their relatives.

There were some things I wanted to learn more about, but please let me know if we did get answers and I just missed them:

• Someone mentioned this in an earlier episode thread, but there was no explanation for why negative stories/reviews about Duntsch apparently disappeared from the internet when one of the hospitals was looking to hire him. Jerry mentions having IT contacts so I figure he hired someone to scrub them, but it seemed odd to bring it up and then not provide an answer.
• I assume Duntsch's mom died (maybe in 2014 or so?), but I don't think it was explicitly stated and IIRC she wasn't mentioned after the character's last onscreen appearance.
• More about what happened with Discgenics and how that affected his relationship with Skadden. Because he was played by Kelsey Grammer, I thought we'd see at least one scene showing Skadden pulling away from Duntsch.

Other thoughts:

• Joshua Jackson was great, but I don't think the prosthetic makeup showing his weight gain worked well. His face looked off because the skin tone and texture of the top half of his face didn't match the lower half. It looked rubbery.
• I didn't realize until looking at Wikipedia that Jerry Summers died in Feb 2021 of complications from Duntsch's botched surgeries. The scenes depicting what happened after his operation were heartbreaking.
• One of my main takeaways from this show is that I really need to take better care of my back.

[Trillium]

On 7/25/2021 at 9:09 PM, krankydoodle said:

I thought this lost some steam in the last episode or two (though maybe that's just because I tend to zone out during courtroom scenes), but I really enjoyed this show. The cast was fantastic, even the smaller roles like the circulating nurse in the early episodes and the various patients and their relatives.

There were some things I wanted to learn more about, but please let me know if we did get answers and I just missed them:

• Someone mentioned this in an earlier episode thread, but there was no explanation for why negative stories/reviews about Duntsch apparently disappeared from the internet when one of the hospitals was looking to hire him. Jerry mentions having IT contacts so I figure he hired someone to scrub them, but it seemed odd to bring it up and then not provide an answer.
• I assume Duntsch's mom died (maybe in 2014 or so?), but I don't think it was explicitly stated and IIRC she wasn't mentioned after the character's last onscreen appearance.
• More about what happened with Discgenics and how that affected his relationship with Skadden. Because he was played by Kelsey Grammer, I thought we'd see at least one scene showing Skadden pulling away from Duntsch.

Other thoughts:

• Wikipedia that Jerry Summers died in Feb 2021 of complications from Duntsch's botched surgeries. The scenes depicting what happened after his operation were heartbreaking.
• One of my main takeaways from this show is that I really need to take better care of my back.

Trying to remember from the podcast (it’s been a bit since I listened to it) but I believe there was a falling out with Discgenics to the point where the only record of his involvement is his name on some patents. I don’t recall if it was said when that happened before his arrest or after. 
 

Jerry’s story is the worst to me, even sadder that even after all that he still considered Chris a friend, despite Chris never apologizing for it. I think that’s what leads me to believe he intended to cause harm. He didn’t even apologize to his friend. 
 

We definitely enjoyed the series, my husband has had two neck fusions so this hit him a bit close to home. 

[sadie]

This was great. Great cast, loved Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater! Can we just get a medical show with those two. I though Josh Jackson did a great job. The court room scene where it finally dawns on him that he wasn’t a great surgeon was outstanding. You could feel his hubris deflate. This whole story gave me chills and I would imagine the surgical teams that worked with him must have PTSD, to watch him botch what he was doing over and over gave me nightmares. Great show, well done Peacock.

[preeya]

Duntsch is the ultimate narcissist.

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by preeya

[preeya]

On 8/3/2021 at 5:06 AM, sadie said:

You could feel his hubris deflate. This whole story gave me chills and I would imagine the surgical teams that worked with him must have PTSD, to watch him botch what he was doing over and over gave me nightmares.

That's the one thing I couldn't understand. They witnessed his ineptitude and it was allowed to continue without investigation. Don't hospitals have followup procedures where the results of botched surgeries, particularly those that result in death, are reviewed by a committee of other doctors?

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by preeya

[Elizzikra]

10 hours ago, preeya said:

That's the one thing I couldn't understand. They witnessed his ineptitude and it was allowed to continue without investigation. Don't hospitals have followup procedures where the results of botched surgeries, particularly those that result in death, are reviewed by a committee of other doctors?

 

Yep - Morbidity and Mortality review. Doctors are just really reluctant to police their own...

[preeya]

Good article that describes Duntsch in depth.

A Surgeon So Bad It Was Criminal  https://tinyurl.com/yfes4vnf

Edited August 8, 2021 by preeya

[Melina22]

On 7/25/2021 at 11:09 PM, krankydoodle said:

Joshua Jackson was great, but I don't think the prosthetic makeup showing his weight gain worked well.

Totally agree. 

On 7/25/2021 at 11:09 PM, krankydoodle said:

I didn't realize until looking at Wikipedia that Jerry Summers died in Feb 2021 of complications from Duntsch's botched surgeries. The scenes depicting what happened after his operation were heartbreaking.

I had no idea. Poor Jerry. In many ways his life was over after the operation. 

On 8/3/2021 at 9:06 AM, sadie said:

The court room scene where it finally dawns on him that he wasn’t a great surgeon was outstanding. You could feel his hubris deflate.

Did it deflate though? Nothing he heard at the trial was news to him. I think he may have still believed he was amazing and none of it was his fault. 

The horrifying statistics about medical malpractice really hit home with me because some years ago I had what was supposed to be a simple cancer surgery, done by a new surgeon, that went horribly wrong. A couple of hours later a more experienced surgeon performed an emergency surgery to save my life. At the time, I was way too out of it to say anything, but I remember noticing that afterwards the medical staff were bizarrely nice to me, including the surgeons. 

I eventually recovered with minimal long term damage, but since then I've often wondered what would have happened if I'd demanded answers. I strongly suspect I would have been told "These things happen. We don't know why." What could I have done to prove them wrong? Anyway, I was just grateful to be okay. 

This episode in particular brought all of this back, especially the final statistics. It reminds me that in future I'm going to ask a lot more questions beforehand, and possibly after as well. 

I really enjoyed this show but wouldn't recommend it to anyone facing surgery in the next year 😁

 

[Scarlett45]

On 7/25/2021 at 9:09 PM, krankydoodle said:

Joshua Jackson was great, but I don't think the prosthetic makeup showing his weight gain worked well. His face looked off because the skin tone and texture of the top half of his face didn't match the lower half. It looked rubbery.

Yeah- fat suits for the face are hard to get right. It’s much easier to make prosthetic firm tissue (like cartilage). 
 

I watched this with my Mom, she spent the hours yelling at the screen about “his hands are awful!”(she’s an Ob/Gyn who is retiring the end of the year). She had similar stories of physicians/residents she trained, not to the level of Christopher but had no business being surgeons- go be a researcher. 

On 8/6/2021 at 6:32 PM, preeya said:

Duntsch is the ultimate narcissist.

 

This. Also I think the drug use combined with a system that enabled him was a powder keg. 

 

On 7/25/2021 at 9:09 PM, krankydoodle said:

I assume Duntsch's mom died (maybe in 2014 or so?), but I don't think it was explicitly stated and IIRC she wasn't mentioned after the character's last onscreen appearance.

His Mom is still alive- I think that’s as just a script choice, actors cost money etc etc. 

 

On 7/25/2021 at 9:09 PM, krankydoodle said:

One of my main takeaways from this show is that I really need to take better care of my back.

I know! I need to lose more weight to protect it. 

[sainte-chapelle]

I watched the real testimony and interviews and it was fucking heartbreaking. They asked Jerry what he missed most and he said, as his nurse wiped away his tears because he can’t “ I miss everything, nothing is much fun anymore” They asked how he felt about Chris and he couldn’t answer. This whole thing makes me so angry, the hospitals wanted to cover their asses…No one did anything except for two Doctors and it is not their job. 

Edited November 23, 2021 by sainte-chapelle

[bettername2come]

On 7/25/2021 at 10:09 PM, krankydoodle said:

I didn't realize until looking at Wikipedia that Jerry Summers died in Feb 2021 of complications from Duntsch's botched surgeries. The scenes depicting what happened after his operation were heartbreaking.

That's so heartbreaking. Dominic Burgess put in a great performance. I hope he gets an Emmy nomination. "His head was barely attached to his spine." Ugh, what happened to him was so sad. And again, I can't see how this would be something done on purpose even for a psychopath it seems utterly nonsensical. He wants to make money, why would he do it purposefully? It seems so counterintuitive. And in the show at least he seemed hesitant to work on his buddy which suggests he did know the likely outcome of one of his surgeries.

Alec Baldwin was awesome in the courtroom scene. 

The defense attorney made a good case. Her points are completely valid - he should've been reported, they should've trained him better, he should've been stopped - except for the point of course that Dr. Dunstch is so terrible and clearly should know that he's causing injury, especially immediately after killing a patient the day before. 

[ChelleGame]

This was excellent. Just binged it over the weekend. Great performances. Great writing. This series deserved more attention.

[Zima]

I'm super late to this, but wow. Joshua Jackson going from all smiley and charming to that death stare in 2 seconds flat made my stomach drop every time. He's grown to be a phenomenal actor. Great series overall!