Creator Meredith Scardino said Peacock's decision to cancel the musical comedy series was "heartbreaking," but as she and others attest, Netflix was the savior they needed.
The following contains spoilers from Peacock’s “Dr. Death.”
Having an incompetent surgeon sounds like a nightmare, right? For 33 patients of Texas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, it was a reality. Nicknamed “Dr. Death,” the story of Duntsch’s egregious medical crimes and the healthcare system that failed so many by allowing him to practice received the podcast treatment in 2018 from Wondery, the team behind
“Dirty John.” Premiering Thursday on Peacock, the television adaptation features
“The Affair’s” Joshua Jackson as the charming yet sinister Duntsch.
“In doing a television version of [‘Dr. Death’], we actually had the time and the opportunity to do a bit of a deeper dive into the story than the podcast was able to,” says showrunner Patrick Macmanus.
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The uniquely titled musical sitcom “Girls5eva” is the brainchild of Meredith Scardino, a three-time Emmy-winning writer for the “The Colbert Report” and three-time Emmy nominee for her work on “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and its subsequent TV movie.
The energetic Peacock series stars Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps and Paula Pell as members of a briefly popular 1990s girl group called Girls5eva because, as their wondrous one-hit and the show’s earworm of a theme song “Famous 5eva” explains it, “4eva is too short.” The quirky quartet unexpectedly reunites 20 years later after a popular rapper samples them and creates renewed interest and, well, time has not been kind. Heartfelt absurdity ensues.