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Crime News Dr. Death

Mandy Moore Is Charmed by Edgar Ramirez's Dr. Death in Sneak Peek

Dr. Death's Paolo Macchiarini plays the role of charming suitor to perfection, but is it a mirage? 

By Jill Sederstrom

Dr. Paolo Macchiarini knows how to dial up the charm. 

In a new sneak peek from Season 2 of Peacock’s Dr. Death, the internationally acclaimed thoracic surgeon amps up the romance with his love interest, Benita Alexander, played by Mandy Moore, taking her for an extravagant night on the town in a high-end Russian restaurant.

Dressed to the nines, the couple is seated at one of the restaurant’s best tables. Just moments later, a waiter comes to deliver a bottle of champagne to Macchiarini, played by Edgar Ramirez, that was gifted from a man sitting at the bar.

“To you, to me, and to ice buckets,” Macchiarini charmingly toasts as they take their first sips of the champagne.

“Cheers,” Benita laughs. 

But the NBC producer, who fell in love with Macchiarini while filming a documentary about the doctor’s groundbreaking work transplanting artificial tracheas into gravely ill patients, soon turns her focus to the man at the bar. 

RELATED: Dr. Death Season 2: Who Is Dr. Paolo Macchiarini?

“So who is our benefactor this evening?” she asks. 

“I shouldn’t say,” Macchiarini coyly responds. 

Benita isn’t about to let her love get off that easily and continues to push him about the man’s identity.

“Paolo, come on, I protect sources for a living,” she says. 

It’s the only encouragement Macchiarini needs to let the secret slip. 

“He’s a Russian oligarch, very connected. Don’t look,” he says as he leans close to Benita. “There is a network of high profile patients, celebrities, clergy, presidents, they are treated in secret, that I treat in secret. Because of who they are, I have to keep the arrangement quiet.” 

Benita (Mandy Moore) listens to something on her headphones

“Presidents, like U.S. Presidents?” a stunned Benita asks. 

With a slight change in his expression, Macchiarini seemingly confirms her suspicions.

“Paolo Macchiarini, surgeon to the stars? Wow. OK,” Benita replies. 

But as Alexander will soon learn, all that glitters is not gold. 

As her relationship with the charming doctor heats up, she begins to see that Macchiarini isn’t always telling the truth in the bedroom or in the operating room. 

"As she learns how far Paolo will go to protect his secrets, a group of doctors halfway across the world make shocking discoveries of their own that call everything about Paolo into question," a description of the series reads.

Close up of Edgar Ramirez as Paolo

Is Dr. Death Season 2 based on real events?

The new season is based on real-life events explored in Wondery’s popular podcast Dr. Death. The first season of the dramatic series followed the shocking downfall of Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a spinal surgeon who went to prison for aggravated assault after many of his patients died or were seriously injured. 

Dr. Death, which premieres Dec. 21 on Peacock, is a dramatized version of the Macchiarini’s fall from grace, but a companion documentary Dr. Death: Cutthroat Conman, to be released on Peacock the same day, includes interviews with the real-life players who crossed paths with the cunning conman.