True Crime Drama to Watch After The Staircase

The Shrink Next Door (Apple TV+)

Another show based on an excellent podcast that isn’t murder-centric. Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd as Marty Markowitz and his Therapist Dr. Ike Herschkopf. Marty’s a successful business owner who suffers with anxiety and has a tendency to let people push him around. Ike is an affable and persuasive therapist whom Marty forms a deep connection with, allowing Ike to slowly and insidiously insinuate himself into Marty’s life. Though the consequences of Ike’s actions were pretty devastating for Marty, this adaptation is told as a black comedy and the cast works perfectly. 

Dr. Death (Starz in the UK, Peacock in the US)

Wondery Podcasts are a hot source of IP when it comes to true crime drama. The fourth on this list, and counting, is Dr. Death, a disturbing story of a neurosurgeon who was allowed to get away with maiming and even killing people for years. Joshua Jackson plays Christopher Duntsch, the titular doctor who injured numerous patients due to incompetence, arrogance, negligence and possibly intent, including a close friend of his whom he basically beheaded. Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin play the doctors intent on bringing him down. Scary stuff.  

The Dropout (Disney+ in the UK, Hulu in the US)

One of the most celebrated cases of silicon valley fraud is that of Elizabeth Holmes and her medical tech company Theranos, which promised to provide a load of diagnostics tests using only a pinprick of blood. Holmes was young, charismatic and shot into the limelight, with big name investors backing her. The trouble is, it didn’t actually work. Amanda Seyfried gives a fascinating performance as Holmes complete with the iconic look modeled on Steve Jobs and her consciously lowered voice, opposite Naveen Andrews as her sometime boyfriend Sunny Balwani and Stephen Fry as biochemist Ian Gibbons.

WeCrashed (Apple TV+)

Another fraud case based on a Podcast, comes in the form of Apple TV+’s WeCrashed. This eight-episode miniseries catalogues that truly wild story of tech startup WeWork.

Founded by the narcissistic Adam Neumann (played by Jared Leto), his wife Rebekah (Anne Hathaway), and partner Miguel McKelvey (Kyle Marvin), WeWork provided flexible office space for small businesses and work-from-home employees with cash to burn. Like many start ups tied to real estate though, WeWork proved to be a fairly volatile venture… made all the more volatile by its owners’ lavish spending habits. While we understand everyone has their own Jared Leto tolerance levels, he’s marvelous here as the ultimate entrepreneurial tech bro. – Alec Bojalad