Connie Britton's Debra Newell may think her new husband is the perfect man in "Dirty John," but she'll soon realize , there are still many things she doesn’t know about him. This could be because he's been lying to her since they met - even about his job, to some extent. So if you've begun to question whether the real John Meehan was actually an anesthesiologist, you're right to be skeptical. Bravo's new series, based on the Los Angeles Times' Dirty John podcast of the same name , makes it immediately clear that the guy is hiding some secrets, and his medical expertise is certainly one of them.
On the show, Meehan told Newell on their first date that he was an anesthesiologist who had worked in Iraq for Doctors Without Borders. Various scenes of Meehan interacting with female patients about to undergo surgery seem to corroborate this story. However, following the surgery, the woman claimed to have experienced significant pain, although Meehan allegedly gave her painkillers to help ease the discomfort. She told the nurse it felt like he wasn't giving her anything at all. So what exactly is going on here? There must be a reason for Meehan's inappropriate behavior at work.
The real Meehan also claimed to be an anesthesiologist who had worked in Iraq , however, Newell eventually discovered that it was just the Part of the scam was for multiple women, perhaps to make him look more attractive. The truth of the matter is that he was a nurse anesthetist.
In fact, Meehan's first wife, Tonya Sayles, was a licensed nurse anesthetist and the person who helped him through nursing school and Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia, the Los Angeles Times reported. However, he ultimately lost his career after reportedly stealing surgical painkillers. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to felony drug theft and was subsequently sentenced to 17 months in prison, the Los Angeles Times reported. But once out, he started looking for new female victims. Goffard noted in the podcast:
“From 2005 to 2014, approximately the time he was released from prison in Michigan for drug theft and when he met Debra Newell in California, he seduced, defrauded and terrorized multiple women, Many of the women he met on dating sites, court records show, were posing as doctors."
In the show, Britton's Newell has yet to learn the disturbing details of her husband's criminal past and the failure of his medical career, even as her daughters realize the guy is hiding something and aren't. Not as good as he claimed. Neither of them believed the numerous stories he spun and feared their mother had been blinded by his attraction.
Of course, those familiar with the podcast know how this all plays out, and as more episodes continue to unfold, you'll learn more about Meehan's past and the other women he's seduced under falsehoods and lies. Eric Bana does an impressive job of making Meehan look like an ideal man, but when something seems too good to be true, it probably is . It was only a matter of time before Newell began to realize this as well.
