TV Shows We Love: The Good Doctor

Looking for a new series to begin, I took to Netflix, which informed me that The Good Doctor was one of the top shows being watched in Cyprus, but did I really want to watch another American medical drama? I spent years on Grey’s Anatomy so it wasn’t my first pick, until I watched a clip of Episode 1. I was hooked.

Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) is a young, autistic surgical resident at San Jose St Bonaventure Hospital, who’s awkward, accidentally sweet, brutally honest and incredibly intelligent. He has no understanding of social cues and empathy is an incomprehensible concept, a sort of must when breaking bad news to patients, but Shaun has his own charisma. He begins his resident year met with mixed feelings from his fellow doctors and bosses. Can an autistic person become an excellent surgeon? That’s what the series asks and takes us through some incredibly difficult, challenging moments, posing ethical questions.

Besides medical cases and plenty of surgeries, the series also traces human relationships, dealing with illness and rejection as Shaun and his fellow residents navigate the tense medical field. He learns about emotions, love and friendship and questions social norms we have all blindly accepted.

When it first premiered in 2017, The Good Doctor had mixed reviews. Highmore’s portrayal of a person with autism and savant syndrome is truly remarkable. It’s no wonder he won four awards for the role, and 19 more nominations. It has now been renewed for a fifth season, which has started in the US but not landed on Netflix yet.

If you don’t pay attention to the opening credits, you might miss the fact that the series is based on a South Korean TV show of the same name, which follows the same plot.

Is it really possible for an autistic savant to become an excellent surgeon? Not sure. I don’t know the ins and outs and complicated fast decisions an operating room requires but five seasons certainly puts it to the test.