An interesting premise around autistic savant syndrome with good potential so far: The Good Doctor (S01E01)
At a very basic level, this is about Dr Shaun Murphy, a young surgical resident with autism and savant syndrome that’s a remake of a recent Korean drama. This was a nice pilot in that you get to learn about the origin story and also get a taste of what the medical drama is going to be about. The two shows that come to mind after watching this is House and the Korean version of the show. This contrasts those two shows because of their different story and structural elements.
House
I feel like this is going to go in the direction of House in that there is a genius who can figure out things that others can’t seem to and because of that, it’ll be similarly episodic.
I did get through maybe 3 or 4 seasons of House, but that was also a very lonely time in my life, where I had a short, 4 month stay out in a small town in upstate NY. Long before I dropped that show, I had gotten tired of the quotidian nature of each episode:
1. Medical emergency presents itself
2. Initial diagnosis made
3. Initial diagnosis was incorrect
4. Life-saving final diagnosis made
5. End scene
There is one difference that I see here that makes me feel like this show won’t last as long. Dr. House played an arrogant type of character and what the show would do to develop his character was to show moments where he would soften up or show backstories on how he came to become so arrogant. In a sense, there was a way to develop his character further.
I don’t think they’ll do something like that here…to say that Dr Murphy’s defining characteristic changes drastically. What could be interesting and that I’m sure that they’ll try, is to introduce love, to say that someone like this can find true love. There are interesting ways to develop his character for sure, but I do feel like it won’t have the long-lasting power to keep a general audience interested for longer than a season or two. Which brings me to…
The Good Doctor (Korean: 굿 닥터)
The contrasting point here is more structural than anything else. One thing that I like about Korean shows is that you know the story ends. They do have some shows that go for 50/100+ episodes, but most are in the 16–24 episode range. I feel like this story here is best done in that format because of what I talked about previously.
If the writers could focus on how best to develop the character of Dr Murphy without worrying about what to do in episode 50, then I feel like this premise has the potential for an amazing story. But unfortunately, American shows are generally built with the mindset of “how long can we keep this going?”
S01E01: Burnt Food (Pilot)
With all that said, I see great potential for at least the first season of this show. If the writers focus on making this season great without worrying about the next, then there’s so many stories they can develop around how a different kind of person is able to operate in such a harsh environment.
I thought that they did a great job in this episode, especially in developing Dr Murphy’s brother. It was just the first episode, but his brother was the character that left the biggest impact for me here.
They also did a reasonable job tackling “how can we let an autistic person be our surgical resident” debate. They did an okay job in the board room, trying to show the prejudice that some have, but the speech Dr Murphy gives to the board room to help convince them to give him a chance…it was well written for the TV viewer, with the flashbacks showing the back story, but it really wasn’t that moving of a speech in real time.
The line that really stuck with me, though, came from the following exchange:
- Dr. Browne: “I’m sure you have a lot of questions”
- Dr. Murphy: “No.
- *awkward conversation ensues and then she gets up to leave*
- Dr. Murphy: “I do have one question.”
- Dr. Browne: “Yeah” (she turns back to approach him)
- Dr. Murphy: “Why were you rude to me when we first met, then nicer to me the second time we met, and now you want to be my friend… Which time was it that you were pretending?”
BOOM! That encapsulated the emotional core of the episode for me. And I think that’s where the writers are going to have a lot of great moments in this show. Dr. Murphy is allowed to say the things that most people wouldn’t dare say in public & I feel that that gives the writers the latitude to call out injustices and face them head on and not in a head-on controversial, but an innocuous & innocent way.
The rest of the cast felt pretty weak for me, but maybe that’s because they focused so much time and energy in developing Dr Murphy’s character. Anyhow, I’m looking forward to what they’ll do in subsequent episodes now that they won’t spend a good chunk of the episode setting up the premise. Here’s to hoping for a great season!
