Every few years (seemingly), a new medical drama comes along. The 18-episode first season of The Good Doctor aired in the 2017/2018 TV season. It starred Freddy Highmore, Antonia Thomas, Paige Spara, Richard Schiff, Hill Harper, Nicholas Gonzalez, and Chuku Modu. Tamlyn Tomita, Christina Chang, and Will Yun Lee had recurring roles during the first season. The show is a procedural drama centered around the character of Doctor Shaun Murphy, played by Freddie Highmore (best known for his role as a young Norman Bates in Bates Motel). Murphy is a surgical resident at the fictional St. Bonaventure Hospital in San Jose, California. Without giving away too much, he is an autistic savant and longtime friend (with an almost father-son relationship) of the hospital's president, Dr. Glassman (played by Richard Schiff). The hospital's board and head of the surgical team are against bringing Shaun in as a surgical resident. Glassman makes a deal with the hospital board to bring Shaun on, saying he will resign if Shaun does not excel. While Shaun is the main character, because he is a lower-level character in the hospital, he is often the background in the hospital scenes, not having much of a say in things.
The show was created by the creative team behind the medical drama House. Like that show, this has an ensemble cast, but it is not as centered around Murphy as House was around its titular character. The remaining cast is rounded out with a mix of recognizable character actors and relatively unknown actors and actresses. Hill Harper plays the head of surgery, Nicholas Gonzalez plays the surgical attending who is assigned to be Shaun's immediate boss, Antonia Thomas is another one of the surgical residents, and Tamlyn Tomita, who played the female lead in Karate Kid Part 2, plays one of the board members of the hospital. It is a case-of-the-week procedural drama mixed with serial storylines like many prime-time dramas. Unlike House, the focus is not always on one medical case in each episode. Some episodes are like that, and others focus on things like the personal lives of the various characters with the medical cases in the background. There are definitely themes that run throughout the season, with prejudice against Shaun because of his autism being front and center. Given the cast's ensemble nature, I think the show does a good job of providing all the characters with good storylines to generate interest in them. Although some characters get more material than others. There is at least some and for some characters a lot, of character development for pretty much all the characters over the course of the 18 episodes.
The DVD set is a five-disc set. The extras include deleted scenes for most episodes, a gag reel, and a couple of behind-the-scenes features. Good for what is there, but not a ton. So if you only get DVDs or Blu Rays (which this is not available on) when there are a lot of extras, you may just want to stream this. Overall, though, it is a very good, but not necessarily great (although that is subjective) medical drama. The season ends with more than one character's storyline up in the air going into the second season, and if it continues to be well-written and acted, it can be even stronger in season two. Ultimately, it is definitely worth checking out.
The show was created by the creative team behind the medical drama House. Like that show, this has an ensemble cast, but it is not as centered around Murphy as House was around its titular character. The remaining cast is rounded out with a mix of recognizable character actors and relatively unknown actors and actresses. Hill Harper plays the head of surgery, Nicholas Gonzalez plays the surgical attending who is assigned to be Shaun's immediate boss, Antonia Thomas is another one of the surgical residents, and Tamlyn Tomita, who played the female lead in Karate Kid Part 2, plays one of the board members of the hospital. It is a case-of-the-week procedural drama mixed with serial storylines like many prime-time dramas. Unlike House, the focus is not always on one medical case in each episode. Some episodes are like that, and others focus on things like the personal lives of the various characters with the medical cases in the background. There are definitely themes that run throughout the season, with prejudice against Shaun because of his autism being front and center. Given the cast's ensemble nature, I think the show does a good job of providing all the characters with good storylines to generate interest in them. Although some characters get more material than others. There is at least some and for some characters a lot, of character development for pretty much all the characters over the course of the 18 episodes.
The DVD set is a five-disc set. The extras include deleted scenes for most episodes, a gag reel, and a couple of behind-the-scenes features. Good for what is there, but not a ton. So if you only get DVDs or Blu Rays (which this is not available on) when there are a lot of extras, you may just want to stream this. Overall, though, it is a very good, but not necessarily great (although that is subjective) medical drama. The season ends with more than one character's storyline up in the air going into the second season, and if it continues to be well-written and acted, it can be even stronger in season two. Ultimately, it is definitely worth checking out.
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