Just what the doctor ordered
New medical drama is sweet — and that’s good enough for us
The Good Doctor Mondays, CTV/ABC I decided to tune in The Good Doctor to see what all the fuss is about. By fuss, I mean a combination of critical disdain and mass appeal: The new ABC drama was reported to be outdrawing even such network stalwarts as The Big Bang Theory, and reviewers were left bewildered.
Yet more people are tuning in to follow the adventures of Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) at the gleaming St. Bonaventure Hospital in Silicon Valley than are watching Rick Grimes and the survivors of The Walking Dead zombie apocalypse. Maybe it’s a blip, maybe it’s the start of something new. Either way, critics are trying to figure out the show’s attraction.
Here’s my simple answer: The Good Doctor is sweet.
There’s nothing cynical or knowing about The Good Doctor. It doesn’t pretend to be anything but nice. That’s refreshing.
People are looking for an escape from their cares. With He Who Shall Not Be Named fulminating from the White House, and the campus left regularly announcing new categories of people we’re all supposed to despise, it’s natural to seek an island of calm. But where?
Not social media, where too much of what passes for conversation is little more than unthinking vituperation. Regular readers know I love film, but the movies are grimmer than ever: Serial killers are on the loose, the planet is being threatened with destruction, people are being blown to bits on the battlefield.
People are tired, and looking for something cheery. That’s what The Good Doctor gives them. The show was created by David Shore, who brought us the long-running medical drama House. Like Shore’s earlier program, The Good Doctor features a misunderstood medical genius who could save lives if only the hospital bureaucracy would let him. The difference is that Dr. Gregory House was a pillpopping misanthrope. Dr. Shaun Murphy ... isn’t. He’s a naif who just wants to do good.
Murphy isn’t right all the time. He’s young and makes mistakes. But his idealism has an allure, and if the arguments over whether to allow him to perform surgery or deal with patients are a little stilted and obvious, Murphy himself never quite is. His inability to lie, for instance, would have led Dr. House to fire him. To the viewer, however, Murphy’s emotional world is fascinating.
Yes, the animations that are meant to show the workings of Murphy’s mind can be distracting. Yes, the showrunners could safely dispense with the constant flashbacks — I think we get Murphy now — and use the freed-up time to develop the other characters, who at this point are paper-thin.
But these are quibbles. Nobody is confusing The Good Doctor with The Sopranos. People like the new show because it provides an escape from madness swirling around so much of life. The Good Doctor isn’t likely to wind up in the television hall of fame, but it’s sweet — relentlessly, hopelessly, maddeningly sweet.