Dr Do-a-lot
Autistic doc Shaun Murphy is in over his head in the new season of medical drama The Good Doctor.
The Good Doctor
Season 5 Mondays (from 28 November) M-Net (*101) 19:00
It’s going to be a huge season for surgeon Dr Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) and the other healthcare workers at the fictional San Jose St Bonaventure hospital in season 5 of The Good Doctor. “We’ll see Shaun going through a series of changes in his personal and professional lives,” explains lead star and executive producer Freddie. “This is probably the most difficult season for Shaun so far because he hates change. In season 1, we saw how he got increasingly agitated when he thought that he’d lost his screwdriver. It was a regular screwdriver, nothing special. But to him, it’s perfect and the only one that he’s willing to use.” So throwing in a wedding at home and personnel changes at work are going to leave the skilled surgeon stranded.
NEW BOSS ON THE BLOCK
Shaun has always been protected and safe working at San Jose. “It’s his safe space where he’s allowed to use his gifts and talents and abilities as a healer,” explains Freddie. “So when a notorious CEO and her company come calling, it’s a significant change and a wake-up call for Shaun and his colleagues. For a change, they’re not in control.” And it’s not going to be a nice take-over either, adds Freddie. “There’s no such thing as a peaceful corporate take-over. They come in and gut companies from the inside out. That’s not quite what happens at San Jose, but it feels like it for Shaun. He doesn’t feel happy but he has learnt over the first four seasons that change happens and sometimes there’s nothing he can do about it.”
The biggest problem for Shaun with the change of bosses is that he may no longer have the help of Dr Glassman (Richard Schiff), who’s been his mentor and the one person who’s believed in him from the very beginning. That’s harder for Shaun than anything else because Dr Glassman is the father he wished he’d always had. “Shaun went into a downward spiral in the first two seasons when he thought that Dr Glassman was dying of a tumour. So now imagine how this impacts Shaun?” says Freddie.
FIANCÉE ON A QUEST
Season 4 ended with Lea (Paige Spara) proposing to Shaun after he’d done his mercy mission to South America with his colleagues. And now it’s time for wedding bells and the exchanging of vows . . . well, at least not for a good few episodes. “Shaun feels for the first time that his life is personally heading in the right way. He’s got a fiancée whom he loves, a woman who understands him and his eccentricities. So he feels closer to Lea now and he wants to make sure that she’s okay.”
Shaun struggles with interpersonal interaction and social situations, so it’s rare for him to catch on to what’s going on around him. But this time is different, says Freddie. “He’s got insight into Lea, so when Shaun realises that she’s struggling with her own emotions, he offers to help her plan their engagement parties and the wedding. That takes her by surprise, so it’s a huge step for Shaun, and Lea realises that for the first time their relationship is more solid than it is shaky. She realises that it’s going to be the best decision either of them will ever make.”
CRAZY CASES
The Good Doctor prides itself on featuring medical conditions and cases that are real . . . or possibly real. Sometimes though the writing team adapt conditions to be a bit more challenging, like in episode 1. “A patient comes in for a tonsillectomy, a fairly simple procedure. But Shaun discovers that he’s actually got cervical cancer in his throat. That puzzles them at first,” explains Shaun, adding that it’s a lot easier to explain than viewers will think. “The patient got it from his mother while he was still in her womb developing. Shaun loves this kind of case to work on because he is challenged to think of creative ways to treat the patient. We have consulting doctors who help with tips.”