The Good Doctor spent the opening two episodes pontificating over Dr. Shaun Murphy's eligibility as a doctor due to his autism, but with Shaun settled into St. Bonaventure Hospital the show was able to lighten that emphasis and deal out more significant airtime to a number of the supporting cast. Dr. Andrews, Chief of Surgery, so far an off-puttingly ambitious doctor desperate to oust Dr. Glassman assume the hospital's Presidency, was presented the moral dilemma of having to choose, in the interim, whether to act more Presidential or focus on being a good doctor. In the end, he settled for being a good doctor, even setting aside his own pride and reputation for the good of his patient in inviting Dr. Melendez into the OR to assist.
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| Shaun and Claire wait to pick up the liver Image: ABC |
Dr. Melendez himself was another beneficiary of the episode's shared focus. Less egregious when not trying to shunt Shaun from menial errand to menial errand, he became something of a sympathetic character in his dogged argument that the episode's main patient, Chuck, deserved the liver transplant despite having given in to a single alcoholic beverage a few days prior.
And Chuck - an ageing man and alcoholic in need of a liver transplant - was a good example of the emotional pull the show has. An ageing man and alcoholic in need of a liver transplant is a bread and butter storyline for a medical show, but having the single, celebratory drink at his daughter's college graduation lose him the liver and all but cost him his only chance at survival was - like The Orville not convincing the Moclans to cancel the gender reassignment surgery on Bortus and Klyden's newborn - the correct decision. It proves the characters - and the show - fallible; it makes it real.
It also makes the show very political within the hospital setting, which the cast spread inferred even before the show began airing. Among the cast: a hospital board member, the hospital President, the Chief of Surgery and the Chairwoman of the foundation that runs the hospital. And the choice to include that facet of a hospital's workings is effective when coupled with driven doctors fighting for their patients: it gives the audience something too root for and something to root against. And that spins emotions as effectively as simply writing a sad or joyous plot.
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| Shaun suspects there may be a problem with the liver Image: ABC |
No review of this show could ever be complete without examining Shaun's involvement: today, he and Dr. Claire Browne are sent to retrieve the liver for Chuck. Though they face a number of obstacles (the most fresh being closing down a single-file roadway to perform surgery on the liver itself), and their efforts are ultimately thwarted when Chuck isn't granted the liver, the story provides nice insight into Shaun, who speaks to Claire only when she does not ask him a question. This makes her carefully considering her words a fun and tricky thing to achieve, from an audience perspective.
But it's also Shaun's innocent voicing of their mission's success that spawns the most delight: when we, like Claire and all the hospital staff, are down-heartened that Chuck wasn't allowed the liver, Shaun punctures that sadness by happily reminding us that somebody else will receive the liver. It's a poignant moment.
Which seems to be The Good Doctor's trademark.
RATING: 8/10
POINTS OF NOTE
- Shaun meeting his neighbour, Lea, was everything we could have imagined and more.
- One of the characters not to receive much airtime this week was Dr. Kalu, who was an outlier in the main hospital-based storyline. At least his actions determined that the lab technician from the previous episode will likely be seen in the future. I enjoy the lab as a setting: it's unique.
- I'm used to medical shows set in an ER (The Night Shift, Code Black and, yes, ER). When traumas don't show up at St. Bonaventure I have to remind myself we're based in the Surgery department.
- Nobody died in this episode. That's different.
EPISODE 1x04 "Pipes" PROMO
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