It’s at all times unhappy when a beloved TV collection publicizes it’s ending, and it is doubly heartbreaking that so many are reporting remaining seasons now that the author’s strike is settled.
First, Blue Bloods and now The Good Doctor — two landmark collection with massive fanbases.
That’s proper — The Good Doctor Season 7 would be the collection’ swan tune. Although unsurprising, contemplating the collection’ sudden transfer to Tuesdays after being a fixture on Monday nights for the previous seven years, it is nonetheless unhappy. Yet, in some methods, it is previous time for this physician present to fade to black.
The Good Doctor’s authentic premise excited me.
As an autistic individual, I’m at all times interested in how TV plans to symbolize neurodiverse characters. In this case, the collection obtained off to a rocky begin, however I appreciated that the main target was on Shaun and never on how tragic it was for everybody else that he existed (sure, Parenthood, I’m taking a look at you.)
I obtained mad on Shaun’s behalf at how the administration handled him, ignoring his ability set as a result of he was completely different and caring extra about his difficulties with social abilities than his means to avoid wasting lives.
But lately, the collection moved distant from that premise. I do not imply that Shaun needed to be caught proving himself perpetually — that would not have been nice TV, nor would it not have been a superb message to ship about neurodivergent folks.
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But it turned increasingly more the Shaun and Lea present. Sometimes, it felt as if the medical storylines had been an afterthought in the event that they had been included in any respect.
Instead, each episode centered on Shaun’s newest relationship drawback with Lea, all of which boiled all the way down to a distinction in communication fashion due to his autism.
That wasn’t what I signed up for. The Good Doctor was alleged to be about Shaun’s challenges as a physician, not completely about him as a boyfriend, husband, or potential father.
Maybe I’d have felt in a different way if I shipped Shaun and Lea as a pair. Still, they at all times appeared mismatched, and each story concerned Shaun doing one thing problematic that Glassman needed to persuade him to apologize for.
That’s not the form of message about autistic those that I needed, both. Yes, social abilities and understanding neurotypical communication patterns are tougher once you’re not neurotypical, however that does not imply that we’re incapable of studying or are at all times improper.
Lea typically got here off as whiny and entitled, which did not assist both, however the primary drawback concerned the shift in focus. It’s no marvel that some viewers jumped ship!
Shaun had loads of alternatives to develop as an individual, and in some methods, the collection did embody that, nevertheless it wasn’t the first focus, because it ought to have been.
I loved Shaun turning into an attending and studying learn how to be in cost with out alienating the residents beneath his care. That was a captivating improvement that ought to have been extra of a precedence within the later seasons.
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Shaun had a tough time coping with modifications in his relationships as he progressed in his medical profession, and the previous couple of seasons of The Good Doctor tried to deal with that, which I admire regardless of how far brief they fell.
He was used to counting on Glassman and Lim to inform him learn how to deal with conditions, and neither one was prepared to do this, which was nice, however I needed it hadn’t been as a result of they had been mad at him for silly causes.
That entire Lim paralysis story, with Lim and Glassman being offended at Shaun for various, however equally ridiculous, causes did not do the later seasons any favors.
Glassman, particularly, was a personality the collection did not know what to do with anymore by the top.
He started as Shaun’s tormented mentor, who had handled Shaun like a son however struggled with the burden of shedding his daughter, and Richard Schiff was the proper actor to play him.
During The Good Doctor Season 1, Glassman’s supposedly terminal mind most cancers and Shaun’s refusal to simply accept that there was nothing anybody may do was as compelling because it was heartbreaking.
But after Glassman’s miraculous restoration, the character bounced from one bizarre state of affairs to a different.
A whirlwind romance, marriage to, and divorce from a personality performed by Schiff’s real-life spouse. Retiring and refusing to speak to anybody. Returning to the hospital solely to study he had a situation that prevented him from working.
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These foolish tales had been beneath him, and he spent the final half of The Good Doctor Season 6 nursing a grudge as a result of Shaun’s tenacity led to the invention that Glassman had had a mini-stroke and will now not carry out surgical procedure.
Let’s hope that he and Shaun make up earlier than the collection ends. I can not take any extra of that!
Lim’s paralysis story got here out of one other drawback the collection has had lately: an overreliance on epic disasters.
The characters work in a hospital, so they may cope with human tragedy on a mind-boggling scale. Some tales must contain mass casualties — that is simply life in an emergency division of a hospital.
But no less than yearly, often towards the top of the season, The Good Doctor had another sort of tragedy, such because the earthquake that killed Melendez and practically price Shaun his life, too.
Lim getting stabbed at Shaun and Lea’s wedding ceremony was additionally pointless. When a present begins writing these sorts of high-stakes cliffhangers usually, it is a certain signal that the writers have gone so far as they will with these characters and must name it quits.
There had been a whole lot of forged modifications through the years, too, however that wasn’t a lot an issue — or would not have been if it hadn’t contributed to the shift in focus.
People transfer on from the hospital the place they did their residency as they advance of their careers, and new residents are available in. That’s simply the way it goes.
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Some new residents have been fascinating, although I’d have most well-liked extra interactions with the unique forged. It generally felt like a by-product about these new residents relatively than the unique forged having a lot to do.
Still, every time a big participant left, it left a gap that was by no means crammed. Antonia Thomas’s departure on the finish of Season 4 modified the dynamic greater than the others; Claire was at all times Shaun’s largest supporter, and the collection wasn’t the identical with out her.
Jared’s return might need helped issues, however he wasn’t there lengthy sufficient, nor did he have many memorable storylines, so that did not resolve these issues.
Although the collection has devolved into plots extra worthy of a cleaning soap opera than a physician present, there’s nonetheless room to exit on a excessive word.
Now that Shaun is a father, the ultimate season may be dedicated to him studying to steadiness his profession and household necessities and ending with him discovering happiness on each fronts.
Hopefully, because the collection attracts to a detailed, it can return to its roots, specializing in medical tales as a substitute of completely on relationships. Shaun may take the subsequent step in his profession, leaving St. Bonaventure to start a life as a full-fledged physician whereas elevating a toddler together with his spouse.
Over to you, The Good Doctor fanatics.
How do you are feeling in regards to the collection ending? Are you shocked, or do you assume the collection misplaced its approach some time in the past?
Hit the massive, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and tell us!
The Good Doctor’s remaining season will air on ABC on Tuesdays at 10/9c.
The season premiere airs on February 20, 2024.
Jack Ori is a senior employees author for TV Fanatic. His debut younger grownup novel, Reinventing Hannah, is out there on Amazon. Follow him on X.
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