{"id":210,"date":"2019-12-18T02:59:53","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T02:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amylangston.com\/?p=210"},"modified":"2025-12-26T18:49:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:49:35","slug":"autism-on-camera-the-good-doctor-season-1-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/2019\/12\/18\/autism-on-camera-the-good-doctor-season-1-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Autism on Camera: The Good Doctor Season 1 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Good Doctor <\/em>is a medical drama based on a South Korean television series with a similar premise. The American series first began airing on September 25, 2017 on ABC. The first season consists of eighteen episodes, each 40 minutes in length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) is an\nautistic from Casper, Wyoming, beginning his medical residency in surgery at\nSan Jose Saint Bonaventure Hospital. The hospital\u2019s president, Aaron Glassman\n(Richard Schiff), has been a mentor for Shaun since he was 14 and left his\ndysfunctional home. The series follows the medical cases of Shaun\u2019s surgical\nteam: the attending physician Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez), resident\nClaire Browne (Antonia Thomas), and resident Jared Kalu (Chuku Modu), as Shaun\nadjusts to the demands of residency and adulthood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rounding out the cast are Marcus Andrews\n(Hill Harper), Chief of Surgery at the hospital; Jessica Preston (Beau\nGarrett), a hospital attorney and fianc\u00e9e of Dr. Melendez; Allegra Aoki (Tamlyn\nTomita), chair of the board of trustees and funding director; and Lea Dilallo\n(Paige Spara), Shaun\u2019s neighbor. Flashbacks feature young Shaun (Graham\nVechere) and his brother Steve (Dylan Kingwell). Later in the season introduces\nhospital residents Morgan Reznick (Fiona Gubelmann) and Alex Park (Will Yun\nLee).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not a doctor, so I cannot comment on the medical accuracy of this show, but I have heard anecdotally it is relatively <\/em>accurate, at least in the anatomical knowledge. I would suggest that with any medical drama, take that with a grain of salt. Shaun is purported to have a \u201csavant syndrome\u201d and has memorized medical diagrams and images that aid in his diagnoses and suggested treatments. Given that, I thought this might be a House, M.D. style show (The Good Doctor <\/em>and House <\/em>share a creator), where he miraculously knows what rare problem is going on with each patient. But actually, the show features less of this than I first thought it might. Shaun sometimes gets things right, and sometimes gets things wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first medical drama I have\nwatched that wasn\u2019t in passing, but I would guess that the scenarios were par\nfor the course in a medical drama: rare, eye-catching cases, with variable\noutcomes (e.g., fetal surgery, conjoined twins, tapeworm infection). In the\nlater episodes, the cases and themes grew increasingly political, addressing\ntopics such as sexual harassment in the workplace, religion stereotypes,\ntransgender issues, and male infertility. I particularly liked the show\nshedding light on the bureaucracy of hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(As an aside, one episode has Shaun\ntreating an autistic patient. The character, Liam West, is played by an\nautistic actor, Coby Bird. Another episode focuses on transgender patient Quinn\nDarby, played by transgender teen Sophia Giannamore).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highmore\u2019s acting and portrayal of\nautism is excellent. One scene in particular, when Shaun has a meltdown, is\nbrilliantly performed and executed. Shaun\u2019s mannerisms, behaviors, and patterns\nmatch autistic adults very well. We know Shaun\u2019s quirks: he likes pancakes and\napples and does not like pickles. He stims with a toy scalpel given to him by\nhis brother. He doesn\u2019t like touching or music. He has a keen memory of odors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At times, the show reveals how an autistic processes and understands their world from Shaun\u2019s perspective, which is important for casual viewers to see. The show provides examples of what autistics find very confusing and frustrating about neurotypical communication. The flashbacks show the bullying Shaun experienced in his youth, a sadly all too common experience for autistics. In general, the show is accurate about the symptoms of autism, but I do think Shaun can be a bit behind in his social understanding for an autistic his age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I like about the show is that\nShaun\u2019s diagnosis is an asset to his work as a physician. Shaun has challenges,\nbut he is not only an adult capable of supporting himself, he also has a job as\na surgical resident. \u201cWhat would happen if an autistic was a doctor?\u201d is a\npremise I thoroughly enjoyed exploring. That said, I do admit to suspending\nsome disbelief. Being a doctor, or a surgeon, is incredibly difficult for\nanyone, and I would imagine it would only be exponentially harder for an\nautistic, where one is expected to maintain focus and keep cool in\nlife-or-death situations. Along the lines of Shaun\u2019s social understanding,\nlet\u2019s not forget he didn\u2019t become a doctor in a vacuum; he had to attend years\nof college and medical school. Much of what he learns on the job in residency\nabout social interactions, I would think he would have already learned during\nmedical school clinical rotations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a final verdict, I very much enjoyed\nseason 1. I found most of the characters interesting and enjoyable, the actors\nwere great, and so was the cinematography, color palette and music throughout.\nMost episodes left me feeling good. I would recommend this show, and I am\nexcited to dive into season 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Autism accuracy: 4\/5 Acting: 5\/5 Cringe\nfactor: 2\/5 Overall rating: 4\/5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Good Doctor is a medical drama based on a South Korean television series with a similar premise. The American series first began airing on September 25, 2017 on ABC. The first season consists of eighteen episodes, each 40 minutes in length. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) is an autistic from Casper, Wyoming, beginning his medical … Continue reading Autism on Camera: The Good Doctor Season 1 Review<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amylangston.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}