The Good Doctor

Premise

The series follows Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome from the small city of Casper, Wyoming, where he had a troubled past. He relocates to San Jose, California, to work at the prestigious San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital.

Cast and characters

Main

Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy, an autistic and troubled surgeon with savant syndrome. His skills include near-photographic recall and the ability to note minute details and changes. His hiring created a divided opinion among the board. At the end of season 5, he marries Lea Dilallo. In season 6, he becomes a surgical attending after having completed his residency. At the end of season 6, Lea gives birth to their son Steven Aaron Murphy. In a flashforward in the series finale, Shaun becomes the Chief of Surgery and runs the Dr. Aaron Glassman Foundation for Neurodiversity in Medicine with Claire. Shaun and Lea also have a daughter together (named Maddie after Dr. Glassman's deceased daughter). He is portrayed in flashbacks to his teen years by Graham Verchere (season 1, guest seasons 2, 3, 5) and his child years by Kashton Brostl (guest season 7).

Nicholas Gonzalez as Dr. Neil Melendez (seasons 1–3; special guest season 4), an attending cardiothoracic surgeon who was in charge of the surgical residents. In the season 3 finale, he succumbs to fatal injuries suffered during an earthquake. He returns as visions to Dr. Claire Browne in season 4.

Antonia Thomas as Dr. Claire Browne (seasons 1–4; guest seasons 5 and 7), a surgical resident who forms a close friendship with Shaun. Claire is known for her empathy and emotional maturity, and is usually very patient and understanding when communicating with Shaun. At the end of season 4, she decides to remain in Guatemala in order to continue helping the less fortunate obtain necessary medical care. In season 5, she returns to celebrate Shaun's wedding and to seek her friends' help with treating one of her patients. Claire also reveals that she has been offered the position of Chief of Surgery at the Guatemala hospital which she later takes. Claire later returns in season 7 for treatment for breast cancer and reunites with Jared. In the series finale, Claire loses her left arm to an infection and, in flashforwards, marries Jared, has a daughter with him, and runs the Dr. Aaron Glassman Foundation for Neurodiversity in Medicine with Shaun.

Chuku Modu as Dr. Jared Kalu (seasons 1–2and 7; recurring season 6), a surgical resident from a wealthy family. He moves to Denver at the start of season 2 after conflicting with Dr. Andrews, who fired him for assaulting an employee who tried to take advantage of Claire, leading Jared to get his job back by suing the hospital for racism, at the cost of losing Andrews and Melendez's respect of him. In season six, Jared returns as a concierge doctor seeking Shaun's help with his client. With Shaun's encouragement, Jared returns to St. Bonaventure as a first-year resident on Shaun's team. In a flashforward in the series finale, Jared marries Claire and starts a family with her.

Recurring

Dylan Kingwell (season 1, 3 and 6), Logan Pierce (guest season 3) and Miles Marthaller (guest season 7) as Steve Murphy: Shaun's late younger brother, in flashbacks and later dreams and visions. He also portrays Evan Gallico, a boy in the present (Season 1) that resembles Shaun's brother and is suffering from stage 4 osteosarcoma.

Elfina Luk as Nurse Dalisay Villanueva. In season 5, she is revealed to be domestically abused by her partner Owen, which makes her fail to catch up to her shifts. At the end of season 5, she is stabbed by Owen, but Andrews and Glassman manage to save her life. Owen is arrested for her attempted murder, but he expresses remorse for his actions to Asher Wolke, almost committing suicide by cop out of guilt. She is shown to have fully recovered and returned to work by the time of Lim's return three months later. In season 6, she and Andrews develop a romantic relationship.

Teryl Rothery as Dr. Jan Lancaster (seasons 1–5, 7), an anesthesiologist and one of the doctors who is often seen helping out in surgery. In "Claire", her full name is given as Jan Lancaster.

Marsha Thomason (season 1) and Golden Brooks (guest season 6) as Dr. Isabel Barnes, a doctor at St. Bonaventure and the ex-wife of Andrews. In season 1, they are shown to have trouble having kids and go to a therapist for help. At the end of season 4, during the trip to Guatemala, Andrews reveals that he and Isabel are getting a divorce as she is seeing someone else. In season 6, she returns to take over the case of a woman pregnant with sextuplets.

Eric Winter as Dr. Matt Coyle (season 1), an attending surgeon who sexually harasses Claire when they work together on a case, resulting in Jared getting fired when he finds out and assaults him. He is also revealed to have done the same to other female employees who haven't spoken against him out of fear of risking their jobs. Without any evidence of his actions, Coyle is transferred to another department and two of his former residents, Morgan Reznick and Alex Park, are incorporated into Melendez's team. Jared also files a lawsuit against the hospital for racism when they refuse to rehire him, which he wins, but ends up losing the respect of Melendez and Andrews in the process.

Chris D'Elia as Kenny (season 1): Shaun's new neighbor, who moves into Lea's apartment. Shaun mentioned that he was arrested when Lea returned.

Production

Development

In May 2014, CBS Television Studios began development on an American remake of the hit South Korean medical drama Good Doctor with Daniel Dae Kim as producer. Kim explained the appeal of adapting the series as "something that can fit into a recognizable world with a breadth of characters that can be explored in the long run". The story of an autistic pediatric surgeon was to be set in Boston, and projected to air in August 2015, but CBS did not pick up the project, and it moved to Sony Pictures Television with a put pilot commitment from ABC in October 2016. The series was developed by David Shore who is credited as executive producer alongside Kim, Sebastian Lee and David Kim. ABC officially ordered the series to pilot in January 2017.

On May 11, 2017, ABC ordered to series as a co-production with Sony Pictures Television and ABC Studios, and it was officially picked up for a season of 18 episodes on October 3, 2017. On March 7, 2018, ABC renewed the series for a second season. On February 5, 2019, during the TCA press tour, ABC renewed the series for a third season which premiered on September 23, 2019. On February 10, 2020, ABC renewed the series for a fourth season which premiered on November 2, 2020. On August 6, 2020, it was reported that the fourth season opener is set to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 3, 2021, ABC renewed the series for a fifth season which premiered on September 27, 2021. On March 30, 2022, ABC renewed the series for a sixth season which premiered on October 3, 2022. On May 13, 2022, executive producer Liz Friedman was promoted to co-showrunner alongside Shore for the sixth season. On April 19, 2023, ABC renewed the series for a seventh season which premiered on February 20, 2024. On January 11, 2024, it was announced that the seventh season will be its final season.

Casting

On February 17, 2017, Antonia Thomas was cast as Dr. Claire Browne, a strong-willed and talented doctor who forms a special connection with Shaun. A week later, Freddie Highmore was cast in the lead role as Dr. Shaun Murphy, an autistic surgeon with savant syndrome, and Nicholas Gonzalez was cast as Dr. Neil Melendez, the supervisor of the hospital's surgical residents. The next month, Chuku Modu was cast as resident Dr. Jared Kalu (originally Dr. Jared Unger); Hill Harper as head of surgery Dr. Marcus Andrews (originally Dr. Horace Andrews); Irene Keng as resident Dr. Elle McLean; and Richard Schiff was cast as Dr. Aaron Glassman (originally Dr. Ira Glassman), the hospital president and Shaun's mentor. Schiff was shortly followed by Beau Garrett as hospital board member Jessica Preston and a friend of Dr. Glassman. In September 2017, Tamlyn Tomita was promoted to the principal cast as Allegra Aoki.

In April 2018, it was revealed that Will Yun Lee, Fiona Gubelmann, Christina Chang, and Paige Spara had been promoted to series regulars for the second season, after recurring in the first as Alex, Morgan, Audrey, and Lea, respectively. In addition, it was announced that Chuku Modu would not return for the second season. On September 19, 2018, it was announced that Beau Garrett had left the series ahead of the second-season premiere.

In January 2019, it was announced that executive producer Daniel Dae Kim had been added in a recurring role during the second season. In July 2019, it was announced that Jasika Nicole was promoted to series regular for the third season. In October 2020, Noah Galvin, Summer Brown, Bria Samoné Henderson, and Brian Marc were cast in recurring roles for the fourth season. In May 2021, Galvin and Henderson were promoted to series regulars for the fifth season. In June 2021, Osvaldo Benavides was promoted to series regular for the fifth season.

In April 2022, Hollis Jane Andrews was booked in a recurring role for the fifth season while Brandon Larracuente and Savannah Welch were cast in recurring roles for the sixth season. On November 8, 2022, Larracuente had been promoted to a series regular for the sixth season. On February 22, 2023, it was announced that Modu is set to reprise his role as Dr. Jared Kalu in recurring capacity for the sixth season. On April 28, 2023, it was reported that Larracuente would not return as a series regular for seventh season. On November 20, 2023, it was announced that Harper is not returning for the seventh season as he is bidding for a Senate seat. On January 9, 2024, it was reported that Modu is set to return as a series regular for the seventh season. On January 18, 2024, Kayla Cromer and Wavyy Jonez joined the cast in recurring capacities for the seventh season. On March 18, 2024, it was reported that Thomas and Larracuente are back to guest star while Ruby Kelley was cast in a recurring capacity for the final season.

Filming

Production on the pilot took place from March 21 to April 6, 2017, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Filming for the rest of the season began on July 26, 2017, and concluded on March 1, 2018. Filming for season two began on June 27, 2018, and concluded on February 12, 2019. Filming for the third season began on June 19, 2019, and concluded on March 3, 2020. Filming for the fourth season was originally scheduled to begin on August 4, 2020, and conclude on April 13, 2021, but was later postponed to September 2, 2020, and concluded on May 14, 2021. The fifth season began production on August 16, 2021, and concluded on April 29, 2022. Filming for the sixth season began on August 3, 2022, and concluded on April 6, 2023. Filming for the seventh and final season began on December 5, 2023, and concluded on April 5, 2024.

Music

Emmy-nominated Dan Romer serves as the primary composer for the series. He won an ASCAP Screen Music Award for his work on the show.

Release

Broadcast

The Good Doctor began airing on September 25, 2017, on ABC in the United States, and on CTV in Canada. Sky Witness acquired the broadcast rights for the United Kingdom and Ireland. Seven Network airs the series in Australia. Colors Infinity acquired the rights to the series for the Indian Subcontinent in October 2017, airing each episode 24 hours after its US broadcast. Wowow, the largest Japanese private satellite and pay-per-view television network in Japan acquired the rights to broadcast the series beginning in April 2018. In the Netherlands, the series began airing on January 29, 2018, on RTL 4 and on video-on-demand service Videoland. In Italy, the series premiered on Rai 1 on July 17, 2018, setting a record of 5.2 million total viewers from 9:30 pm to 11:45 pm, reaching a share of 31,7% in the third episode and entering the Top 10 of Most Watched Foreign TV Series in Italy at No.5, an event since the leaderboard never changed again after the last entry on November 14, 2007, with an episode of House. In Brazil, the series was the first international production to be released at the TV Globo's video-on-demand service Globoplay. On August 27, the two first episodes was aired at Globo free-to-air television network to announce the launch of the series in the streaming service. On March 20, 2020, the Chilean public broadcaster Televisión Nacional de Chile announced the arrival of the series, with a "Coming soon" advertisement. In Bulgaria, the series began airing on July 13, 2020, on bTV.

Marketing

A full-length trailer was released for ABC's May 2017 Upfront presentation, which /Film's Ethan Anderton described the concept as feeling like "House meets Rain Man, that just might be enough to make it interesting". However, he questioned "how long can audiences be entranced by both the brilliance of [Highmore's] character's savant skills and the difficulties that come from his autism in the workplace." Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter felt the trailer was "both kinda progressive and really dated". He added, "Too much felt on-the-nose—especially Hill Harper as the main character's detractor and Richard Schiff as his noble defender", while also commentating that "On-the-nose/premise is how you have to trailer a show like this, and maybe spaced out over 43 minutes it won't grate." Ben Travers and Steve Greene for IndieWire called it "a serious trailer for a serious subject. The first glimpse of Highmore's character hints that they're toeing the line between presenting a thoughtful depiction of his condition and using his perceptive abilities as a kind of secret weapon." The trailer had been viewed over 25.4 million times after a week of its release, including over 22 million views on Facebook.

The pilot was screened at ABC's PaleyFest event on September 9, 2017. On March 22, 2018, members of the cast as well as executive producers Shore and Kim attended the 35th annual PaleyFest LA to promote the series, along with a screening of the season finale of the first season.

Streaming

In May 2018, Hulu acquired the SVOD rights to new and past episodes of the series to air exclusively on Hulu, with future episodes becoming available the day after their original broadcast on ABC. In Australia the show's first 5 seasons streams on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Stan as well as Disney+ through its Star hub as the show is produced by ABC Signature and Sony Pictures Television and is part of the Disney/Sony deal that was struck in 2021. 6 Seasons also stream for free with ads on 7plus. In New Zealand, the show is available exclusively for streaming on Neon. The pilot episode was made available for viewing on February 5, 2018, with the newer episodes coming express from the US. In Canada, the series streams on Crave and Netflix. In India, the series streams on SonyLIV and Netflix.

Home media

Region 1

Season One: August 7, 2018

Season Two: August 6, 2019

Season Three: August 4, 2020

Season Four: August 31, 2021

Region 2 (UK)

Complete Season One: October 8, 2018

Region 4 (Australia)

Season One: August 15, 2018

Season Two: July 10, 2019

Season One–Season Two: July 10, 2019

Season Three: July 15, 2020

Season Four: August 25, 2021

Reception

Ratings

The series premiere earned a 2.2/9 rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic, with 11.22 million total viewers, making it the most watched Monday drama debut on ABC in 21 years, since Dangerous Minds in September 1996, and the highest rated Monday drama in the 18–49 demographic in 8.5 years, since Castle in March 2009. Factoring live plus seven-day ratings, the pilot was watched by a total of 19.2 million viewers and set a record for DVR viewers with 7.9 million, surpassing the record of 7.67 million set by the pilot of Designated Survivor in 2016. According to TV Guide's November 13–26 issue, the October 9 episode attracted 18.2 million viewers, beating out both high-rated CBS shows NCIS and The Big Bang Theory for the most viewed primetime show that week.

The Good Doctor was the most watched show in Canada during the 2020-2021 broadcast season.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 63% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's consensus reads, "The Good Doctor's heavy-handed bedside manner undermines a solid lead performance, but under all the emotionally manipulative gimmickry, there's still plenty of room to improve." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Giving his first impression of the series' pilot for TVLine, Matt Webb Mitovich stated, "The Good Doctor boasts great DNA... [and] has the potential to be a refreshingly thought-provoking hospital drama, based on the buttons pushed in the pilot alone." He enjoyed the "warm dynamic" of Schiff and Highmore, while describing Thomas' character as "our emotional 'in' to Shaun's distinct, distant world". He noted that "it takes a while to build up momentum", but concluded that "the very final scene packs quite a punch, as Dr. Murphy unwittingly puts a colleague on notice".

The New York Times television critic James Poniewozik notes in his Critic's Notebook column that, for the most part, the drama is a "hospital melodrama with whiz-bang medical science, a dash of intra-staff romance and shameless sentimentality." Discussing the main characters Shaun and Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff), Poniewozik writes that "Mr. Schiff is convincing in the role and Mr. Highmore is striking in his."

Speaking of Freddie Highmore's Golden Globe nomination on Monday, December 11, 2017, for his role in The Good Doctor, Laura Bradley, writing for Vanity Fair, says: "... Freddie Highmore received the awards recognition that has long and unjustly eluded him..." Bradley feels that Highmore's performance has been "the central key" to the show's enormous success and while the show received lukewarm reviews, most critics have praised Highmore's work.

Sarah Kurchak criticized the portrayal of autism in the series, describing it "as more of an amalgamation of non-autistic people’s misconceptions, fears, and fantasies about autism than a nuanced exploration of what it’s actually like to be [autistic]", noting that until the final season, none of the writers, cast, or consultants were autistic. Kurchak also accused the use of autism as a reason for Shaun demonstrating "a level of ignorance and transphobia toward a patient", noting the overlap between autistic, transgender, and non-binary people, a criticism noted by others too. Others have criticized a scene where Shaun accuses a Muslim patient of being a terrorist. Christy Duan, Vasilis K. Pozios and Praveen R. Kambam wrote in their critique for The Hollywood Reporter that The Good Doctor presents a belief that autistic individuals only benefit society when they possess savant abilities. A scene of Shaun having a meltdown was also criticized "about the way that the show represents people with autism".

Canceled spin-off

In August 2022, it was reported that a planned spin-off titled The Good Lawyer was in development at ABC. It was introduced in a backdoor pilot during the sixth season. In January 2023, it was announced that ABC had received a backdoor pilot order for the spin-off with Kennedy McMann, Felicity Huffman and Bethlehem Million set to star.

In November 2023, as a consequence of the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, ABC announced that it would not be moving forward with the spin-off.