About The Good Doctor

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I have just watched the Good Doctor. i figured id start a conversation and ramble about it. im going to stick to talking about the main character aside from the show as a whole, and sticking to a topic revolving around how the autism was portrayed.

Dr Shaun Murphy is a resident surgen in saint jose teaching hospital. hes in his mid twenties and he has high functioning autism and savant syndrome. first note, i already can tick off the Auitsm Cliche check list:

1. expressionless (i have never met a autistic person including myself who was expressionless, if anything autism ENHANCES expression)

2. overly neat and tidy.

3. overly literal.

cliches are not inherently bad and it doesnt take away from the character at all, these are just the first things i noticed. that being said i actually really like Dr Shaun Murphey. while he is high functioning he still has some serious deficits in communication, for example he doesnt answer most questions.

he is also incredibly flawed. which to me is a good thing. He isnt always correct,i wouldnt even say hes the most intelligent doctor in the hospital, just the most unique. he makes mistakes and sometimes hes nieve to a fault but he always learns.

i liked one episode where he gets a patient who is also autistic, i liked seeing him be empathetic and to help someone who couldnt communicate what was wrong, reminded me of the House episode Lines In the Sand.

SPEAKING OF HOUSE this show REAKS of house and I LOVE IT. i was devistated when house ended and this is the successor to house. and while im off topic, the person who composed the Music on the show Atypical (also about autism) also composed music on THIS show, strange huh?

overall i think the autism on this show was presented fine, if anything flawlessly, cliched but no major problems, its just not AS good of a representation as Temple Grandin which i think there in lies the problem.

if you met one person with autism, you met ONE person with autism. when you are looking at a list of traits and creating a character around that you're creating a artificial character. unlike in the movie Temple Grandin, claire daines had to spend time with Temple to learn her mannerism and get her personality. Temple IS a real person, Shaun Murphey is not, ( or sam from atypical)

i cant wait to see more and i highly recommend it.

what do you think?

Here's what I think.

I believe there is a process by which we as a society progress towards an open dialog with those we view as being the minority. Pernicious myths, in particular stereotypes, are extremely hard to dismiss in a single instance; such as a conversation or lecture, even when those stereotypical beliefs are confronted with evidence based facts.

I believe that while some may not like the representation/aspects of certain characters those characters are none the less "beaming" into every living room which chooses to watch. This opens the possibility of individuals to become interested in learning more about why that character may have done the things they did in the episode and converts the conversation from, "Autistics are..." to "I can understand why...".

I also believe everyone should take a moment and think about the time before they became self aware of their own autism. Whether you became aware through being diagnosed or whether you identified with the characteristics listed in a book or on a website. While I am sure few will admit to having some stereotyped ideas beforehand, I can guarantee everyone wasn't an "expert" when they started.