Coronavirus, Shock Value and Melendez’s Death
- Melengers
- Jun 9, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 17, 2020
As one of the most ordinary students living in Italy, recently graduated from university, I never imagined myself writing an English article about a TV series. Until three months ago my life flowed quickly, among countless exams, a very challenging thesis and a PhD research project; then, suddenly, it stopped: the Italian sanitary condition declined rapidly and, in a few days, everyone felt deprived of their freedom, their habits, their life. It was not easy to face the certainty of seeing our plans postponed; to live in a limbo, in the absolute awareness of human impotence in the face of an invisible being, which penetrates your lungs and feeds on your own oxygen, preventing you from breathing: coronavirus was closer than ever.
This was the moment I subconsciously took refuge, like many others, in the reassuring stories told by The Good Doctor’s writers. This TV show has been able, for three years, to gently portray every aspect of the human soul through its characters. All The Good Doctor’s protagonists are the mirrors which can bring out, through the viewers’ screens, a particular side of our humanity, turning themselves into an essential added value for the entire series.
However, when I sat on my couch that night, happy to find some escape from the terrible reality we’were living in, I felt completely betrayed and shocked by my favorite TV show. It was traumatic to observe two strong and stubborn women like Audrey Lim and Claire Browne simply surrendering to the premature death of Neil Melendez, the same man they both claimed to love. Even their farewell scenes appeared inconsistent, incomplete and absolutely rushed. Also shocking was Dr. Glassman’s choice to reject Audrey Lim’s idea, in the last attempt (not so desperate) to save her ex-boyfriend, especially if we think that Glassman himself is still alive thanks to someone who did not give up on him and fought for him to save his life from brain cancer.
Everything seemed unreal, while the failed hopes for a new brilliant treatment were even more excruciating in the face of the inexorable passing of minutes. As if Neil Melendez was just a stranger, as if Neil Melendez had not been one of the best attendings, as a cardiothoracic surgeon, at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital.
Dr. Glassman and Dr. Lim
Neil Melendez and Audrey Lim's farewell
Neil Melendez and Claire Browne's farewell
Moreover, absolutely unjustifiable was the absence of Shaun Murphy who was unable to greet his mentor, since he was engaged in practicing an unrealistic amputation under water, before joining his beloved Lea at the end of the episode, in an almost out of place and overshadowed kissing scene.
Dr. Melendez and Dr. Murphy
Equally unforgivable was also the lacked farewell from Dr. Andrews and Morgan Reznick, who acted in the scene completely unaware of what was happening to Neil Melendez. Indeed, the death of one of the pillars of the entire TV show was treated like the death of any simple patient from the hospital. During his Entertainment interview, David Shore (TGD showrunner) said: «I just thought it was important that we take one of the people we truly care about and deal with that»; and he was right, because, given the total absence of most of the characters and the unsensitive dialogue between Lim and Claire [Lim: «We should get a drink sometimes» - Claire: «I’d like that»] leaving alone the body of the man they were supposed to love, viewers are the only ones who are suffering of the actual consequences of this “creative choice”.
Claire Browne and Audrey Lim embracing after Neil Melendez's death
However, Dr. Neil Melendez truly was the one with whom every character shared something and, for this reason, I like to think of him as the columns of an Ancient Greek Temple: Shaun could be the most sacred part of it, like the god statue, but without the columns, the temple simply does not exist!
Therefore, it is not surprising that many fans, like me, have perceived the same emotions and immediately thought it was right to fight to save their beloved character, to create a petition and to promote the #BringBackMelendez Campaign, giving voice to their disappointment and honoring the excellent acting by Nicholas Gonzalez (aka Dr. Neil Melendez).
This amazing actor, indeed, not only knew how to bring to life the deepest and most complex character of the whole series, but also provided him with a real soul. It is not a coincidence that his departure aroused atrocious feelings, very similar to those provoked by the death of actual relatives, among all viewers: having the opportunity to witness such an incredible phenomenon is a gift that cannot be wasted.
Dr. Neil Melendez, cardiothoracic surgeon at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital
Consequently, this time, it would be surely appreciate if the law of shock value, to which TV shows often respond, succumbed to those of empathy and sympathy towards viewers, who are already extremely tried by the precarious health conditions of our world: a world in which real doctors die every day trying to save our own lives.
Additionally, it is worth noting that some of those actual doctors, together with medical students and other healthcare professionals, have focused on the dynamic of Melendez’s death, identifying different treatments that could have saved his life (like intubating him and starting him on antibiotics and pressors for septic shock) and showing how that realism, so praised by The Good Doctor’s writers, was not properly respected in the last episode of their own show.
Sometimes, then, it might be more rewarding to be remembered for responding positively to fans’ appeal, rather than following the most common rule of show-business.
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