Why The Good Doctor should not be directed as House M.D.
- Melengers
- Aug 11, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 9, 2020
by Karen Morais
House M.D. was a procedural TV show created by David Shore in 2004. It lasted eight seasons and was a great success, winning several awards: Hugh Laurie won the Golden Globes of the best actor in a television series drama in 2006 and 2007; he also won the Screen Actors Guild’s award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series in 2007 and 2009.
The show was telling the story of a super renowned infectious diseases specialist and nephrologist who has an incredible ability to diagnose mysterious diseases but has a peculiar personality based on Sherlock Holmes.
Dr. Gregory House
Five years after House M.D. ended, Shore produced and scripted the American version of the Korean series Good Doctor which tells the story of a young autistic doctor with Savant Syndrome who has to improve his skills and interpersonal interactions within a resident team.
The Good Doctor's Korean cast
Dr. Park Shi-on & Dr. Shaun Murphy
Even though it is clearly evident how different these TV shows are, The Good Doctor is being directed in the same way as House M.D. was, and unfortunately, this is damaging for the entire storyline.
Indeed, although both programs have a nominal protagonist, unlike House M.D., TGD is not a one-man show: Gregory House was the head of a team of doctors and a mentor, while Shaun Murphy is an autistic surgery resident, with unique skills who is part of a team run by three mentors.
Dr. Shaun Murphy vs Dr. Gregory House
And because Shaun is still developing his skills as a doctor and as a surgeon, he has to compete with his co-workers for his positions and to perform surgeries. Therefore, when other characters are on an equal level to the main protagonist, even with different characteristics and skills, then the show stops to be a one-man show to become a set of characters with several storylines and a diverse fandom. As a consequence, each viewer chooses their own favorite character and this one becomes the one of the main, sometimes the only reason why it is worth keeping watching the program.
Dr. Shaun Murphy
In House M.D., the procedural direction was the best choice because the show had few characters and Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie) was the central one who solved everything by diagnosing diseases and offering types of treatment. But TGD is not just about Shaun Murphy (played by Freddie Highmore), it is about him and his colleagues growing up in their profession. Therefore, it is not possible, in this kind of show, that all the episodes are about a mysterious disease treated like the “case of the week”, because this is not the daily routine of a hospital or medical residency. This is why the program does not work as a procedural. Most of all, the idea that anyone who does not think Shaun is the center of the show is not a “true fan” is false and dishonest.
TGD should be a continuous program of stories focused on the characters’ lives in the hospital environment, but with a series about surgeons, the presence of just 10 characters is not enough to address that same complexity they aim to explore.
Writers often emphasize the “realism” of their show, but they also decide to let Dr. Melendez perform both brain and general surgeries, when he is exclusively a cardiothoracic surgeon, that is to say a specialist of heart and lung. Can this be seriously called “realism”?
Moreover, another problem inherited from House M.D. is the almost total focus on their leader’s storyline, while it would be necessary to improve the plot by concentrating on other characters’ development rather than just on Dr. Murphy’s professional, private and love life. We know that Shaun is the main protagonist, but this does not stop the viewer’s desire of knowing more about the other characters. That would only be an added value to the entire TV show.
For instance, what happened with Andrews’ sterility? It was mentioned twice and then discarded, even if it had a lot of potential: it is always talked about how difficult it is for women to have a child, but only rarely it is told about men’s troubles in getting their partner pregnant.
Writers could also:
- Show us the consequences of Morgan’s rheumatoid arthritis or give her a love interest (maybe a lesbian romance? The show is missing diversity);
- Find out more about Park’s police background, his personal relationships with his wife and son (perhaps an old chief or one of his former police case could show up at the hospital);
- Deepen Lim’s desire to be a mother and bring her more work as chief of surgery, more professional dilemmas, more interaction with Glassman about the direction of the hospital (this woman never does anything important, just a few surgeries here and there and nothing else);
- Let the residents be friends, let them have more interactions with colleagues and other characters outside the hospital environment;
- Continue with Dr. Melendez’s storylines (since we know he is alive) with his sister Gabriela, his parents, his past as a med student, a resident and a surgeon;
- Make us fall in love with Neil and Claire’s slow burn, because to be honest, we all know that #Melendaire has become the glue of the show, the only reason why the largest part of the audience have decided to keep watching a show that seems to have lost its own direction at the end of Season 1.
Dr. Claire Browne & Dr. Neil Melendez
This show has the potential to take Grey’s Anatomy’s place on TV and in ABC history. However, to achieve this goal, David Shore needs to improve and change his writing style by avoiding to recreate the same path he went with House M.D.
Times have changed, people have evolved, grown up together with their interests and their expectations towards TV shows. They are not the same they were 20 years ago. Obviously, viewers do not want a copy of Grey’s Anatomy: The Good Doctor can actually be even better than it, thanks to its attention to a most realistic human development, rather than to focusing on less useful and unexpected tragedies. However, the writers need to be careful, because when it comes to a surgeon-focused series, Shonda Rhimes is doing a better job!
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