The doctor is back in

The Good Doctor hits close to home this season

- KASHIEF ACHMAT

The Good Doctor

Season 4 Monday (from 30 August) M-Net (*101) 21:00

There’s an all too familiar sense of anxiety and suffocation that overcomes you when you watch the season 4 première episode of the medical drama show The Good Doctor (2017now). The season starts with a short message saluting the frontline workers and for the audience to “Do your part. Wear a mask”. It’s a sad and powerful opening that prepares you for what is to come. Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore, Norman Bates in thriller series Bates Motel, 2013-2017) and the rest of the medical staff at San Jose St Bonaventure Hospital find themselves battling against the COVID-19 pandemic that’s ravaged the world. And it can’t be avoided, not even for our favorite autistic savant doctor.

MORE THAN JUST AUTISM

With this episode being emotionally tolling on everyone, it’s difficult to see how the almost robot-like Dr Shaun would be able to express those feelings. Freddie, however, is quick to point out that his character arc and development allow for this and there’s a concerted effort to show that Shaun isn’t just a one-dimensional “person with autism”.