It seems like yesterday when, on a national network, ‘The Good Doctor’ was advertised as a series with heart. The thing is that they are already in their sixth season and this series of David Shoreadapted from a Korean series that went through Netflix Spain very briefly before disappearing, it is less and less ashamed to show itself for what it is: another medical soap opera disguised as routine drama.
Before opening the patient and going into the matter, be careful: as is logical when entering, there is a risk of spoilage (SPOILERS) and it can splash you if you don’t keep it up to date and have some hope of getting it back.
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knives fly
Following the most basic rules of the telenovela, A wedding cannot end in anything beautiful, and even less if one of the people getting married is the protagonist. For this reason, at the end of the fifth season, the wedding of Shaun (Freddie Highmore) and Leah (Paige Spara) ended with a madman who stabbed his ex-partner, nurse Villanueva (Elfina Luk) and doctor Lim ( Christina Chang).
The first chapter of this sixth season had a suicide attempt by a cop, a love confession between Asher (Noah Galvin) and the nurse Jerome (Giacomo Baessato), the last break between doctor Park (Will Yun Lee) and Morgan (Fiona Gubelmann ) and a risky operation that nearly cost Shaun his relationship with his guardian and friend, Dr. Glassman (Richard Schiff)… and that leaves Dr. Lim in a wheelchair.
Precisely, it is Dr. Lim who receives the main focus during this season. His struggle to readjust to his new condition and his worries shape the subplots.: If you have followed the series, you will know that she is a strong and independent woman who, of course, will not be willing to accept charity from anyone.
Not only that, but the complicated circumstances of the operation that saved her life but left her unable to use her legs also branch out: on the one hand, Shaun becomes obsessed with trying to find a cure; Glassman is torn between forgiving Shaun’s attitude in the OR; Lim is torn between gratitude, frustration and anger, Well, you think our good doctor didn’t do as well as he should..
rosy muscles
It is also Lim who, given her condition, lends itself to the drama raised to eleven typical of Turkish series after ‘El Hormiguero’, or those stories that animate the after-dinner meal, and the siesta, for those who don’t work after lunch. Literal that, in a scene that only saves the tables of the actress, the doctor screams in a car that she hates doctor Shaun. Luckily, the scene doesn’t end with a wicked look and sinister music, but Lim’s attitude towards him changes from then on.
For someone like Shaun, who has a hard time building bridges to other people, is a shock discover that there is someone who wants to tear them down. Although he is other things, that he wants to have children with Lea and of course they will not have it easy, to the point that now, before the Christmas break, it seems more likely that Shaun can improve Lim’s condition than that he can have a baby.
The rest of the cast are not far behind. except Glassman, relegated this season to secondary with important phrases and little else. Morgan and Park, after the breakup, have that type of relationship that turns the air into curd as soon as they meet in a room, until little by little they make eyes again: they will end up together. Jordan (Bria Samoné Henderson) has a groin itch after meeting the new resident, Danni (Brandon Larracuente), but a terrible secret from him keeps them apart and has been the cliffhanger before the Christmas break…
If anyone had doubts that ‘The Good Doctor’ was a beautifully wrapped soap opera signed by the creator of ‘House’, they are completely clear, and that’s fine! Those responsible know they can’t rely on Shaun’s incredible medical talent alone., nor affect his autism now that his adaptation is complete. They need to pull the secondary ones and give it a little more drama, since we are in the sixth season. The result? Very agile chapters, rare medical cases and many feelings on the surface. Nothing to object.
welcome to the meat grinder
The novelty of this season, after the logical success of Asher and Jordan, are the first-year residents, whom we can call “the Danis”. I’ve already introduced Danny to the handsome guy before, with a bombproof temperament and that air of sadness of someone who has bad baggage behind him: his personality is defined more by what he hides, rather than what he shows.
In the other corner, Danica (Savannah Welch), a former lieutenant in the US Navy. Faced with the laconism of hers, almost her namesake, Danica is more determined and her past creates some friction with Asher.. Since she is missing a leg, she is the one who helps and pushes Lim to build a new life for himself, instead of standing still and longing for the old one.
Perhaps too hard and not much verisimilitude: There’s a scene in an elevator where Danica manages to convince Lim that she doesn’t need surgery because, wow, there’s really nothing to cure. That the Lim in a wheelchair is the new Lim. The speech is motivating, his intentions to move Lim forward are understandable, but in a series in which all the main cast members have performed complicated operations, relying on medicine and their expertise, it is hard to understand why he would reject a first approach to cure her. … except, you guessed it, that the series already has the “soap opera” light on.
‘The Good Doctor’: what’s to come
With all these wickers, this sixth season once again bets on great interior plotsin the face of the external threat posed by partial privatization last season, and which is resolved here with a couple of lines of dialogue because the writers know why we are here.
So far, the management of Dr. Andrews (Hill Harper) has had a couple of shocks and a bath of humility courtesy of a patient who insists that he be the one to operate on her, but it is possible that later he will have a little more attention and interesting scenes with the previous directorGlassman.
Will Lim be healed or will the operation go wrong and she will be paralyzed from the neck down? Will the hospital hold out or suffer some kind of tragedy? Will Shaun and Lea have a baby? How long will Dr. Glassman last before something serious and definitive happens to him? The front is open and the answers are not obvious.
Finally, comment that in the Spanish version there has been a change of dubbing for Dr. Glassman. Louis More, regular voice of the character and of, for example, Larry David, has been removed from the series after a very good job. He was first replaced by Jose Angel Juanesbut now it seems to stay fixed John Perucho, regular voice of Peter Griffin in ‘Family Guy’. Let’s hope that there are no more changes so that those who enjoy the dubbed series do not have more surprises: either one is a good choice.