The Good Doctor

Pilot: From the creator of House, David Shore, comes another medical drama centred on a lead character who defies societal-norms. And in this case, instead of being a rude, cantankerous diagnostician/genius, we have a high functioning autistic savant/surgical resident. But what both series have in common is a brilliant lead actor who deftly created a character that was unique, distinct and memorable. The Medicine part of things was a tad too cringe-worthy from a professional point of view, and the CGI too in your face Sherlock-esque. The pilot focused on Norman...I mean Norma Bates...no, Freddie Highmore...who after years honing his skills on Bates Motel has finally arrived on Network TV and hopefully to a larger audience. Highmore has impressed ever since his star-making turn on Finding Neverland (much like Tom Holland in The Impossible), and it is gratifying to see this young actor grow and mature. Nonetheless, his character (and even his acting) overshadowed both the plot and the other characters, other than the indomitable Richard Schiff. In this exposition heavy pilot, Shore et al tried to cramp too much back story and over-focused on Dr Shaun Murphy's autism (his tics and all). That gave no room to establish the other characters other than flimsily sketched out relationships and character traits. The next two episodes will need to work hard to either establish a strong ensemble or a strong story for Highmore. One reason House worked because House was not restricted by the surgical discipline and as a diagnostician he gets to figure out all the rare diseases and syndromes; but the basis of The Good Doctor does not allow for that and so the showrunners will need to figure something out if it wants this medical drama to be as popular as the Korean drama it was based on (which will be hard to replicate outside of an Asian context) or even Grey's Anatomy or ER.

Episode 2: "Mount Rushmore"
The medical stuffs behind this is bad. Unrealistically bad. Highmore and Schiff remained the highlights of the show, whereas everybody else were annoying and boring with nary an ounce of dimension. As one character said, this might be better if Highmore was House (a diagnostician). However, there was a glimpse of potential in what this show could and/or should evolve to with the addition of the older, wiser nurse (a la Jesse in Code Black) and the sassy, kind-hearted pathologist/lab tech as his only friend in the hospital. That show might be better.