The Good Doctor Review
Written on 31st Jul 2024 by Alex Lowery
It took a number of years but I have finally watched some of the good doctor series. The main autistic character Shaun Murphy was played by Freddie Highmore who I saw in quite a few films from my childhood. He was quite a famous child actor in the mid to late 2000s. I believe his most iconic from this period would have been the 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Freddie plays the titled character of Charlie Bucket.
I did enjoy what I saw of this show quite a bit. However, as usual it was extremely stereotypical. It portrayed Shaun in a very stereotypical manner. He mostly spoke in a rather monotone. He mostly said everything in the same voice but he would raise it to a loud volume when anxious, stressed or angry. He was also a stereotypical autistic genius. I do enjoy watching autistic geniuses but I do still think the trope is very over used and there’s a real lack of autism being portrayed differently in the media.
Freddie Highmore who plays Shaun is also not autistic as far as we know. I do feel it’s better to get autistic actors to play autistic characters because it adds a level of realism. Autistic actors also would likely want as many acting opportunities as they can get and playing an autistic character would be the perfect opportunity for many of them. However, with that said: Freddie still did a really good job playing the character.
The autistic character Shaun doesn’t like physical contact with people he’s not familiar with. Many autistic people can relate to this including myself. What’s interesting is that he actually doesn’t like tight touch as he doesn’t like being squeezed. However, many autistic people actually prefer a tight squeeze. Everyone’s autism is different though so there will always be exceptions. Shaun also doesn’t like telling lies (which is alao common for autistic people) but he learns the skill of being able to tell when people lie and struggles to know when he should or shouldn’t lie.
Personally I am not too fond of watching surgery so did find these scenes a bit gross. It was always a delight to see Shaun staring into space when he came up with a genius idea though. Overall I do like the character of Shaun but he can be a bit frustrating and annoying to watch in some scenes. If you’re interested in examples and would like to see another article discussing them please let me know. Thank you for reading. How do you feel about the good doctor series?
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