After having watched the first 12 episodes, I have to admit that I am hooked to The Good Doctor. And even more, I have become a huge fan of Freddie Highmore.
Another hospital drama. This time following Shaun Murphy (Freddy Highmore) who is a surgical residence. The interesting bit that makes it different: he has autism and savant syndrome, which is both a challenge for himself as it is for his co-workers. He has a near-photographic recall of everything medical he has ever read and is able to notice minimal changes and anomalies. Seems pretty neat. But he clearly is a terrible communicator which potentially could lead to many lawsuits and fights with co-workers.
At first, the hospital doesn't believe that they should take this risk. People find him weird and don't trust him and are hesitant to work with him. Slowly, he gets accepted but many awkward situations keep popping up, leaving you, the viewer, question how long it will take before things go awfully wrong.
Shaun getting sucked into his amazing brain, solving a medical puzzle
You might know Shaun/Freddie Highmore as Charlie from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". I can't believe how fast he grew up, he is 25 by now!! He plays this autistic "kid" really well, as far as I can tell. I don't know people with autism and have no way of comparing, but it is very believable to me and I read multiple reviews from people that are familiar with autism, who think he does an extremely well job. I am sometimes scared that he will have a hard time acting "normal" again when he is not Shaun.
Shaun living on his own
Watching his actions sometimes make you want to scream at your tv that Shaun should keep his mouth shut, or the opposite. I instantly liked his character and feel sorry for the things that he had to go through in his life. And as soon as other characters are nice & supportive of him, you start liking them too. It is just very predictable: In the end, you will like almost every character of the show. And it is great to see that they slowly build these characters too, so 12 episodes later, it clearly isn't all about Shaun.
If you like shows like House and Grey's Anatomy, this is probably already on your list. But if you don't like those shows, give it a shot anyway. It is so interesting to see the struggles of an autistic person to function in day to day life, both at work and in his private life (which he slowly builds). Due to binge-watching Grey's, I have the feeling I have seen all the medical drama that is possible. Still, The Good Doctor doesn't bore me at all.
Sources image/video: promo material show & stills