The Good Doctor: Carly breaks up with Shaun
The Good Doctor season four has been greenlit but earlier this year it was confirmed Dr Carly Lever (played by Jasika Nicole) would not be returning to the role. The actress recently took to Twitter to reveal more about her exit and has opened up about how she felt in a statement to Express.co.uk.
Fans fell in love with The Good Doctor’s Carly Lever when she was first introduced in season one of the show.
Many were therefore overjoyed when she was promoted to a season regular in season three as her storyline grew.
Throughout the third series, Carly and Dr Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) began dating as they struggled to adjust from a friendship to a relationship.
However, this came to an end in season three over Shaun’s growing feelings for Lea Dilallo (Paige Spara).
Shaun and Lea got together in the series finale and the show’s creator David Shore revealed Jasika Nicole’s Carly would not be returning for season four.
Recently Nicole opened up to her Twitter followers about how she felt her character not returning to the series.
On June 12 she wrote on Twitter: “Unfortunately I was not asked to return to the show next season.
“Very disappointing because I really liked being a part of the show but now it feels like I was just used (once again, I’m sensing a trend) as a prop to push forward the other white characters’ narratives.”
In a statement to Express.co.uk following the tweets, Nicole revealed more about how she felt about her exit from the show, including the most “painful” part of it.
She said: “It has long been recognised in our community that POC [person of colour] characters are often brought onto shows with majority white audiences in order to propel white characters forward, and it usually occurs with girlfriend/boyfriend relationships on TV.
“A white leading character will date a POC guest star or recurring character for a while and will either learn more about themselves or learn more about what it is they truly want, and ultimately they will find their way back to the other white romantic lead that the show has set up for them.
“The role of this POC character is closely tied with the trope of the Magical Negro, having entered a white character’s life just to teach them something important, and then just kind of disappearing once their ‘work’ is done.
“It also feels peripheral to the Bury Your Gays trope that is super common in television – that wasn’t specifically my experience on TGD [The Good Doctor], but the frequency with which gay characters (also a marginalised community) are killed off in order to propel a leading character’s story forward has long been documented amongst us.
“When you don’t see yourself in media very often, you try to savor each morsel you are given, but it becomes apparent pretty quickly that we aren’t valued in the same way when the people that represent us onscreen are so frequently and easily discarded.”
