The Good Doctor hit its milestone 100th episode, and to celebrate, showrunner Liz Friedman shared some teasers about the twists and turns for the upcoming episode “Hot and Bothered.”
There is a great deal of drama brewing between Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) and his colleagues, especially newbie Dr. Danica Powell, (Savannah Welch) a military veteran with whom he often finds himself at odds. Their heated stalemate tests Shaun’s patience and his willingness to compromise.
Meanwhile, when the hospital loses power in the midst of a heatwave, Lea (Paige Spara) and Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) are forced to come up with a quick solution or risk a total shutdown that could risk patients’ lives in this landmark episode.
“There are a couple of big things coming down the pike, that I think is pretty exciting,” Showrunner Liz Friedman exclusively tells Parade.com.
“I think people will be very intrigued going into the winter break,” she continues. “There’s lots of new stuff happening, and we love to have big emotions and then some laughs along the way.”
The Good Doctor Season 6 started out with a lot of excitement. What do you love and appreciate about all these twists and turns?
Liz Friedman: Oh, I love that we were able to do a story with a big personal impact for our characters, and then give it some real fallout that is playing out over the first seven episodes or so of the season. We’re really dealing with the repercussions of the attack and Lim’s injury, Shaun’s role in the surgery, and how other people align around that.
To be able to deliver a real adrenaline jolt and a thrill ride, and then do some emotional repercussions that come out of that, it’s a great mix of two things that I love in storytelling. One is action-packed cliffhangers, and then the other is people grappling with such difficult emotions.
Let’s talk about Season 6 and Dr. Lim and Dr. Glassman’s anger at Dr. Shaun Murphy. Are they being too hard on him?
Well, Dr. Glassman’s surgery also might have saved her life, and probably would have avoided this. It might have. It should be a debate, and I think that also to ask somebody who’s ended up in a wheelchair not to be upset about being in a wheelchair is a tough position. This is the right discussion to have about this.
How much research is involved for Dr. Lim? Has Christina Chang talked to people in wheelchairs, paralyzed people and people to whom this happened later in life?
Oh, absolutely. She’s been doing research and we got her somebody, a consultant, to help her work on her movements in the wheelchair. It was interesting because as luck would have it, the guy who is the consultant has an injury in a very similar spot on the spinal column as Lim has. She’s really been working on getting all of that right, and I just think she’s done a terrific job with it.
I think we all feel mixed about anger toward Dr. Murphy because he is our hero in the series. We want him to come out on top.
Right. I think that hopefully, you will enjoy the storyline as it plays out. But I think it’s very interesting to me when people have opposing feelings and they’re strongly held. It’s a deep enough wound or deep enough point of pride, in Shaun’s case of, “I did the right thing,” that they can’t make even a baby step toward what concession could you make that would allow this person to feel better about this situation? And everybody’s really in their corners, not talking and not sorting it out.
Please talk about how you and The Good Doctor creator David Shore feel about reaching the milestone 100th episode.
It’s really an amazing thing to get to be a part of a show that has run for 100 episodes. I’ve got to brag a little bit on David’s behalf: This is his second series that has gone past 100 episodes, because I was there for the 100th episode celebration on his series, House starring Hugh Laurie. It’s just an amazing thing that gets rarer all the time.
It was wonderful to be up there with the cast while filming this. As you may or may not know, David was directing this episode but got COVID and had to miss a little of it—which was an interesting reminder, in that it made me think of the fact that of these 100 episodes, we have done close to 44 of them during COVID and only lost about four days of shooting.
What else can you tease about The Good Doctor moving forward? You’ve got a lot of relationships going on here.
I hope the people will enjoy this journey that we’re taking Shaun, Lea, Dr. Lim and Dr. Glassman on in terms of the aftermath of the attack and the surgery. Both in the physical sense and the emotional sense. Morgan’s going to embark on a new quest of her own. I think that’s some stuff there.
As newbies, Daniel and Danica add a lot to the series. With Shaun becoming a higher-level doctor, that changes everything, too.
