New TV Show, Lead Character is an Autistic Savant

[Judge]

"The Good Doctor"

Saw the very first episode of this drama Monday night at 10pm on ABC.

It's about a very young man who is classically autistic with savant syndrome, and a talented doctor who is hired at a major hospital with a lot of anticipated controversy. It was both touching and painful to watch at times, given the struggle and prejudice he encounters with most people he must interact with.

I hope many of you get a chance to see this one and post your thoughts on it.

 

[SusanLR]

I saw it too.
Looks like it may be interesting.
I was very quiet watching it as I watched it with someone else who knows I'm on the spectrum and they kept asking, "Well...what do you think about it?"
I just said I need to see more. Another episode will show more.
I too felt a pain at some of the prejudices and relating to how he must have felt. I saw a lot of subtle signs of portrayal of classic autism in his body language and needing time to answer with words.
The little animations that were shown I thought were a good way of showing how we can see things in pictures in our mind.
He desired to help others for the sake of helping them and giving them a chance at life rather than the what's in it for me attitude. (except for wanting a TV.) that was cute. He has caring, empathy, yet disconnects from feelings that might make most people feel ill at the sight of surgery and such so he can think clearly.

I am interested in how his growing up in life was played out after his brother died. Flashbacks will show that, I see.

 

[Judge]

I must admit that when I first heard about it that I thought it was going to be a remake of Doogie Howser; I don't watch a lot of TV, especially since Hollywood seems to have lost its creativity and is concerned more about politics than telling a story.

After reading the two comments thus far, I checked on YouTube and was highly intrigued with the trailer. I believe I'll have to watch it next week when it comes on again:

Doogie Howser. Yup, I was thinking the same. Though rest assured this is no Doogie Howser. I was very impressed with this actor's ability to maintain the apparent demeanor of an autistic person. Especially observing his reactions to input from strangers with varying degrees of comfort levels. And his being socially blunt when it really counts, regardless of how NTs process it.

It's based on a previous series run in South Korea, and adapted to US television through the efforts of their executive producer, Daniel Dae Kim (formerly of Hawaii Five-O's cast as Chin Ho Kelly).

I was very impressed with the first episode. Especially the impassioned plea of actor Richard Schiff (The West Wing) as the hospital's CEO who was lobbying so hard with their board of directors to give this autistic doctor a chance. It really drove home in a very basic way all the prejudice of NTs towards autistic people in general, even in this unique case.