The Good Doctor: America’s Take on the 2013 South Korean Hit Drama is Garnering Millions in Viewership
There is one show everyone is talking about now and that is ABC’s newest medical-drama, The Good Doctor, which started its first broadcast on September 25th, 2017. The Good Doctor stars once childhood actor turned adult actor through projects like Bates Motel, Freddie Highmore, as the hero of the series. He plays the role of Shaun Murphy, a young surgical resident with autism and savant syndrome at the fictional San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. A medical-drama on TV is nothing new on American TV and faced some drop in interested viewers in the past years but has had such past hits in the genre such as Greys Anatomy, ER, and House to name a few. So what makes The Good Doctor different? And how come it has become a runaway hit for ABC with a garnering of around 17 million viewers per episode? Nobody can know for sure but there are several factors at play working for the drama.
Firstly, Shaun Murphy is the kind of anti-antihero TV has needed. In a trend that has lasted the last decade over, antiheros had become quite prevalent in TV shows such as House, the titular antihero of the medical-drama House. His prickly but genius personality saw him solving the toughest medical mysteries while giving witty dialogue- ultimately drawing a mass of viewers over its 8 year run on the Fox network. Other shows that featured antiheroes as the main character include House of Cards, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad among others. However, it seems the public’s need for an antihero has been exhausted and in America’s current period of tension in media, politics, and societal issues, the need for an innocent and good-natured hero is imminent. Shaun Murphy’s autism and savant syndrome are seen by some as a weakness but it also is his strength. He brings a moral compass to the game and doesn’t fall under the harsh criticism and prejudice he encounters with his colleagues, including surgeon Neil Melendez who is Shaun Murphy’s biggest critic throughout the series.
Another reason The Good Doctor may have gained some serious ground in the hearts of Americans is because of its timing. Many ideas for movies or TV shows have been exhausted, thus those surrounding a main character who perceives the world differently or is in a way different from the type of heroes that have been overly produced have been extremely popular these days. Shows that have featured diverse casts in terms of race, sexuality, and disability have been frontrunners in ratings in recent years and praised for their progressiveness. The Good Doctor has fallen under this category of unique shows that have foregone a typical hero and given the audiences someone new to root for, and thus also giving audiences with similar disabilities someone to look up to or be able to see themselves in. Representation is the biggest driver in the conception of new shows right now in the United States and has become an important tool in the normalization of diversity in race, sexuality, and disability in the minds of Americans. TV shows and movies alike are giving platforms to voices and people that were not heard or shown often until quite recently. The Good Doctor is an important part in this new era of media and has done something that has never been done before in introducing its main character as having autism and savant syndrome- truly an unprecedented first.
So, where did the idea for the show come from? To the surprise of many American viewers who may not know, The Good Doctor is actually a remake of the 2013 hit Korean drama under the similar name Good Doctor. The drama, which aired on KBS with a total of 20 episodes,circled around the same plot. Its hero for which Shaun Murphy was modelled after, Park Shi-on, was artfully portrayed by actor Joo Won. It was in sharp contrast to the character he had just portrayed on the same network, Bridal Maskless than a year prior. The drama was set in Japanese-occupied Korea in which Joo Won played Lee Kang-to, a Korean citizen operating in the Japanese policy force and whose main internal struggle was one between being a police officer tasked with keeping the Korean people in line using any means necessary and his ethnic Korean roots. Joo Won was able to transition from one emotionally complex character to the next in smooth fashion and his talent shown through the entire following series. Besides earning double digits in ratings, something that is hard to do in the country, the drama and its cast went on to win several awards at award shows like the Seoul International Drama Awards and the Baeksang Arts Awards.
Immediately following its success, Korean-American actor Daniel Dae Kim bought up the rights to adapt it to American television. However, after facing multiple passes from his home network, CBS, The Good Doctor found its home on ABC after a long struggle to find its platform. And after 4 years from the original’s success, The Good Doctor finally broadcasted to the tune of its own success. Its opening episode, almost an exact scene-for-scene of the original’s pilot, begins Shaun Murphy’s story as he medically saves a boy who falls victim to a broken sign raining down shards of glass, proving his valor and capability as a surgeon. The scene is interchanged with a board of people discussing his possible employment at their hospital, mainly filled with doubts that he could ever be a capable surgeon. Then, after a heartfelt speech masterfully acted by Shaun Murphy who eventually makes his way to the hospital meeting, he of course is agreed upon and taken inby the hospital board.
The American version, of course, builds upon its predecessor with some few additions- including a range of visuals like diagrams of organs and dictionary definitions flashing across the screen to show his thought processes which can be reminiscent of the BBC British crime-drama Sherlock which ran from 2010-2017 with a total of 13 episodes and starred the now global phenomenon Benedict Cumberbatch. It also has revised its structure and storyline a bit to be able to accommodate a longer runtime- something Korean shows do the opposite of, running on a small finite number of episodes rather than continuing for multiple seasons, regardless of popularity. Of course, one could talk endlessly comparing and contrasting the two versions of Shaun Murphy/Park Shi-on’s story. However, the American version has proven it isn’t just going to use the original as a crutch but something to build off of and make entirely its own. It will branch off into its own unique show, hopefully touching the hearts of its viewers just as the Korean version has with so many people.
Written by: Lacey Bonner
Originally from the Washington DC metropolitan area, 3rd year student and Candidate for a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Candidate for Bachelor of Arts in the Korean Language at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, current exchange student for a 1-year period at Korea University and intern at VANK (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea)