Readers-!

When I transferred this blog from its old home to this one, the first post I wrote was https://impala-cuboid-xsgf.squarespace.com/stateofshea/blog-post-title-one-hw93a Dear TGD Season 5: A Wish List. In it, I wrote a “letter” to S5 in the voice of TGD S4, mentioning things S4 had endured while “advising” S5 of this and that– with a lot of assistance from readers who had sent me their personal wishes for the year to come. 

Now that S5 is in the books, I thought we’d start this off-season by revisiting several parts of that wish list… comparing and contrasting it with what we actually got.

There are 20 parts to this “revisit,” so pace yourself!

As with the first time around, I’ve credited every reader’s wish accordingly. If what I’m sharing was part of the letter “written” by S4, it’ll say from the blog. 

AND IF YOU’RE READY FOR SOME INTERACTIVE CHALLENGES, I’ll post a couple at the bottom of this list.

Let’s go-!!

“But then again… you’re season five. And the longer a TV series stays alive, the higher the likelihood that it can slide off the rails and straight into some pocket of Crazytown that no viewer wants to see.”— from the blog

Hey, I inadvertently referenced an episode that didn’t exist yet! (I wrote “Dear TGD Season 5” in 9/21; episode 5.5 “Crazytown” aired two months later. Heh heh heh.)

“I hear there’s a new “nemesis” coming to shake things up at good ol’ St. Bonaventure this season… Sounds like there’s potential for every regular on the show to be involved and show what they’re made of. I’d just want to be sure that said nemesis doesn’t hijack the show with an unappealing personality or off-putting plot twists … know what I mean?”— from the blog

I’d say this worked out about 80% of the way. The Salen Morrison arc was intriguing, brought the staff of St. Bons together (eventually), and was relatively well-constructed… until its anti-climatic, surprisingly succinct fizzle of a conclusion. (We’ll circle back to this in another post.)

“(I’m looking for) some serious competition among the residents for a position at the hospital… and Glassman’s involvement in it. (From Daniela)”

With the possible exception of the Glassman/Shaun clashes in “Potluck”— which were eye-opening for both, and quite entertaining for us— we didn’t see Glassman terribly involved with the residents. But then again, it took the first third of the season for Glassman to get re-involved with medicine in general…

With Claire gone, the competition is between Shaun and Park. Park is a good doctor and he's good at communicating with patients, but he tends to be somewhat unimaginative. He goes by the book and usually defers to authority. Shaun of course is a gifted surgeon but has trouble communicating with patients and with staff. He showed some growth supervising the newbies; in the end they seemed to like him. I see Lim advocating for Shaun and Andrews for Park... Unless they opt to bring in someone new, which seems unfair!

(From Juliana)

Well, they are bringing in new doctors for S6 (we’ll revisit that in a later post as well), but they’re first-years who Shaun and Park will likely supervise. Perhaps that is where the competition will lie. But in S5, we got just a hint of this. One episode, basically, once the Salen brouhaha died down (“The Shaun Show”), where Lim sent Shaun and Park to fully assume the next two cases that came into the ER. Did one doctor emerge more successful than the other? Not really. But Shaun and Park’s respective strengths and weaknesses were underscored for sure. The groundwork is all there. Decisions HAVE to be made in S6, don’t they?

It seems that the initial drama/conflict we’ll see at St.B this season will stem from a) whatever the “shake up” is, and b) whatever difficulties are borne of Dr. Osma adjusting to a new country, new (probably fewer) responsibilities, and a romantic entanglement with the chief of surgery. Perhaps the Shaun vs. Park angle will be explored once the dust has settled on one or both of those things.

(From Kelli, aka ME)

This now begs the question to which we’ll likely never know the answer: HOW MUCH DID DR. OSMA’s SUDDEN DEPARTURE ULTIMATELY DISRUPT THINGS?

Actor Osvaldo Benavides was brought into TGD via S4’s 2-part Guatemalan finale, with an announcement by season’s end that he’d be a series regular in the fall of 2021. Then, before the fall of ‘21 had even turned to winter, Benavides was out (with very little explanation or fanfare). TGD managed to write Dr. Osma’s character out of St. Bons, and out of Lim’s relentlessly unforgiving love life, without ever looking back. But what did the Salen story look like originally, when he was still a part of things? What dynamic might have unfolded with Andrews? How would Lim’s life be different… or any other character for that matter? Most importantly, would certain storylines have worked better? I’m thinking of Salen’s specifically, but there were plenty others. In any case, it’s part of a writer and/or producer’s job to roll with the changes, particularly when the changes involve real people (as opposed to fictional characters). But the timing of this TGD cast shakeup must’ve been both a blessing and curse: a blessing because Dr. Mateo Rendon Osma was not there quite long enough to get a toehold on the show… and a curse because everyone behind the scenes knew exactly how they’d intended that to change.

I’m looking for the development of the other relationships (Park/Morgan, Mateo/Lim) as mirrors (more or less) of Shaun and Lea.

(From Daniela)

We got a little bit of this, at least! No double dates for #Shea & #Parnick (yet), but in addition to Shaun seeking advice from Park and Morgan (mostly Park), Lea was tapped for guidance at least twice by Morgan… during the “fart episode” (Measure of Intelligence) and the “tripping episode” (Potluck)... and I just realized, as I wrote this, that they used humor in both instances for Morgan to approach Lea. Hmmm…

I want to learn more about Alex’s (Park’s) past. Why did he quit being a cop and choose to become a doctor? It's been four seasons. Why don't we know about that stuff yet?

(From Tina)

They’re definitely taking their time with this! I suppose it’s because of the other ways in which they’ve shone the light on Dr. Park. In seasons 2 and 3, his extracurricular focus was his son Kellan, and occasionally his (now) ex-wife Mia. In S4, it started with some closure for the Park/Mia story, then built from that to get us to the place where he and Morgan were connecting in new ways. S5 ended up exploring their relationship, both up against the Salen microscope and without it… which left little room for anything else where Park’s personal life was concerned. We’ll likely have to see how Morgan’s season-ending job offer affects the two of them before another opportunity for a “Park”-centric episode surfaces.

With newly-single Glassman and Andrews, I hope to witness them dealing with at least some of the fallout in their own unique ways.

(Kelli/ME)

We had Andrews getting caught up in Salen’s web (ew), and Glassman spending the first part of the season trying to escape every last responsibility… I guess those things qualify as “fallout,” yes?

While I don’t want 2nd-year residents Dr. Asher Wolke and Dr. Jordan Allen to dominate any more than I want the new “nemesis” in that role, it’s time for their lives to expand a little from what we’ve seen at St. B… (From Kelli/ME)

We definitely got this with Asher, both regarding his family and personal life. With Jordan we got a lot of supportive-best-friend stuff, which lent itself nicely to some additional enterprising-businesswoman stuff. But those things don’t bring the emotional heft of family/love relationships. So I’d say TGD is 2/3rds of the way on this one.

I urge you to take your time, and choose both your causes and your battles wisely when it comes to Cases of the Week. Less is more-- except when dealing with the characters and their own development. Go ahead and plan just ONE case per week here and there. The core viewers might just thank you for it. — From the blog

Welp… “Here and there” was, in my opinion, not “here and there” enough. I’m being lazy at this point and not noting how many of the 18 episodes actually kept it to a single case, but without hesitation I can name two episodes that should’ve done so: “Dry Spell” and “Sons”.

In dealing with losing an unborn child together, they faced a test to their relationship that wasn’t about betrayal, or neglect, or potential incompatibility, or mistakes that one or both of them made…giving Shaun and Lea the challenge of a miscarriage and its aftermath created a space where neither one of them was at fault for hurting the other, either deliberately or otherwise… I hope you get a similar opportunity, Season 5. — From the blog

It turned out the biggest challenge Shaun and Lea faced in S5— aside from simply getting those rings on each other’s fingers— started with Lea’s decision to manipulate scores on Shaun’s behalf, and nearly ended (in a manner of speaking) with her moving out of the apartment. It was a complex situation that was perfectly unique for the two of them… but much like the Salen storyline as a whole, all that was well-constructed and thought-provoking was offset by an over-simplified, less-than-satisfying resolution.

When Lea said they were going to need “a lot of hard work” to keep their insecurities at bay, will that translate to tangible situations we can continue to witness now that they’re married? Sounds like a question for the next wish list…

A Glassman/Lea hug. Come on. Those two need to have more meaningful interaction. She's his daughter-in-law now, pretty much.

(From Tina)

Ask and (FINALLY) ye shall receive!

And to expand on the above, overall more Lea and Glassman bonding. It looks like season 5 will be tough on Glassman, so it would be awesome if Lea could somehow be there for him, both facilitating his father/son relationship with Shaun and forging her own relationship with him, perhaps help him heal a bit more from losing Maddie.

(From Tina)

I think this one was mostly granted, even though Glassy’s miserable speech at the engagement party was a rough start. She tried to bond with him over mutual concern for Shaun under Salen’s reign; what she actually did was fix up Glassman’s getaway car as he fled the scene for a while. She sought him out in Montana (and confessed her wrongdoing); he convinced her to come clean, citing the incredible connection she usually has with Shaun. Both of them eventually felt Shaun’s sense of betrayal; Glassman forcibly spoke up for Lea as the smoke cleared. And as a bonus— kind of like we got with “Decrypt” in S4— we saw them in a Shaun-free environment, bumping heads (and growing from it) via Jordan’s invention in “My Way.”

Lea having a confidant (or more than one), maybe Lea bonding more with the other women on the show. They laid the foundation to this in Dr. Ted, please expand on it.

(From Tina)

GRANTED, especially in the form of Jordan… who ultimately became her MOH. Lea also had her moments with Lim and Morgan, but I mean “moments” almost literally. Assuming both those characters continue to live and thrive at St. Bons in S6, I’d relish any screen time either one of them gets with Lea.

Also, there's Lea's family. Pam was initially against this relationship, but she seemed to accept that Shawn was the father of Lea's baby (sob). She'll have to accept it once they take their vows. Will she be the annoying, controlling, mother-in-law? (Yes). Will Mike bond with Shaun? He seemed to like him at the dinner; his issue with the relationship seemed to be with Lea, not Shaun.

(From Juliana)

Sigh. Swing-and-a-miss on this one, at least for S5. I, too, hoped to see Mike and Pam be somewhat involved in the nuptials (and any corresponding mixed feelings). But aside from Lea’s reference to their sex life in “Dry Spell” and the promise that they were coming in for #Shea wedding #2 (the reality-show one), the Dilallos were decidedly off-screen. There’s always next season of course, and the possibility that they’ll be miffed about missing the actual wedding… but perhaps the focus could then shift to Lea’s relationship (or lack thereof) with brother Donnie? We won’t forget this card remains in TGD writers’ collective back pocket, still waiting to be played… as does the potential for Lea’s first husband to make an appearance. (I think most of us would rather meet Donnie, though!)

I want to see Shaun doing complex surgeries, choosing a specialty, and becoming a good mentor – not without struggling at first.

(From Daniela)

I guess we’re 1 for 3 at this point: Shaun was under intense pressure to “use every bit of his Shaun-ness” (Andrews’ words) in order to keep young Isla going, unassisted, during “The Family” episode. This included doing a crucial part of her surgery all by himself— though he turned it over to Andrews shortly after he stepped into the OR and praised Shaun’s work. As for choosing a specialty, that has yet to happen… though a staggering number of viewers have placed bets on pediatrics (due again, in large part, to his care of Isla during “The Family.”) As for when The Good Doctor could also be known as The Good Mentor? He’s had a few guidance opportunities with Jordan and Asher, but true seniority lies straight ahead with his new role as surgical attending and the arrival of newbies 2.0 Daniel & Danica. (Surely one of these two “Dans” is not for long on this series…? How would they keep the names straight otherwise?)

Maybe a bachelor party with Shaun having fun with his colleagues and friends? Not sure what that would look like, and please don't let it be tropey and stereotypical. Something that Shaun will actually enjoy.

(FromTina)

We ALMOST had the stereotypical version (see above)!

So… does the scene in “The Shaun Show” where Claire surprised both Shaun and Lea count as “having fun w/colleagues and friends”? It’s as close as we got, I guess.

Shaun publicly thanking Dr. Glassman for believing in him and basically being the father his biological one never was. It's long overdue. Make it happen. (From Tina)

WELL not publicly I guess, but those heirloom wedding bands (sniff)… and “My father is a good father” (sob)… dang, the power of one incredibly well-written, impeccably-acted scene!

The angst monster in me wants a Shaun meltdown. Maybe not a big, disastrous one, because he has a good support system now and Lea has been instrumental in his emotional stability. But I think it would be great to see him struggle a bit more emotionally.

(From Tina)

GRANTED, and then some. We definitely got a meltdown; ironically it was greatly intensified by his “support system” betraying him in his mind’s eye.

Marcie Murphy may not make the wedding, or even be invited, but Shaun has unresolved issues. Lea hates her, but I think Shaun is ambivalent. He wistfully asked Steve if she would be coming for them; Steve assured him that she loved them but knew it was "better this way". He finally allowed her to hug him, but also asked her why she chose his dad over her children. I'd like to see this explored.

(From Julianna)

Not granted YET. We felt a strong overshadowing in the “Rationality” episode but, for whatever reason, there was no follow-up. (Another reason I sometimes feel like TGD was making it up as they went along regarding the wedding journey.) For what it’s worth, though… remember that Lea said “I feel like you two have a LOT to work through… and you should…” before also saying she felt the wedding should be fun and free of painful memories. So I think the door is still very much open for some sort of mother and child reunion— don’t you?

Now it’s YOUR turn (again)…

Were there things you wanted to see in S5 that aren’t covered on this list? Tell me about them in the comments!

And… do you have a WISH LIST for S6 yet? I’d love to hear about it. DM me on Twitter or email me at KLawrence997 at gmail dot com.

AND… if you’re ready to take it on… what are your top 3 episodes of S5? Bottom 3? And why? I’ll start collecting those too. Use the info above!