The Good Doctor (3×01) Disaster Review

For our review of the last episode of The Good Doctor, click here.

Synopsis: Following what he believes was a disastrous first date with Carly, Dr. Shaun Murphy proposes a radical surgery to save a newlywed woman’s life; Dr. Morgan Reznick and Dr. Alex Park compete for the chance to operate on an elderly patient. (TV Guide)

This season three premiere of The Good Doctor, aptly titled Disaster, centered around Murphy’s first date with Carly for which he proclaimed to be a disaster without ever explaining why. Over the course of the episode, we would be treated to bits and pieces of what exactly happened during that date which wasn’t necessarily what we may have guessed (more on that later). Meanwhile, this was still a season premiere so it came with some heavy lifting as it saw old characters in new places.

With Andrews out as chief of surgery, it was now up to Lim to take up the mantle but little did she know, the job would be more difficult than she probably expected. Her plan was to manage the department the way she would have done it, however, it wasn’t quite compatible. She would empower the residents by putting them in situation where they could learn firsthand which would include easy, menial surgeries.

One of Lim’s other duties was to find her replacement. The answer to both of those came in an unexpected place which was Andrews who imparted some advice to her while downplaying his next job exploits before eventually agreeing to come back to the hospital as a new resident to replace Lim and help repair his reputation. Glassman, on the other hand, was enjoying his cancer-free life as he attempted to find a new purpose while working at a clinic. This would be interrupted by Aoki who hounded him into coming back to be the hospital’s president. The answer to that is still to be determined.

Now to the cases. Disaster, revolved around Murphy’s so-called disaster date so the team dealt with two married couples at opposite ends of their life who were both dealing with treatable forms of cancer. A pair of newlyweds had their lives turned upside down once the bride was discovered to have cancer in her kidney, liver, and her abdominal wall (which Murphy had to learn how to tell them) that was hard to see so Murphy had the bright idea (Browne accused him of stalling because he felt bad about his date) of taking out all her organs in her abdominal area in order to remove the cancer (before putting them all back in of course). The surgery was successful though she would have to go the the bathroom in a bag forever.

Meanwhile, an older couple dealt with a husband with dementia dealt with a treatable form of cancer which untreated would still afford him several years of life. The question here was the value of a life and whether to balance treating him just to have his wife continue to take care of him or letting him live out the last years of his life with little to no pain. Reznick and Park fought over who would take the lead in this case for the hopes that it may lead to one of them taking lead in surgery but rivalry went away once things became more emotional.

Now to the moment you’ve all been waiting for which was Murphy’s date. It was fun to watch though it wasn’t really a disaster on paper (with Murphy performing some incredible acts like catch a bottle of wine and fix a woman’s shoulder) but the reason why he considered it a disaster was how uncomfortable it made him feel. Having to be a different person (thanks to some advice from Lea) in a setting for which he had no control over was something he did not enjoy.

In the end, this was a fun first episode and it will definitely be interesting where things go from there.

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.