The Good Doctor (5×14) Potluck Review

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

Synopsis: When someone mistakenly brings a hallucinogen-laced dish to the hospital’s company potluck, much of the hospital staff and doctors are incapacitated — forcing doctors Murphy, Glassman and Allen to take on all of the hospital’s cases. (TV Guide)

In the filler-iest of filler episodes, a bunch of characters have a bonding moment as they inadvertently got high during a potluck, leaving Murphy, Glassman, Reznick, and Allen to hold down the fort while the others recover, making for a similar bonding experience. Relationships, both romantic or otherwise, were also advanced through the lens of the current crisis as it opened up some eyes. That being said, some moments of characters acting high were kind of funny until it started getting repetitive fairly quickly.

Luckily, a majority of the surgeons were away at a conference in New York City. Putting Glassman to work, the contrast in styles between he and Murphy became apparent as the latter got impatient with the pace of the other which only hurt him later on with his patients for whom he was stressing out and the other staff who could barely keep up with him. Slowing down at times was a lesson that Murphy would need to learn but little did Glassman know, there was still a lot that they could teach each other.

It’s too bad that the synopsis spoils the episode as it was Asher’s dish, sweet potatoes, that got the others high with magic mushrooms which he mistakenly used. In the end, the unaffected doctors figured it out just in time to save the day though Park may be out of commission for the time being due to an injury while high.

With an episode like this, the performances need to lead the way and for the most part, they did. Highmore and Schiff as Murphy and Glassman were a definite highlight as the episode allowed for some development for those characters. Chang and Harper as Lim and Andrews had a similar arc though on the opposite end of the spectrum but still got to the root of those characters’ issues in a fun and compelling way. Galvin and Lee were a little over-the-top with their stoned acting however while Spara made the most out of Lea’s surprising experience with hallucinogens.

Maybe this episode will mean something or mean nothing but it was still a fun distraction though it’s perhaps time to steer the ship back on course now.

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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.