There is a great deal of drama brewing between Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) and his colleagues, especially newbie Dr. Danica Powell, (Savannah Welch) a military veteran with whom he often finds himself at odds. Their heated stalemate tests Shaun’s patience and his willingness to compromise. Meanwhile, when the hospital loses power in the midst of a heatwave, Lea (Paige Spara) and Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) are forced to come up with a quick solution or risk a total shutdown that could risk patients’ lives in this landmark episode. “There are a couple of big things coming down the pike, that I think is pretty exciting,” Showrunner Liz Friedman exclusively tells Parade.com. “I think people will be very intrigued going into the winter break,” she continues. “There’s lots of new stuff happening, and we love to have big emotions and then some laughs along the way.” Read on for more about Season 6 of ABC’s The Good Doctor and all of the clashes and interactions between Dr. Murphy, and colleagues, The Good Doctor Season 6 started out with a lot of excitement. What do you love and appreciate about all these twists and turns? Liz Friedman: Oh, I love that we were able to do a story with a big personal impact for our characters, and then give it some real fallout that is playing out over the first seven episodes or so of the season. We’re really dealing with the repercussions of the attack and Lim’s injury, Shaun’s role in the surgery, and how other people align around that. To be able to deliver a real adrenaline jolt and a thrill ride, and then do some emotional repercussions that come out of that, it’s a great mix of two things that I love in storytelling. One is action-packed cliffhangers, and then the other is people grappling with such difficult emotions. Let’s talk about Season 6 and Dr. Lim and Dr. Glassman’s anger at Dr. Shaun Murphy. Are they being too hard on him? Jeff Weddell/ABC Well, Dr. Glassman’s surgery also might have saved her life, and probably would have avoided this. It might have. It should be a debate, and I think that also to ask somebody who’s ended up in a wheelchair not to be upset about being in a wheelchair is a tough position. This is the right discussion to have about this. How much research is involved for Dr. Lim? Has Christina Chang talked to people in wheelchairs, paralyzed people and people to whom this happened later in life? Oh, absolutely. She’s been doing research and we got her somebody, a consultant, to help her work on her movements in the wheelchair. It was interesting because as luck would have it, the guy who is the consultant has an injury in a very similar spot on the spinal column as Lim has. She’s really been working on getting all of that right, and I just think she’s done a terrific job with it. I think we all feel mixed about anger toward Dr. Murphy because he is our hero in the series. We want him to come out on top. Right. I think that hopefully, you will enjoy the storyline as it plays out. But I think it’s very interesting to me when people have opposing feelings and they’re strongly held. It’s a deep enough wound or deep enough point of pride, in Shaun’s case of, “I did the right thing,” that they can’t make even a baby step toward what concession could you make that would allow this person to feel better about this situation? And everybody’s really in their corners, not talking and not sorting it out. Please talk about how you and The Good Doctor creator David Shore feel about reaching the milestone 100th episode. Jeff Weddel/ABC It’s really an amazing thing to get to be a part of a show that has run for 100 episodes. I’ve got to brag a little bit on David’s behalf: This is his second series that has gone past 100 episodes, because I was there for the 100th episode celebration on his series, House starring Hugh Laurie. It’s just an amazing thing that gets rarer all the time. It was wonderful to be up there with the cast while filming this. As you may or may not know, David was directing this episode but got COVID and had to miss a little of it—which was an interesting reminder, in that it made me think of the fact that of these 100 episodes, we have done close to 44 of them during COVID and only lost about four days of shooting. What else can you tease about The Good Doctor moving forward? You’ve got a lot of relationships going on here. I hope the people will enjoy this journey that we’re taking Shaun, Lea, Dr. Lim and Dr. Glassman on in terms of the aftermath of the attack and the surgery. Both in the physical sense and the emotional sense. Morgan’s going to embark on a new quest of her own. I think that’s some stuff there. As newbies, Daniel and Danica add a lot to the series. With Shaun becoming a higher-level doctor, that changes everything, too. Jeff Waddell/ABC Yeah, it’s been great to see him in the position of being a boss, a leader and a teacher, and interacting with these two very different characters. We’re going to continue to peel back the layers of the onion on Perez and learn more about why he’s in some ways a little bit removed. Powell is going to continue to be a character with strong opinions and positions, and that’s going to create some challenging situations for her and for the people around her. Talk about two of our other fan-favorite characters, Dr. Jordan Allen and Dr. Asher Wolke. I love those guys. They’re fun with each other, they’re fun with other people; they’re just great. I think it’s a really fantastic and slightly unexpected friendship between the two of them. Bria Henderson and Noah Galvin are also close friends and get along tremendously well, so natural chemistry just comes through. Talk about Shaun’s personality, like preferring to put his office in a storage closet rather than deal with sharing an office with Dr. Park. Jeff Weddell/ABC Exactly. He needed a quiet place. You know, it’s a part. I think at this point we’re very lucky we have a great writing staff a lot of us have been here for a very long time, and a few writers have been here since the very beginning. It’s really about Shaun’s personality. Some of the elements of which are linked to his autism spectrum disorder and others are not. Shaun is who he is and he’s on a journey of growth, but also, he doesn’t need to change. He’s an amazing person with a really unique way of looking at things. We’re always looking for ways to challenge him. What I like about what we’re doing this year with him, is being a boss for the first time while also being a new husband. These are things that are challenging for everybody, whether you are neurodiverse or neurotypical. I think what I really like is that Shaun can ask questions out loud that the rest of us are sometimes too embarrassed or self-conscious to ask. How much does Freddie Highmore inform Shaun and how extensive is his input about his character? Freddie has a lot of input and we talk a lot. In fact, the idea of Shaun setting up his own office in some place where he shouldn’t have an office, or that he wouldn’t be given one, was Freddie’s idea. There is a famous Hollywood legend that when Steven Spielberg was starting out he would bluff his way onto the Universal Studios lot with a messenger envelope and when he saw an unused office he just set himself up in there for months. So, that aspect of the episode came out of conversations with Freddie. After each script is ready, we go through it and he asks questions about what we intended. If he has an idea for something, he pitches it to us. It’s a great collaboration. The 100th episode of The Good Doctor airs on ABC on Monday, Nov. 21, at 10 p.m. ET and streams on Hulu the next day. Next, Paige Spara tells all about The Good Doctor!
