The Good Doctor Character That Fans Think Gets Too Much Season 4 Screen Time
ABC's "The Good Doctor" might center on Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore), a brilliant, autistic surgical resident at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital, but his colleagues are receiving more compelling storylines with each passing season. Season 4 of "The Good Doctor" proved to be a particularly complex outing for the supporting cast. This season doesn't open with Murphy and the gang brainstorming a game plan for an intricate surgery. Rather, the hospital is forced to navigate the first cases of the novel coronavirus. Following this two-episode nod to real-life healthcare workers, "The Good Doctor" picks up where it left off at the end of Season 3.
Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas) is struggling to cope with the untimely death of Dr. Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez), who she was forming strong feelings for. She also must address the sudden return of her estranged father, Miles (Marcuis Harris), who desperately needs her medical expertise. Meanwhile, Dr. Alex Park (Will Yun Lee) and Dr. Morgan Reznick (Fiona Gubelmann), who have a friends-with-benefits agreement, are figuring out their growing feelings for one another. This situation becomes especially complicated when, in an effort to avoid attachment, Morgan urges Alex to date other people. Ultimately, she gets jealous when he heeds her advice.
There are many interesting plots concerning the surgical residents in Season 4, but fans of the show feel that one of them is unfairly given more screen time than the rest.
Fans wanted to see less Claire and more Alex and Morgan
On Reddit, fans of "The Good Doctor" believe that Season 4 places too much emphasis on Claire. Redditor u/PassOfMe_BaiQwQ implied that Claire was the golden child of the season, with the other characters struggling to be seen. Meanwhile, this user also compared Alex and Morgan to a forgotten, decaying skeleton at the bottom of the ocean. They went on to say, "I feel like they have given her [Claire] too much of the spotlight but without any interesting plot yet ... Also I'm sure they'd given up with Morgan and Park, which is sad because they ended S3 with the most interesting plot points."
Another commenter, u/glamericanbeauty, agreed, saying "I def thought they were gonna explore Morgan and Park living together more ... it's a very interesting dynamic and I feel like we're missing out on it." And furthermore, some fans didn't like how, when a new group of residents is ready to start learning at St. Bonaventure, their supervision is largely left to Claire and Shaun. Many felt that Alex would've been a great mentor to the residents.
Thankfully for fans who weren't thrilled at how much screen time was given to Claire in Season 4, that problem didn't continue. In the final episode of the season, she decides to leave St. Bonaventure to pursue a medical career in Guatemala, where there's limited access to care. Antonia Thomas parted ways with "The Good Doctor" to pursue new acting opportunities.