The Good Doctor: What We Want To See in Season 3!
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Good Doctor fans are counting down to September 23, when Season 3 premieres.
When we left off, Shaun had finally been reinstated as a surgical resident and had asked Carly out, Dr. Glassman had proposed to his girlfriend, and Dr. Lim had been promoted to Chief of Surgery.
The Good Doctor Season 3 promises movement on all of these storylines and more!
Good Doctor fanatics are excited and have high hopes for this season. Here's our wishlist.
Lots of Shaun and Carly
For most of The Good Doctor Season 2, Shaun pined after Lea started dating someone else. Fans were split on whether or not Shaun and Lea should be endgame. But in the end, Shaun's colleague in the pathology department, Carly, won out!
Related: The Good Doctor Season 3 Trailer: Who's Getting Married?
One of the most endearing aspects of The Good Doctor is Shaun's struggle with the social aspects of his professional and personal life because of his Autism.
Now that Shaun has finally asked Carly out, let's hope that this relationship survives and that he and Carly can work through any Autism-related difficulties together!
Claire Continues to Support Shaun
Claire has always been a good, supportive friend to Shaun, especially at times when he's frustrated with himself. The two make a good team, and we want to see that continue!
The trailer for The Good Doctor Season 3 suggests that Carly will be annoyed with Claire's attempts to help Shaun with this new relationship. That's a good source of conflict and it'll be interesting to see how Shaun and Claire's relationship evolves.
Shaun's Coworkers See His Value
Dr. Han's insistence that Shaun's Autism made him unable to interact with patients was annoying, and Han wasn't the first doctor to presume that Shaun was better suited to a different job!
Those kinds of stories are irritating, especially when it's obvious that Shaun just needs the accommodations guaranteed to him by the Americans with Disability Act to do a kickass job.
Related: The Good Doctor: Does Dr. Han Have a Point About Shaun?
Hopefully, Season 3 will NOT include any more doctors who are determined to remove Shaun from the career he's passionate about. Let's switch things up and let Shaun struggle with self-confidence while the other doctors view him as one of the most valuable members of the team!
Shaun's Relationship with Glassman Continues to Evolve
Shaun and Glassman have always had a special bond, and Glassman's struggle with brain cancer tested it!
Now that Glassman plans to get remarried and Shaun has a girlfriend, there should be changes on the horizon for this relationship. Shaun doesn't navigate change well, and relationship issues are difficult for him, so this could play out in several different ways.
Will Shaun and Glassman's bond survive the changes in their lives, and should it?
More of Lim in Charge, Less of Her Relationship with Melendez
Lim's new role at the hospital could mean organizational and operational changes. It could also mean that she discovers that it's harder to run the department than it looked when she was critiquing past leaders.
Both of these are valid, interesting directions to take her character.
But what we don't need is to focus on her relationship with Melendez. Far too much of The Good Doctor Season 2 was devoted to arguments about whether or not to keep the relationship secret and hurt feelings over disagreements about patients.
Hopefully, this relationship drama can take a back burner to Lim's job struggles and the cases the team works on at the hospital.
Claire Continues to Assert Herself
Claire struggled with self-assertion during The Good Doctor Season 2, even burning a bridge with Melendez as she fought for what she believed was the best way to take care of a patient. It was a relatable character arc, and hopefully, Claire will continue her personal growth in this area.
Claire needs to learn the difference between asserting herself and imposing her opinion on others, though, and that might be what the conflict with Carly in the trailer video is about.
Powerful Medical Drama At the Forefront
Shaun's Autism makes The Good Doctor unique among medical dramas, but the showrunners must not forget the importance of keeping the medical part front and center!
Shaun is at his best when solving a seemingly impossible medical problem by visualizing solutions his neurotypical colleagues haven't thought of, and the higher the stakes for the patient, the more invested viewers get.
Let's hope there are plenty of fascinating, heartwrenching medical cases on The Good Doctor Season 3!
Your turn, Good Doctor fanatics! Hit the comments below with your hopes for The Good Doctor Season 3.
And if you need to refresh your memory about where we left off, watch The Good Doctor online here at TV Fanatic!
The Good Doctor airs on ABC on Mondays at 10 EST/PST. It returns on September 23, 2019.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.