Binge Watch Review: The Good Doctor Season 2

Picking up after season one, Season two of The Good Doctor starts off strong with Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) beginning his journey with cancer. He's no longer the president of the hospital due to the events of season one's finale, but it's for the best now as he's in for a terrible struggle this season.

Now, Dr. Marcus Andrews (Hill Harper) is president of the hospital, and for a while, he maintains the position as Chief of Surgery. Harper is at the top of his game in this season with more than enough arrogance to go around. A truly talented actor, he can switch between being pompous and irritating to truly caring in a shocking moment as he does toward the end of the season.

Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) is learning more about himself and how to interact with others, and he's grown closer to Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas), who often provides gentle advice that he takes to heart. Over the course of the season, you can see how much he grows, especially with his interactions with Lea (Paige Spara) when the pair become roommates. It's a rough start, especially when Shaun is so uncompromising at first, but the pair manage to make it work. And, for the first time, Shaun has someone to come home to.

Honestly, I don't have any strong cons for this season other than the underuse of Tamlyn Tomita. She's on the board of the hospital, and though she is listed as a series regular, her scenes are few and far between. She is a strong performer when she is onscreen, and I've seen her in countless other series, which is how I know she deserved much more than the twenty-three episodes she got from this series. She never really got a chance to shine.

Dr. Jackson Han (played by executive producer Daniel Dae Kim) is introduced for four episodes as the new Chief of Surgery, who doesn't think Shaun fits as a surgeon because of his inability to interact with patients. He transfers Shaun to Pathology, and that leads to a major fallout and really shows Highmore's acting chops.

The best five episodes of the season, in my opinion, are Quarantine, Part I, Quarantine, Part II, Faces, Tough Titmouse, and Trampoline. Shaun ends up being a patient for the first time in the latter and leaves behind a mystery the surgery team must unravel while he's unconscious.

Fortunately, the series pulls out all stops with most of the characters, giving them all unique opportunities to showcase their talents. Tough Titmouse has to be the absolute best one for Schiff. It's truly heart-breaking and mesmerizing at the same time.

The writers continue to impress with their ability to endear the characters with traits that make them loveable and quirks that prevent them from being too perfect.

I do wish we got a lot more of Nicholas Gonzalez as Dr. Neil Melendez. Though he is in a lot of scenes and in every episode, I just think there was so much more that could have been mined from his character. He's an accomplished actor, and I feel like he's been given repetitive scenes, and we don't learn a lot about what makes him tick like we do with Claire and Dr. Alex Park (Will Yun Lee). Lee really stands out in the two-parter Quarantine!

After bingeing season two, there's no doubt I will continue onto three as the series has pulled me in and made me want to follow these characters' journeys wherever they may lead.

All seven seasons of The Good Doctor are now streaming on Hulu.