The Good Doctor is pulling no punches in its topical fourth season.
The beloved ABC series killed off Karin Konoval's Nurse Petringa, who has recurred since The Good Doctor Season 2.
If you watch The Good Doctor online, you know that Petringa was exposed to COVID-19 and later died of complications of the virus.
Despite a team of doctors trying to save her, the complications were too much for her body to cope with.
David Shore, the Executive Producer of the show opened up about the stunning development in a new interview with TV Line.
"It was important to us to show lives lost [during the pandemic]. Look, doctors are heroes. Everybody who works in a hospital is a hero, for crying out loud," he said.
"We owe them a debt that much more during this time because they are literally risking their lives, every single one of them."
He continued, "and, you know, when you’re doing a dramatic show, if somebody’s risking their life, somebody’s got to pay a price. We wanted to embrace that.
The outlet also asked Shore about whether The Good Doctor Season 4 Episode 2 would be the last featuring COVID-19.
He said that while the show will mention the pandemic, the series will be in "a post-COVID world [moving forward]."
"Our decision in that regard, it was a very difficult decision. In my opinion, there is no simple answer to this one… no perfect answer to this one," he shared with the outlet.
"If we embrace that COVID is still among us, that it’s still with us and we are still dealing with it, I think that would overshadow all the other stories we could tell."
"Watching our characters wearing masks as they are dealing with somebody who needs, say, something as serious as brain surgery, would be a distraction," he says of the hurdles of implementing the pandemic.
"The distancing would be a distraction. On the other hand, we don’t want to simply say to the world, to the people who are watching, that everything’s back to normal, because it’s not."
Instead of featuring the pandemic, Freddie Highmore will have a statement at the top of future episodes to explain that it takes place post-COVID, and that ""this episode represents our hope for the future."
What are your thoughts on leaving the pandemic behind? Were you mad about the latest death?
Hit the comments below.
The Good Doctor airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.
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