S2E3 (and a bit of S2E4), The Good Doctor
Feb. 7th, 2019 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sciatrixOne thing I am really enjoying about this show is that it honors the anger of women. S2E3 is one of the subtlest treatments I can think of in fiction of the utter, utter frustration that sexism wreaks in the workplace, the fury of thwarted women, the cluelessness and disinterest of commanding men--and experienced women in senior-experience but junior-rank choosing to reach out and back up other women and spend limited social capital to do it.
(Which is to say: that episode focused on some of the bullshit that is expected out of a female surgeon rather than a male one, and an experienced nurse observing chose to intervene and make some very, very canny political decisions to nudge the two men who were vastly, vastly
That was the A plot. The B plot was Shaun avoiding his ex-neighbor/love interest, who had moved to Pennsylvania and had come back unexpectedly to stay with him, and who had really upset him in the first place by leaving; he blurted out to her that he was really upset she'd left, and hurt, and if she was going to leave like that he didn't want her to come back, he wanted her to just go away forever. Then he hid and refused to see her or talk to her while she was staying in his house. The beginning of the next episode is Lea--the neighbor--responding to him coming back and apologizing by saying "Wow, that sucked! You're not the only one who needed a friend, that hurt me back, you have to tell me things and you think really badly of me! I need to go find a new place to live." In context, you feel for both of them: and I respect this show so, so much more for giving her the dignity of her anger and demanding that he acknowledge her pain as well as expecting her to acknowledge his.
(Which is to say: that episode focused on some of the bullshit that is expected out of a female surgeon rather than a male one, and an experienced nurse observing chose to intervene and make some very, very canny political decisions to nudge the two men who were vastly, vastly
That was the A plot. The B plot was Shaun avoiding his ex-neighbor/love interest, who had moved to Pennsylvania and had come back unexpectedly to stay with him, and who had really upset him in the first place by leaving; he blurted out to her that he was really upset she'd left, and hurt, and if she was going to leave like that he didn't want her to come back, he wanted her to just go away forever. Then he hid and refused to see her or talk to her while she was staying in his house. The beginning of the next episode is Lea--the neighbor--responding to him coming back and apologizing by saying "Wow, that sucked! You're not the only one who needed a friend, that hurt me back, you have to tell me things and you think really badly of me! I need to go find a new place to live." In context, you feel for both of them: and I respect this show so, so much more for giving her the dignity of her anger and demanding that he acknowledge her pain as well as expecting her to acknowledge his.
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Date: 2019-02-08 05:32 pm (UTC)Then I went through E1 and E2 as well: I only have immediate access to Season 2. Questions of consent and intentions in E2 really hit me very deep. Would you have an interest in discussion/bouncing ideas? I totally understand if not. I know we have just recently subscribed to each other and this is the first time I actually said anything to you. I am going to do a post in the biology friending meme, I just haven't gotten there yet.
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Date: 2019-02-08 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-02-13 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-15 11:50 pm (UTC)With this thing, I am glad it took several attempts throughout the episode but I was unconvinced that the end of it was a real resolution. To me, it read more like a cautious yet hopeful agreement to take a leap into things together. At the time, I did not know their history as I had not yet watched season 1. I am in the middle of it now. And for Lea, being moved by the moment and taking this emotional risk, seems to be fairly in character from what I have seen of her.
I was also waiting to see if things get dropped or picked up by later episodes, and so far, at least several threads I identified have been picked up: They had both more conversations about what happened for her, and more awkwardness that living together entails.