“Shaun made me less cynical, more optimistic”

For us, Freddie Highmore takes stock of his seven years in the series, the final season of which is being broadcast by TF1, one month after RTBF.

Bob D’Amico/ABC/Courtesy of Sony

Published on 09/18/2024 at 10:15

By Jean-Philippe Darquenne

ForCinema-TV-Review

Did you miss the seventh and final season of “Good Doctor” on Channel One this summer? Don’t panic! TF1 has been immersed in it since last week! It was on May 21 that the American channel ABC brought down the curtain on the series, a stoppage that its millions of fans have neither digested nor understood. Let them know that it is due to a significant loss of loyal viewers. Indeed… Across the Atlantic, there were ten million people who were passionate about its first episodes, but only two million who followed the last ones.

When creator David Shore (who also created “House”!) was asked if he felt Shaun Murphy’s story was coming to a natural conclusion, or if ABC wanted him to find a meaningful ending, he replied: “Both. (…) We were lucky enough to be able to write the ending we wanted, which is a blessing in today’s fiction world. But the unfortunate thing is that because of the writers’ and actors’ strike, this final season only has ten episodes.”

The character he is most proud of

“Everyone on our team has fought hard and done everything, given everything, to make the show the best it could be,” Freddie Highmore, who played Shaun for seven years, told us. “That’s what I’m most proud of about the show, and Shaun is the character I’m most proud of having played. Playing him was very special and meaningful to me. Because I’m English, I’m basically quite cynical, and in that respect, he made me a better person, more optimistic. I found my share of positivity in him. And then, in this last season, he becomes a father, which I’m not, so, in a way, he’s overtaken me, which I find interesting and magical. At the beginning, he’s this naive and innocent young guy who has his first job in a hospital. And suddenly, here he is married with a child. He’s had an incredible journey that we were able to tell.”

Small aside: Freddie is not yet a father, but he married Klarissa Munz, a web designer, three years ago.

His future project

Before taking on the complex role of Shaun, he played the young killer Norman Bates in the series “Bates Motel” for five seasons. So, we can say that he wants to take a breather, before, perhaps, doing something lighter. “Yes, I want to take a break, like I wanted to take after Bates Motel. But three days after the end of filming, I was discussing Good Doctor with David Shore. So it’s not impossible that history will repeat itself. I’m not looking for it, but I’m open to all proposals. When I finished Good Doctor, I felt like a student who received his humanities diploma, and is ready to move forward, further. At the same time, in this profession, you can never say with certainty that the sequel will be this or that.”

As we write these lines, however, we learn that the next step for Freddie is a Prime Video series, “The Assassin”, a thriller in which he will share the bill with Keeley Hawes (“Bodyguard”). He quickly followed up!

“Good Doctor”, September 18, 9:10 p.m., TF1.