Season 5 Wishlist Analysis

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

A laid back Saturday morning Shea pancake scene without drama. Because Domestic!Shea and Happy!Shaun is our jam.

✔️

We got a few pancake breakfast scenes, in fact, but not really what I was envisioning. However, I won’t complain, because I think what we got was close enough. The huevos rancheros scene might also qualify here, so I’m happy. 👍

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Shea going on an uninterrupted, undisastrous date that’s sweet and has a happy ending. We never saw that. We wants it.

❌

Nope. None of that. In fact, there wasn’t that much Happy!Shea this season at all. Maybe Dry Spell counts towards it a little bit, but not enough to say we got to see an actual fulfilling date. I still want that for them, even if they’re now married.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Another karaoke scene. Shaun loves it so. As do we. Always want more Happy!Shaun. Maybe at the engagement party? Or Shaun’s bachelor party?

⚪

There was karaoke as such (twice even), but not what I was envisioning. Would have been nice to see Shaun actually singing, although we know Freddie Highmore isn’t exactly exceptional at singing. In that arena, we probably got the better deal with Asher and Jordan. 😀

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

A Glassman/Lea hug. Come on. Those two need to have more meaningful interaction. She’s his daughter-in-law now, pretty much.

✔️

Aw yis, we did get a Glassy/Lea hug — at the wedding. It was lovely and sweet and I’m happy. Thank you!

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

And to expand on the above, overall more Lea and Glassman bonding. It looks like season 5 will be tough on Glassman, so it would be awesome if Lea could somehow be there for him, both facilitating his father/son relationship with Shaun and forging her own relationship with him, perhaps help him heal a bit more from losing Maddie.

⚪

I daresay this one got partially ticked. There was definitely a bit of bonding, not lastly during Lea’s trip to Montana. It still wish there could have been a bit more profound conversation between them that isn’t aimed at getting Shaun out of a crisis. Maybe there’s more room in season 6 for it.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Shaun publicly thanking Dr. Glassman for believing in him and basically being the father his biological one never was. It’s long overdue.

✔️✔️

Well, this one, we definitely got, and I couldn’t be happier with it! The father/son scene between Glassman and Shaun at the end of the season finale couldn’t have been sweeter and more poignant. Long overdue and definitely delivered. Yay!

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Episode 4×19 made it look like Glassman hadn’t told Shaun yet that Debbie left him. I wanna see an actual scene of him doing so. Likely there’ll be a time jump between the seasons, so I’m fairly sure we won’t see it on screen, but dammit, I want it!

✔️

We also did get this one, but Glassman breaking the news drunk in front of everyone at Shaun and Lea’s engagement party was not exactly what I had in mind. Oh well.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

The angst monster in me wants a Shaun meltdown. Maybe not a big, disastrous one, because he has a good support system now and Lea has been instrumental in his emotional stability. But I think it would be great to see him struggle a bit more emotionally.

✔️✔️

Boy, did we get an epic Shaun meltdown, or what? Honestly, I couldn’t have wished for more, and Expired was definitely the high point of the season for me. All that emotional intensity was everything I wanted, and more.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Lea having a confidant (or more than one), maybe Lea bonding more with the other women on the show. They laid the foundation to this in Dr. Ted, please expand on it.

✔️

They showed us a budding friendship between Lea and Jordan, and it was great. Definitely another wish ticked off the list.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Shaun being more big-brotherly with Asher. Shaun loves being asked for advice or being able to give advice. That would be a great dynamic.

⚪

We did get a few scenes with the both of them, particularly the one where they talked about fathers comes to mind, but I still would have wanted to see a bit more bonding between the two. Hello, season 6!

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Shaun and Alex bonding. We also already have a good basis for this, because Alex is one of the few people who can read Shaun pretty well. Other fans have said they’d like to see Shaun return the favour and help Alex with what may be a rocky relationship with Morgan. I’d be here for that!

⚪

There were hints at it (e.g. them wanting to watch a storm cloud documentary together), but we didn’t get to actually see any of it. Shaun needs more buddy time outside of work.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Learn more about Alex’s past. Why did he quit being a cop and chose to become a doctor? It’s been four seasons. Why don’t we know about that stuff yet?

❌

I don’t think we got any of that. There may have been a few verbal hints in the episode with the firefighter, but that didn’t really count.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Also learn more about Asher’s past! His hasidic jew background has so much potential. It would be awesome if they dug more into that.

✔️

Sons delivered on this aspect pretty well, and I thought they did good. 👍 on this one, too.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

See how Mateo integrates with the team. Is he gonna be a resident and on the same level as Shaun and Alex, or even Jordan and Asher because of bureaucratic technicalities? How does that play out, seeing how technically he’s way more experienced and more senior than them? That could be a really interesting dynamic to explore!

⚪

Well, the Mateo stories got cut short pretty quickly, didn’t they? Obviously there was some of the dynamic of how he fit in, but his rather sudden exit was awkward, at best. It wasn’t what I was hoping for or expecting.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Breaking the ‘two medical cases a week’ mould in general, or at least have a bit more variation and flexibility. Sometimes there’s a bit too much focus on the private lives of the patients, to the point where we learned more about them than important characters like Lim/Park/Andrews. What do they do outside of work, what does their private life and backstory look like?

⚪

We had the odd episode or two where they broke from that mould, but overall the season felt pretty stale in terms of moving away from the known formula. Sure, it’s a tricky balance to strike, but the episodes where they did this (e.g. The Family, Potluck) weren’t very striking.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

An early season 5 episode that’s showing both bachelor(ette) parties in parallel, gladly at the expense of not sticking to the two-patients-per-episode formula. Not sure what the parties would look like, but please don’t let it be tropey and stereotypical. Shaun’s party should be something that he will actually enjoy.

❌

The lead-in to the actual wedding was all over the place, wasn’t it? While we witnessed the Shaun posse actually getting shuttle-bus’ed to what was supposed to be Shaun’s strip club stag night (srsly?), I’m glad he ended up spending it in the OR to save a life. We have no idea if Lea had a bachelorette party at all.

Season 5 Wish

Granted?

Season 5 Reality

Related to the above, we want Shaun to have some outside-of-work fun! Over the last four seasons, we’ve only very briefly seen him go out with coworkers/friends — in Guatemala and the one scene with Claire and Jared early in season 1. Granted, there was the camping trip gone wrong and the outdoor date they never got to fully enjoy. Can we please have the man have some more fun?

❌

Yeah, there wasn’t really any of this, was there? I daresay the trip to the chapel and Lea’s short stint in Montana don’t count. I still want to see more of it, so I keep hoping for season 6.