It’s finally here: Season 5 premiere on ABC tonight!

We’ve all been speculating about what’s going to happen this season, or what we’d like to see happen, and we’ve gotten hints and tidbits here and there, but of course we don’t know what the showrunner, producers and writers really have in store for us. We certainly have ideas too, so below is what me and some other The Good Doctor fans I have talked to in recent weeks have on our wishlist for the upcoming season.

  • A laid back Saturday morning Shea pancake scene without drama. Because Domestic!Shea and Happy!Shaun is our jam.
  • Shea going on an uninterrupted, undisastrous date that’s sweet and has a happy ending. We never saw that. We wants it.
  • 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?
  • A Glassman/Lea hug. Come on. Those two need to have more meaningful interaction. She’s his daughter-in-law now, pretty much.
  • 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.
  • Shaun publicly thanking Dr. Glassman for believing in him and basically being the father his biological one never was. It’s long overdue. Make it happen.
  • 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!
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 (re. buzzing light in Quarantine, solo surgery meltdown, Shaun getting upset over Alex using Lea’s kitchen cabinet). 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!
  • 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?
  • 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.
  • 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!
  • 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?
  • 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.
  • 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?

Here’s to hoping we’ll see some of it actually play out on screen, but if not, there’s always fan fiction, right?

For further reading with more insights and wishes from other fans, please see Kelli Lawrence’s season 5 wishlist, which also includes some of my points because Kelli’s Shea blog is awesome. 🙂

Got your own wish for upcoming episodes? Leave a comment below and I’ll add it to the list.