State of the Shea Pt. 77: “Half-Measures”… By the (Whole) Numbers
Funny that we’re up to “part 77” of my Shaun and Lea documentation this week, as that number SEVEN is looming large in TGD fandom’s mind right now…
Will there be a 7th season of The Good Doctor?
If there is, will it be its final season?
And will they announce it as such, or will fans have to sit and wonder if the ratings and the plans for ABC and all the showrunners and actors associated with the series will align for S8?
{And you thought all we had to wonder about was the potential spinoff The Good Lawyer…! Ha!)
I’m probably getting ahead of myself, so let’s stick with the first question. Because if you’ve paid attention through the years (or just watch enough network TV to know how it works), you are aware that ABC has usually announced TGD’s renewal by early April at the latest.
Yet we’ve now tipped into the back half of April, and still no word. Should we be worried?
Not necessarily. I’ve been citing this article from Deadline for the past few weeks, which addresses the situation at ABC in general…
“With four drama pilots (including “The Good Doctor” planted spinoff) and two comedy pilots — the most for a broadcast network this season and all headlined by big-name stars— ABC is expected to take longer than usual on most renewals. It would use the time to evaluate a number of the current series against the pilots for the limited slots available as broadcast networks’ programming budgets are tightening up amid sliding linear ratings, and with spending across Disney currently under the microscope amid a corporate cost-cutting mandate.”
…and then offers its 2 cents about TGD (and TGL):
“While not the ratings juggernaut it once was, The Good Doctor remains a solid anchor of the network’s Monday lineup, and the signs point to another renewal, with talks already under way, I hear. If that happens, with Grey’s already picked up, ABC could be a rare network with three medical dramas on at the same time if the Ben McKenzie-starring pilot The Hurt Unit goes to series. As for The Good Lawyer, it’s still early but initial reaction to the backdoor pilot episode of The Good Doctor and star Kennedy McMann has been positive, and I hear the spinoff tested well.”
As of this writing (4/17), filming has wrapped on S6 and S7 remains TBD as far as I know. Ratings have slid downwards a bit with each season (as is the case with most long-running network series I think), but of the 19 episodes that have aired thus far, the past 5– “Old Friends,” “The Good Lawyer,” “Second Chances and Past Regrets,” “A Blip,” and “Half Measures”-- have been among the most-watched of S6.
As Glassman might say… “We’ll know when we know.”
UPDATE-- TGD HAS NOW BEEN RENEWED FOR SEASON 7!!!
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UPDATE-- TGD HAS NOW BEEN RENEWED FOR SEASON 7!!! 〰️
Now let’s talk about other numbers relevant to the show… this episode in particular. It started with the title– “Half Measures”-- and, for me, persisted in a number (PUN!!) of ways beyond that. Some are obvious… some took a little more effort. Shall I count those ways?
BUT BEFORE I DO… (I fought saying “but first…”)
It’s time for another shoutout to the TGD time/space continuum of S6– where time leaps forward, proceeds in real-time, AND drifts backward. There are now off-the-rails examples of each:
Leaping forward: 3 months with Lim’s initial recovery, then another 3 months after Perez’s overdose, then another 4-6 weeks or so between Lea’s surgery in “Quiet and Loud” and when the #Shea Babymoon took place (“The Good Boy”).
Real-time: Lim telling a patient in April she’d been attacked 11 months ago (last May); Shaun collecting data on Glassman’s surgeries “January through March” in an episode airing in April.
Backwards: Park saying “Kellan just let me know he wasn’t coming home for the holidays” in an episode airing at the end of January.
Maybe we should have just thrown the whole idea of continuity out the window when they had Shaun and Lea literally looking at the month of November 2022 on the calendar, stating it had now been one year since Lea’s miscarriage… when it actually took place in the spring of 2021.
(And if you REALLY want to get into the nitty gritty nonsensical details, go back and check out the calendar used in that scene… you’ll see it actually represents November 2023. Which hasn’t happened yet…. OR HAS IT???)
In an effort to stay sane, let’s get to those whole numbers of the “Half Measures” episode… for the most part, I’ll list these act-by-act, as Episode 617* unfolded:
*= It was the 19th episode of the season, but since the first two episodes were actually holdovers from S5… yep. It’s #617. Just go with it. Season’s almost over!
ACT 1
7 ½ hours and 6 hours 45 minutes: Amount of sleep Jordan and Asher had had the night prior, respectively.
(But don’t ask Perez. He’s too pissed off about the taco truck incident with Jordan and Jared to wear a Fitbit to bed.)
ACT 2
24: Number of hours Shaun and Glassman have to wait for confirmation of cancer/no cancer.
(As Shaun noted, it was down to 12 hours when we later saw them crib-shopping.)
1: Number of times I spotted a security guy (in the outdoor scene where we meet baby Eden) who made me briefly think of Villanueva’s abusive ex, Owen. 😱
(Did anyone else think that?)
1 in 2500: Number of female births worldwide with Turner Syndrome…
It is, in fact, the most common sex chromosomal abnormality affecting girls and women. (Eden!)
15-30: Percentage of people who die annually from sepsis out of the 1 million in the U.S. who develop it.
(My mom was one of those in the 15-30 percent, so when they stated Jasmine’s diagnosis I had a bad feeling about her fate instantly. 😥
100- Number of pieces missing in the jigsaw puzzle that was Brady’s pelvis, according to Jordan…
which made me think of a line in the late great Jim Croce’s song “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” …
4: Approximate number of looks thrown in the OR by Nurse Villanueva…
Who, given what we saw in the previous episode, had to be thinking Damn, Marcus, when I broke off whatever-sort-of-relationship-we-kind-of-had last week, I expected you to take it a lot better than this.
3: Number of crib sets Lea’s torn between, causing her to send Glassy and Shaun on a peace mission
I’m calling it that because the way the two were arguing, much PEACE was needed– for them and Lea.
(Love how Lea said “I’m going crazy” and we were all like Yeah, right there with you Lea, SHUT UP YOU TWO… but then she made her “crazy” about the crib sets, wisely diffusing the situation between the men with a plea about something completely separate.)
By the way…
37: Estimated number of weeks Lea had been pregnant as of this episode.
She said she was 36 weeks at the start of the “Second Chances/Past Regrets” episode. All things being equal (heh), “A Blip” takes place only a day or so after “Second Chances” (Shaun interrogates Glassman at the top about the surgery that had taken place “yesterday.”)... and with “Half Measures” starting with Glassman’s scan (which surely took place only a day or two after he agreed to it), and ending a day later… I’ve got all 3 of these episodes happening in the span of about a week. 40 weeks is considered full term.
ACT 3
7: Rough number of irritated glances thrown Jared’s way until he redeems himself later.
That includes 3 from Jealous Danny, 3 staggered glances (more like staring daggers, I guess) in this scene here… and one for Asher in his scene on the St.Bon’s Bridge of Emotions. (There may have been more there, but I’m counting it as a composite of 1.)
For what it’s worth, I appreciate that Freddie Highmore (who directed this episode) didn’t give us a closeup of Jared here… he’d just used that in the previous scene, and the long shot of all the docs walking away from him is painfully effective all by itself.
5: Number of weeks Jasmine had been on a mood stabilizer for her bipolar disorder prior to being hospitalized…
which pulled Morgan further into her corner with the belief that “babies change people.”
4: Stage Glassman’s cancer would be in if he has it, but he doesn’t (SPOILER)…
but his troubles may have only just begun anyway; stand by as I’ll circle back to this later of course. SIGH.
ACT 4
1: Number of times I couldn’t help but think of a certain puppeteer when Jared said “Sherry Lewis”...
…and launched into his story of regret for pushing too hard for a patient back in Denver.
You killed Shari Lewis, Jared!:! No wonder you’re distraught!!
Just kidding, Lamb Chop fans. The “real” Ms. Lewis actually died back in 1998, when fictional Jared was only playing doctor and driving little toy Lamborghinis in his massive rich-kid bedroom.
(But as it happens she DID die of complications from uterine cancer, which is uncomfortably close to the ovarian cancer Jared cited while talking about his Ms. Lewis.)
7: Number of times Jared’s Lamborghini was referenced in the entire episode
(I’m counting everything from when Jared’s hand still flaunted the keychain as he held the elevator open for himself… to his epiphany moment when he mentioned the car 3 times… to Jordan’s “Looking good, Lambo” in the gallery as the surgeries took place.)
42: The percentage of Twitter voters who picked “Lambo Calrissian” to be the unofficial nickname of Jared’s cherished automobile…
Cherished this time around, perhaps, because it kinda saved his ass in this episode. Wouldn’t it have been hilarious if Asher said “Dude, that idea really SUCKS”... and then explained he was totally kidding this time. I would have laughed, anyway. (Vacuum… sucks… GET IT?)
P.S. No word yet on if/when “Lambo” will be hanging out with Lea’s even more cherished Striped Tomato.
4- Number of surgical techniques ultimately involved in saving Brady’s entire body.
8- Number of hours (approximate) of Brady’s surgery.
(This was the scene that had Andrews snipping “I can read!” at the residents, who he was prolly pissed at only because they’d come up with the option he couldn’t refuse. Seriously, dude. Cool it.)
ACT 5
6: Minimum number of overhead shots used by Freddie Highmore in directing this episode.
Can’t remember if he used a lot of overheads when he directed S4’s “Decrypt,” but from the opening shot (Glassman’s scan), they were his signature move in “Half Measures.”
60: Number of minutes of the code run by Nurse Jerome when Jasmine went into V-fib… to no avail, sadly.
75: The number Jared says he thinks Brady can manage in terms of IA (intra-abdominal) pressure.
(He was right.)
ACT 6
1: number of cameos made by the daughter of Christina Chiang…
in the scene near the end, when the doctors delivered the good news to Brady’s family and his daughter said the thing that MAKES IT ALL WORTH IT…
ZERO: The number of lines spoken by any Patients Of The Week, including surgical miracle man Brady, 7-week-old Eden, and Eden’s birth mom Jasmine (R.I.P.)…
Has that ever happened before on TGD?
1997: The year “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” By Backstreet Boys first gained international popularity….
It became a hit in the US in ‘98, but I became familiar with it a little earlier as the song peaked in Canada around the time of our ‘97 honeymoon in Montreal… and heard it EVERYWHERE.
2: The number of guys it appears Jordan is attracted to right now… and maybe it really is…
but based on that last shot of her, I’d say her heart is only with one of them. And it ain’t “Lambo.”
5: minimum number of hellatense exchanges between Lim and Andrews in this episode…
And if you’re scratching your head wondering exactly where they’re going with Andrews, given the activity of this episode and the last one, this article about Hill Harper’s political aspirations may help.
2: Number of embryo transfers for Morgan so far.
(I think this is correct? But let me know if it isn’t. Either way, based on what we saw with her and baby Eden in this episode, embryo transfers may be a thing of the past for her.)
And last but sadly, not least…
2: The number of damn screws left on the floor after Glassman finished the Shea crib.
It was too good to be true, this idea that a Glassman health scare would be over and done with in just two episodes. I said last week that I suspected this was a storyline designed to keep Shaun busy (and Freddie Highmore on his dramatic toes, of course) until Lea headed to the delivery room. But at the pace they were going in this episode— Glassman’s scan starting the episode, and a cancer all-clear before the final scene— I’m surprised my heart sank as much as it did when Shaun retrieved those screws from the floor.
But it did, and yours probably did too, for now they seem to be indicating Glassman has a slower-paced but more insidious disease knocking.
If it turns out to be some form of dementia, I definitely have some things to say to that. But nothing’s certain yet, so I’ll hold my words for now.
Except for this: If TGD was seeking a solid “bitter” to accompany the “sweet” that will surely be the #Shea baby— and why wouldn’t they be; drama is drama, after all— they’ll certainly find it in the slow fade of a beloved character.
What did you think of “Half Measures”? Or of the way it leaves things for Morgan, Andrews, Jordan, and obviously Shaun and Glassman?
Hit up the comments and let me know!
