• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, August 15, 2017

Would you agree to be operated on by an autistic surgeon?

I am guessing that most people would say no to that question. The idea of going under a knife wielded by an autistic person would logically make a patient facing serious surgery nervous or uncomfortable. Maybe that reaction is based on ignorance, but there it is.

And let's just say for the sake of argument that the autistic surgeon in question is an unusually gifted person where the performing of complicated procedures is concerned.

Even if that was the case -- as in the case of the lead character in ABC's new fall medical drama called “The Good Doctor” -- then considerable effort would have to be expended on the part of other doctors and hospital administrators to persuade a patient that undergoing surgery performed by this autistic doctor represents his or her best course of treatment.

That happens to be the challenge for this new series as well. The entire drama hinges on the audience believing that this autistic man is reliable enough to join the surgical staff of a major (fictional) hospital in California.

This challenge is addressed and dramatized in the series pilot, which I watched this week. The show premieres on Monday, September 25, with or without changes to the premiere episode (this is always possible).

The pilot has hospital board members meeting to discuss the hiring of this young surgical resident named Shaun Murphy. The hire is supported by two board members, and strongly opposed by at least one, and possibly more.

Dr. Murphy's principal champion is the hospital's president, played by Richard Schiff, who has known Shaun since he was 16.

The hospital president's argument is an affirmative-action one, at least in part. Autistic people should not face discriminatory hiring practices, says the hospital president -- as if hiring a surgeon who is autistic is a diversity issue.

While the debate rages, the young autistic doctor -- played by Freddie Highmore of “Bates Motel” -- is in the midst of traveling to the hospital, where he seems to believe he is already hired.

On the way, Dr. Murphy happens to save a young boy's life -- the victim of a construction accident in the arrival and departure gate area of an airport.

With the boy bleeding profusely from his jugular vein, Dr. Murphy overcomes a series of seemingly insurmountable obstacles to perform life-saving surgery right there on the terminal's terrazzo floor, as a crowd watches.

He then hitches a ride with the boy and his family in an ambulance, which happens to be going to the very hospital where the debate is underway about hiring him.

Naturally, this life-saving episode becomes a factor in the debate. This medical drama on an airport floor is really the kind of medical situation that only a TV show's writers can dream up.

But it is a great scene nevertheless. And you need an over-the-top example of improvisational surgery of this type to sell viewers and the show's fictional hospital administrators on the very idea of a surgeon who is autistic.

For the pilot at least, this gambit succeeds. Going forward, however, it remains to be seen whether this argument will have to be re-argued again and again and again in every episode.

If there is a secret ingredient to ABC's recipe for success for “The Good Doctor,” it is Highmore. The 25-year-old actor applies just the right touch, and has just the right look for playing Dr. Murphy.

This character is no Rain Man, although the two share an affection for television. The odds also favor television getting to like Shaun Murphy. “The Good Doctor” feels like a hit.

“The Good Doctor” premieres Monday, September 25, at 10 p.m. Eastern on ABC.