Commentary

ABC Introduces 'The Good Lawyer' Within 'The Good Doctor'

ABC is extending the “Good Doctor” brand with “The Good Lawyer,” a new legal drama whose lead character also copes with behavioral challenges.

The new show will be introduced with an entire one-hour episode within “The Good Doctor” on Monday night.

Strictly speaking, the new show is not necessarily a spin-off of “The Good Doctor” since the lead character in “The Good Lawyer” is not someone who has ever been seen in “The Good Doctor.”

She is a wholly new character who will be seen for the first time in Monday’s episode of “The Good Doctor.”

The good doctor and good lawyer cross paths in the episode when the doctor, Shaun Murphy (played by Freddie Highmore), is sued for malpractice.

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He meets the lawyer, Joni DeGroot (Kennedy McMann, pictured above), at the law firm where he is going to meet his own attorney for the first time.

The attorney he is there to meet is Janet Stewart (Felicity Huffman), a hard-nosed veteran and senior partner in the firm.

But when Shaun meets Joni, he feels a kinship because she too faces behavioral challenges. They are not the same challenges as his, but they present similar obstacles for her.

In “The Good Doctor,” now winding up its sixth season, young Dr. Murphy is a brilliant surgeon who has autism spectrum disorder.

His condition -- and the mannerisms and speech patterns that result from it -- has long made others skeptical of his abilities, and in the past served as a barrier to his advancement in the medical field.

In “The Good Lawyer,” Joni has obsessive compulsive disorder, which has her stuck in the role of legal researcher at the firm with a tiny office that is actually a converted closet.

Her OCD is serious. For example, In the middle of conversations, she can suddenly be rendered speechless by everyday phenomena that would not even be noticed by most people.

Because of her hardships, Dr. Murphy insists that the firm assign her to his case. The rest of the episode’s story then plays out in court, where Joni will argue Shaun’s case despite the challenges from her OCD.

Based on this “embedded pilot,” which the TV Blog previewed last week, there is no reason why “The Good Lawyer” should not find an audience and succeed in the same way as “The Good Doctor.” There is still no word on when it will turn up again as a series. Perhaps next fall.

“The Good Lawyer” premieres Monday (March 13) within an episode of “The Good Doctor” at 10 p.m. Eastern on ABC.

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