Now that The Good Lawyer has pleaded her case, the time has come to determine whether or not or not she deserves one other likelihood in courtroom.
Written by David Shore and Liz Friedman, the backdoor pilot for the Good Doctor spinoff introduces Freddie Highmore’s Dr. Shaun Murphy to Kennedy McMann’s Joni DeGroot, an aspiring lawyer whose struggles with obsessive compulsive dysfunction have stored her from training legislation… till now.
After being sued for malpractice (for amputating the hand of a automobile crash sufferer performed by Home vet Michael Weston), Shaun enlists Joni’s companies to clear his title — and that she does, with an help from her personal, Glassman-like mentor (portrayed by Determined Housewives‘ Felicity Huffman, in her first function since serving time for her participation within the notorious “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal).
Scroll all the way down to overview TVLine’s full case temporary — together with our arguments for and in opposition to shifting ahead with a sequence order for the authorized offshoot — then inform us if you need to see The Good Lawyer on ABC’s 2023-24 docket.
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WHO IS JONI DEGROOT?
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of ABC McMann’s Joni is a researcher at Franklin, Maxwell & Associates. She lives with crippling OCD, which Shaun categorizes as “repetitive, intrusive ideas that trigger extreme anxiousness, which she manages with ritual habits,” like tapping her fingers 3 times. When she doesn’t adhere by these rituals, she hears a voice in her head that tells her that dangerous issues will occur. However “due to her OCD, she is thorough and understands my scenario,” he explains, which is why he desires inexperienced Joni to be his lawyer regardless of every little thing working in opposition to her.
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WHO IS ABBIE DEGROOT?
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of ABC Bethlehem Million’s Abbie is Joni’s sister, roommate and greatest pal. Within the pilot, she is proven to be Joni’s largest cheerleader and a voice of motive as her youthful sis works by means of her emotions about being chosen to signify Shaun over Janet.
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WHO IS JANET STEWART?
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of ABC Huffman’s Janet is a high lawyer at Franklin, Maxwell & Associates, who beforehand oversaw two malpractice fits leveled in opposition to Shaun’s mentor, Dr. Aaron Glassman. Although she believes Joni is an excellent authorized thoughts — she tells Shaun that Joni filed a movement that firing her could be a violation of the Individuals With Disabilities Act, and it was the perfect temporary she’d ever learn — she doesn’t assume Joni’s reduce out to current a case earlier than a jury. Not less than not initially. Later, we study that Janet’s connection to Joni (and Abbie) goes far deeper than the agency….
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WHAT IS JONI’S BACKSTORY?
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of ABC Joni’s OCD began after her father was killed in a automobile accident when she was eight. “I used to be very apprehensive that my mom would die, too,” so she developed rituals meant to forestall it. “And he or she didn’t die… however she did drink,” Joni reveals. “Dangerous issues occurred, lots of people made a variety of errors — our mom, some overworked social employees, some foster mother and father, a choose — however one individual made all of it proper once more: a lawyer” — and that lawyer was none aside from Janet, who reunited Joni and Abbie with their mom.
Within the current day, the sisters keep a relationship with Mother — Abbie calls her after Joni wins her case — but it surely’s unclear how shut they really are, or if Mother nonetheless struggles together with her sobriety.
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THE CASE FOR THE GOOD LAWYER
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of ABC Two phrases: Kennedy McMann. We’ve sang her praises earlier than, however TV’s Nancy Drew stays a relative unknown to viewers who don’t frequent The CW, and we’ve little question the Good Physician viewers will wish to see extra of Joni following her franchise debut. Hiring an actress who was beforehand recognized with OCD additionally provides a layer of authenticity to her efficiency that’s felt nearly immediately. Whereas the pilot lays it on thick, Joni’s OCD by no means seems like a gimmick. If it did, the spinoff could be lifeless on arrival.
The script by Shore and Friedman additionally leaves us wanting extra, thanks partially to a number of lingering questions on Joni and Abbie’s upbringing (together with how massive a job Janet performed of their lives outdoors the courtroom room) and the way Joni will conduct herself with a consumer who isn’t neurodivergent like Shaun. Will she discover other ways to narrate to them? And the way fingers on will Janet be in subsequent ‘fits?
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THE CASE AGAINST THE GOOD LAWYER
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of ABC The connection between Joni and Janet feels an terrible lot like the connection between Shaun and Glassman — solely barely extra tough across the edges, maybe to make up for the truth that there isn’t a Melendez or Andrews sort current to function a real antagonist to Joni. If the present strikes ahead, Shore and Friedman might want to discover a approach to set Joni and Janet’s relationship aside so it doesn’t simply really feel like a gender-flipped model of The Good Physician. If that’s all there’s to it, we’ve already seen that story. We don’t have to see it once more.
Now it’s your flip! What did you consider the backdoor pilot for The Good Lawyer? Do you assume ABC ought to transfer ahead with a sequence order? Weigh in through the next polls, then share your overview in Feedback.
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