Tao of K-drama: Inclusion and Salvation in The Good Doctor

The Good Doctor is a 2013 K-drama about Park Shi-on, a young man with autism who aspires to become a pediatric surgeon. There is widespread resistance to his entering residency in pediatric surgery. He is denied a license by the Korean medical board and ridiculed by many. His problems are exacerbated by his impulsive actions and inability to conform to the requirements of the team. At the same time, a chaebol is engineering a hostile takeover of the hospital to make a for-profit children's hospital. As the story unfolds, it is the inclusion of Park Shi-on that shifts relationships inside the hospital and allows hospital leaders to stave off the takeover. The parallels to our own time are obvious.

In the final episode, Park Shi-on is awarded a medical license. The head of the medical board comes to the hospital to deliver the certificate in person. He says that this is because Park Shi-on's case has shifted the board's approach to inclusion of people with disabilities. Park Shi-on then speaks. He says that he is different and tried to overcome his differences, but couldn't. At that point, it was many people reaching out to him -- from the children on the pediatric surgery ward to the medical director of the hospital -- who enabled him to succeed. 

While Park Shi-on is learning and growing, he inspires others to dare to include. Two other romances prosper because of this. This "love across boundaries" felt very familiar to me, as my parents crossed the divide of race and in my first marriage we crossed the divide of religion. The many little scenes rang true: getting taken aside for a "talking to," the hurtful gossip, the loving defiance. 

But most important in the ultimate outcome of the struggles as that people who opened their hearts to Park Shi-on also began to the work of the hospital in a new light -- less technical and robotic, and more ineffable and loving. People talked about healing medicine that they can't see. Over and over, we realize that this healing medicine is inclusion.

I sometimes think that "inclusion" is the most radical word of our times. It is a word with no boundaries -- that is the working of inclusion we see in The Good Doctor. The show doesn't have all the bells and whistles of K-dramas made now and the soundtrack is so syrupy your feet stick to the floor. The story is so strong and so well acted that it rises above all that, to be moving, fun and instructive.