The Good Doctor: The 10 Smartest Characters, Ranked

The medical drama The Good Doctor has characters that are sassy and brilliant, sharp and quick-witted, and, above all else, reasonable. From the protagonist Shaun Murphy, whose brilliance has seen him get past many a hurdle, to Alex Park, who often stays in the background but is competent and efficient all the same, there is no dearth of smartness among the characters on this series.

These characters save hundreds of lives everyday with innovative surgeries, and even those who aren’t doctors are clever, thoughtful and imaginative in their own ways. Smartness, it has to be noted, can be a broad term ranging from wise to steady and dependable.

10 Lea

Lea handles the IT department at St. Bonaventure so she certainly is clever when it comes to computers. She single-handedly thwarted a cyber attack on the hospital’s servers, saving the authorities millions of dollars and earning Glassman’s trust.

While for many The Good Doctor fans, Lea and Shaun’s relationship is one of the worst is one of the worst, the two certainly balance each other out. Lea is fun, impulsive and if she doesn’t necessarily come across as sharp witted, that doesn’t mean she isn’t. Shaun, on the other hand, complements Lea’s absent mindedness. She is also someone who loves nature and doesn’t always believe in being smart and following a plan, an attitude that should be cultivated by many more people in today’s fast paced, competitive world.

9 Debbie Wexler

Being married to Glassman cannot be easy, but Debbie does a commendable job of it. She is intelligent, sassy and goes toe to toe with Glassman in their relationship, never backing down.

Debbie is the only one apart from Lea who isn’t a doctor herself but that doesn’t mean she is any less clever than anyone else. Debbie is quick and resourceful with a great sense of humor, and keeps Glassman on his toes. She is self-reliant and knows how to take care of herself.

8 Alex Park

Park is kind, soft-hearted and not as cut-throat as say Morgan when it comes to snatching up coveted surgeries or making a good impression with the superiors. However, Alex Park is smart and reasonable in his own, low profile way. He used to be a cop prior to joining the medical profession and anyone who has been both a cop and a doctor can hardly lack in smartness.

Alex is efficient and understanding and is slowly but steadily making his mark as a surgeon. It is he who often makes sure that the residents in the surgical department band together. He is dependable and competent both as a surgeon and a person.

7 Claire Brown

Claire is sensitive and definitely one of the most perceptive surgical residents at St. Bonaventure. She is soft hearted and has displayed that she is capable of becoming a very compassionate surgeon. However, she is also quick with new, innovative ideas and is diligent when it comes to researching different ways to save patients.

Claire is a well rounded character who doesn’t wear her ambition like a badge but keeps her head down and does her job steadily. She is thoughtful, intuitive and has beaten all odds to get where she is today. She stays low key but is impressive and hard core at the same time. Unfortunately, with the character departing, fans of The Good Doctor will no longer see her in season 5.

6 Aaron Glassman

Dr. Glassman might be grumpy most of the time, but he is a good man and the only father figure in Shaun’s life. He is also no doubt extremely astute for he has been the President of St. Bonaventure for many years and is one of the most senior doctors at the hospital.

Glassman was very reticent in his attitude towards Lea who was sanguine that he hated her with a passion. However, his reticence only came from his sense of protectiveness for Shaun for whom he felt responsible. His withdrawn behavior was thus an instance of how thoughtful and farsighted he was.

5 Neil Melendez

Neil Melendez was a highly-skilled surgeon at St. Bonaventure and very much in the running for Chief of Surgery for his accomplishments. He was the hotshot perfectionist who had shot to the top of his field quite early on.

Melendez was a born leader, and encouraged the surgical residents under his supervision to think for themselves. He was a master at performing cutting edge surgeries and was one of the smartest young surgeons of his generation. Had he not been killed off so unceremoniously, Melendez might very easily have headed the surgical department one day.

4 Shaun Murphy

There is hardly any hidden detail The Good Doctor fans have missed about Shaun Murphy, one of the brightest and sharpest of the characters. He is on his way to becoming an exceptional surgeon and he can retain things that most others cannot.

Shaun still needs some guidance to maneuver around in daily life. He sees the world almost in black and white and the strange patterns of human behavior elude him. However, he is fast becoming adept at various social conventions and can surely be considered very smart, especially as a doctor. The other, more experienced doctors often rely on his abilities to make their decisions inside the OR and they rarely regret it.

3 Morgan Reznick

Morgan is by far the most manipulative character, although that doesn’t necessarily translate into her being the smartest. Her intellect takes her down a relatively selfish path although she does have moments of vulnerability.

In season 2, Morgan’s efforts saved Lim when she was infected with a deadly virus that had earlier killed an EMT, Tyler. Morgan, like Andrews, has been on an arc that has shown her softer, more humane side. But as far as smartness goes, she is right up there.

2 Audrey Lim

Like any other medical drama, The Good Doctor is sometimes medically accurate and makes things up at other times. But that doesn’t mean it lacks smart doctors. The current Chief of Surgery at St. Bonaventure, Audrey Lim is the epitome of efficiency. She is quick-witted, sharp and thorough and while she has moments of doubts, which anyone in her position is bound to have, she generally does her best to do the right thing.

Lim likes to keep things to herself thus letting the pressure build up in her sometimes. But given her position and the fact that she has to make life and death decisions every moment of every day, it is only natural that she would feel the heat from time to time. She is compassionate, level headed, and a great mentor to the young residents.

1 Marcus Andrews

Probably the smartest character of all is Dr. Andrews – even though, at first, Andrews is shrewd and manipulative and was initially shown to have been someone who put his ambition beyond everything else.

With his razor sharp wit, he had made it as the Chief of Surgery and then as interim President at St. Bonaventure. Arrogant and skeptical at the start, Andrews became slightly mellower with time and is currently an attending at the hospital which he had previously led from the front. However, while circumstances have made him a softer man, he can still outsmart almost everyone else, including Glassman and Lim in sheer common sense.

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