I get the sense its just a consequence of western storytelling. When you're writing a medical drama with a featured central character, that character needs to be borderline superhuman anyway. The "neurodivergent" pitch is just his "got bit by a radioactive spider" origin story and has about as much to do with mental development as a Marvel Comic has to do with bio-physics.
Past that, all these characters are inevitably Ayn Rand knock-offs. Proven smart by high credentials that they tacitly reject, constantly at odds with the bureaucracy, incredibly annoying in a way that the writers translate as "sexy", materialistic to comic effect, and hyper-masculine to the point of making a frat house blush.
am I just wearing nostalgia goggles?
I don't think Monk was the only show to do neurodivergence well. But it was an exception that proved the rule.
It just pisses me of similarly to Grey's anatomy in how it portrays medicine in a absolute hierarchy compared to what it is now (a gaggle of team members working together to keep patients alive and trying not to piss each other off). There have been doctors I've met like this (the Sherlockian ubermensch mfers), but they more or less become the outcasts and "annoying weirdos" that you have to grit you teeth and bare with (though I've sen multiple dressing downs of these individuals as well).
Was there any other shows similar to Monk? Luthor pops into my mind but I forget if he was neurodivergent or not.
tldr: great man theory is bullshit and doesn't exist in medicine and actually harms the practice of medicine.
I should pick that one back up, I watched the first few episodes and loved the musical stylings of it and how it looked at the downsides to being a "manic pixie dreamgirl" trope in semi realistic terms.
I get the sense its just a consequence of western storytelling. When you're writing a medical drama with a featured central character, that character needs to be borderline superhuman anyway. The "neurodivergent" pitch is just his "got bit by a radioactive spider" origin story and has about as much to do with mental development as a Marvel Comic has to do with bio-physics.
Past that, all these characters are inevitably Ayn Rand knock-offs. Proven smart by high credentials that they tacitly reject, constantly at odds with the bureaucracy, incredibly annoying in a way that the writers translate as "sexy", materialistic to comic effect, and hyper-masculine to the point of making a frat house blush.
I don't think Monk was the only show to do neurodivergence well. But it was an exception that proved the rule.
It just pisses me of similarly to Grey's anatomy in how it portrays medicine in a absolute hierarchy compared to what it is now (a gaggle of team members working together to keep patients alive and trying not to piss each other off). There have been doctors I've met like this (the Sherlockian ubermensch mfers), but they more or less become the outcasts and "annoying weirdos" that you have to grit you teeth and bare with (though I've sen multiple dressing downs of these individuals as well).
Was there any other shows similar to Monk? Luthor pops into my mind but I forget if he was neurodivergent or not.
tldr: great man theory is bullshit and doesn't exist in medicine and actually harms the practice of medicine.
I enjoyed "Crazy Ex-girlfriend". Nothing like Monk, but it did a good job of doing a show about a woman who is bipolar.
I should pick that one back up, I watched the first few episodes and loved the musical stylings of it and how it looked at the downsides to being a "manic pixie dreamgirl" trope in semi realistic terms.
They keep it to a tight four seasons and all the music is solid.