The Good Doctor 2012

Martin E. Blake is a British medical student who arrives in Southern California to begin a residency at a busy hospital. On the surface, he is charming and confident, but beneath that veneer lies a narcissist who craves control and uses others to feed his need for power. He quickly alienates the nursing staff, who sense that he does not treat them with the respect they deserve, and his early interactions with patients leave him on thin ice with his superiors.

When 18-year-old Diane Nixon is admitted with a kidney infection, Martin treats her and her grateful family hails him as a heroic clinician. As Diane’s condition improves, a dangerous shift occurs: he begins to manipulate her care, distorting medications and sabotaging treatments while maintaining the illusion that he is tirelessly nursing her back to health. The line between confidence and recklessness blurs, and as Diane stabilizes, his overreach grows until he unintentionally causes her death after dozing off while monitoring her in a critical moment.

An orderly, Jimmy, uncovers Diane’s diary, a private collection of sexual fantasies about Martin. Realizing that even a hint of an improper doctor-patient relationship could ruin his career, Jimmy uses the diary as leverage to demand narcotics from Martin. When Jimmy reveals that he won’t surrender the diary, Martin takes drastic steps: he tamely but decisively laces the drugs with potassium cyanide and murders Jimmy, later breaking into Jimmy’s locker to steal the diary.

As investigators interrogate Martin about Jimmy’s death, a police detective visits his home. Martin experiences a panic surge, isolates himself in the bathroom, and tries to flush the diary down the toilet. When the toilet clogs, he escapes through a window and heads toward the sea, contemplating suicide. He then slips back into his apartment and hides the diary in the garbage, effectively removing the critical piece of evidence from the scene. With the diary out of sight and no immediate proof tying him to the crime, the detective leaves.

Time passes, and Martin resumes his duties at the hospital. He reassures a young patient with a calm, unsettling line that echoes through the story: > I’m getting better all the time.