How to watch The Good Doctor online
If you’re a fan of heartwarming TV shows, gripping hospital-based dramas, or just great television in general, you’ll love The Good Doctor.
Based on an award-winning South Korean drama, The Good Doctor is a US medical drama on ABC that follows the challenges of its main character, Shaun Murphy (played by Freddie Highmore), an autistic savant surgeon working in a city hospital.
The story shows the ups and downs of Shaun’s life as a doctor with autism, offering an interesting portrayal of how his condition affects his career. The show also explores the relationships he has with his coworkers, including surgical leader Dr. Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez), Shaun’s close friend Dr. Browne (Antonia Thomas), the brawny yet emotional Dr. Kalu (Chuku Modu), and plenty more interesting characters.
The Good Doctor has been a popular conversation topic since its premiere, inviting people to discuss autism spectrum disorder and its portrayals on television. Reviews from critics are mostly positive, with Highmore receiving high praise for his role as Dr. Murphy. In fact, his performance has earned him multiple award nominations, including nods for the Golden Globes, Teen Choice Awards, and People’s Choice Awards.
Season 2 of The Good Doctor began in September 2018. Of course, since it’s an American TV show, you may be wondering how to watch The Good Doctor online in your country.
Geo-blocking: why The Good Doctor isn’t available in your country
Unfortunately, few international streaming services offer The Good Doctor as part of their content library. After failing to find the show in their own country, most people wondering how to watch The Good Doctor online head straight to the source: ABC. Unfortunately, the ABC online viewing platform is geo-blocked.
Geo-blocking is a special measure that websites use to stop you from accessing their platform if you live in a certain country. In the case of The Good Doctor, the ABC website will look at your IP address to see where you’re located. Unless you’re accessing the site from a US IP, you’ll find yourself receiving an error message when you try to play an episode.
Companies like ABC use geo-blocking for many reasons – in particular, because of licensing and advertising restriction. However, geo-blocks aren’t impenetrable. In fact, they’re easy to get around when you know how.
VPNs: how you can get around geo-blocking
The easiest and most effective way to bypass ABC’s geo-blocking measures is to use something called a VPN (virtual private network). A VPN is a service that masks your IP address by routing all your internet use through a server in another country.
When you use a VPN to browse the web through a US server, websites like ABC won’t be able to tell where you’re really from. This means they can’t block you from accessing their show library, allowing you to watch The Good Doctor from anywhere in the world.
Platforms: where to watch The Good Doctor
Once you sign up to a VPN, you’ll know how to watch The Good Doctor online. Now you need to know where to watch it. So far, we’ve already mentioned one of the two official platforms where you can watch the show: the ABC website.
The ABC website is a great choice because it’s free. You can watch as many shows as you like from their video library without paying a penny. However, there are two major downsides. The first is that the ABC website often only has the most recent episodes of their shows available for viewing. This means that if you’re new to The Good Doctor, you may not be able to watch Season 1 and early Season 2 episodes.
The second downside is that, as the name suggests, the ABC website only offers video content aired on the ABC channel. If you want to watch shows from other networks or you can’t find the right The Good Doctor episode you’re looking for on the ABC website, the second platform you can use is Hulu.
Hulu is a paid service, but it provides multiple on-demand seasons of most of the shows in its library. It also offers content from other channels like ESPN and Fox. You can pay for Hulu with most international credit or debit cards, but if yours doesn’t work, try PayPal instead.
Just remember to activate your VPN before signing up to avoid being geo-blocked during the registration process.
Best VPNs: which one is right for you?
When it comes to choosing the best VPN for watching The Good Doctor online, you’ll need to look out for three main features.
The first is great connection speeds. This will ensure you don’t have to deal with buffering or lag right when you get to the juicy part of an episode. The next feature you need is unlimited bandwidth. If you love binge watching, unlimited bandwidth will allow you to watch as many episodes of The Good Doctor as you like without having your VPN account locked.
Finally, don’t forget to choose a VPN with US servers. Servers in other countries will be geo-blocked just like you’re blocked in your own country. If you plan on watching The Good Doctor via Hulu, you’ll need to take extra care when choosing your VPN as the Hulu platform blocks many lower-end providers.
Here are 3 good VPNs known to work with Hulu and ABC.
1. VyprVPN
VyprVPN is an excellent choice for beginners. The service has multiple US servers to choose from, most of which work with Hulu as well as other platforms.
However, if you can’t find the right server, VyprVPN has a friendly live chat service available that will help you. Unlike some other smaller VPN companies, VyprVPN owns their own servers (as opposed to renting them), so you’ll get high speeds and connectivity.
For a deeper investigation of VyprVPN, read our VyprVPN review.
2. NordVPN
One of the most well-known VPNs on the Market, NordVPN is a great choice for watching The Good Doctor on Hulu or ABC. They have special US servers available that are optimised for ultra-fast streaming, giving you a completely lag-free experience every time you watch.
NordVPN is also one of the best choices for privacy, routing your traffic through two servers instead of the usual one.
For a deeper investigation of NordVPN, read our NordVPN review.
3. ExpressVPN
Similar to NordVPN, ExpressVPN is a superfast VPN service with great security measures, including high encryption, no user tracking, and ‘leak’ protection that keeps your session private even if your VPN connection drops.
It’s fast enough to stream content in HD, so you’ll be able to watch The Good Doctor on the highest quality setting without buffering.
For a deeper investigation of ExpressVPN, read our ExpressVPN review.
Summary
Whether you want to watch The Good Doctor for its talented cast, it’s emotional intensity, or its intriguing premise, you’ll have no problem accessing it as long as you follow the instructions above.
ust make sure you choose a great VPN and always activate it before you head to the Hulu or ABC websites (or apps) to make your viewing experience a smooth one.
