Almost a year after The Good Doctor said farewell, star Freddie Highmore returned to primetime TV drama, but even big fans of the ABC medical series may have missed it entirely.
That’s understandable, however, as Dr. Shaun Ryan’s agreeable face wasn’t on TV at all; Highmore directed an episode of Fire Country on CBS, reuniting him with Max Thieriot, an old co-star from Bates Motel, Highmore’s other popular show of the 2010s.
Backing up: Before The Good Doctor kicked off, child-actor-turned-grown-up-actor Highmore starred on the A&E series Bates Motel for five seasons from 2013 to 2017, the very same year he took up Dr. Murphy’s stethoscope. The show was a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, with Highmore playing Norman Bates (a role originated by Anthony Perkins) and Vera Farmiga as his mother Norma Bates. Largely a two-hander between Highmore and Farmiga, Bates Motel featured solid supporting turns from Olivia Cooke and Thieriot, who played Norman’s best friend and half-brother, respectively.
While Cooke went on to HBO’s House of the Dragon, Thieriot found himself starring on Fire Country, a series he co-created and executive produces as well.
‘Fire Country’ Brings Together Highmore And Thieriot Behind The Scenes
Fire Country follows Max Thieriot as Bode Donovan, a convicted felon who volunteers to fight forest fires in exchange for a shortened prison sentence. Unfortunately for Bode, he’s assigned to the Northern California hometown he fled years before.
While Thieriot and Freddie Highmore collaborated as actors for five seasons on Bates Motel, they’ve both gotten comfortable as creative figures behind the scenes. In fact, the Fire Country episode Highmore directed, entitled “Eyes and Ears Everywhere,” was co-written by Thieriot, along with Joan Rater and Tony Phelan.
As Thieriot told US Weekly, working with his old co-star was a warm and fuzzy occasion for them both:
He directed episode 18 [of season 3], which was really exciting for the two of us. Freddie and I are really like brothers in real life. Since we finished Bates Motel, I have been in Los Angeles and he was in Vancouver the whole time doing The Good Doctor. But we miss getting to work together. Although this was different, it was just fun to get to come together and work on something. Freddie directed when I was on Bates Motel as well but I hadn’t worked with him as a director since then.
He went on to lavish praise on Highmore and say that an onscreen reunion between the Bates Motel cohorts may still be on the table:
Freddie is maybe the smartest person that I know. He is really talented and can do anything and everything. He approaches everything from a different way than most other people do – just because of how cerebral he is. But maybe one day he’ll appear on screen. I know the two of us really want to work together on camera again.
Highmore Has Been Directing TV For Years
For a fellow his age, Freddie Highmore has a lot of experience, having been a successful film actor by the age of nine with Finding Neverland, followed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He began his directing journey on Bates Motel, while also studying Hispanic and Arabic Philology at Cambridge University and spending summers working at a law firm in Madrid.
An executive producer on the show, he first directed on The Good Doctor during the second season, overseeing “Risk and Reward” in 2019. At the time, he told ABC 30:
The cast and crew are incredibly supportive and so in that way you feel like you are never alone, there’s always a true collaboration and yeah, I’d love to do more as time goes by.
He ultimately directed five episodes of the series, and contributed to writing one. He told El Pais of the experience:
I’ve really enjoyed being a part of the show more widely. Directing is certainly something that I’d love to do more of now that this show is ending. Hopefully that involves directing things that I’m not necessarily acting in myself.
He certainly accomplished that with his Fire Country episode, which aired on CBS on April 18, 2025.
With ‘The Good Doctor’ Over, Highmore’s Next Role Is ‘The Assassin’
For fans whose thirst for Freddie Highmore can’t be sated by his directorial work, however, Highmore’s next role is all set, and it brings him back to TV.
He’s starring in Prime Video’s The Assassin, but Highmore doesn’t play a professional liquidator on the series. No, he plays the son of a professional hitwoman played by Keeley Hawes, who starred alongside Richard Madden on Bodyguard.
Her character Julie is a former hired killer who’s trying to leave her old life behind. As Edward, Highmore has some serious questions for his mother about the identity of his father.
The two characters reunite on a beautiful and remote Greek island after a period of estrangement, Julie discovers that old habits – and enemies – die hard. When things go south, she and Edward have to go on the run, abandoning the island, dodging trouble, and trying to figure out if they can trust each other.
