Welcome to the Open Thread, everyone! Show is confidently racing right along, and I feel like I’m happily along for this bumper-car ride that’s blithely throwing me from side to unexpected side, while Show serves up quite a few developments from out of left field. Fun. 🤪😄
I hope you guys are ready to chat about Dr. Romantic episodes 5 & 6! A little bit of admin logistics, and our usual ground rules, before we begin:
1. Thanks to those of you who clarified that episode 21, which is listed as a “special episode,” is an actual organic continuation of the story. Since that’s the case, let’s also include episode 21 in our group watch. If we give episode 21 its own Open Thread, our Dr. Romantic group watch will end on 28 April 2021, instead of the originally forecasted 21 April. Or, would you guys prefer to cover episodes 19, 20 and 21 in a single discussion? Let me know in the comments!
2. Please don’t post spoilers in the Open Thread, except for events that have happened in the show, up to this point. I repeat: no spoilers for future episodes please! We have quite a few first-time viewers among us, and we don’t want to spoil anything for anyone.
3. Discussions on this thread don’t have to close when newer threads open, just so you know! But as we progress through our group watch, please keep the discussions clear of spoilers from future episodes, so that future readers coming to this thread won’t be accidentally spoiled. Does that make sense?
Without further ado, here are my reactions to this pair of episodes; have fun in the Open Thread, everyone! ❤️
My thoughts
Episode 5
Show seems to be settling into its groove, and I do think I’m getting the hang of using the right lens for this show as well, because I found this quite an engaging and enjoyable episode.
As a number of you have pointed out, this really is a hospital melodrama, with a little extra emphasis on the melodrama. Feelings, backstories and angst lean larger than life, and fly fast and furious, which makes Show potentially tricky to enjoy, if you’re looking for something more measured and serious, or something more slice-of-life. But, I’m getting the idea that if you’re willing to roll with Show as it blithely delves into all of its melodramatic leanings, you should be able to have a pretty enjoyable ride.
This episode, Dong Joo manages to confirm Master Kim’s true identity as the brilliant genius Dr. Boo Yong Joo.
First of all, I’m amused by the way Manager Jang cracks under pressure and reveals the truth without uttering a word of that truth, but tearing up Dong Joo’s resignation letter. Im Won Hee has such great comic timing; his facial expressions – particularly when he looks like he’s about to explode from the stress of Dong Joo’s continual probing – are what makes the scene as funny as it is.
Secondly, it is quite satisfying to see Dong Joo completely change his mind about Master Kim, as well as the way he now looks upon his future at Doldam Hospital. From being the place that he would most like to leave behind, it’s now a place pregnant with exciting possibilities. Context really is everything, like I always say. 😏
On the other hand, I have to admit I felt rather uncomfortable at the way Dong Joo flaunts his new knowledge, by mentioning it to Seo Jung, and to Director Song. I was under the impression that there’s an unspoken agreement between Dong Joo and Manager Jang that this knowledge of Master Kim’s identity would be treated as a secret. I mean, everyone else at Doldam Hospital doesn’t speak of it, and I guess that’s what I’d expected Dong Joo to do too. Instead, Dong Joo’s practically singing it from the hilltops, and his freedom with this piece of information makes me uneasy. 👀
The other big reveal this episode, is what went down in Geodae Hospital, that had caused Dr. Boo Yong Joo to take on a different identity as Master Kim. Ugh. It’s awful to see that President Do had basically set Master Kim up, at the cost of a patient’s life, and with the (ostensibly coerced) cooperation and silence of all the staff involved, to apparently teach him a lesson for being all high and mighty. I mean, WHAT?!? 🤯
I get that President Do is evil, but did he actually create that situation to take down Master Kim, knowing that the patient would die, when there were other options that would have allowed the patient to live??? If that’s true, then this show is possibly reaching beyond the borders of melodrama to tickle the edges of makjang, but let’s see how this pans out.
It’s hard to watch Master Kim (well, Dr. Boo) suffer the shock, rage and brokenness that comes in waves, as the situation comes into focus for him. The sense of betrayal is definitely great, but even more than that, he seems most affected by the needless death of the patient. It says a lot about him, that even in the present, he continues to play Madonna songs to unwind to after a surgery, in her honor, because that is what the patient had once dreamed of doing.
Like they say, you really never know what someone else is struggling with, and now, we finally get some important insight into Master Kim’s backstory and context. Yes, he is gruff and rough a lot of the time, and can be pretty high-handed too, but now knowing what he’s been through, I can understand why he might have an extra cynical view of the world – particularly the pieces of it that have to do with ambition and hospital politics. And Dong Joo happens to sit right there, with his focus on furthering his career, and his entanglement with the politics in Geodae Hospital.
Seo Jung does struggle from time to time with the idea of being an orderly, even though we now see that it had actually been her idea. She’d suggested it to Master Kim during their private discussion in his office, and he had agreed, pure and simple.
It’s interesting that the nurses, including Head Nurse Oh, seem to sympathize with Seo Jung, saying that Master Kim’s assignment for her is “too much.” I personally think that the assignment as an orderly is a perfect compromise between Master Kim’s very valid assessment that patients shouldn’t be entrusted to Seo Jung’s care given her fragile mental and emotional state, and Seo Jung’s deep desire to stay at Doldam Hospital.
I am guessing that the nurses’ sympathies have to do with the apparent demotion and embarrassment that the assignment entails for Seo Jung. And, like many of you pointed out, it does seem like there isn’t an emphasis on formal psychiatric counseling in this drama world. I guess this is one of those times when you just have to choose to shrug and move on, because it doesn’t look like Show will introduce the concept of psychiatric care later on either.
I like that Dong Joo and Seo Jung are talking more comfortably with each other now. I mean, their conversations are still peppered with some prickliness, but at least Seo Jung is now no longer actively avoiding Dong Joo, and the tone of their conversations lean pretty honest, which I think is good. Not only does Dong Joo tell Seo Jung that Master Kim is one big reason that he’s decided to stay at Doldam Hospital, he also openly tells her that he’s also staying because he needs to find out why she’d missed him.
Ooh. That definitely flusters her a little bit, and I think the reason that this doesn’t come across as overstepping his boundaries (ie, inappropriate or sleazy) to me, is because of Dong Joo’s manner, as he says it. He is quietly matter-of-fact as he explains his reasoning, and doesn’t appear to intend the moment as a come-on to Seo Jung. It just feels like he’s answering her question honestly, and I actually rather like it.
Granted, he does talk about sleeping with her again, in response to Seo Jung telling him to forget about romance and just spend his spare time sleeping and eating properly, but again, he seems quite matter-of-fact and unaggressive about it, which somehow makes me not all that upset at him, for bringing it up.
This episode, I feel like Master Kim does treat Dong Joo with a relatively gentler touch, like when he gets on the phone to talk Dong Joo through the decision of whether he should continue to operate on the patient with the bleeding liver. Master Kim is firm, but at the same time, I feel like there’s a touch of gentleness in his tone. That “firm but kind” and “hard yet soft” quality of coaching is one of the hardest things to achieve when teaching or mentoring someone else, and I do think that in this moment, Master Kim manages it quite beautifully.
Even though it’s a tough moment of reckoning for Dong Joo, I understand Master Kim’s approach of making it Dong Joo’s decision, and Dong Joo’s decision only. If Dong Joo had perceived that he’d had a safety net in Master Kim, he would not have dug as deep as he did, to find the strength and resilience that he did. And thus, he would not have been able to break through his mental block around that specific surgical situation, like he did.
Plus, Master Kim does actually show up as Dong Joo’s safety net in the end, and it’s Dong Joo who declines his offer to take over the surgery, because he now feels like he has things under control. That’s some very effective tough love right there, I feel like.
I also appreciate that Master Kim gives Seo Jung the opportunity to finish up the last bits of his surgery for him, even though she’s officially still an orderly.
Which brings me to the point of contention between Master Kim and Dong Joo later in the episode. My take is that Master Kim is upset with Dong Joo for trying to hide behind rules and regulations, and trying to spin things in a way that makes himself look good and acceptable within those rules and regulations. My interpretation of what Master Kim says to Dong Joo, is that Master Kim wants Dong Joo to just pick a side and stick with it. Like, don’t sometimes be a stickler for the rules, and sometimes say that it’s ok to make an exception. Don’t be a poser or a pretender; own who you are.
I’ve mentioned before that I love the humanity that emanates from Seo Jung, and she doesn’t let me down. Even though she’s a little discouraged by her orderly assignment, and a little jealous that Dong Joo basically accomplished her dream by having a combined surgery with Master Kim, she takes the time and trouble to sit with him, and offer him a can of coffee, and put things in perspective for him.
Not only does she tell him that she’s jealous of him, she also points out that Master Kim might have a painful past that’s haunting him and affecting him even in the present. That definitely seems to give Dong Joo food for thought, and I appreciate Seo Jung so much, for doing this for him.
How interesting, that Show seems to be setting up In Beom to have a special interest in Seo Jung, particularly since he’s never met her, before this episode. (Also, I just want to say that Yang Se Jong looks so young and clean-cut in this role!) I’m definitely curious to see what Show does with this, since In Beom is based at Geodae Hospital and not Doldam Hospital. Will he even be present enough to make a difference to our story? The way Dong Joo reacts to In Beom’s presence, though, is full of crackly animosity, which makes me think that a love triangle situation here, would potentially be a pretty dramatic one. Which would be in complete keeping with Show’s general vibe, come to think of it. 😏 But is that what Show is going for? I’m curious to see.
With Master Kim’s confrontation with Director Song surfacing the key piece of information that Chairman Shin is actually the foundation chairman of Geodae Hospital, it does look like this will be a dramatic point of focus in our next episode. Before we go there, though, let me just take a moment to appreciate Han Seok Kyu’s rapid shift in expression, as Master Kim processes the information.
These 3 screenshots, taken in quick succession, say everything: there’s disbelief at the ridiculousness of the situation, anger at President Do and everything that’s gone before, and a haunting hurt that still plagues him in the now. Really well done, I say. 🤩
Episode 6
Hot dang. I know I just talked about this show maybe-potentially reaching for the edges of makjang, but I was not prepared for that birth secret reveal. What? Seo Jung is President Do’s hidden daughter? Woah. 🤯 I was not expecting that. My mind is spinning, trying to figure out the implications of it all.
First of all, my kdrama reflex question of a love triangle is now moot, except from Dong Joo’s point of view, since he doesn’t yet know that Seo Jung and In Beom are related. But, it does look like In Beom is aware of it, even though he pretends not to know. That would be the only reason that would make him plausibly curious enough about someone whom he doesn’t remember meeting, to volunteer to go on a trip to the middle of nowhere, just so that he might have the chance to see or meet her. Plus, there’s how he gets all flustered by the familiar way Seo Jung addresses him, once she realizes that he’s President Do’s son, to the extent that he’d abandon his companions and hop right into a cab for Seoul.
I actually really like the idea of Seo Jung and In Beom being related; I hope their arc will be that of them overcoming complicated histories and awkward feelings, to become true family to each other.
I’d say that Seo Jung’s already kind of on that path, since she’s not only genuinely happy to meet In Beom again, she also steps in to take the blame for him for the unapproved surgery, even though he tells her not to. 
To me, this feels like a big sister trying to everything in her power to protect her little brother, and I can’t help but melt at Seo Jung’s big noona heart, which seems to come as such a reflex, to her.
On a tangent, I’m actually rather thrilled to see that In Beom’s a very skilled doctor in spite of his young age, and from the way Master Kim eyes him during the surgery, it seems that Master Kim sees and acknowledges his capability as well. Also, given how In Beom is so intent on saving the patient, even though he’s fully aware that he’s not licensed to perform surgery at Doldam Hospital, it seems that he’s much more like his sister than his father. That’s a pleasant surprise to me, since from what we’ve seen of him in previous episodes, he’d appeared to be content to toe the line and align himself with his father’s instructions.
With this in mind, I kinda love Master Kim’s demand of President Do, that he send In Beom to Doldam Hospital, not only to set things right, but also to learn from Master Kim. Nice move, Show, for making a way to move In Beom, whom I am finding to be much more interesting than I’d originally thought, to the thick of the drama (which, ironically, is a ghost town, hur).
Before I talk about anything else, I just wanted to pause to give Head Nurse Oh the shout-out she deserves, because wow does she put that shockingly unreasonable, belligerent dude in his place. More than the verbal smackdown, I love how she takes that phone and thrusts it at him, telling him to call exactly who he keeps threatening to call, so that she can officially make a complaint about him. The way Belligerent Guy turns tail and becomes Sheepish Guy is really fast, and quite gratifying to watch. Long live Head Nurse Oh! Manse! 🤩
It strikes me that during Master Kim’s conversation with Director Song, he mentions that he’d once been good at all the materialistic, ambitious things that Director Song mentions in relation to a career in medicine. Does this mean that Master Kim had had a spiritual awakening of sorts, where he’d turned away from the darkness of ambition, to embrace a more altruistic approach to medicine? If so, I wonder when that awakening happened, and what triggered it?
This context might make it easier to understand Master Kim’s more ambiguous actions, like when he goes to Chairman Shin and asks for even more equipment than before, in exchange for performing the surgery on him. Master Kim isn’t a perfect angel of a doctor; he has struggles and demons and bad days too, and I think this perspective and insight makes him more human, even though he’s described as a god-like doctor.
I really hate that Director Song flat out lies to Dong Joo in an effort to poison Dong Joo’s mind about Master Kim. I mean, considering that Director Song had been a key player in the dirty scheme that was used to take down Master Kim, it makes me gag that he can tell such a bald-faced lie, painting Master Kim in terrible patient-killing colors without blinking an eye, when he’d been the one to kill that patient. URGH. 🤮
I really hope that Dong Joo isn’t taken in by those lies, because that’d be just too unfair to Master Kim.
I feel sorry for Seo Jung, though, because it’s clear that all her life, ever since she’d known that President Do was her father, she’s only wanted his approval. And now, he expressly tells her that she has disappointed him. Aw. Poor girl. She was only trying to do right by the patient.
That scene, where she sees the patient’s wife crying by his bed in the ICU, and she comforts herself that she did well, reminds me so much of the scene in episode 1, where she’d made a similarly controversial decision in the ER in order to save the patient, and had gotten reprimanded for it. Seo Jung is such a warm bundle of compassion and humanity. I love her. ❤️
I’m glad that Master Kim tells Dong Joo, when Dong Joo questions Master Kim about what he’ll do with Seo Jung, that she did a great job in a difficult situation. YES. Thank you for choosing not to blame Seo Jung.
Also, it’s noteworthy that not only does Master Kim remind Dong Joo to make sure that Master Kim’s around before leaving the hospital in the future, he concedes that he will need to do that too. Plus, there’s that little throwaway line that Master Kim mutters to himself as he walks away, that he’d been excited to have another surgeon at Doldam. Ahh! He’s softening up to Dong Joo! And, he’s admitting to having been excited when Dong Joo joined the hospital. Cute!
I have slightly mixed feelings about Dong Joo holding Seo Jung’s hand while she sleeps, because they aren’t currently close enough in real life for him to assume consent. And yet, the way he looks at her is so full of gentle tenderness, that I feel like I can’t quibble too much. It feels like a sweet moment of comfort and understanding, which I hope Seo Jung feels in her dreams.
Show springs a surprise as we end the episode, with not just In Beom, but Director Song and a whole gaggle of staff reporting for work at Doldam Hospital, with suitcases in tow. What? I’m sure President Do has an ulterior motive for this, and I’m almost afraid to get excited. But, I do feel like things are going to get even more interesting at Doldam Hospital, with all these new arrivals.
This show is not an easy watch for sure due to the OTT elements. But I enjoyed the fact that these are flawed characters. I empathise with Dong Joo’s flaws and struggles over what is the right thing to do as I feel that struggle too. Dr Kim is not a nurturing boss, but his confrontational words get Dong Joo and Seo Jeong to self reflect and see how they want to grow. (I still don’t support the utter lack of psychiatric follow up for Seo Jung though!) I found In Beom’s willingness to step up and operate even though he was not licensed really cool, especially as you would expect him to be a typical narcissistic rich kid. And of course Head Nurse Oh is fantastic. Here is a versatile character actress, she played a very different character in Pinocchio which I just saw recently! She plays a cold and controlled, calculative character in that one.
Although it is in the backdrop, the characters do seem to speak to some sort of therapeutic work Seo Jung had gone through in the five years after her accident, and someone had been prescribing her with anti anxiety medication. The hospital itself hardly has any staff, is remote, and obviously no psychiatric staff directly on hand. It hardly has money for basic equipment, and one wonders if anyone is getting paid overtime there, let alone having some sort of psychiatric follow up economically made available. When Seo Jung and Kim Sabu have their discussion about her staying on, she tells him she is going to work it out herself, and Dr. Kim does respond a bit quizzically, albeit his philosophical bend toward individual responsibility, despite his other paternalistic tendencies, leads him to make her own decision on that.
Okay, something is awry with my Viki subscription and communicating with them is notoriously, well…difficult.
So what I want to do first is just summarize on the characters…just maybe adding a bit of commentary:
Let us start with Master Kim.
Well…now we know who he was when we first meet him being the only doc in the hospital with a compassionate hand for the boy Dong Joo, whose father was killed because Director Jo (that guy way in the background getting VIP congrats for his preferential treatment)–Kim was at the time, not some random doc who takes the chaotic situation that the entire hospital staff has panicked about, but a multiple board certified surgeon, with a 97% success rate, a reputation of being “A Hand of God,” for whom folks all over South Korea and beyond are trying to line themselves up for his assistance. And going back to first episode, lead surgeon, internationally famous guy, there with boy when he wakes up to counsel him. What could there be to like about the fella, eh?
(Well of course as K pointed out, the way he mugged out at the end of episode 5–everyone is different, but for me, his whole look of irony–this guy hiding in the car, the man who killed his student, this pipsqueak of a human being, threatening him–why I like the series, I love his attitude! I love his swagger. One tough hombre, one mf of a person; someone who brings the dying back to life, that skilled, who can flat out laugh and mug at his life’s worst nightmare staring him in the face, having the affrontary to tell him to lay low. Geez how many years in this remote, understaffed, underequipped little hospital that week in and week out is blasted with emergencies and doing these really difficult and demanding surgeries cause the nearest hospital is at least two hours away, told to lay low. I love the smirk. Arrogant? Tempermental? High-handed? You bet, and righteously so, my man in the foxhole, Kim Sabu, Dr. Romantic).
Turns out, as backstory goes, in part narrated with editorial commentary about the corruption of the hospital system on trial in the entire show–the heart of this melodrama– by Dong Joo, in part as flashback presented in real time, his favorite student, a young woman in somewhat fragile health, who liked to play Madonna in the surgical theater, was mistakenly diagnosed and sent into surgery for whatever ailment she had suffered from at the behest of who? Oh yes, Director Jo, and put under the knife to then practicing surgeon, now Geoday Chief of Surgery, or better put Chief Toadie, Faux Surgeon Dr. Song, whose ineptitude led to the death of the young woman. And! Because in a fit of heartbroken anger, he came into the surgery theater, and after punched his student’s killer, Director Jo, who we can all see has, well, issues about power and scalpel envy for his great, world class subordinate (do you suppose those two ever got along?) ruins his career, while absolving his own guilt, by writing a report placing the blame–everyone witnessed the fight, and none of the witnesses has the cohones to contradict Director Jo about it–that makes it impossible for Dr. Boo to ever work under his own name again. We are not talking about any old doctor, or even a skilled doctor, like Seo Jung whose career has been thwarted–but a generational talent, a champion at the heavy weight level. Finished in the prime of his career for losing it over losing someone he has loved.
And what has Dr. Kim done? Changed his name. Anonymously, gone to work in an out of the way, middle of nowhere hospital, where he sleeps in the emergency room, and handles just about every case that enters his hospital, and put together a small staff that punches so far above its weight it brooks one’s credulity. Does Kim Sabu have an attitude? Well, I guess so, but the nursing staff when talking about him to Seo Jung points out how nice he is to all the rest of them. Really, he is an iconic kind of character, and there is a reason why show, with all its shortcomings got a second season, and is in line for the third.
When Dong Joo falters in the operating room, Kim is steel, but in his inimitable way challenges Dong Joo, he lays the choices out coldly, tells him no one would blame him, but that Dong Joo himself would live a long remorseful life if he does not go forward. And as soon as possible goes into the surgery room with Dong Joo to make sure the patient is cared for, first after ascertaining Dong Joo’s willingness to go on, simply assisting him, then when Dong Joo errs, quickly corrects him, and finally shares the surgery, leaving Dong Joo to feel it is his success, when in fact Kim Sabu had just repeatedly both been his safety net and assured the surgery’s success. As Nurse Oh had pointed out, the two of them had handled far worse.
Later, after Seo Jung had done such a terrific job herself, saving a patient, she stands up to Kim, face to face, eye to eye, we find out in a conversation with Nurse Oh (cool leather jacket, eh?) and Dr. Nam just how proud he is of Seo Jung, who it must be surmised at this point in the story reminds him of his former student. Teacjer Kim knows what his two doctors’ ambitions really are, and he knows that along with teaching them skills, which he does over and over, that what the two of them really require is courage. If they are afraid of him and his gruff way of teaching, how much more so in crises situations. These are people who are, as show repeatedly demonstrates, constantly in a trial by fire, and he is doing his best to steel them and temper their steel for the fray.
Seo Jung–I missed this the first time because it was so quickly presented, but here it is. Her mother died because she had slit her wrists. Mmmn! Let’s go back to the initial episode where she froze up. Let’s think about how fragile psychologically a part of her must be. This did not start with her fiance’s accident. And her mother before doing so, left her a note to go to Director Jo. Actually Jo never really acknowledges his paternity, we, like Seo Jung can only infer it…episode one: who in that line of doctors does not acknowledge her? And why did she decide to become a doctor? A girl without a father, wanting to be acknowledged by an older male figure. Is it any wonder, her first lover was a surgeon who was wont to patting her head when he was her superior. Or her abject longing for Kim Sabu’s okay? This is a melodrama, but it really does go out of its way to give us our lead characters’ motivations, why they are, the way they are, Seo Jung’s wound, Dong Joo’s wound, Kim Sabu’s wound, and again, because we are speaking of a master, Kim Sabu’s understanding of and desire for his two understudies to do the hard character work it takes to become the people they ultimately can become.
Director Jo. The villain of the piece. To tell you the truth, the reason I have always regarded the show as a melodrama is because he is presented so one dimensionally, I, no matter what I thought about the rest of the characters and their humanity, The guy is simply unredeemable. And by the end of episode six, we pretty much know what the show is about, hero, villain, with couple full of obstacles, wonderful ensemble, on and off staff, will romantic passion and integrity win the day against venal, petty, greedy, and unscrupulous mediocrity. None the less, I have to congratulate show how bit by bit, starting again from scene one where he is way in the background has brought this disgusting and relentless sack of humanity to the fore until he is at the center of the entire show. All we can do is boo the fellow as he is determined to throw everything and everyone under the bus to get his way and make mincemeat of our hero and the two young people following in his footsteps, fighting the good fight.
Shout out to the delightful Im Won Hee, as Manager Jang, who takes the hyperbole of the melodramatic format to his extreme advantage in every scene with his histrionics, as if he were in any situation being interviewed on national tv by the nation’s foremost news anchor. I think all the staff will grow on folks sticking with this, but Im Won Hee, is a special tickle for whom I have a special fondness as I watch this.
I’m going to try to express myself in a way that is succinct since I don’t want to waste anyone’s time with my rants, but I do feel like I need to vent if I’m going to continue watching this. I find my experience watching this drama, in one word “frustrating”. I honestly expected to be able to like it more given the praise this drama got (with all due respect to those who loved it and are loving it, like I always say, we can’t always like the same things) I don’t hate it but I also don’t feel immersed. There are a few reasons
1.- I am capable of loving cheesy makjang elements, but it seems expectations are important. If someone had warned me of the amount of manipulative tear-jerking attempts and exaggerated makjang situations this drama had, I probably would’ve taken them much better. They have been a turn off from the very first scene and continued to pop up throwing me completely off immersion.
2.- I don’t see why I’m supposed to like the protagonist, Master Kim yet. I don’t see him as a human yet, he does not make much sense to me so far. I mean, intellectually yes, I know he is disappointed with the system, he was betrayed and set up, kinda traumatized yada yada yada, but I just don’t feel him. A bit of what was discussed in another thread about not being able to see an actor in a different role might be an issue too. I knew HSK as King Sejong (a beautifully written three-dimensional character) so, I’m having hard time adjusting, accepting and even believing this character as an actual human that exists. I keep seeing King Sejong playing grumpy incomprehensible (to me) Doctor. I do hope I will be able to see and “feel” this new character soon
3.- I do like Yoo Yeon Seok in this, its also only my second time seeing him act, but he does feel, sound and act quite different from his wonderful Dong Mae so I can completely separate them. I also feel for the character, despite his flaws and mistakes, I feel his stress and I want him to get to a better place in life. He is one reason I’m not dropping this drama.
4.- Another character that I find intriguing is Seo Jung. Its my first time seeing the actress and Im getting a positive impression. I’m not super fond of her “bubbly” moments but the moment she gets more serious and her “trauma” surfaces, she commands my attention. As a character, I find she is the one who draws me in, she is the one who calls my attention and I hope her character and story does not get forgotten.
5.- Doldam’s hospital atmosphere is mysterious, the side characters, like the Nurse and the funny dude are some of the “positives” I see.
6.- Lastly, I’m watching this with my mom, and as I mentioned on a previous thread, she is enjoying it, so I’m stuck with it 😀 Despite the things I find enjoyable I probably would’ve dropped this drama honestly, but, when mom decides she wants to continue, there is no escape. Still, despite my rants, I see the dramas merits and I understand why many people liked it, it’s just that the aspects that are intrusive (mostly the exaggerated overwrought situations, the shouting, the suspension of disbelief and the not very subtle “preachy” moments ) are a major turn off to me.
I have some favorite “eccentric obnoxious, genius doctors” characters and I know that larger than life qualities and melodrama, sort of comes with the territory when it comes to medical dramas. But I need a bit more to actually care. It’s only been 6 eps. There is still hope.
Hi @Drama Fan, I totally get where you’re coming from. I guess you have watched 5 and 6? I thought it felt a lot better after those.
If you are interested in Seo Hyun Jin (Seo Jung), I recommend Let’s Eat 2, which is where I first encountered her. It’s not a top shelf drama but it’s light and funny and I thought it was perfect for her. You don’t need to watch Lets’ Eat 1 first, it’s not a continuation.
Yes, I’m halfway into ep 6 and still not “loving” this but its not a horrible drama either. Im just underwhelmed and a tad frustrated with the aspects I mentioned. Thank you for the recommendation! A “food porn” drama will be a good watch when Im not on a diet lol but Ill definitely add it to the list.
Yeah my sister won’t watch it because of the food porn and body image subplot, so fair enough! 😀
Food porn–healthy food porn, if you have not seen the film, Little Forest, do. A lovely, lovely slice of life film, beautifully enacted, with great, great food scenes. Kim Tae Ri is perfect in it, and Ryu Jun Yeol, who among the young male actors out there is absolutely one of my favorites, is wonderful. Less than two hours, but a real sanctuary from the craziness of the world.
Thanks! Other ones I know are Eat Drink Man Woman (Taiwan) and Samurai Gourmet (Japan).
Wow, Eat Drink Man Woman, there’s a blast from the past! Good movie, although it’s been like 25 years since I’ve seen it…
There’s a Mexican version too called Tortilla Soup, but it’s not as good.
Sounds lovely, thank you!
Another good one is “Big Night” with Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalub, set in exotic 1950s New Jersey. One of my favorite last scenes from a movie ever.
Big Night is great. Babette’s Table. The Four Hundred Foot Journey. Tampopo. All seriously classic food movies. But one that often goes under the radar, but is just great is Dinner Rush with Danny Aeillo and Edouardo Ballerini, the latter playing the gourmet chef son of the former, a mobster, whose red sauce Italian joint the son wants to turn into a Michelin Star, cutting edge, haute post modern Italian cuisine, New York hotspot.
@DramaFan: With regard to Dr. Romantic’s character. On one hand I think the way we respond to characters, actors, or stories, if we really like or dislike them is visceral. We can explain after the fact, but the explanations do not always cut it for those who hold differing opinions. But we cannot like something because we ought to like it, any more than folks can fall in love with someone because they ought to.
When I first emailed KFG about show, my comment was I did not know whether I liked show that much, but I just thought Han Seok Kyu was fantastic. I love the way he enacts this character, and I love the character.
I have known extremely talented people, extremely skilled people; my historical role models have often been such folks. I love historical dramas because they tend to have larger than life characters in them.
I also love slice of life dramas, my favorites really, in which folks like you or me are at the forefront, dealing with common human challenges. Not people trying to change the world but just folks. Why I lobbied so hard for Dear My Friends.
However, if this helps, maybe you could think of Kim Sabu as a world class athlete. i do not know if you follow pro basketball, but the great ones really do have attitude. There was a recent series on ESPN about Michael Jordan…I saw Michael Jordan play. Believe me, for a few years, he was the greatest athlete in the entire world. Muhummad Ali even moreso. Larger than life folks. They do exist. And in the world of this show Kim Sabu is such a person.
If one cannot buy into that, then the perspective is one wherein all the things that might grate you about someone like him in real life are going to alter your perspective. But if you buy in, then you can begin to see how show does a good job of developing who he is, revealing bit by bit more about the whole character as it goes on.
For me, if I cannot buy in, I give up on it. For example, I binged several episodes of The Ring, an entirely different kind of show, running the spunky young woman trope, and just did not buy it, while with Coffee Prince, even thinking ML was less than everyone seems to think of him, I bought into the FL first episode and loved her all the way out. I could explain why, and part of it is Coffee Prince is great while from what I could see The Ring, at least for me, was okay–I did not hate it, but…I hate pepporocini on pizzas, and as you might imagine, I could spend paragraphs telling you why, and I love oysters, and I love cilantro.
I think I got that he is supposed to be a genius and HSK is not unconvincing in that sense (my inability to separate him from a previous role is, Im sure, my own personal issue and something that I will very likely overcome, as I watch him more) I just would like the show to convince me of his genius before it tells me he is one. So far his gruff personality and constant complaining, berating and preaching is standing out for me much more than his genius. I know he can do it well though, King Sejong was precisely a genius, larger than life character himself. Im just needing more from the script, for his character.
Kim Sabu is not an intellectual genius. He is a physical genius, an experiential genius. With mad skills and courage in the line of fire. You want him in your corner when the chips are down. Watch his hands at surgery time. But that is not what makes him great. In the world of medicine folks are specialists, really, really good at one thing. He is great at everything. His diagnoses are always insightful, over and over noticing things that other competent doctors do not notice, but above all he is always in the moment. As Casino owner points out, he is not just a doctor who can heal people, he is working to prevent people getting worse. And his insight into people, his compassion for people, especially his patients, but also Dong Joo and Seo Jung, in scene after scene, if you really think about what is happening. Don’t miss the forest for the trees. And finally he is so darn tough, he can take a beating and joke with the man who is having him beaten. He can smile at his own abject misery. He can laugh at it, and work on just how he will hold his own against all odds.
Now you see him complaining, berating, and preaching, but he complains when people fuck up in life and death situations, he berates when folks are being phonies and throwing out excuses in life and death situations, and he preaches truth at young people who come to him making excuses rather than really looking within themselves for the truth. You do not like his style. I get it. It is in many ways anachronistic. But how many lives has this guy saved in six episodes? Doing how many different kinds of things? Running that hospital with those intense demands.
I have seen several Han Seok Kyu vehicles. This one he is kind of doing a Denzel Washington kind of turn, full of competence, piss, and vinegar, but he is not like the great intellectual King Sejong who was in rebellion against his violent father, trying to reason his way into being a King. In Christmas in August, he is another kind of person entirely. The Royal Tailor, ditto. Han Seok Kyu is an actor with range. Sejong was a much bigger role. But Han Seok Kyu can do both serious drama and pulpy entertainment with equal panache.
Good point about him not being an intellectual genius. I’ll try to adjust my “lense” as I watch the next eps. Thank you.
While his King Sejong in Forbidden Dreams is somewhat limited, especially given the scope he brings to Deep Rooted Tree, it is a wonder to see Han Seok Kyu with Choi Min Sik, as the astronomer upon whom Sejong stakes his life. Choi Min Sik has the juicier role, and the film has its limits, but given your interest in Deep Rooted Tree, the movie is like a bonus episode.
@Drama Fan–total irrelevant to show aside, but for you. If I were to provide a review of Jang Hyuk’s performance in Bad Papa, it would be whatever else one thinks of the writing and plot, Yoo Ji Cheol:
“the part of me that wants to change/fights the part of me that tries.”
Wow! What a great song and interpretation. The mood and the lyrics fit Yoo Ji Cheol perfectly.
@BE @DramaFan – or Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 😆
@beez: Besides being a great blues singer, Solomon Burke devoted the final decades of his life as a minister: “From the early 1970s, after having moved to Los Angeles, Burke concentrated on his episcopal duties, preaching from a crimson throne on the third Sunday of the month at the Prayer Assembly Church of God in Christ, his church at 226 North Market St., Inglewood, California.[29][148] Within three decades his church grew to have about 170 missions and 40,000 members.[149] By 2000, Burke’s Solomon’s Temple: The House of God for All People had over 300 ordained ministers whose job is to “feed the hungry, educate the uneducated and be God’s workers in the vineyard”, and 40,000 parishioners in close to 200 churches across the USA, Canada, and Jamaica.[145] At the time of his death, there were about 180 churches that were established under the charter of his denomination…”
The song contained another man’s lyrics, but Solomon Burke knew how to deliver lines with biblical inflection.
@BE – Your thoughts on Kim Sabu remind me of a conversation that I had with my son regarding Dr. House. I couldn’t watch that show on a consistent basis – not the way you tune in to a favorite show week after week because Dr. House irritated me in the same way that Abusive Chef from that reality cooking show irritates me. (Can’t think of the name of the chef show right now.) Anyway, my son said “Would you rather have a nice doctor who doesn’t have the skills to know what’s wrong with you, or a doctor like House who is rude and mean to you but saves your life?” I know that his logic makes sense, but for me, my dignity in such a situation means more to me. I know that’s not rational but that’s just the way that it is.
@BE Just butting in briefly here to say I absolutely agree with you about Coffee Prince, only moreso. I’m a little over halfway through my first watch of it, and Gong Yoo’s male lead character is driving me absolutely crazy. I seriously want to slap the guy, and the 20% of the time he’s acting like a decent person, I still want to residually slap him, just on general principals…. (I generally appreciate what Yoon Eun-hye is doing with the female lead, because she’s like the platonic ideal of spunky cross-dressing tomboy, but I also think the character is kind of inconsistently written, which periodically annoys me as well).
Okay, rant over, sorry…
The character does get better as drama progresses, but the show is hers. Even when he gets better, it always strikes me that he never escapes from a kind of classist tunnel vision and narcissism that from my perspective, having raised two daughters, had my antennae up. SPOILER–That is, there were times when I wanted to take him by the scruff of the next and tell him to lose all that self absorbtion, and realize how much gutsier, tougher, and emotionally generous she was than him, and how darn lucky he was to have her. END SPOILER.
But KFG really did not like Yoo Joo, and I quite sympathized with her, actually thinking she was the most three dimensionally developed character in the show. But it is a great big comfort food dinner of a show, and the flaws for me never took away from that.
I’m finding Yoo-joo and Han-sung to be more interesting than the nominal leads, most of the time, to be honest. Han-sung is intermittently annoying, too, but less so than his cousin. I was already looking forward to watching My Mister in the near future, but when I realized Lee Sun-gyun, eleven years after playing Han-sung in Coffee Prince, pops up to play the ML in My Mister, it upped my anticipation, for sure.
I just finished My Mister and I thought it was very good, Lee Sun-kyun is certainly excellent. I keep comparing it to Misaeng, which I liked a little better, but My Mister is really it’s own thing. But the episodes are so long!
Ah, see I thought Misaeng was meh to the nth. I really found the young lead unappealing all the way to the end. My Mister, on the other hand I found to be one of the greatest tv serials I have ever seen.
Ha, just shows everyone is different!
absolutely.
Lol! I complained so much about those long episodes! Same with Prison Playbook. Both great dramas but whyyy the super long episodes??? Also, ditto on liking Misaeng more than My Mister (loved the main story in MM but got bored and irritated with the lead’s younger brother and the actress) while I thought Misaeng was almost perfect.
I’m the opposite, I lost interest in the main story and was enjoying all the little side plots more 🙂
Oh oops! 🤣
Lee Sun Gyun is heartbreakingly good in My Mister. Some of his scenes will tear your heart out. One of drama’s great everyman if there ever was one.
Every time he opens his mouth to speak, I am continually surprised by just how deep his voice is (to be clear, I like it, just because it’s such a change of pace).
I’m liking the character of Master Kim more and more. But the way they are building him up, the tragic martyr, will the writers sacrifice him at the end?
Ahem, 🙋🏻♀️, another Buffy fan checking in!
So episode 5 had me wavering whether I wanted to continue investing my time in this. The introduction of In Beom and what I also thought was the love triangle had me inwardly groaning but then throw in that he actually could be/is Seo Jung’s brother and I am back interested and episode 6 flew by. As for Dr Kim’s securing hospital equipment from the chairman I actually don’t feel torn about that at all. The chairman has made his money from gambling and I saw this as the least he could do. The hand holding a tad uncomfortable as she was sleeping when it happened and I have to say I would be terrified of someone did that to me when I wasn’t in a relationship with them but it didn’t make me angry as I suppose there is a shared history and from earlier discussions we all recognise this was pre#metoo. As much as this is supposed to be Dr Kim’s show for me each and every time Seo Hyun Jin is the one keeping me hooked. To me she is heart and soul of the drama. You feel every emotion she feels. Love the peps talks to herself. Fantastic acting. And yes Nurse Oh is amazing🤩
Was I the only one who imagined spaghetti western music when the gaggle of interlopers showed up at the end of episode 6? It’s ON!
I’m starting to actively look forward to these weekly watches as the drama is getting up steam. Don’t really mind the makjang elements as so far they are not overwhelming (the reveal that Seo Jung and In Beom being presumably half siblings is interesting and provides useful backdrop to SJ’s character). I thought the patients-of-the-week story had the high point of providing an opportunity to highlight Dong Joo’s struggle between his ambition and lack of confidence due to his previous surgery failure; the internal struggles that the doctors face are among the best parts of the drama from my perspective. However, I thought that the unexpected heart problem of the truck driver was left unresolved – wasn’t it implied that the accident might not have been his fault (if he lost consciousness due to his condition)?
Following on, I thought the medical emergencies in these episodes were also more interesting than some of the earlier ones.
Well, some are better than others, but don’t worry, show never suffers for lack thereof.
I have mentioned this before. Show is a spaghetti hospital! Blood on The Sutures. Cut. Cut. Good guys and bad guys, no doubt.
Indeed you did!
I do not remember whether driver’s situation was ever resolved. Good catch.
Alrighty, now we’re cooking. This season’s Big Bad has been revealed at last, as we Buffy the Vampire Slayer aficionados used to say (any Buffy fans still around? show’s getting farther and farther in the rear-view mirror…). Anyway. Director Do, man, he’s a bad bad dude. Worse, a powerful, manipulative, politically astute bad dude. Hold onto your butts, sports fans.
Also, I’m going to maybe have to go back and watch the scene, but how explicit was the communication of the blood relationship link between Seo-jung and Director Do? It was clearly telegraphed and implied, but I’m not sure it was out-and-out confirmed.
I really like what Seo-jung brought to these couple episodes. Most especially when she was facing Master Kim in his office in the after-action debrief after disobeying his strictures and treating the patient. She stood up to him and basically told him, hey you can call me what you want, but in the end I’m still a doctor, and I would do it again if it meant a patient’s welfare was on the line (paraphrased, but that’s the message I got).
And Master Kim clearly appreciated it, as we see when he’s getting a drink with Nurse Oh at Dr. Nam’s restaurant later, and he says “this kid, it was the first time speaking up for herself while looking me straight in the eye, not giving in an inch,” and he clearly has an admiring look on his face and tone in his voice. I get the sense he was proud of her. Yes, Master Kim is flawed and has his own demons, but one message he’s been putting out to Dong Joo and others pretty consistently is that we doctors serve the patients, not wealth or status or our own egos or needs. And Seo-jung’s actions are absolutely hewing to that ethic. Of course he’s going to be proud of her.
Raises hand to “any Buffy fans still around?”! For me, BtVS led to Strong Woman Do Bong Soon and thence down this entire k-drama rabbit hole for me 😁
Oh, and I would totally eat at Dr. Nam’s restaurant if I could….
Oh wow, that bumps Strong Woman up a bit in my estimation… (I’ve been kind of avoiding it since an early review I read that noted they really didn’t like the turn it took around the half-way point?)
Well, SWDBS (not to be confused with SWLABR 😉) is quite a mixed bag; the review you read isn’t necessarily wrong and there are a lot of elements of the show that bothered me even at the time (KFG’s review is, as usual, spot on). But it was My First One and the sheer weirdness and invention of it kept me engaged enough to try more – so it will always have a special place in my drama heart. And I remain a Park Bo Young fan to this very day. So, if you put on the right lens and and like a light-hearted take on a genre that is usually anything but, you might well enjoy it.
Another Buffy fan here. Strong Woman Do Bong Soon may have moved higher on my watch list, too.
Speaking of strong women, Nurse Oh rocked her out-of-uniform black leather jacket when she showed up at Dr. Nam’s restaurant. A multi-faceted woman she is. That get-together of friendly colleagues looked so inviting…
Eep, @Trent @j3ffc @Leslie YES to Buffy!! A total Buffy-Angel nerd here. I knew I’d found my tribe 😘 Buffy is, in my opinion, one of the greatest shows ever. No question. 💓💓💓 “Bunnies. Bunnies. It must be bunnies!” I rest my case 😆 I actually thought School Nurse Files was rocking a Buffy vibe. The graphic novels are pretty cool too, if you want to be a total Buffster… Anyway _ creeping back out of the room as I haven’t watched these two episodes of Dr Romantic….
And just to hijack this thread further (apologies kfangurl and anyone madly not into Buffy 😊) A Korean Odyssy, although bumpy, has some terrific Buffy-style storylines as well as a zombie character who could have stepped right out of the Buffyverse played excellently by Lee Seyoung. Honestly, I couldn’t get enough of her or the on going humour /heart surrounding her character 😍
Ele, yes, Buffy is still my favorite show, ever. I read a couple of the graphic novels but stopped season 9 or so.
Thanks for the suggestion! I had been wondering about Korean Odyssey but haven’t seen a lot of love for it online so it keeps staying down in the watch list. I actually got interested in it after watching Lee Seung-gi in “Twogether” (fun little travel show, sort of “Amazing Race”-y, in which he was very charming) and liking the young version of him in “Gumiho”, but I don’t have a slot for his usual action stuff right now. But, yeah, Buffy-vibe might be just the thing…
Kfangurl! I just want to say, Im watching but Im behind! I hope to catch up with the group soon
Wow you are right on schedule K!
I liked Eps 5 and 6 a lot more, I felt the pace slowed down a bit and gave the characters a bit more time to breathe, plus they gave us some much needed back story for Master Kim and Seo Jung; wow crazy that she is the daughter of President Do! (and maybe a bit too convenient).
I like Manager Jang and Nurse Oh a lot 🙂 They kind of represent an anchor for Doldam Hospital’s style.
I like the introduction of In Beom (her brother!?) too but wow that’s a lot of people turning up at the end of Ep 6.
Like I said in last week’s discussion, I want to see more of Seo Jung but I feel her quieter story is getting somewhat drowned out by all the blustering males in the room (there are quite a few of them!). Hopefully they will give her more to do so that she is not just the token female.
Because the show has a pulpy aspect to it, I did not notice on my first watch a lot of what I have been seeing and noting in my second one. That is, show is so economical in its detail that given the high volume it runs at, not just the male characters but everything, that one can overlook that actually Seo Jung is show’s second lead, for whom we are constantly receiving info via other characters and herself in scene after scene. I love her geeky song and dance to that rock and roll song about a loser. Perfect, and so much revealed. And insofar as I can tell, not just you, but everyone really does have a thing for her character both within the show itself and in the audience watching. She takes up a large portion of show’s screen time, and dig it, she leaves you wanting more. That blip on her mother’s wrist–what one second? two? but along with how Jo first speaks with her after her mother’s death–what was that, a minute of dialogue– given what we know about her from her behavior already, so much is revealed. She is hardly a token character.
I did not say that she was. You are bringing a perspective of someone who has already seen the show, which is spoiling it a bit for the rest of us.
Have I mentioned anything about Seo Jung from anything other than the first six episodes? To say it is a spaghetti hospital, when the first time you meet the main character, ost puts on spaghetth western music? Does telling you emergency room crises are going to keep on ruin it? Doesn’t that seem obvious?
While in the second watching I have noticed details I missed the first time I saw it, I had all the same reactions the first time in a more general way. For example, everyone who has had a problem with Kim Sabu here are experiencing show differently than I did from the very beginning. And by this point in show, I was pretty well aware of the fundamental conflict theme including the melodramatic social justice in hospitals theme and the life not lived with complete commitment is a lie theme–the era of this or that in every opening drummed that into me from first episode. It was not hard to see the beats of romance in melodrama, obstacles and conflicts to be overcome, being laid out. Is it? I dug Kim Sabu, the guy who helped the kid whose dad died, the guy that lugged Seo Jung out of the woods, the funny guy with the chip on his shoulder, the attitude on his face, and heart, guts, and spine to back it up. The doctor as romantic artist who won’t suffer fools. I liked him.
I was kind of struck by folks who would find such an attitude in a swordsman in a sageuk entertaining, or would think nothing of some gangster or scifi hero being so put off. But also I recognized something in Kim Sabu’s style that has antecedents in Buddhist culture. Or as I noted in another post here, to put it in American terms, I think of a number of roles in popular kinds of film that Denzel Washington has portrayed, just filled with attitude.
If I have said anything that is a spoiler then let me know. You said that you want to see more of Seo Jung’s story; all I did was point out how much of it has been presented.
I love KFG’s posts on this; I agree with Trent. Sorry if in my enthusiasm for show, I somehow am diminishing your experience. My intent is the opposite.
For example, when you said “one can overlook that actually Seo Jung is show’s second lead” it seems to me you are bringing information into the conversation from outside the first 6 episodes. You state it as a fact, not an opinion. To me that’s a spoiler. I want to see how things evolve in the show for myself.
No, my take is not based on my memory of show, but on how she appears to me so far. Aside from Kim Sabu, she is the most compelling character, certainly the character that has the most complexity already portrayed, in my opinion. Do you disagree? And it is my opinion, one with which Yoo Yeon Seok fans would probably disagree. I do not believe she is given second billing in the credits.
I like my opinions because they usually have some reflection behind them and argue for them, but I understand that they are only my opinions, however emphatic I am about them.
Ok, I didn’t get that. In my culture we use words like “in my opinion”, “I think”, “it seems to me”, “perhaps” etc….
I have been a music critic, and an academic. That is, I taught critical thinking writing for years. I presuppose what people are saying is their opinion. Who else’s opinion could it be?
I do suppose the theory of gravity has its own gravitas, of course.But what I try to do is ground what I say with reason backed with examples.
So I made the claim about Seo Jung, said why I thought so, and gave examples to illustrate it. Given categories like lead and second lead, I understand why I was confusing, and I apologize. I do not think formally Seo Jung may have been credited as the second lead character, but that is how up to this point she appears to me. I was making a hot take resulting from my observations in response to your desire for her character to get some more elbow room, because I already think she is doing pretty darn well.
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