My expectation for Doctors was that it was going to be a
remarkable medical thriller. But though
some interesting medical cases were touched upon, Doctors is no thriller at
all. It’s primarily a romantic drama
which happens to have doctor characters and set in a hospital. The medical aspect felt incidental.
The series is about two
neurosurgeons who first met when the girl (Park Shin-hye) was still a high
school student with a gangster personality and the man (Kim Rae-won), a freshly
minted doctor taking a sabbatical, was her Biology and homeroom teacher. The teacher influenced and inspired her to redirect
the path of her life to a meaningful direction.
However, circumstances led them to have somewhat of a falling out. Thirteen years later, they reunite as
co-workers in the neurology department of a hospital, reconnect, and start a
love affair.
If the synopsis seemed to have
come out as lazy and indifferent, it’s just that this K-drama never really impressed me. There were
moments when I thought it could get interesting, but it was unable to
do anything worthwhile with them. It does
explore some thoughtful themes, but I’ve seen these things utilized many times
already and with much better execution. It
has tons of subplots but none resulted to a gratifying narrative payoff or
excellent character arcs.
Doctors is easily the least of all Koreanovelas I’ve watched so
far. I didn’t hate it. But I didn’t like it either. I found it middling. I still watched it till the end though. By the time I was certain this show wasn’t going
to be rewarding for me, I was already at its 15th episode (of its 20
episodes). Obsessive compulsive nerdery simply
dictates that I should finish – and review – it then.
Miscellaneous musings (with some minor spoilers):
- It has some comedy that got me chuckling. But the only time I laughed was when the antagonist of the story did some “dramatic scene” in the last episode. The acting was hilarious rather than dramatic.
- Kim Rae-won’s character is a fun smug character. I would have liked him more if he had a significant character arc.
- It’s weird seeing Jang Hyun-sung play a likable good guy in this series when he was a fantastic bastard of a bad guy in Signal. Great actor.
- I was slightly surprised to see Park Shin-hye in it. I initially had no idea she was headlining this series. She looks nothing like the girl in the promo poster (see the photo at the top of the article).
- Park Shin-hye’s character has some decent fighting scenes here. She has the aptitude to be a badass. She should do a drama or movie where her character needs to kick a lot of butt. I’ll watch that.
- Park Shin-hye has some of the most adorable GIF-worthy expressions ever. Here are some of them:
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