1
Zogitt
Australia
Masterfully produced drama with the odd chinks in the armour
I deliberately waited for the hype to die down before I watched this but seeing season 2 is in the pipeline I thought I'd better get a move on. By the way, when I wrote this, there is already 12 pages of reviews so I don't expect mine to stand out but seeing that I binged the show in 2.5 days, I thought I should at least leave a few words for prosperity. :)
No doubt many of the reviews have highlighted the skilful story telling, the direction. the stellar cast, friendship, the feels, etc, etc. I totally agree with the bulk of the sentiments and it was an ode to the doctors, nurses and allied health professionals (standing ovation). However, I did find a few chinks in their shiny armour.
First of all, the show started very confusingly. The size of the cast and the physical setting was just too big. This drama had five central characters plus each had his/her staff and then you have administrators, other doctors (both senior and junior) and nurses in at least five departments (not counting ER). The hospital was also huge physically. You just don't feel like you know how the place worked. You were bounced from people to people, location to location. This did get better after a few episodes when you start to recognise faces and group them into cliques (this is from a non-Korean point of view).
Some reviewers have commented on this show being realistic. I am not going to argue every case but I found a lot of the time, surgeries were carried out on patients who literally had a consult the day before. That level of availability would be the envy of the whole world.
Finally, I wished the drama would deep dive into some of the issue de jour. From migrant worker health care to child abuse to injury/death by overworking (and more) were touched upon but almost all of them came and gone within a few scenes and not always with a resolution.
Otherwise, the show was designed to hit you with the feels and they definitely delivered. You would expect no less from the team that brought us so many top notch hit dramas.
BTW, it begs the question, was it a medical drama with a strong romance undertone or a rom-com set in a hospital?
Acting - fantastic.
Production value - excellent.
OST - loved it! You gotta laugh at the joke they played on the FL.
Rewatch - absolutely (maybe not every episodes)
One final thought, the last episode was extra long and I appreciated that they gave all the characters time and space to tidy up their own story arcs but while some questions were answered, more were left hanging so please bring on season 2! Ppalli ppalli!
No doubt many of the reviews have highlighted the skilful story telling, the direction. the stellar cast, friendship, the feels, etc, etc. I totally agree with the bulk of the sentiments and it was an ode to the doctors, nurses and allied health professionals (standing ovation). However, I did find a few chinks in their shiny armour.
First of all, the show started very confusingly. The size of the cast and the physical setting was just too big. This drama had five central characters plus each had his/her staff and then you have administrators, other doctors (both senior and junior) and nurses in at least five departments (not counting ER). The hospital was also huge physically. You just don't feel like you know how the place worked. You were bounced from people to people, location to location. This did get better after a few episodes when you start to recognise faces and group them into cliques (this is from a non-Korean point of view).
Some reviewers have commented on this show being realistic. I am not going to argue every case but I found a lot of the time, surgeries were carried out on patients who literally had a consult the day before. That level of availability would be the envy of the whole world.
Finally, I wished the drama would deep dive into some of the issue de jour. From migrant worker health care to child abuse to injury/death by overworking (and more) were touched upon but almost all of them came and gone within a few scenes and not always with a resolution.
Otherwise, the show was designed to hit you with the feels and they definitely delivered. You would expect no less from the team that brought us so many top notch hit dramas.
BTW, it begs the question, was it a medical drama with a strong romance undertone or a rom-com set in a hospital?
Acting - fantastic.
Production value - excellent.
OST - loved it! You gotta laugh at the joke they played on the FL.
Rewatch - absolutely (maybe not every episodes)
One final thought, the last episode was extra long and I appreciated that they gave all the characters time and space to tidy up their own story arcs but while some questions were answered, more were left hanging so please bring on season 2! Ppalli ppalli!
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