The Psychologist (2021)

Strong Start But Then Became A Downhill Runaway Train

This series had a ton of potential. A show about a psychologist counseling patients with various problems and in depth look at just how each session progressed. Her own life and the life of her friends, family, and romantic interest as well the antagonist were all very strongly introduced. Each main plot and subplot were going well until about episode 29, around that time this smooth moving train lost its conductor and started to go downhill at top speed.

The subplots started to obscure the main plot, the characters behavior didn't align with what they had previously done and many useless characters were brought in without a proper explanation to cause trouble only to completely vanish later in the same way they appeared. Or scenes that were shown in opening and closing credits, never actually happened. The guess is that after the first review and cut in episodes, the editing was done extremely poorly.

The main antagonist aka el creepo or YJH was forgiven or given a slap on the wrist judgment for really horrendous things. His character development was a constant tug of war between evil and some version of good. Though he was hell bent on revenge, it seemed his revenge was aimed at the wrong people and totally misguided by his adoptive father who was the real criminal in the entire plot.

The mega scandal promised in the synopsis that would evoke HD's sleep walking problem; didn't and wasn't that huge. It was also left for the final 11 episodes to sort out. HD's father was thrown into the mix and neither that relationship nor problem was solved in the end. Many of these main plots were left hanging. I'm all for a cliffhanger as I've written my share of them, but you need to tie some of the loose ends up and leave just one hanging to really grab the audience, not 36 of them. Which could speak to a season 2 but considering how poorly written and executed the second half of the drama was, do people really want to see season 2? And will season 2 have the same cast because a whole new cast would make this a disaster. Plus c-ent has a tendency to do sequels up to 5 years after the fact and at that point everyone has lost interest.

Lilli's change in men was like a whiplash, because from rich, snotty, and "cute", in a span of one full episode she fell for an average Joe cop. It was as if, the writers really had no time to develop Lilli's evolution as a woman and wrote the polar opposite of what she fell for before like an epiphany of sorts and hoped the viewers wouldn't notice.

Instead of properly closing out this series, the writers threw in another couple for HD to help cure in 2 episodes. And the ending went from el creepo crying over his mom after she tried to kill herself, to an ambulance, to suddenly out of nowhere a monologue of HD talking about her work and the patients she's helped. The last episode honestly looked like it belonged to a completely different show. There were so many inconsistencies and inaccuracies, towards the end that I'm sure I missed explaining a lot here.

I commend all of the actors on their terrific acting but only that and the OSTs were what remained of a really great and strong show at the beginning. I was very much looking forward to this series and I'm really disappointed. Would I recommend? Depends. It certainly has its strong beginning, but a very weak and inconsistent second half and ending. Judge for yourselves if you choose to.

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A good and enjoyable psychological-romance drama with amazing lead chemistry

Actually, I watched this drama for Yang Zi. As her fan, I am satisfied. I have not watched any psychological dramas until this drama. I did not expect to enjoy the show as much as I did. I thought psychological dramas are not my type. But, this drama changed my opinion about these kinds of dramas. It took me a few episodes to get completely hooked. But, now, I can confidently say that this is one of the best Yang Zi drama I have seen to date. At first, I thought that 40 eps will be too much for a morden c-drama. But, now, I will be perfectly fine with another 40 eps. This drama got better episode by episode and left a deep impact about mental health in my mind.

Story: 9.5 stars
The course of story is just nice. I liked the way all the knots untied slowly. The stroy was neither draggy nor too fast. This drama is a psychological romance drama and it had just the right amount of psychology and romance.
This story shows us how important our mental health is. I also shows us the hardships faced my psychologists. This drama helps us to understand our mind, how it works and why it works like that.
Also the comedic scenes in the drama gave me relief after each serious psychological case.

Acting and Cast: 10 stars
I think I don't need to explain why I gave 10 stars. Yang Zi and Jing Bo Ran are veterans in the feild of acting. Intially, I wasn't familiar with JBR. I had only seen in the move One Smile is Very Alluring. At that time, I really didn't like him at all. But, this drama changed my perspective of him. Now, I think he is a versatile actor who is capable of acting comedic scene (which only some actors can manage perfectly).
I n this drama, YZ plays He Dun, a psychologist who faced a trauma when she was young and JBR plays Qian Kai Yi, a lively radio host. Both the lead were once highschool classmates. I won't say anymore or it would be a spoiler :D
The leads had great chemistry. It puts a smile on my face everytime they are on my screen together. :)
Also, the actors who played side characters like Ye Jia Hui and Tang Li Li did an amazing job. I especially liked the acress who played He Dun's mother, though I didn't really like her character.
Anyway, through this drama, I understood that YZ can nicely portray drunken scenes with kisses lol. (Those who have seen Go Go Squid! can understand me).

Music: 9 stars
I really like the OSTs of thsi drama especially the song Little Secret. The link to the song is given below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0J8dE5TU9E
Also the songs sung by YZ was also great, especially, Flower House Cafe. The link is given below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6fQvo9kWzU

Rewatch value: 8.5 stars
I don't really rewatch dramas. I don't have the time for that at the moment. But, I really don't want to admit that the rewatch value is so low for a Yang Zi's drama as she is my fav actress. If I rewatch any drama at any point of time in the future, the probability is less that I would pick this drama.

Overall: 8.5 stars
I have given the darma what it deserves: 8.5 stars. I am not being partial, but, this drama deserves it. I hope the rating of this drama increase in the coming days.
This drama is an enjoyable watch. There won't be a dull moment for you in this drama if psychological dramas are of your type.

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