Good Doctor (2013)

I just realized that there is US tv show going by the same name  (and obv same story line) atleast based on the 1st episode....
In regards to this show.... Its a good show but I kind of zoned out by ep 15.... good one to watch when nothing else to do. :)
The acting was quite okay.... nothing special to talk about...the story-line is unique and genuine.
If you have ever watched US hospital-centric shows.... this show does not really stand out that much though.
But overall a good enough show to spend some time and enjoy..... although there are some obvious cringe-worthy characters and scenes here and there :)

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Accepting People For Who They Are!

I’ve now seen three series with autistic characters being the subject. “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay” was the first with Oh Jung Se giving an absolutely riveting performance! The second was “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” with the incomparable Eu Bin Park. And ironically, despite this series coming out before all of them, I finally watched this one with Joo Won also giving a tremendous performance. However, that being said, “Good Doctor” is easily my least favorite of the three.

Dr. Park Shi-On is an autistic young man who aspires to become a pediatric surgeon. Growing up with a sadistically brutal father who beat him relentlessly due to his disability, he’s eventually raised by the loving Dr. Choi who is the director of Sungwon Hospital. Dr. Choi hopes to help Dr. Park fulfill his dream; a dream he made after watching his older brother die in an accident in a mine.

Dr. Park has many obstacles to overcome, not the least of which are prejudice and discrimination, not only among his own colleagues but among parents too. Because of his persistence, he doesn’t give up and finds solace it the little souls of the pediatric ward who really don’t see him as anything other than a person. A slightly strange person, perhaps, but as a person nonetheless. Such is having the eyes of a child and seeing the world that way. Guilt, shame, and prejudice are all learned behaviors.

The first seven or eight episodes are tough to wade through as we see Dr. Park taking constant verbal abuse, especially from his mentor and superior, Dr. Kim Do Han and his chief assistant, Dr. Cha Yoon Su. Dr. Kim goes so far as to punch Dr. Park after a surgery. What is ironic is that Dr. Kim had a younger brother with autism, and yet he openly abuses Dr. Park without apology. If you truly think that abusive teaching methods are the best way to teach anyone, then you have no idea just how primitive and ignorant your beliefs are. Dr. Cha—in some ways—is even worse. She rebukes him with, “Stop acting like a kid!” She also physically hits him a number of times, but her even bigger “crime” is treating Dr. Park like he’s broken.

Dr. Kim justifies his treatment of Dr. Park with a strange question to Dr. Cha: “Would you rather have a great doctor who makes poor decisions or an average doctor who makes great decisions?” His point is that he wants Dr. Park to be the latter. However, his ignorance clouds his judgment as he clearly overlooks the third option to that question: Why not a great doctor who makes great decisions? That is what he should inspire Dr. Park to be. There is absolutely no justification for abuse. None. As an ESL teacher who has spent most of his career in Asian countries, I know that this isn’t something that has been completely expunged. Many teachers and even parents still firmly believe that abuse is necessary. They may not call it “abuse” but abuse it is.

Dr. Kim slowly begins to take to Dr. Park. However, during one particularly disturbing scene, Dr. Park is being beaten up by two bullies. Dr. Kim sees what is happening. He gets out of his car and walks to help Dr. Park. Walks. Not run. That was more disturbing than watching Dr. Park getting assaulted which showed just how little Dr. Kim thinks of Dr. Park.

Toward the last five episodes or so, it becomes clear that Dr. Cha is starting to develop feelings for Dr. Park, despite Dr. Park being rejected early on when he shares how he feels with her. However, Dr. Cha makes one big mistake when she goes out a blind date and finds that Dr. Park isn’t upset about it. Anyone who truly thinks that jealousy equals love doesn’t know love at all. Jealousy has absolutely nothing to do with love. Jealousy is about ego, power, fear, and control—things that love can never be. In many ways, Dr. Park proves himself to be far wiser and more mature than Dr. Cha, who frankly, has a lot of growing up to do.

The medical episodes regarding the pediatric patients were the most intriguing part of the series to me. I loved how Dr. Park could empathize and relate to them, using his own child-like purity. The surgeries were fairly well done, despite some serious flaws (such as doctors contaminating each other by touching each other in the OR which happened several times!)

However, the relationships weren’t quite as compelling to me. Dr. Park’s father is just a drunken, abusive tyrant, and it was disturbing to see how Dr. Park’s mother wilts around him, proving herself to be a very weak woman. The actor playing Dr. Park’s father was a bit too over-the-top for my taste. Barking and spewing nonsense in virtually every scene quickly became tiresome.

Quite frankly, the relationship between Dr. Cha and Dr. Park that develops toward the end of the series just didn’t feel organic or real enough. Moon Chae Won is a very good actress, but she almost seemed lost in how to make Dr. Cha actually develop romantic and loving feelings toward Dr. Park. She never says, “I like you” or even “I love you.” She only ever talks about how uncomfortable she is with Dr. Park possibly dating someone else (again, a sign of jealousy and possession; not love at all). “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” the romantic angle worked because the ML accepted and loved her for who she was; he never wanted her to change. We don’t get that same feeling from Dr. Cha who is constantly trying to get Dr. Park to change who he is. And anyone should know that whenever you enter a relationship with the hope of changing the other person, the relationship is ultimately doomed to fail. Relationships are always about the possibility of changing yourself, not the other person.

Initially, Dr. Cha obviously has a crush on Dr. Kim. It’s both sad and disturbing that she would find Dr. Kim even remotely appealing after his blatant abusive behavior toward Dr. Park. It certainly doesn’t speak well about her taste in men at all, Dr. Park notwithstanding.

We have a political power struggle doing on at the hospital which works somewhat well. In many ways, however, it just didn’t add much to the story, which should have kept its focus on Dr. Park.

In Jae was one of my favorite characters of the series; a young teenager who’s desperately in need of an intestinal transplant and her sister who is doing everything she can to raise enough money to pay for it. I loved In Jae’s interactions with Dr. Park. She clearly has a crush on him, and it’s sweet how she tries to help him navigate the minefield of “first love” when she finds out that the object of his affections is Dr. Cha.

Performances are largely very well done, with the notable exception of Jung Ho Geun (Dr. Park’s father). Standouts to me are Joo Won (Dr. Park), Kim Hyun Soo (In Jae), and Kwak Do Won (Mr. Kang), who plays the deputy director of the hospital with a calm, calculating demeanor which I found refreshing.

This medical drama also has the worst defibrillation scenes I've ever seen! The victims don't react or jump because the doctor removes the paddles during defibrillation! Sad that they couldn't even do those scenes right.

All in all, the series is good, but overall, it fell short for me, especially in some of its depictions of autistic people (which I found far more appealing in the other two series mentioned). I understand that they wanted to show how hard it would be for Dr. Park, but I found some of the scenes to be overkill and even more troubling how people continued to treat him as a broken man who needs to be fixed. If the moral of the series had been to treat people as they are and to accept their differences no matter what, then perhaps this series may have been far more inspiring than it truly was.

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Amazing - Could have been higher, if there were less episodes

Good Doctor, despite the nature of 'good' in the title - is actually an amazing drama that includes perhaps the best acting given by a ML that I have ever seen. While all the acting was superb, the ML was on another level. The story itself was really interesting, although at parts seemed a little stagnant and was drawn out perhaps a little too long. I would have given a higher rating possibly if they fit all the story into a couple of episodes less than the 20 created. OST was superb and was fitting with the drama involved.

While this a great watch, if you are new to watching medical dramas, I would recommend something with a little more action first. If you've watched medical dramas before though I think you will be able to ease into the story better. For something created in 2013, I have to admit, what a trendsetter! In the end I did really enjoy this, acting and story especially.

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Un drama medico con una marcia in più.

Mi piacciono i drami medici e questo visto il successo del rifacimento americano e tutti quelli fatti un po' da per tutto mi incuriosiva,volevo vedere il principio di tutto.Un drama medico ma questo oltre a casi nedici di ogni tipo,relazioni medico paziente etc ha una marcia in più con questo tirocinante medico autistico che rende tutto più interessante. L'attore è stato fantastico ad interpretare questo ruolo tanto complesso e con tante sfaccettature,che dal "ritardato" con abilità fantastiche è diventato un adorabile e molto amato e stimato dottore.E ovviamente e questo che rende questo drama così accattivante.Mi è piaciuto anche che alla fine ce l'amore per lui nonostante tutto e anche per altre coppie.
Ho detestato il padre di lui 🤬 ma bravo l'attore.
Tutti bravi e bellissimo drama che prima di buttarsi sui vari adattamenti sarebbe bello vedere.
Lo consiglio a chi ama in genere!

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Excellent authentic Drama

This was wonderful. I watched the Canadian /US version first which was well done especially by the young man Shaun, who was excellent, but it wasn't a patch on the original South Korean Version. The South Korean Drama was Authentic, Heart Warming, Natural and Beautiful. , in contrast with the North American one which was Superficial, Showy, Fast and somewhat Heartless. It was well acted but the characters were what you would exect from the land of exceptionalism.
I am so pleased that I tuned into this version. The Acting was fabulous and the story was Superb. The Male and Female leads were great as was their Head Doctor, I dread to think what the Americans will do to Crash Landing on You, which is a Classic that should not be touched. South Korean and Chinese Dramas leave Hollywood for dead. I am so happy that I discovered them,

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L O V E was spelled in intangible ways in this drama, mostly by the wise and compassionate hospital’s Director and ever loving hyung. It is seconded by the fellow, chief resident, senior nurse and long time young patient. The story showed the condition of human hearts when it sees a fellow human heart packaged in a different way, whether you are blood related or just another passerby on the street.

I particularly liked how the drama slowly showed Dr. Park Shi On learn the gray areas in life, those that didn’t quite fit in the things he studied or memorized. Initially, he only knew about the good and the bad but he eventually learned about responsibility as well, sometimes in the hardest of ways. Not only did the series showed how his amazing brain figured out solutions to the crises of anatomical structures but it also showed how he threaded through the things of the heart that he could not quite understand. It was very encouraging to see how he didn’t give up, no matter how heart wrenching the situation was. He honestly admitted his fears and is forthright that he is “still different from others”, no pretence that we so often see around us daily, I think a combination of all these made him the loving hero in the eyes of the people around him, those who care to look I should add. In desperate times, the Asst Director’s words resonated with me , “we choose our hope”, in whatever form or shape that may be. For Park Si On, it was hyung and his rabbit.

Needless to say that Joo Won’s acting has made me believe that he was anything but autistic, just beautiful. He most definitely deserved the the award he received for this performance , bravo! His young counterpart was brilliant, I don’t know how this kid can have such a grasp of the character to portray it so flawlessly! I have nothing bad to say about the supporting cast although the FL acting on the first episode was on the overacting side I thought, made me almost drop the show but Joo Won saved it. Love how the chief surgeon portrayed his prickly facade but warm underneath role and Chief Go’s comedic touch hit the mark at the right times,

I did not like the romance part, the timeline (3 months) was too short to have a solid base for the relationship, it made the series unnecessarily longer. I really had to drag myself to watch those episodes, a lot of hits on my forward button. I didn’t really care about the political plot and not much love to the pretty manager character either. Music was so so.

Will I recommend it? Yes, yes, yes!

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This was a great performance by joo won. I believed his character and if I dint know him well i would've thought he was autistic. The characters were well played but the focus was more on park shi won. His dad did a great job as a lousy father i hated him, vice president was a chameleon, the fellow doctors were good looking and the kids brought some life and fun to the story. the story also showed how koreans portray and deal with handicap. Its very scary thus lots of suicide. Anyways there wasnt much to the romance scenes. Just glimpses and a kiss. contrary to popular belief i dint cry at all. I felt sad for shi won but i was cheering him on silently. Oppa fighting!!!

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