The thread is open.
I’m moving your posts here, @Stacy, @cleopatra and @Goodtwin just to be organized. 🙂
Let’s enjoy the show.
40 Comments On “Doctor Slump: Eps 1 & 2 Open Thread”
Comments are closed.
The thread is open.
I’m moving your posts here, @Stacy, @cleopatra and @Goodtwin just to be organized. 🙂
Let’s enjoy the show.
Comments are closed.
@Stacy said…
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Watched episode 1 and I’m in, though I reserve the right to change my mind.
Ep 1 was all setup, giving a glimpse into the leads’ high school days and the beginnings of their competition. I didn’t mind the HS days as much as I thought I would; although neither can really pull off the high school look anymore, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
And I’m calling it – PHS’s character was framed.
@Cleopatra replied to @Stacy’s post
******************
Hello,
I second Stacy’s assumption. The anaesthesiologist is suspicious to me…
The patient cannot bleed so much without reason. She was either given a substance or she had a disease that kept a secret. (I hadn’t watched that part yet)
Still, PHS’s story is more dark than PSH’s…
@Good Twin’s post.
***********
My theory, which is a long shot, is that the husband set him up to kill his wife. I could watch PSH pout any day of the week. I found parts of first episode hard to watch because I hate depictions of bullying. I thought she was getting set up with that aortic dissection to have the patient die on her. But it was him. I was happy to see her kick the shins of her boss in the previews.
Thanks @pm3! Planning to watch ep 2 as soon as I get home from church.
Hello…
Started watching Episode 2 and I stopped the episode to write something down here:
I beg to differ what happened to PHS’s character is not a slump…! His reputation was destroyed purposely! This is called a character’s assassination.
After watching those two episodes, I have to say that something is missing regarding PHS character’s arc.
We have a character’s assassination that the jakkanim downplay as a slump.
No, it is not a slump as I wrote above.
His friends who were gaining money from his success betrayed instantly him when he was in his lowest.
His staff didn’t stand with him. The anaesthesiologist that was involved was not summoned as a suspect by the Prosecutor’s Office. He was the one who used a mixture of drugs but he is MIA. His attorney was not prepared. Someone erased the video. I feel all these are over the place.
The Police didn’t find in the primary search and seizure any evidence, but miraculously the vital responsible of the patient’s death was discovered in a bin.
This is not an arc to be easily forgotten by our ML character when they made him to be seen as a liar (based on the preview).
This whole story could make him go crazy and in a depression worse than the FL’s one.
Yeah okay, the jakkanim wants the OTP to heal each other, but the comedy so far seems to be forced.
I don’t have anything with Park Hyung Sik or Park Shin Hye’s acting.
I just feel that something is off and the ones who should investigate it are not doing their job.
The same goes with PHS’s kutsunim. Inside the surgery were people, other doctors and nurses who saw who broke those veins and they let him accuse his hoobae in front of the VVIPs. Are they kidding us? There is no disciplinary action against him for making his Top student and doctor take the blame and make her quit?
I feel like we see a farse.
I am continuing watching the show because of the OTP, but I am not happy with the jakkanim at the moment…
Enjoyed ep 2 and firmly on board the PSH/PHS train 😀
It was very satisfying to see Ha Neul stand up to her abusive professor/supervisor/whatever he is. I also appreciate that the show is, so far, handling the depression aspect well. I’m sure the show won’t be perfect in that regard, but so far so good.
Episode 1: I’ve trouble to enter that, but have difficulty to point why.
Directing: there is a kind of soft blur on image, making like it outdated, or putting me away from reality WHILE at the same time, the directing is brillant. The shots, the atmospheres, can be sunny one or the beautiful work on shadow and light in the surgery room or the court.
Story: it start with the FL having (what’s look like) a deadly accident. So I guess it could be a flashforward scene. Like she die then tell what happens before.
We see school scenes, everything ok. Then jump to current time. ML does plastic surgery, I keep a bit less track of the FL. And why she’s so depressed when going before the truck. I missed a step at this point.
She escapes death from the truck, but maybe we know that later, for now we jump to a surgery room. HERE, I’m 100% convinced it’s her on the table, and surgeon try to save her. But… death! Hummm.. what…
OH, just after it was not her, but someone else? Gosh, so why make this scene connexion truck-surgery putting us in confusion?
Then, it was supposed to be a plastic surgery operation? WHAT?!!!
When the mood was like ER critical surgery like for a deadly accident?
And we don’t see the face of surgeons, impossible to recognize someone.
The ML was here or not? Don’t know!!
Cliffhanger: I scratch my head again. ML is on this roof. By the way, what’s that roof. And what he does here? ‘Don’t know!!!
By the time I write this, I think I know why I can’t stick: CONFUSION.
Hi @WE, @Cleo and Everyone, I’ve watched Ep 1 and am starting Ep2. I cannot blame @WE for being confused, because I feel it was a deliberate directorial choice to confuse viewers. It offers us poor approximation of the state of mind of our protagonists in the 2nd half of Ep 1. LOL. They are confused and so we too feel their pain.
In the beginning we entered the world of the 2 ace students who were supposed to excel in their adulthood at great professions. We heard Ha Neul’s mother’s rejoicing and expectations when she was a mere teenager, and so Ha Neul and Jeong Woo believed in their bright futures too, only to come up slam-bang into reality.
They are also in confusion that their lives have turned out the way they have, seeming to fail so soon after great promise.
(Continued)
@Cleopatra – I agree something is off with the tone. PHS character is so man/childish and manic. To me he seems like he is overacting – but I’d blame the director since we know that as an actor he is much better that. (Happiness) I think she is having a better time of it with the script.
It looks like this drama will have a stalker too – there was a shadowy figure that her brother saw. It looks like his jealous doctor rival colleague will actually be an ally (maybe too soon to tell) and will he be in a relationship with her best friend?
I enjoyed the soju medical speak scene and now know what a sturdy buttress the skull is.
It really feels like a classic kdrama especially with PSH as the female lead. I’ll keep tuning in for now.
(Continued)
The Slump
I agree with @Cleo that the slumpsthat these doctors find themselves in, is not just burnout slump (or like how a great sportsman loses his winning streak) but a decline caused by external forces. However the other part of being in a slump is being down in the dumps, depressed (not only clinically like HN) and low in spirits and activity for a long time. Perhaps it’s the second understanding of slump that the title refers to.
The confusion of how what happened to them, could have happened at all, is what compounds the sense of being ‘defeated’, (the term that came up in Jeong Woo’s voiceover).
At their lowest point, these mutual nemeses end up ‘living’ together, (practically) which is a sore thing for their once over-confident egos. It’s going to be interesting to see how they rise from the slump, first at each other’s throats and then hand-in-hand.
A thought hit me but slipped away again … sort of that I felt that this is one of those precautionary tales against unrealistic expectations, being over-achievers… and losing oneself.
Yeeaahh… So now I see more. The accident then the surgery.
It was a hook! Makes us believe she die, but no.
Suspens then “oh dudes, don’t worry”.
WELL, sounds good? Bad luck, it wasn’t my good time of day.
Risky move because when we sum that with all other little points… Confused!
Well, I just said crap before.
I’m rewatching a bit the parts I don’t get, and feel like I’m watching for first time.
I had an attention gap. I don’t remember how. But in fact it’s pretty clear.
Thank you for enduring these two previous useless comments. 😅
@WE Good to know that you’re more on board with the Show now. It was a cute set-up. Two rivals from their heyday of competing become two unemployed failures at about the same time. It’s as if even in failure they are competing, LOL.
It’s a relief that by end of Ep 2, both of them know the lowest of the low of the other’s circumstances, so they don’t have to hide their pain or pretend to be fine. I like that in all their rivalry, they had never resorted to cheating, threats, bullying or violence, hence they have less to regret wrt each other, and their friendship can develop.
I like that HN acknowledges Jeong Woo’s honesty. He’d be petty and childish but he wouldn’t do something bad and blatantly lie about it.
@Good Twin and @Cleo,
Yes, strange the manic, childishness that crops up! I believe there are some people who just bring out the pettiness and childishness in others and these 2 characters trigger all those childish reflexes.
It’s good that they can become drinking buddies. Being able to offer solace to each other is a good start of a long-term relationship.
And of course I’m sure none of us missed the cherry blossoms again. Their relationship is being marked by blooming cherry blossom trees and sometimes falling petals. When they were kids, those were the trees to compete under as JW continued his childish antics in rivalry, even just trying to get to school before each other. As adults cherry trees are the canopy for their drunken camaraderie, forehead flicking and cry fest LOL.
Show won’t be complete without a scene when they are lovey-dovey under cherry trees, am I right?? 😂
Hello everyone!
I’ve watched Ep 1 and I agree with @Cleopatra about the character assassination on PHS. It’s difficult to watch and sad to say it is happening in real life. I am one of the victims of that for 25 years and it’s still happening to us. I can only expect justice from God that He is not abandoning us.
I will continue to watch this Kdrama because I like both lead actors. I hope that there will be justice to PHS career later in the show. I was also confused at first I thought that Ha Neul died. I enjoyed their younger faces in high school.
This is so strange, I’ve posted something twice about Ha Neul and Jeong Won, but neither post appears here.
(Continued)
Thoughts About Ha Neul and Jeong Woo
Ha Neul’s story makes a great case as a warning for parents of children who push themselves too hard. They can end up sick, depressed and suicidal, especially when reality takes them down. HN never thought to stop or ask for help even when her body was in pain. She had to literally collapse before realising that both body and mind were unhealthy. Thoughts welcoming death were a big wake-up call for help from her mind.
HN’s main reaction to the news of her depression was denial. She could not believe that she could be depressed because she’d always been in control of everything in her life to lead her to ‘success’. She finds that ‘success’ itself cannot be controlled because there is injustice, and in any case, her life lacks balance. She seems to have only one friend and a mother who places great expectations upon her constantly. I like that her mum quickly moved from denial to recognising her role in adding stress in bringing on HN’s illness.
Jeong Woo is juxtaposed against HN and is opposite in some ways. He’s the laidback ‘genius’ with lots of friends. Jeong Woo was perhaps a more truly talented individual who excelled without having to try hard. He only came under undue pressure when HN arrived to threaten his ace position in school. I hope we’ll get more (funny) back story as the weeks go by, to see how childishly they competed in school.
In his success, JW as an adult seems to have been generous as well as ‘social media-smart’, but unfortunately, the ones who wanted to take down the Macau ‘Casino Princess’ got him to take the fall.
We find by the beginning of Ep 2 that he is also now bearing the additional pressure from his parents who are in the States hoping for his father to be the first Asian President of some American medical association. On top of that, his so-called friends towards whom he’d been sincere, are jealous and resentful, and he has basically also only 1 friend who’s helping him.
Add to that, that someone is stalking or watching him and that he’s alone without parental support, I tend to feel that JW is the more pitiable character at the moment. (LOL even in their sorrows, JW and HN are inadvertently competing in my viewer’s mind, to be the more pitiable one!)
Hi @Eureka, I’m sorry to know that you’re a victim of character assassination. It’s so horrible, and so little we can do about it. In social media, faceless and nameless perpetrators get away with murder. The after effects are long and hard to erase.
Someone once surmised that in fan-wars and attacks on celebrities, a lot of it is done by those who have been disempowered (often youngsters). They find that starting or ganging up on a victim, swaying opinion and destroying someone else, gives them a feeling of having some power.
In the brutal business and political world, there are also those who are hired to assassinate others.
I hope that despite the bad, you will also be able to enjoy the good and continue to grow.
@pkml3, sorry, I think I posted something 3 times, thinking that I failed to do it the first 2 times. Please keep only the 3rd post and delete the 2 earlier ones if you can find them!
Hi everyone! I’m in! The part that got me is people in depression but they don’t know about it. It is very relatable o me. I found we work so hard to meet other people expectations and forgot to be kind to ourselves. We push so hard and work beyond our limit, we no longer hear the alarm bells from our body until someone else tells us.
Great to read you all again. I haven’t thought deep in the character arc so good to see your analysis 👍
Found all three in the spam box, @GB. Approved the 3rd post. 🙂
Episode 2 – Live watching.
As punishment for being inattentive during episode 1, I’m doing a timecode review for episode 2. 😅
01:32 – Voice-over connection and scene.
Ha Neul is talking about hitting rock bottom (depression) and in the street, people are watching a match on TV. The player has lost.
01:48 – Ditto, she’s talking about a hole.
Close-up on the garbage can.
05:00 – Big gags with sound effects aren’t my cup of tea.
But this one, with the bra in his face, made me laugh! 🥳
Icing on the cake, Ha Neul then goes on to elaborate on the bras she’s wearing for fear he’ll think it’s hers.
It continues with a forced cohabitation situation.
Tsaaaaa…. The writer has no shame!
07:29 – AAAHHH!!! The director is a prankster!
Check it out: Jeong Woo is looking right at us!!!
I can’t remember what it’s called.
He starts his sentence without finishing, good transition to flashback.
07:42 – It’s dehydrated coffee. So in soluble granules?
And Ha Neul swallows it like that?!!
Excellent idea!!! Bravo writer! 😉
A scene of good comedy ensues.
At this point I note the process to captivate us in this scene.
Just before the flashback, Jeong Woo hints that something bad is going to happen between them. So inevitably, we’re curious…
10:12 – Close-up on the midterm note: “second”.
Jeong Woo is about to faint, falls to his knees.
Tragi-comic effect with a symphony. (I don’t know who by, Wagner?)
10:50 – Always interesting, people’s reactions to his passing.
Just to make him feel even worse.
11:20 – Process: we stay with the flashback, but…
The voice-over becomes Ha Neul’s, giving her point of view.
Interesting when the flashback began with him.
It’s as if she were inserting herself into his flashback.
Ditto, she teases us, to make us curious “how did he get his revenge?”.
I wonder why she didn’t also buy a skateboard.
13:32 – Interesting scene order.
We entered the flashback with him.
But we come out with her, in a restaurant.
14:42 – I feel Jeong Woo is out of place.
He goes into student comedy mode.
He’s supposed to be depressed with a lawsuit on his hands.
17:50 – The neighbor comes to see Jeong Woo.
Same thing, I don’t like it. It comes from the writing.
However, natural process to present Ha Neul’s family ties. Good exposition.
Now, it’s clear that the drama wants to tip over into big comedy at any moment, instead of keeping the dramatic tone of the first episode.
18:52 – Woshhh. A stalker in the shadows.
31:10 – Scolding scene. Ha Neul takes a beating.
Did I tell you? I love scenes like this.
It’s always fun to see someone get yelled at. 😂
Professor Kim. Boooh! Jerk!!!
32:45 – This jerk can’t even plant an IV. Gnooo!
He’s always yelling at her, but she does all the work. SHAME!
37:24 – Something has gone wrong with the operation and Professor Kim blames Ha Neul for his own incompetence. INJUSTICE!!!
Of course, I love it! 😅
And it makes the character even more obnoxious!
38:30 – The infamy continues in the next scene.
The drama makes me happy at this point.
It demands that SHE take responsibility too!
Apologize on her knees!!! RooROOh oh oh oh…
Well, FINALLY, she finally rebels!
Yep, but she loses her job…
41:00 – Rumors are flying. Amusing.
45:00 – Ooops, the timecode is late.
Conflict scene with Ha Neul’s mother.
I’m ok with that too, conflicts are welcome.
Dialogue takes more investment to write than standard scenes, requires piloting for series of counter-arguments and emotional reaction.
50:50 – Timecode late. I’ll stop mentioning it. Just because I’m watching and don’t know if the scene will be interesting. Well, he’s heard she’s depressed. So has he. Invites her for a drink, the first time they’ve stopped bickering.
There’s Mary Poppins music playing in the background. I’ve disliked background music in drama for several times now. And even less so the little comic sound effects.
51:30 – But finally forced to attend a social event.
Sounds like it’s going to go badly for them.
I’m having trouble seeing the actor as a former clinic director.
Maybe he seems too young, or it’s the character often a bit childish.
57:00 – Drunk scene. Long and flat.
It’s limp until the end, when we get…
Park Shin Hye CRIES!!! Yo!!! Her best!!! Champagne!!! 😭😭😭😭😭
The crying fit starts off well, but when Jeong Woo cries too…. Cringe!!! Forced crying.
OUTCOME.
I drop the drama!!!
Nothing fundamentally bad. But I feel like watching or not watching would have the same effect on me. And I wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace for lack of time. I will lurk a bit, if maybe it’s good I could binge-watch another day.
I’ve read your comments now.
@Cleo, yeah, as you point it out. But I wasn’t too exigeant…
The drama goes seriously in total freestyle about coherence. 😆🤪
It’s the writer of “What’s wrong with secretary Kim?”.
Then my joke for episode 2:
What’s wrong with professor Kim?
Kalimera Everyone!
@Eureka, I am really sorry to learn about this. I do hope you are holding up. Have Faith that God indeed has your back. Justice will prevail. Sending Hugs and positive vibes your way!
Hey @GoodTwin,
Yes, I feel that they have made hims overreacting in a manic way because he could have lost it already.
Just because he seems okay, that doesn’t mean he cannot get a manic depression. He is afraid that people with black suits are following him to kill him and I cannot really blame him. This could easily turn into paranoia or bipolar disorder.
I just feel that the jakkanim is not doing a good job with portraying all these. It that was a thriller I would be okay, but this is a romcom.
As @WE wrote above I will say: What is wrong with the Jakkanim?
Unnie,
You have written a lot and I agree. Some parents have unrealistic dreams about their children that push them too hard.
I have to say that although Ha Neul has a loving family, Jeong Woo has none. His mother only cares about what it will happen to her husband. If they wanted to help their child, they would have hired the best attorney in SK to help him.
I mean, Jeong Woo is totally alone. And yes, he seems to be a truly talented individual since his high school years, whereas Ha Neul was reading and studying beyond her limits to compete herself and everyone else.
It is not mistake that she got depression. She simply didn’t know when to stop and enjoy her life. She still does, but the situation is not that bad for her.
I also, don’t like the trajectory of the show.
The simplistic notion: Love heals it all.
No, in some cases love cannot heal depression or character assassination. You need a cycle of loving individuals to feel safe first, then realize that you are sick and rest in order to protect yourself, but also the patient needs to take the chemicals prescribed by his / her doctor, because it has to do with your brain.
So far I feel that the jakkanim, is not treating her story right and not in a wise manner. She should do her research first, then change parts of the script for a better outcome.
It is a shame really because Park Hyung Sik really shines, but those cringey drunk moments were a shame.
I prefer the scenes where Jeong Woo is acting himself, feeling abandoned and betrayed by the world and the people, feeling lonely by the expections of his parents who don’t really care to ask how he is. Being an emotional human being who from one day to another lost everything, his status, life and good reputation.
@WE,
She is not a jakkanim that has no experience. She has years in the field and I expect her to write something pretty good. Her script also has to do with the actors and the staff working in this show.
I am not happy and we cannot say just because Park Hyung Sik and Park Shin Hye are in it, we should just watch it. If it is a flop then it is a flop and this has nothing to do with the acting, but the fault lies to the writing.
@Cleo,
She did also “My roomate is a guihmo”. I enjoyed, funny drama, and starts with the right tonality. Probably a bit of boredom part2, I don’t remember well.
What’s wrong with secretary kim: a 90% trope recycling drama. But still, it was funny. I’ve drop that end of episode 8. Not because it was bad, but I could feel the axe of boring romance part2 falling. I’ll never know, I had enough to be happy with just the comedy part.
What’s weird here, the first episode has some seriousness, not the same tone than episode 2. The writer do again the kind of fluffy comedy she’s used too. When according the tone of episode 1, it was more on the way to be like “marry my husband” about that. More stubtle comedy, or dark one. Not all comedy scenes where out-of-context, the ones at school were ok. In a flashback, with younger selfs, it’s ok.
Last slow scenes of episode 2 are a bad promonition for me. A preview of what could be the drama at some point. Else about various qualities of the drama, I mention some before. Episode 1 had gripping scenes too, thanks to the director. Truck, surgery (lot of tension), scolding.
What I dislike a lot in any series are Psychologist scenes. I feel like in a new-york based series with people talking-talking-talking, psychologize everything. Boring scenes with the goal to make the protagonists speak. But I’m still ok when the psychologist is in fact a psychopath villain. What happens often in kdramas. lol.
Of course the main actor follows the script, so if there is something wrong, it’s not his fault. About bad acting from him (and not from the script), I mostly saw last scene of episode 2, fake crying scene. This kind of thing makes suddenly the drama loose any credibility. But I don’t know if it’s really the acting, or even here there is some directing and they ask the actor to do it like that. Mystery. Just I dislike that, and saw that in so many dramas. Top one about that: the terrible “Blade man”.
@WE,
That makes it even more difficult to understand how (?) she wrote Doctor Slump like that. I really enjoyed “My Roommate is a Gumiho”, as for “What’s wrong with Secretary Kim” it had its funny moments.
We have three shows with very good actors participating in each project and in this one, they make Park Hyung Shik seem out of the place and that makes me angry, because I have watched him in other shows before and I know his caliber!
He is 32 years old and they made him act cuteish and cringey too. Of course, it was asked by the director to act like that.
After “Happiness” he deserves better. He is a very good actor and no, I don’t want to see him or PSH as teenagers any more. They have pretty good child and young adults actors to play their high school years.
It’s a shame really. I do hope PHS is okay himself.
@Cleo. Maybe it’s not the good drama to watch? I don’t know.
Here, I’m dropping it because I fear I can’t follow too many shows. You could see, I watched episode 1 at the wrong time and missed so many points.
Maybe I have also some kind of intuition it could be bad?
Or at least nothing that captivate me enough to continue.
I find Marry My Husband more amusing, I’m always curious about the villain scenes.
And it keeps the right tonality, with more subtle dark comedy.
I even prefer to continue my sporadic watching of Vincenzo. A drama I disliked during a long time, until I find its pace and style. Easy too watch, even when I’m tired.
Maybe I do the good move to drop, like did GB with “My Demon” ? So, if she continues the drama and get pissed-off at some point, I could come here and laugh at her.
Kah ah ah (sadistic laughing).
Hi @Cleo and @WE
@WE, maybe I’ll just continue so that I can hate-watch (I like to give this activity a long convoluted name) the show. It depends. I found the flashbacks quite comical and that told me that on one hand, Show did not want to be too serious. In fact it wants to touch only lightly on difficult issues. However, on the other hand, there is still weighty stuff that Show seems to want to portray, and with Ha Neul’s health and with the stalker, the tone is more serious.
If the Writer (and or PD) is trying to showcase mental health issues in both the OTP, then she’s making Jeong Woo’s character too facile for us to take seriously. Ha Neul’s portrayal of the illness is more realistic.
I’m guessing that the main focus will be on the recovery from being deep-down depressed or from being down and out, to getting somewhere with some success and that mental health will be only a side consideration. @Cleo will, I’m sure, watch every move in this direction of becoming well with eagle eyes to spot if the proper steps are taken to heal the mind. 😂😅
Munificent thanks @pkml3!
@GB, I see.
Piercing eyes will watch closely, very closely this drama, with harsh critisism and no mercy, nitpicking every little wrong. It will be an epic watch. lol!
I have a funny anecdote. I knew a sport teatcher. Always doing a lot of sport. And saying to me “when we do excercise and have good body health, we are never depressed”. One day he got a death in his familly, and few time later, he says to me : “oh boy, the doc found out I was depressed but I wasn’t even aware, so good I feel with my sport”. 😉
@WE, interesting anecdote. We can be so much in control and full of good, physical health that we do not know we are mentally not healthy?
I will be like Ha Neul and say that I cannot be depressed! I shall watch this show with a finger on the ‘hate’ button LOL.
Let’s see if the tone settles into something more consistent and understandable. Perhaps there’s a pattern in the ‘madness’. If we watch long enough, we may notice it. Unlike the other show you mentioned that I dropped, if this one does not feel as if it disrespects the viewer, I’ll give it a chance to unfold. 🧐🤨😜
@GB, I just watched last episode of MMH now, and it’s like… suddenly Dr Slump has fallen in an abysssssssssssss… (many “s”, because yeah, the fall is long).
Yeh-yeh-yeh, finger on hate button. Now I feel better. I know at some point you will freak-out. It will be so funny to come here and tickle you. 😂😂😂
I hope it will be late. Episode 14. WHAHA HAHHAAA HHAAAA AAAH (evil laugh! 🎃).
@WE Hahahahahah! You’re tickling me already!!!! 😂🤣😅😆 I’m laughing so loudly, fortunate my son ran away in time.
I’m about to watch bits and pieces of MMH… no chance to sit and watch completely at one stretch. Yes MMH is better. DS is not that great, but it’s ‘badness’ has not reached the point of pushing me past no return. I will monitor the badness meter. 😜
Unnie,
When I am not happy with something I am just saying it. If It was introduced to us as a farse or something else I would be prepared, but nope! They wanted to introduce it to us as a healing rom com.
The jakkanim should take notes from “Chocolate” to see how they were dealing with difficult themes, in order to incorporate them to this show.
I was not keen to watch this show to start with. It is NOT a show about burn out Or a slump. I watched the first five minutes and that was it. I will read people’s opinions.
And reconsider If the show is evolving into something I want to watch Or not.
@cleopatra @WEnchanteur @GB @Monmor
PHEW!!I had to scroll right to the first batch of comments on Ep 1 / Ep 2 by ya’ll to get some validation that I am not the only one who was totally frustrated by the Drama.
(Maybe you all have changed your mind and still watching .. but I’ll hazard this anyway)
Sometimes I just cannot make sense of MDL ratings – ha ha ha – the raving that’s going on there.. I made a rapid exit saving my behind from the yapping snapping, were I to be honest out there )
Disclosure : I have dropped PHS and PSH (was that an intentional casting? Pick letters and see who matches) and don’t plan to torture (PMS-like ache) my way through it ~ especially since AaSoL awaits, for a long weekend’s binge-like plunge into its plush seductive core.
(LOL ~ SORRY but I do carry this blind, faith-laden love for Wu Lei because of all the roles and dramas he’s done. If I can trust the previous shows Wu Lei has chosen to feature in, I am 90% on the mark for AaSoL to be a winner).
Anyway I digress from DS : things that left me high (only to drop me) and things that left me dry (like desiccated paste that was scraped up and powdered) follow, not in any strict chronological order appearance on drama.
~ A super cute beginning
Classic comedy (bit OTT with the fight and fisticuffs at dinner, dish-chucking, food flinging while PSH blithely works her way through her school textbook).
Reminds me of the shweet, light-touch comedic beginning of the classic Go Soo starring Drama, “Will it Snow for Christmas?” the unfurling the banners celebrating a town’s top student etc.
There is the intro of new topper student in school trope – OK love it..
Never gets old nor bores me..
She snaps at flocking classmates like a turtle with a sharp bite. Badass FL set up? Am loving it.
Curious, polite but jealous ML set up.. Not bad..
So we have one hardworking-to-the-bone, ambitious, addicted to studying, super achiever, admired by her Busan milieu FL; the other a seemingly, step by step planner(he needs to write ALL the steps of his math problem to get a solution VS her magicking it all in her head), an easygoing, paley, narcissistic, smooth-sailing achiever ML.
LOVE IT.
Am all eager for some dramatic scenes that work ON this contrast..
Only to be given a “silly race” which ends in a “goofy faced, heart-eyed” FL putting her hand into ML’s and then jumping over him, while he stamps his feet (cringe-cringe stamping that I did not wish to see PHS doing .. isn’t he the cool dude who would shrug off the slight, not throw a ‘girly huff’). That’s pretty much it for drama of the opposite temperaments.
~ OK fine let’s assume that it was a brief drama slip up. We have gone past worse (in DramaLand) and persevered.
Cut to the scene of a HUGE, I mean National-Conference HUGE, gathering, purportedly there to watch PHS receive an Award. Is he the only one getting the award that day? ((he’s the ONLY one we see getting an award and giving a TY speech).
If he’s the guy of the moment .. well .. No one even notices him when he walks in (we by then learn he is a YouTube – ok ok NeoTube – Celebrity with a million plus viewers and there are no reporters? No cranking out questions with mic thrust into face?
I mean, how used to are we, watching dramas with celebs with million plus viewers wearing a mask and hoodie, wading through a tide of people .. incognito .. or entering through backdoors.
Fine, Drama is upto some witchery .. But then no one in the gathering inside even greets him, no one walks up to him, or even turns to look at him..
Except his teeny coterie around a table?
(I haven’t seen Yoon Park in such an ‘overacting’ role before .. he is usually pretty subtle and did well in the few shows I have seen him in, mainly as a guest or support act.)
The SLIDE is beginning but I am still holding on the rails and hoping it will stabilise.
~ There was a belly-holding PSH who stumbles out of the hospital and falls to her knees in the middle of the street while the truck of doom comes rushing at her ..
NIIICE dialogue, about the “3 minute moments of life” .. Drama is holding out poetic beauty in OST and camera work .. I am SO HOPEFUL .. this is style!
There is PHS’ terror-struck eyes as he tries to save a blood spewing patient on the OT .. Table death? (Now, I KNOW Table Death – it’s a big shindig – being a hard core medical Drama viewer who rated all seasons of Dr Romantic 10/10 and Hospital Playlist an equally hot number) ..
Ooooo .. so our ML meets our FL at the OT and??
Our mind is in a flurry of possibilities right at the get set go line ..
~ Ah no .. false(tto) alarm going off here .. It’s Lady from Macau.
As someone who has watched ENOUGH dramas about the gangs of Macau and the grisly business that oozes out from those islands, my excitement is rising once again .. this beauty with the suited muscles around her is going to stir up the hornet’s nest ..
Ah? Wait a sec .. usually there is a don, by now, or his henchmen who have a scene here .. a word or two with the head of the Clinic (our award winning ML) that ups the ante about what’s at stake should this surgery fail. No?
OKAY .. ALL that muscle is bypassed; and we are looking at a flatliner. Hmm.
~ Fine, now can we get some action? No?
Straight cut to court scene .. A half-baked defence and prosecution (with nary a vein throbbing, heart rate is 60 bpm) that looked more like a play at school assembly written by primary school kids AND bada bada bing “here’s the anti-coagulant bottle from the trash can with his fingerprint” ..
Guilty!! Done.
Oops.
Did I fall asleep in the middle?
Did Episode 2 begin and I missed half of Ep 1?
Where did all the ‘work’ that should have gone into establishing some minimal ‘belief in the way things are done,’ some coherence to the fact that PHS is the boss of 10 clinics countrywide and would have returned to work to speak with his deputies and top staff; gotten on and off a non-stop vibrating phone .
I mean isn’t he the most adored BOSS of the masses AND of his staff (three of those coffee chugging bottom of the rung staff told us that he is a GREAT Chief).
Ah; I see there are some ‘goon-ish’ shareholders (?) Or are they the typical loan sharks of Kdrama? Or their official debt-collectors?
They are waiting at a street side eatery where “Boss” walks in; desultory, wearing a vague expression (director didn’t know what face PHS should wear at that moment?) and a fight ensues IN shadow play (why? because it costs a lot to choreo a real fight? LOL).
Why doesn’t PHS have the habit, the wherewithal to drown his heart out at a pish-posh resto-bar? Which one expects to be his watering hole? No? Too much? He’s a narcissistic show off who likes to lurk at cheap street stalls?
Where is his man-Friday Secy? Don’t they all have one .. they should have given him one (a good Supporting actor) who sits next to him on that bar stool .. while he’s wracking his brain wondering what next?
A 10 Billion Won Business is wiped out? HOW? Was this all built on Nigerian Scam money?
I am losing it and skiing down fast.
~ PSH? Why has her personality altered this much? Short of being diagnosed as ‘bipolar’ (or being possessed by a ghost) there is no other link to tell us why in less than 6-7 years (how long does it take to be a resident / full time doctor in Korea?) she’s gone from badass snapping turtle with sky-saluting confidence to under the doormat, abuse-hurled, lost waif??
Who IS that caricature of a Professor (would he be less effective if not drawn with such cardboard cutout flair) .. and BTW do we need more than one, identical, scene of throwing papers at PSH to establish he’s toxic and she is beaten and defeated?
She is at a random hospital, facing random anger from a Toon Proff.
How can I not recall the ‘mean docs and proffs’ from other dramas (recall Fireworks of My heart toughie HOD who made FL’s life quite pathetic for a while .. even the evil doc of Dr Romantic had more comic radiance if that’s what DS is going for, or even in DOCTORS .. PSH had her evil Doc in that too, more organic than this cut and paste role).
~ Am I watching a spoof of several Kdrama genre tropes?
Then the scene by the river .. PHS laments to the river, the sky and his friend (?) about the 10 billion won .. then STAMPS his feet (OH CRINGEY stamp again); I mean who at that age and position in society and maturity enough to handle a vast chain of clinics throws a tantrum akin to a 13 year old who’s just lost a match!!
SO yeah I am almost at the end of my tether ..
No, the show didn’t auto roll into Ep 2 .. I am still in Ep 1 medley .. wondering NOW what?
Will they meet?
What event will bring these two face to face again?
Ah .. just climb up to your roof with beer cans .. do a little ‘drama-tripping’ balance loss trope (for what purpose god knows because she hasn’t yet opened a single can); spot someone behind the billowing white sheets after more white sheets (does her mom run a laundry service?) ..
No it’s not Empress Ki style Ji Chang Wook spotting Ha Ji Won to the swell of OST and dreamy camerawork ..
It’s, VOILA .. PHS in flannel, with slimmed down for this drama, jawline??
The scriptwriter found the shortest, least troublesome way to bang the two leads together again .. I might as well b watching a short puppet show.
They are hammy-acting their way through the “surprise” .. hey you .. the last I saw you was under the cherry blossom.
~ Those beer cans?? When was the last time a “clinically depressed” human at the verge of suicide, and total breakdown, sprightly, cheerily, declare to the world, “Rubbish, I ain’t ill .. I can fight this.” (She almost does a Miss Eliza Doolittle feet tap with a sparkle in her eye, and tooting “with a little bit of luck” I can get over this!!) Now this song will stick like tape under your shoe even if try you flick it away.
~ It’s a stretch to imagine that a medically trained doctor has NEVER heard of what constitutes clinical depression (PSH is all layperson, round eyed, disbelieving, a neophyte to the concept), even school kids these days know all about mental health; suppressed anger, guilt, therapy and medication.
Is the drama not set in this century’s 20’s??
She’s a qualified doctor for Heaven’s Sake .. that too a bona fide, SCHOOL’s Ace Student.
Who knows an Ace Student who is illiterate in basic GK about such issues, far less a qualified doctor of medicine? / surgery?
Lemme tell you .. from experience .. doctors KNOW the basics, PSYCH 101
Anyway .. I am flogging a dead horse here.
So basically I could either decide to watch this as a “farce” / as a “Spoof” just as a time filler .. OR find something else to play with.
Trust me .. this is horrific a train-wreck in slow mo – of course only for those whose Drama Lens is set like mine ROFL.
I’d love to return to read what ya’ll have to say at the end of this (bwa ha ha ha) ..
I in the meantime will mess around with some old faves in bits and bites of rewatch .. until the weekend .. and MEET up with AaSoL .. It’s a date .. and then I shall join that AaSoL thread which @packmule3 has thankfully opened
And I leave a deep KOWTOW to those who felt mocked and hurt .. please don’t be .. we all have had experience of a precious drama of ours morphed to slime with their wands of resounding arguments against it.
It’s OK .. we will live to enjoy other dramas in unison 😀
Dear @Bosuji,
Hello and nice to meet you! I read this with a smile. You made me laugh at times!
Unfortunately, the chakkanim has made a mistake with this script. Although, she uses the simple way out, later on, you will see that she really knows how to write good and romantic scenes for the OTP.
Still, I don’t like that the Production has both Park Hyung Sik and Park Shin Hye who are pretty good actors and they are utilizing their talent like that. But that is just me… 😋
BTW, welcome on B.o.D!
Hi @Cleopatra ..
Dr Slump is not my cuppa .. Dropped it (especially after reading the reasons of why it was loved .. I was convinced ;-p
Dropped it.
Digressing a bit :
I know Dr Slump has its place and has made its way into viewer hearts –
MDL 8.7/10 (maybe more now?) validates its hold on the imagination for sure.
IMO some the stellar work vis-a-vis Mental Health issues (I won’t bring in shows which deal PTSD linked conditions, too many to count) was dealt with – evocatively, empathetically while still retaining humour, humanity, levity, wit and spark ..
The list is topped by the inimitable :
~ OUR BLUES
Unforgettable Kim Hye Ja in
~Radiant aka The Light in your Eyes
And the 2 unforgettable
~It’s OK not to be OK
~It’s OK that’s Love
(chef’s kiss)
If ya’ll not check the above out .. SIGH! You missed something. (Wink! No hard feelings at all for DS shippers)