Let me get this out of the way.

I understand that it makes for great drama when one of the parties in a litigation takes out evidence in the middle of the trial – the so-called “smoking gun” – and the opposing side stammers, “W-what is that? That’s not mine!” Outside TV shows and movies, that rarely occurs. You see, at the beginning of a case, the parties meet to seek and gather information from one another and to disclose the evidence and witnesses they have. This process is called discovery. The discovery is designed specifically to avoid what just happened to JungWoo, the male lead in this drama – a “trial by ambush.” The discovery would have a) protected him against the unfair surprise, and b) allowed his attorney to examine, evaluate and authenticate the item. JungWoo’s attorney should have objected vociferously that withholding the evidence during discovery and introducing it at trial were extremely prejudicial to her client.

It exasperates me when a screenwriter creates an unscrupulous prosecutor, unprepared attorney, and unlikely scenario to drive the plot. That’s laziness to me.

That said, I like that this drama raised awareness on two occupational hazards of doctors, namely,

— mental health issues, like depression and burnout (also suicide) as seen in HanEul’s situation,
— and medical malpractice, as seen in JungWoo’s crisis.

Thus, to me, the title “Doctor Slump” refers to two things. First, it means the PROLONGED downhill slide in performance and mental health as shown by HanEul. Second, it means the SUDDEN sharp downturn in business activity and personal friendships as shown by JungWoo.

I like how the screenwriter compared the two.

Now let’s do HanEul’s character analysis.

HanEul: (voiceover) I still vividly remember when I walked out of the hospital. A patient being helped by her guardian. A delivery scooter. A dog going on a walk. Caffeine. Trees. Everything in the world was normal. (begins to cross the street, then falls to her knees in the middle of the crosswalk) But all it took for my everyday life to fall apart was three minutes. During that short amount of time, some people have a smoke, some solve a math problem. Some feel happiness. (then a truck of doom barrels down the road) And some die. (scene in JungWoo’s operation room) And some fail to save their patient. The time it took for us to fall from our once stable positions as doctors was just three minutes. The incident that occurred that day was more than enough to ruin our lives.

After you rewatch Episode 1, you’ll come to realize these:

1. This is most likely the first time that HanEul took notice of the world around her.

In the flashback to Busan 2009, she zoomed past the street celebration given by her mom and uncle in honor of her topping “the” test. She had her head buried in her textbook as she ran, ignoring the congratulatory party. Her mother bragged that she never saw her walking.

This flashback to her youth was a great contrast to the present time. Unlike before when she had been the center of attention in town, the Seoulites were going about their busy lives in their usual way. She was a nonentity now. Though she was limping and showed sign of obvious distress, she was ignored. When she fell to her knees in the middle of the street, nobody ran to help her up.

Now only that.

In the present time, she was able to observe the people around her because the pain in her body was forcing her to move in slow motion and pay attention to them.

I like the clear contrast. In Busan, she was admired for being a genius, and she ignored the common folks, like her brother and aunts, and their petty problems. Now, in Seoul, she was just an overworked doctor, and it was the common folks who ignored her because she was nobody distinguished.

It wouldn’t shock me if this was the first time that she paid attention to her surroundings. Obviously, her character arc is being set up so that she’ll learn to stop being a workaholic, and “smell the roses” in the end.

2. Three minutes is relative, or to quote Einstein, “Time is relative.”

In high school, she segmented her day to maximize her time in accomplishing the tasks on her to-do list. She had no time for things which she considered frivolous and irrelevant to her goal of getting into the top medical school at Hanguk National University. Her mother bragged that she didn’t want to waste time.

But in 2023, HanEul had an aha! moment. She realized that all those years, months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes spent pursuing her goal of becoming a doctor could be wiped out in an instant.

“The time it took for us to fall from our once stable positions as doctors was just three minutes.”

Hmmm… In my opinion, it took JungWoo less than three minutes to fall from grace.

Why?

Because the time between life and death is measured by a pulse. If with pulse, alive. If without pulse, dead.

Same with HanEul’s decision to suddenly quit her job. I say it took less than three minutes, too, if I measure it with that swift kick she delivered to her supervisor’s shin. Before the kick, she was his medical fellow. After the kick, she didn’t care.

(The time she spent taking off her white coat and ID was extra; it was procedural. 😂)

However, for both of them, their fall of grace could feel like an *eternity.*

The gravity of the death of his patient while in surgery must have shaken JungWoo to the core, especially in light of his belief that “plastic surgery isn’t a life-or-death procedure.” His future was dark, but he must survive it.

As for HanEul, she knew that after quitting her position, her future in the medical field would be in limbo. Her health was paramount so all else would have to take a back seat.

3. Success in high school doesn’t necessarily translate into success in medical school.

In high school, she learned that her input would equal her output…just like that mathematical equation she solved in class. If she put in X effort, then she would get the corresponding Y success. Her hard work was praised and rewarded. Life is fair (well, relatively fair) in high school.

That didn’t happen in medical school.

She had to relearn how to study and rethink her goals. It was no longer about getting A’s but saving lives.

She already put in a lot of hours, yet she still was asked to put in more, in both the operating room and in the lecture room. She put in X effort, but there was no matching success nor recognition. In fact, her director pressured her to take the blame for him.

Instead of praises, he harangued and made her feel small at every turn. She had to hide her feelings and pretend that she was okay through it all. Her own physical and mental health became secondary to her medical duties.

To top it all, she was passed over for promotion while somebody who had connections in the hospital was the shoe-in.

It’s an understatement to say that she was treated unfairly. Hence, the news that she quit spread like wildfire. I would take it as a sign that the medical staff found her move gutsy and admirable.

4. To me, her slump didn’t merely happen in three minutes.

It was the product of her prolonged –

a) normalization of the abuse she received from her direct supervisor,
b) internalization of the insults, humiliation, and failures,
c) expectations of invincibility, self-sufficiency, and sacrifice, and
d) lack of self-care.

I’m glad that the writer and director managed to pack all these and convey them in two episodes.

I expect HanEul’s story to present the process of being rehabilitated from depression and restored to a semblance of normalcy. Her story is character-driven. She’ll have the character arc. Meaning, she’ll transform from this put-upon, exploited doctor to a poised, confident, and successful doctor. Because she has the character arc, I consider her to be the “dynamic” character.

As for JungWoo’s character, I expect him to be different from HanEul.

For one, I expect his story to be action-oriented, rather than character-oriented. This is where we’ll get the mystery, danger, and suspense. Already, we see a few mysteries:

1. Who killed the Chinese heiress? What’s the motive? Why did they choose him?
2. Who was the dark stranger who paid a visit to his rooftop room?
3. Who sent the anesthesiologist to him? Who paid him to disappear?
4. Will his old med-school mentor, Bin Dae Young, be part of his downfall/comeback?

For another, I see JungWoo as a “static” character. I doubt he’ll have a SIGNIFICANT character change. By significant change, I mean a 180 degree transformation.

But note here: when I say “static,” don’t confuse it with “flat,” okay? Though JungWoo may/may not have a significant character change in the future, this doesn’t mean he’s flat or one-dimensional. He will be layered and have nuanced qualities.

Take for instance Episode 1, after his courtroom date.

JungWoo: (voiceover) They once said in a movie, that failure and defeat meant different things. Anyone can fail, but defeat was an utter fiasco usually found in legends. I was defeated. Nevertheless, I still had friends who believed in me.

According to him, defeat was worse than failure. Thankfully, he still had friends to rely on.

I don’t know the movie he was referring to, but this is the way I see the difference between failure and defeat —

Failure: involves one person: him. He failed to succeed.
Defeat: involves an adversary. He failed to succeed because they defeated him.

In both cases, he may or may not give up. Next time, he can try to avoid failure and succeed. Next time, he can try to avoid defeat and win against them.

But defeat is worse than failure when there’s a betrayal involved. It hurt him to discover that his friends whom he relied on to be at his side were also his adversaries, or his antis.

Anyway, here’s what I expect to see from JungWoo’s story.

1. High EQ

That’s one reason he was successful both in high school and med school. Sure, he had a high IQ, but in life, a high EQ was just as important.

I like how he perceived HanEul’s sadness and silently dealt with it. He didn’t draw attention to her problem, and pretended that *he* wanted to talk with someone to help her out. He acted like he was the needy one.

JW: Just have a drink with me. I’m feeling pretty down today and need someone to talk to.
HE: One drink isn’t enough.
JW: Huh?
HE: I’ll go if it’s at least three bottles.

He allowed her to boss him around because he sensed that her being bossy, and having the last word in gave her the semblance of being “in control.” She needed this because her lifework was shattering.

And I like it even more because he was able to see beyond his own pain and his own problematic situation and he comforted another person.

2. Action speaks louder than words.

This goes to his “nuanced” character. He SHOWS that he cares for her while mocking/roasting/scolding her.

HE: Ugh! What are you doing? I just got chills down my spine.
JW: (embarrassed) I got chills too as I was doing it. I’m just embarrassed to drink with you in those scrubs.
HE: Right.
JW: I get that they’re comfortable, but you can’t wear them outside. Hurry and zip it up.
HE: Gosh, it’s too long.
JW: Good. That’s a bit better.

I think he was worried that she’d feel cold walking around in just her scrubs. The sun had already gone down.

Long live his chill-ness.

3. Loyalty doesn’t mean being pushover.

I like that he knew the limits of their friendship.

Friend #2: We were ruined too because of you.
JW: Really? Did you really quit your jobs because of me? Yours was going bankrupt and was about to ask you to resign. And you quit while drunk because you hated your job. I knew you were secretly taking most of the ad revenue. But I kept quiet because I thought you needed it. I didn’t want you two to suffer because of what happened to me so I paid off your penalties first. But what did you say? I guess only I thought we were friends. Have a good life, you two.

He called them out. Good for him.

4. The strong and silent type

I get that many viewers just saw him acting childish, especially because of the flashbacks and the current moments when he was petty-ness personified.

But don’t miss an important connection.

For instance, at the end of Episode 1, HanEul surprised him on the rooftop, and he was thunderstruck to see her, and he unobtrusively wiped a tear from his face.

He had been shedding one tear at a time while he was alone. He seemed to be restraining himself from breaking down in tears. His phone call from his mother wasn’t exactly supportive and encouraging. He obviously needed comforting, but he needed to act tough.

Then, at the end of Episode 2, he was bawling his eyes out with HanEul.

JW: Seeing you cry is making me want to cry, too. I was barely holding back my tears. You’re making me want to cry too! (begins to wail)
HE: (voiceover) Once I sober up the next day, I know I’ll regret hugging him.
JW: (voiceover) But the warmth she gave me that day was so comforting, it helped me forget all the pain in that moment.

I like that they were both helping each other recover from their slump. And I like that whether he was acting like a boy or a man, masculinity meant that it was okay to shed tears.

5. More flannel shirts

Lol. I get what the costume director attempted to do here. Flannel shirts denote a laidback and warm personality.

I like that JungWoo had managed to breeze through life up until now. I’m sure he’ll need to show the competitive spirit once again in order to defeat those who framed him and caused him to lose his medical license and business. But in the end, I would like him to go back to his easy-going, good-natured self. He balances HanEul that way.

That’s it for me. Gotta go.