Prepare yourselves. It gets heavy. (like, video essay heavy)

the GOOD:
1. beautiful cinematography: the way the camerawork causes the scenery and landscape to unfold before our eyes like a painting, the evergreen fields, that our characters walk through, the bamboo forest of lanterns, the firework-filled festival with its bustling, colorful market--all this reflected by the river that lights up the most romantic scene I've ever seen.
2. pair this^ up with beautiful costume design: every costume just paired so well with the set and the lighting! The pastels of turquoise, blue, pink, yellow, and beige; the olive green, the golds, and the white; down to the hair and the accessories was all A+! Also I know its because they shared occupations but poong and eunwoo wearing those dark blue outfits like a couple outfit was so cute. But the color also reminded me of detective conan's outfit, which really sold the whole "mystery solving duo" thing that they had going on
3. music: idc what you say, every track was a BANGER.
4. therapeutic storytelling and comfort characters: i was not expecting it to unfold this way but the show sort of became a heavily family-themed slice-of-life with garnishes of murder, mystery, and romance. The murder and mystery being of a psychological drama flavor, that is. However, what is the desolation and devastation of trauma and mental illness-- in the face of the brave, kind, and noble character of the members of our Gye Soo Clinic family? NOTHING. For a price lower than most actual therapists, GENUINE comfort, wisdom/advice, and a feeling of belonging is provided to the viewer via a gruff but jaded and wise doctor Gye Ji han and his gathering of loveable misfits, each a unique, rounded, character.
The drama is a nice thing to watch or have in the background while cooking after a long, hard day and release stress by hanging out with and going on adventures with the GyeSoo Clinic Gang.
5. the couple dynamics of the romantic subplot: i love the dynamics between eunwoo and sepoong. they've got the dynamics of detective&doctor, reserved&talkative, and sometimes they're both quiet & awkward around each other, or they're a power couple that's not only good at saving lives, but also doing parkour like ninjas. Also, being a short person myself, i love short x tall couples.
THE NOT SO GOOD:
For the most part, i agree with everyone in that the writing and the plot kind of started out well but then as the drama went on, it starts to show that the writers were rookies and cracks in the very charm of the show appear.
1. Plot/conflict issues: Despite all the psychological thriller elements and mystery and dark twists at every corner, i think the plot at times still felt oddly...s l o w. I think this can be attributed to the fact that despite there being valuable lessons and gems of wisdom and humor to be gained at the end of each arc, there might have been TOO MUCH cases or ARCS that our gang had to resolve to the point of the COHESIVENESS of the overarching plot being slightly lost. Sort of like when you're playing game that has too many side quests and when you get to a certain point far in the game and wonder, "OH wait, what was the whole objective of my player character(s) again?" Then a boss or npc further explains the conflict and who and why you are fighting against and you realize, "oh. that's what it was." That's where the slice-of-life feel kind of gets in the way, i think.
They could've connected all the cases more and have them build up to the main conflict somehow, idk. Notably, things kinda start to drag in the "two lovers separated by the law case" and the "bereaved mom learns how to curse out toxic husband and leave him case". Also "the domestically abused and neglected child" arc that ends with the boy just hugging and living with his abusers at the end and janggun giving his precious snacks to them made me SO mad. Like, it what world would that happen just like that.
2. Characters: and when we begin to complain about the flaws with how each case/arc is resolved, we must recognize that there were many issues with what I'm going to call CHARACTER INCONSISTENCY.
-Minor-
-Eunwoo's dad, HyunRyeong, kinda just FAiLs as a father at least 90% of the time during this drama. You gave your daughter for some unexplained reason to a family with a shady reputation and then left her there to be abused just because the LAW said so?? You are the law within your district!! And also he pulls strings later to keep her at the clinic and allow her to examine dead bodies WHERE WAS THIS ENERGY before?? Has he even apologized for what he allowed to happen to his daughter? And then he has the nerve at the end of the drama to make her move with him somewhere else for ANOTHER unexplained reason??
-the main antagonist, Jo TaeHak, had less screen time than the disgusting Im SooMan (whose tongue i wanted to cut off oooh he annoyed me so muchhhh). WhY DiD he let Im SooMan live for that long??? What purpose did that serve. He literally said, I don't need to keep you alive after SooMan had revealed all his cards. And then he changed his mind after Sooman, what, begged him to live?? And u know what, it didn't help him in the end at all, he should've knowN THAT.
-our man, our savior during the desperate hour, second lead and pretend antagonist, Shinwoo. This boi was done so dirty i just cant. He's smart too. WhY DiD hE LeT Im SooMan live so long too? He literally betrayed you several times and did things behind your back. Also you were childhood besties AND you're in love with Eunwoo. WhY do you keep trying to tie her down and keep her away? He should know her original personality is that she loves to investigate mysteries and crimes. But he kept getting mad at her and threatening to send her back to her family (who, as chief inspector, he should know cant be trusted) if she didn't "stAY oUT Of THiS."

-Major-
-i love hyang gi so I'll start with her character. EUNWOO is introduced as a bright, curious young woman, and naive as she may be of the constraints and duties that await her in marriage, she is still courageous in the face of danger (and the patriarchy that would rather she not stick her nose into the world of crime-solving). She is confident and will not shy away from examining the gruesome to solve an intriguing mystery. She goes after what she wants and isn't afraid to voice her thoughts and opinions. However, these traits are lost to the shadows of depression that resulted from the year with her abusive in-laws. After she escapes this situation, she still has to spend months of recovery with the gyesoo gang, relearning how to live confidently and unafraid to talk about her wishes and pursue the things she used to love before.
Once she recovers enough, she’s a boss. Like sherlock to the watson that is Poong, she shows off impeccable observation and deduction skills that are immensely helpful when Poong is focused on something else while investigating a death or suspicious injury/illness. She’s his translator for when he doesn't know how to speak to clients in common speech instead of complicated medical jargon they won't understand. She saves him from awkward social situations where he lacks delicacy and the ability to lie/manipulate due to him living a life focused mainly on studying and being oblivious to the treacherous mind games of corrupt/ambiguous court officials and other nobility around him. She as a noble woman is somewhat experienced in this regard.
This is such a cool set-up for her character until it sort of slowly fades away sometime after poong starts teaching her acupuncture. Which is cool, but she becomes this sort of tool that Poong can use only when he needs to use her to treat others, like a party member in a game, and then all the times that she could use the cool detective skills till the end- SHE DOESNT really USE THEM. Instead, POONG takes that role. And this is happening as the action is picking up and the big confrontation/conflict is closing in, so there's not much time to treat other patients. She slowly becomes this nurse love interest in a medical drama that loses professionalism and her cool way too often and is out of her original character because her focus becomes hyper "male lead"-centered and how she can help him. And yes, i know she loves him, but before, she knew her priorities and she was good at thinking on her feet but near the end of the drama she doesn't exhibit this trait as much and it upsets me. so much potentiaL~
-speaking of SEPOONG, drama's namesake, I will say, he was also a well-written character. He starts out with everything going good for him, but then he falls to the lowest of lows and he doesn't do an unrealistic, "if i just believe and be positive" power up and suddenly get back up on his feet quickly. he has a legitimate mental trauma that he continues to wrestle with and slowly, but surely finds ways to help people despite it as he recovers. While breaking old habits from when he was a privileged noble man. Great character development. but there are aspects of his character that aren't consistent to me. Like the way sometimes he's reliable in situations where characters clearly need defense or protection and sometimes he's not. Like the time Eunwoo almost got stabbed because he just stood there staring at that girl running towards him. His communication inconsistencies are directly related to my next big issue and that is....
3. The Romance: a lot of you blamed this on the lack of chemistry between the two actors but i would like to argue that much of the problem can be attributed to the writing.
-Poong has this quirky "mansplaining attitude" way too much: I know a lot of you Minjae/Sepoong fans are gonna jump on the defense and be all like, " nooo, he was just being considerate to her as a rookie to medicine, he's just being a gentlemannn" NO. You're wrong and here's why:
Sepoong should know that Eunwoo is very intelligent and quick to learn even without all the education that he has. Or at least have understood this when they had that study night where she literally memorized pulses and acupuncture enough to help a girl the next day. But he--forgets this sometimes during what are supposed to be ROMANTIC moments. Like when he's going through his books and he thinks of her and right there is a great moment to pop a flashback of eunwoo's beautiful face and him smiling at the thought of her BUT DO WE GET THAT?NO we get Sepoong assuming, OUT LOUD that eunwoo "couldn't pOssibly hAndLE the intricacies of medicine contained in these books. it would be too difficult for her!" Or the time they're supposed to be flirting in the bookstore(WE'LL REVISIT THIS LATER), and he's like, "the way you're looking at those medicine books its like they're romance books." Was that supposed be flirting? because Sepoong. We're in the medicine section of the library. Don't patronize her. I'd also like to mention how many times he just kept Eunwoo out of the loop or left her at the clinic to "protect her" even though he knows she's not afraid of death, is agile like a ninja, and is capable of helping him investigate things medical and crime-related but he's just like, " eunwoo, stay at the clinic or with the family," or "eunwoo its not safe, go somewhere else." Like when he could've taken her with him for those THREE MONTHS at the capital because he's DONE IT before and at that point she was basically an EXPERT in acupuncture. She could've been his assistant i dont UNDERSTAND whY he just left her like that and didn't even at least HUG her and apologize for leavinG. ugh.
-And then there's the times where, like i mentioned before, even though he's shown to jump to Eunwoo's defense quickly, or get jealous of others because he's an eunwoo simp, theres times like when Eunwoo got knocked out and slightly re-traumatized by that guy we thought was stealing herbs from the clinic, and although he's come to her defense before, he didn't even get as mad as expected. He even voluntarily helped the guy escape prison and reunite with his lover. Like hurt her twice. You don’t just let that GO.

-moving on, FLIRTING. We all watch kdramas here. you've seen some good flirting scenes. but here....well, lets just return to the bookstore scene. like in a typical romcom, they meet in a bookstore, and he wittily mentions that he has all of the medical knowledge in the store memorized and could teach her better than any of these books. She mischievously counters that sometimes he exaggerates too much. he repeatedly denies it as she walks away with a smirk. Except,
she's not really smirking, its more of a content smile. And he just left aegyo-style whining in the bookstore that he doesn't exaggerate. *sighs* this is awkward. Sepoong and Eunwoo can be really cute around each other. They're both adults but because they're sheltered nobles during medieval period, understandably they can act like awkward teens around each other. But even with the awkwardness of first love, i think what was missing the mischief and more witty banter. It would have added more tension to the romance instead of giving off the same energy of two kpop idols of opposite gender on stage singing a love song but not even looking at each other. Suggestions the director could've given to the actors was have Eunwoo, while Sepoong is denying that he exaggerates too much, answer back with "yea, yea, surrreee" emphasizing that she is being mischievous here, because otherwise her teasing him like this is odd and out of place. I myself, almost missed that that was the intention in the scene.
I saw others blaming this on hyang gi 's acting and expression, BUT LEMME JUST SAY. IN HER DEFENSE,
Hyanggi hasn't acted in too many romantic works. And the romantic roles she has been given would never just FLIRT like that, okAY?? many of her roles are quiet, meek, unassuming characters that think a lot before they speak (mainly because they get bullied or something worse i dont why she always gets these abused roles in general). Its not like she lacks expression. She smiles like an angel, cries like a goddess, the look she gives when she's lost it all and wants to die breaks your heart; and her glares of disgust and reproach hurt like an arrow to the face. But if she had to practice on something, its mischievous expressions. The flirtatious smirk, smiling with fury in your eyes(would help us understand that she was doing revenge acupuncture on that lady), the quick switch between smile-brief scowl-smile.... and its not like her smile with an eyebrow raise doesn't work, its just too innocent for some scenes where we need to know she's up to no good or she's being cheeky or teasing. I hope that she re-watches this season and learns from this because i don't want these ignorant people out here to think she's "bad at acting"
-Another thing I will add is the LACK of SECOND MALE LEAD exposure. I already discussed this earlier when talking about Shinwoo's character inconsistencies and how he doesn’t seem to treat Eunwoo childhood best friend/1st love. Which brings us to the question: HOW were we supposed to be more attached to him and root for him as a second ML in the romance if you weren't going to flesh out the history between Shinwoo and Eunwoo at least through a bit of flashbacks here and there?? Hello, we're watching a KDRAMA. Where are the flashbacks??
There was also missing romantic tension between Shinwoo and Eunwoo. After the scene where he's first introduced. and where he's going to give her flowers....where'd it go? Where did the POTENTIAL gO?? WHERE IS ITTT aND you might say, "oh, he was getting mad at her going around, doing what she wants, because he was really jealous of her spending time with poong" WHiLe partly true, THATS NOT IT. He was never going to have a chance with that kind of attitude. You could've given him more scenes with Eunwoo just, yk, being an upright gentleman, smiling goofily in her direction upon just happening to meet her in town instead of all the scowling. Weirdly enough, he had more bromantic scenes with Poong than he did with Eunwoo. He didn't even tell Eunwoo that he was going to Japan in the end he told POONG. i'm surprised THEY didn't get the hug that I so badly wanted for my OTP. It was almost like after Poong saved Shinwoo's life the first time(which BTW he does again. and again), Shinwoo becomes love rivals with Eunwoo, the one he was supposed to be in love with. Think the internal conflict he has before setting the quarantine village on fire is the last time he shows his attachment to Eunwoo. After he was saved by Poong he was a changed man, apparently.
This actually kinda hurts because I watched the actors group interview/promotions before the drama released, and Hyanggi and WonChang had the most chemistry when they were playing games with each other. Just their mannerisms are so in sync and similar. I wanted to see the smile he directed at hyanggi the whole interview used in the drama, but OH WELL.
CONCLUSION:
I gave this drama an 8.5 because despite the lack of smooth flow between plot points, conflict, character, and romance, i truly believe that this is one gem of a drama that everyone should give a chance. There's not many period dramas that can give you this kind of therapeutic vibe while also serving a romance that while awkward, is still relatable at times and true, and a family makes you laugh, cry, get angry, and just feel at home and your feelings and state of being validated, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME, keeping you on your toes as you wait at the edge of your seat to see what happens next to our main characters as they navigate murder mysteries and court intrigue and sometimes biological warfare (that epidemic arc was insane).

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