This review may contain spoilers
This drama produced something on me that not many dramas do: an incredible satisfaction that the drama ended. Not because of how nice it made me feel, or how fulfilled it left me, but because I was glad I finally didn't have to keep watching it. I'm a big fan of RDTK1, I loved every single bit of that show and I had no complaints about it. Every character was perfectly developed, the story fit all on its own. Which they completely failed to do here.
As I mentioned previously while commenting on this show, I had to pause episodes multiple times because I was bored and wanted to do something else. Almost all the time after Eps 7-8 I watched this show while doing something else, either playing some game, scrolling on Twitter or simply busying myself while watching it. I'm the type of viewer who focuses her entire attention on whatever she's watching, so to say that I was calmly doing something else while these episodes were rolling is very telling about how this season made me feel. I even skipped a lot of filler scenes which either were not important to the main plot (whatever it was), or would be explained somehow as the drama developed more. I say 'filler scenes', but a lot of them were probably considered important, like parts with Chairman Do and stuff like that.
Even though I was this bored watching this season, I didn't want to drop it at all. I had anticipated this season a lot and it was my first choice to watch as soon as I got some free time. I started Ep 1 quite lost because I had watched S1 only once when it was airing, so I decided to rewatch it to have a fresh memory. I finished it in 2 days pulling all-nighters. I finished writing my review when the sun was rising. That's how invested and involved I was with that season and I wanted to be that emotionally involved with it so that my feelings and memories were fresh to watch this one, but this season didn't compensate that.
I wasn't even considering writing a long review about this drama and I don't feel like getting into details of every thing that I disliked about this season (which were a lot), so I'll just go over a few points quickly.
1. This season was so unnecessarily dramatic for no reason at all. It had more politics than medical stuff, the characters were so problematic without adding much to the plot, Chairman Do was unbearable and he lacked all sense of evil. He simply hated Master Kim because of their past drama and came back with the sole purpose of ruining him and closing Doldam Hospital. At some point I even thought to myself that all the villains were evil to good doctors with no reason at all. Dr. Song coming back as an *ss-licker was incredibly annoying, as I thought he had settled up something from season 1 (since he never left the hospital anyway) and the first episode made it look like that, but he was still a puppet with no reason to live on his own. And S2's version of Dr. Song was Dr. Yang. If Chairman Do didn't exist, he would be the character I hated the most. He was obnoxiously mean to Woo Jin and Eun Jae for no reason at all, he learnt nothing throughout the entire drama and the only important scene he had was when Eun Jae hit him and exploded at him. That was incredibly satisfying.
2. Even though Master Kim is a very likeable character, I didn't agree with some of his decisions and attitudes in this season. Just like Eun Tak said, he never thought Master Kim was wrong up until the moment President Yeo was resuscitated, although that's not what I'm basing this on. He's too self-righteous and incredibly arrogant that you start understanding why other people would find him unbearable. I feel like I'd be a villain in this universe, or someone like Park Min Goo who can't stand him and feels threatened by him, but who eventually (and unreasonably) shifts to his side. One of the scenes that annoyed me the most was when the guy with the accidentally amputated leg didn't want to get surgery because of the expenses. He was considering his family, his life quality which was already damaged with or without the surgery; he knew he couldn't afford the surgery and would be hard for his family. But all Master Kim did was yell at him in front of his wife and son about how coward and weak he was because he put money before his leg. Like, hello! Some people are poor here? Maybe because I've had many economical struggles, but I couldn't avoid getting annoyed at this part. There were other things like this that slightly annoyed me with his self-advocated perfection, but I can't remember everything. With that being said, I don't hate him at all, lol.
3. The romance was absolutely underwhelming. Even though the amount of romance that we got with Kang Dong Joo and Yoon Seo Jung were not enough (for me) and their romance was far from being the center of the show, Seo Woo Jin and Cha Eun Jae couldn't fill their shoes at all. Their romance always felt more like a crush from Woo Jin than anything else. We didn't even have the typical realization from the FL that she likes the ML too. When she was supposed to leave to Geodae H., she naturally talked with Dr. Yun about her frustration because Woo Jin didn't look for he as if it was showed before, as if they had ever talked about it (or hinted they did) at all. We as viewers knew they liked each other more because the drama has a romance tag than anything else, but beyond unfounded suspicions, the doctors and nurses couldn't really tell if it was real or not. Yet, Dr. Yun advises Eun Jae to confess her feelings first and Eun Jae doesn't even give it a second thought? Like when did she even start liking him? The writers could've done all this so much better, but I'll give them a pass because the kiss scene in Ep 16 was really nice and the hug before Eun Jae left was lovely.
4. The character development in S1 is the thing that caught the most my attention, to the point I found myself several times saying out loud, "character development!!!" when Kang Dong Joo or Yoon Seo Jung did admirable things. That, however, was nowhere to be found here. I was looking forward to Eun Jae's character being explored more, there was so much to work with but poor writing made her look like a dramatic b*tch with a rich family. She had the pressure of a family of successful doctors when she didn't even want to be a doctor herself, so she suffered from constant anxiety. They never explained when she started to be nauseous, to begin with. Of course, they showed the morgue scene A LOT to emphasize that's when it all began, but how could she be a surgeon in her second year if she had this trouble all the time? Logically, she either got worse with time, or always had it to the same level, which is impossible in reality because how else would she have performed surgeries all those years? Whatever the case was, it was incredibly disrespectful that they cured her with a placebo and gave zero attention to the fact that she was in desperate need of mental therapy. Surely you can cure many things about yourself if you set your mind on it, but disregarding the need of a psychologist in nothing but a medical drama is ridiculous. I found myself disliking her character so many times because of poor writing and editing, even though I knew she was a strong and goal-driven FL with a lot of potential. But of course they ruined her.
On another note, I feel like Woo Jin was written much more in detail even though his family drama was unnecessarily complicated when they mixed it with Dr. Bae's family. Nonetheless, I think Woo Jin wasn't done as dirty as Eun Jae and they made him overcome all his insecurities about his family and his place in the world, he learned many lessons and the only time I had this "character development!!!" thought was at almost the end of Ep 16 when he asked for Park Min Goo's help; another character that was done dirty because of lazy writing, as he was a consistent villain with a reason! But they "cured" his evilness in less than 30 minutes. At one moment he was evil, then he cried, then he left, then he became good. All in the same episode, in a matter of minutes. Seriously?
5. The entire plot was pointless. We didn't have much to look forward to, the cliffhangers were boring and confusing. You could drop this drama at any time and it wouldn't really matter because there were little things to anticipate in every episode. They added way too many things, TOO many things everywhere to make it more dense and interesting but they failed to deliver a consistent story like S1. At some point even some characters were too dramatic compared to their selves in S1, like Nurse Oh was going around doing unnecessary dramatic things in the middle of the drama, whining all the time at Master Kim without doing anything important. Manager Jang was given apparently relevant tasks but the only good thing he ever did was to get the list of the doctors and that was it, the rest was him making drama with Nurse Oh. Dr. Jung wasn't given any attention despite him being apart from his family for 3 whole years and was even subtly judged by Master Kim when he was considering going back to Seoul. Again, an egoistic side of Master Kim that is not regarded enough.
Lastly, I must say the only things that kept me going through this drama were Seo Woo Jin, Eun Tak & Ah Reum and the long anticipated cameo of Yang Se Jong. I loved to see Do In Beom smiley, happy with his life, comfortable in Doldam Hospital and helping Master Kim. I loved that welcoming hug, the way Master Kim looked at him like a little boy who grew up was so endearing. I loved the dynamic he had with Woo Jin, when he was testing his skills, when he let Woo Jin do the laparoscopy surgery. That was character development at its finest, but I can't count it here because it involves S1, lol. I completely loved the short screentime he had about his relationship with Ah Reum! It was so nice to see him talk loosely and familiarly with someone for the very first time. Definitely one of the highlights of the drama, and one of the few, lol.
The fact that they kept mentioning Kang Dong Joo and Yoon Seo Jung coming back, and also In Beom saying himself that he would be back probably (and most likely) hints for a S3, but I'm not sure if it will work out at all. Doing a special with the mains from S1 and S2 would be enough to wrap up this story before they end up ruining it.
Anyway, to quickly finish this unexpectedly long review, I won't give it less than 7.0 because despite all this, it had its good moments and I enjoyed some parts but overall it would never be as good as S1 and that's all there is to it.
As I mentioned previously while commenting on this show, I had to pause episodes multiple times because I was bored and wanted to do something else. Almost all the time after Eps 7-8 I watched this show while doing something else, either playing some game, scrolling on Twitter or simply busying myself while watching it. I'm the type of viewer who focuses her entire attention on whatever she's watching, so to say that I was calmly doing something else while these episodes were rolling is very telling about how this season made me feel. I even skipped a lot of filler scenes which either were not important to the main plot (whatever it was), or would be explained somehow as the drama developed more. I say 'filler scenes', but a lot of them were probably considered important, like parts with Chairman Do and stuff like that.
Even though I was this bored watching this season, I didn't want to drop it at all. I had anticipated this season a lot and it was my first choice to watch as soon as I got some free time. I started Ep 1 quite lost because I had watched S1 only once when it was airing, so I decided to rewatch it to have a fresh memory. I finished it in 2 days pulling all-nighters. I finished writing my review when the sun was rising. That's how invested and involved I was with that season and I wanted to be that emotionally involved with it so that my feelings and memories were fresh to watch this one, but this season didn't compensate that.
I wasn't even considering writing a long review about this drama and I don't feel like getting into details of every thing that I disliked about this season (which were a lot), so I'll just go over a few points quickly.
1. This season was so unnecessarily dramatic for no reason at all. It had more politics than medical stuff, the characters were so problematic without adding much to the plot, Chairman Do was unbearable and he lacked all sense of evil. He simply hated Master Kim because of their past drama and came back with the sole purpose of ruining him and closing Doldam Hospital. At some point I even thought to myself that all the villains were evil to good doctors with no reason at all. Dr. Song coming back as an *ss-licker was incredibly annoying, as I thought he had settled up something from season 1 (since he never left the hospital anyway) and the first episode made it look like that, but he was still a puppet with no reason to live on his own. And S2's version of Dr. Song was Dr. Yang. If Chairman Do didn't exist, he would be the character I hated the most. He was obnoxiously mean to Woo Jin and Eun Jae for no reason at all, he learnt nothing throughout the entire drama and the only important scene he had was when Eun Jae hit him and exploded at him. That was incredibly satisfying.
2. Even though Master Kim is a very likeable character, I didn't agree with some of his decisions and attitudes in this season. Just like Eun Tak said, he never thought Master Kim was wrong up until the moment President Yeo was resuscitated, although that's not what I'm basing this on. He's too self-righteous and incredibly arrogant that you start understanding why other people would find him unbearable. I feel like I'd be a villain in this universe, or someone like Park Min Goo who can't stand him and feels threatened by him, but who eventually (and unreasonably) shifts to his side. One of the scenes that annoyed me the most was when the guy with the accidentally amputated leg didn't want to get surgery because of the expenses. He was considering his family, his life quality which was already damaged with or without the surgery; he knew he couldn't afford the surgery and would be hard for his family. But all Master Kim did was yell at him in front of his wife and son about how coward and weak he was because he put money before his leg. Like, hello! Some people are poor here? Maybe because I've had many economical struggles, but I couldn't avoid getting annoyed at this part. There were other things like this that slightly annoyed me with his self-advocated perfection, but I can't remember everything. With that being said, I don't hate him at all, lol.
3. The romance was absolutely underwhelming. Even though the amount of romance that we got with Kang Dong Joo and Yoon Seo Jung were not enough (for me) and their romance was far from being the center of the show, Seo Woo Jin and Cha Eun Jae couldn't fill their shoes at all. Their romance always felt more like a crush from Woo Jin than anything else. We didn't even have the typical realization from the FL that she likes the ML too. When she was supposed to leave to Geodae H., she naturally talked with Dr. Yun about her frustration because Woo Jin didn't look for he as if it was showed before, as if they had ever talked about it (or hinted they did) at all. We as viewers knew they liked each other more because the drama has a romance tag than anything else, but beyond unfounded suspicions, the doctors and nurses couldn't really tell if it was real or not. Yet, Dr. Yun advises Eun Jae to confess her feelings first and Eun Jae doesn't even give it a second thought? Like when did she even start liking him? The writers could've done all this so much better, but I'll give them a pass because the kiss scene in Ep 16 was really nice and the hug before Eun Jae left was lovely.
4. The character development in S1 is the thing that caught the most my attention, to the point I found myself several times saying out loud, "character development!!!" when Kang Dong Joo or Yoon Seo Jung did admirable things. That, however, was nowhere to be found here. I was looking forward to Eun Jae's character being explored more, there was so much to work with but poor writing made her look like a dramatic b*tch with a rich family. She had the pressure of a family of successful doctors when she didn't even want to be a doctor herself, so she suffered from constant anxiety. They never explained when she started to be nauseous, to begin with. Of course, they showed the morgue scene A LOT to emphasize that's when it all began, but how could she be a surgeon in her second year if she had this trouble all the time? Logically, she either got worse with time, or always had it to the same level, which is impossible in reality because how else would she have performed surgeries all those years? Whatever the case was, it was incredibly disrespectful that they cured her with a placebo and gave zero attention to the fact that she was in desperate need of mental therapy. Surely you can cure many things about yourself if you set your mind on it, but disregarding the need of a psychologist in nothing but a medical drama is ridiculous. I found myself disliking her character so many times because of poor writing and editing, even though I knew she was a strong and goal-driven FL with a lot of potential. But of course they ruined her.
On another note, I feel like Woo Jin was written much more in detail even though his family drama was unnecessarily complicated when they mixed it with Dr. Bae's family. Nonetheless, I think Woo Jin wasn't done as dirty as Eun Jae and they made him overcome all his insecurities about his family and his place in the world, he learned many lessons and the only time I had this "character development!!!" thought was at almost the end of Ep 16 when he asked for Park Min Goo's help; another character that was done dirty because of lazy writing, as he was a consistent villain with a reason! But they "cured" his evilness in less than 30 minutes. At one moment he was evil, then he cried, then he left, then he became good. All in the same episode, in a matter of minutes. Seriously?
5. The entire plot was pointless. We didn't have much to look forward to, the cliffhangers were boring and confusing. You could drop this drama at any time and it wouldn't really matter because there were little things to anticipate in every episode. They added way too many things, TOO many things everywhere to make it more dense and interesting but they failed to deliver a consistent story like S1. At some point even some characters were too dramatic compared to their selves in S1, like Nurse Oh was going around doing unnecessary dramatic things in the middle of the drama, whining all the time at Master Kim without doing anything important. Manager Jang was given apparently relevant tasks but the only good thing he ever did was to get the list of the doctors and that was it, the rest was him making drama with Nurse Oh. Dr. Jung wasn't given any attention despite him being apart from his family for 3 whole years and was even subtly judged by Master Kim when he was considering going back to Seoul. Again, an egoistic side of Master Kim that is not regarded enough.
Lastly, I must say the only things that kept me going through this drama were Seo Woo Jin, Eun Tak & Ah Reum and the long anticipated cameo of Yang Se Jong. I loved to see Do In Beom smiley, happy with his life, comfortable in Doldam Hospital and helping Master Kim. I loved that welcoming hug, the way Master Kim looked at him like a little boy who grew up was so endearing. I loved the dynamic he had with Woo Jin, when he was testing his skills, when he let Woo Jin do the laparoscopy surgery. That was character development at its finest, but I can't count it here because it involves S1, lol. I completely loved the short screentime he had about his relationship with Ah Reum! It was so nice to see him talk loosely and familiarly with someone for the very first time. Definitely one of the highlights of the drama, and one of the few, lol.
The fact that they kept mentioning Kang Dong Joo and Yoon Seo Jung coming back, and also In Beom saying himself that he would be back probably (and most likely) hints for a S3, but I'm not sure if it will work out at all. Doing a special with the mains from S1 and S2 would be enough to wrap up this story before they end up ruining it.
Anyway, to quickly finish this unexpectedly long review, I won't give it less than 7.0 because despite all this, it had its good moments and I enjoyed some parts but overall it would never be as good as S1 and that's all there is to it.
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