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Doctor Slump korean drama review
Completed
Doctor Slump
4 people found this review helpful
by Figgo
Apr 4, 2024
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 3.5
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 1.5
Rewatch Value 2.0

It Didn't Get Me Out Of My Drama Slump

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I usually avoid medical dramas and healing dramas, but I decided to give this one a shot in hopes that it'd be a different kind of medical drama. It is...but I still didn't like it. I've come to find that 'healing' tends to be synonymous with 'boring'.

Acting/Cast: This is easily the best thing about this drama. It has a very likeable cast who play very likeable characters. Even Park Shin Hye (박신혜) did a decent job, which surprised me. I love the main family as well as the two best friends. Regarding the chemistry of the leads, I've seen reviews that say they have amazing chemistry and others that say that their chemistry is terrible. I'm a bit in the middle. I think they had decent chemistry, but maybe they were better suited as best friends or brother and sister. Wait...I just had a thought...If they took out the romance and made it a family healing drama...that could've worked really well. Anyway, their chemistry actually kind of reminds me of how I felt about the leads in Welcome to Samdal-ri. Maybe it's because of the over-the-top cutesy behavior. To me, it comes across as childish and not romantic at all. I think the secondary couple in this drama has much more romantic chemistry. 7/10

Writing : The drama started strong. It definitely isn't your typical medical drama, which is nice. The focus is on the issues that the leads are going through and how to overcome them and heal together. I also like the premise of the leads being rivals in the past and the idea of how enemies can actually be friends and friends can actually be enemies. I really like the female lead's family, as well. They feel realistic - they're not overly critical or controlling or overly dramatic, but supportive and level-headed. Regarding the mystery aspect of the drama, I liked it. It added some drama to the plot to keep me interested. However, it ended abruptly and too soon. By the time I got through the drama (which took a long time because it had become so boring), the mystery plot seemed like a distant memory. On another note, I liked how depression and PTSD is represented in the drama. However, I found it ridiculous that a super smart doctor, who reads medical dissertations as their only source of fun, seemed to have no idea what depression is. That was very strange to me. It made the psychiatrist visits feel a bit condescending. Regarding the use of alcohol in this drama, I guess it is strange for a medical drama to promote drinking like it did. However, while watching, I didn't think twice about it. Even though I personally hate alcohol, I guess it's just something I've become accustomed to seeing in Korean dramas. So, it didn't bother me, but it is odd...especially when the leads are taking meds. They put the drinking scenes in there, I think, in order to give the characters reasons to act 'cute' (especially the mom). It's not something I find cute, but I get why it's there. 4/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The biggest problem I had with this drama is the pacing. This is probably a combination of a writing and directing issue. The mystery plot and any other conflicts that the characters were dealing with should have extended throughout more of the drama because once everything was resolved, it became incredibly boring. Episode 13 is when the dragging starts. It shouldn't take 3 episodes to wrap up a drama. Maybe this drama would have done better with a 12 episode length. Too many flashbacks also. It wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't flashbacking to the same scenes repeatedly. On a more positive note, this drama does have decent camera work and music. 1.5/10

Entertainment Value: The first half of the drama was decently entertaining, especially for a healing drama. However, towards the end, I thought I was going to end up dropping it because it was dragging so much. Actually, the reason I didn't was due to the side love story. I keep thinking of how I felt about Hello, It's Me!; It's also a healing drama with a lot of similar issues. I ended up giving it the same overall score as this drama. Comparing them, I think they both conveyed good messages. I think Hello, It's Me! has a more moving message and is a bit more entertaining, whereas Doctor Slump has more likeable characters and better chemistry between them. Both dramas I struggled to get through - this one slightly more. 2/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 3.5/10 mainly due to the pacing issues and the lack of romantic chemistry between the leads.
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