MattPeddlesden
Kent, UK
I struggled a bit with this one, it's 20 episodes long and around the 10th I was wondering when something was going to happen, it was just meandering along like a soap opera most of the time. Let's put to one side what, in western society, would be repeated inappropriate behaviour between a teacher and a student on at least two occasions and just brush that aside as "oh well its drama". :)
The opening scenes of this are class, we see a mob boss and his gang come into the hospital and our female lead doctor comes to see what the problem is and is greeted by a bunch of sexist nonsense. She tries to approach the boss to examine him and is fended off, with the comment "we don't go easy on girls", to which she replies possibly the best response ever, "does that make it less embarrassing when you get beaten?" and then proceeds to drop them all to the floor with her martial arts skills.
In terms of characters and their development, it was Lee Sung Kyung's character Jin Seo-u that really stood out for me. She is the "third point" of a love triangle and general all around bitter person - she starts out actually good and welcomes new girl Hye Jung (the female lead) into her friend group at school, but it becomes clear that her strength of character is remarkably fragile and when the FL starts to achieve top marks in school things start turning south and she ends up triggering various nasty events that have an impact on numerous other characters lives. She always struck me as someone who was, at her heart, a good person - but having been brought up by parents that have taught her the wrong values she's got something of a fragile character with a keenness for lashing out, much like her father - I was really hoping that by the end of the show she'd have stepped up on her own and gained her own strength of character and one of the absolute highlights of the story for me was when this ultimately happened.
I found the romance between the FL and ML to be... odd. It's like the author threw bits and pieces into the story and it never really gels. Issues arise but don't get resolved and just forgotten about. For example, the FL approaches the ML and says that she's upset that the ML isn't letting her into his life more, he's keen to help her out but won't let her in to return it. He perfectly reasonably explains that it's just not what he's used to because of his past, I get that, and then she says that she needs him to change and let her in. To me, that sounded like a perfectly reasonable discussion and I was thrilled to see communication and compassion between the two. He then, for a separate reason, has to go off to the states for three weeks. When he comes back, he's cold, distant, damn near ignores her and talks formally only to her. I thought it was really odd and thought - oh here comes "stupid breakup #1" but no, he explains "i was waiting for your call", and she says "oh" and boom - we're back on track folks. Wait, what? He still hasn't let you into his life, he still hasn't resolved the core issue you raised, but we're ok now? Hmm.
Once the two actually get together they have a fun time and I enjoyed seeing them together.
Tertiary characters
- In Ju - brilliant, wish we'd seen more of her. I kept getting triggered thinking "I'm sure i've seen her before" and then it dawned on me that some of her expressions and mannerisms are an absolute likeness for a slightly older Kim So Hyun.
- Choi Kang Soo - one of the junior doctors, goes through a tough time and I really enjoyed seeing those parts of the story. Also hints at possible future relationship there though it isn't really explored in the drama.
- Ahn Jong Dae - a fun character, another junior doctor, and potential future relationship for him too - though again, not explored.
Good to see Nam Goong Min in as a guest for two or three episodes too, he played a really nice role, quite a tough one, and it's nice not to see him as the evil bad guy for a change (Remember, Girl who sees Scents).
Overall, worth a watch, but not one that had me keen to click Next Episode as much as some of the others i've seen.
The opening scenes of this are class, we see a mob boss and his gang come into the hospital and our female lead doctor comes to see what the problem is and is greeted by a bunch of sexist nonsense. She tries to approach the boss to examine him and is fended off, with the comment "we don't go easy on girls", to which she replies possibly the best response ever, "does that make it less embarrassing when you get beaten?" and then proceeds to drop them all to the floor with her martial arts skills.
In terms of characters and their development, it was Lee Sung Kyung's character Jin Seo-u that really stood out for me. She is the "third point" of a love triangle and general all around bitter person - she starts out actually good and welcomes new girl Hye Jung (the female lead) into her friend group at school, but it becomes clear that her strength of character is remarkably fragile and when the FL starts to achieve top marks in school things start turning south and she ends up triggering various nasty events that have an impact on numerous other characters lives. She always struck me as someone who was, at her heart, a good person - but having been brought up by parents that have taught her the wrong values she's got something of a fragile character with a keenness for lashing out, much like her father - I was really hoping that by the end of the show she'd have stepped up on her own and gained her own strength of character and one of the absolute highlights of the story for me was when this ultimately happened.
I found the romance between the FL and ML to be... odd. It's like the author threw bits and pieces into the story and it never really gels. Issues arise but don't get resolved and just forgotten about. For example, the FL approaches the ML and says that she's upset that the ML isn't letting her into his life more, he's keen to help her out but won't let her in to return it. He perfectly reasonably explains that it's just not what he's used to because of his past, I get that, and then she says that she needs him to change and let her in. To me, that sounded like a perfectly reasonable discussion and I was thrilled to see communication and compassion between the two. He then, for a separate reason, has to go off to the states for three weeks. When he comes back, he's cold, distant, damn near ignores her and talks formally only to her. I thought it was really odd and thought - oh here comes "stupid breakup #1" but no, he explains "i was waiting for your call", and she says "oh" and boom - we're back on track folks. Wait, what? He still hasn't let you into his life, he still hasn't resolved the core issue you raised, but we're ok now? Hmm.
Once the two actually get together they have a fun time and I enjoyed seeing them together.
Tertiary characters
- In Ju - brilliant, wish we'd seen more of her. I kept getting triggered thinking "I'm sure i've seen her before" and then it dawned on me that some of her expressions and mannerisms are an absolute likeness for a slightly older Kim So Hyun.
- Choi Kang Soo - one of the junior doctors, goes through a tough time and I really enjoyed seeing those parts of the story. Also hints at possible future relationship there though it isn't really explored in the drama.
- Ahn Jong Dae - a fun character, another junior doctor, and potential future relationship for him too - though again, not explored.
Good to see Nam Goong Min in as a guest for two or three episodes too, he played a really nice role, quite a tough one, and it's nice not to see him as the evil bad guy for a change (Remember, Girl who sees Scents).
Overall, worth a watch, but not one that had me keen to click Next Episode as much as some of the others i've seen.
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