as a doctor myself, i might be bias toward medical drama. somehow, whenever there's a new medical drama, i tend to watch it, though there are some western medical drama that i don't watch, but i think for korean drama, i watch most of them, especially if they're available on netflix. and the newest one is hospital playlist. i've seen some trailers and people who watch them while still ongoing, talked about it and praised it, so obviously i'm curious. but i'm not patience enough to watch it ongoing, so i waited until it was two episodes left, but i still had to wait for those two because apparently, this one is binge worthy. one factor why this drama is so highly raved by people even before it was aired was it came from the same director as the famous reply series as well as prison playbook. all dramas directed by this director were good that people keep recommending them. so let's see about this one.
title: hospital playlist
cast: jo jung suk, yoo yeon seok, jung kyung ho, jeon mi do, kim dae myung
genre: medical drama, life series? (i don't know how to classify this style of drama, hahaha)
this is a drama about 5 doctors that have been in friendship for more than 10 years since their medical school years. though at first they worked at separate hospitals, they came together and worked in the same hospital thanks to ahn jung won (yoo yeon seok). for the first two episodes, i was confused because of there are five main casts to be remember. and there were additional players. while for usual drama, the mains are only two or three and then several additional players. so if you are not used to watching a drama with lots of players, then you might get confused. but bear with it, it's worth it.
it started with ahn jung won. a pediatric surgeon who always wants to be a catholic priest. and in the first episode, the director of the hospital was sick and then passed away. at first they made it like there would be a fight for the crown, but apparently, we were wrong. they found out that jung won is the last son of the late director and both his brothers are priests, and both his sisters are nuns. so his mom does whatever she can to prevent him being a priest too. after his father's death, he found out that the VIP room costs a lot, so he decided to round up his friends to work as the VIP doctors. but, not all of them were agree. but he managed it anyway, and voila.. they worked together now and would practice in a band together. oh, he was the drummer and also sang. he kept a little secret from his friends that he was the daddy long legs in the daddy long legs program that helped people who didn't have enough money to pay for their treatment cost.
then there's lee ik joon (jo jung suk). he's a general surgeon/ gastrointestinal surgeon. he was in a long distance marriage with a cute little son, but in the first two episodes, we found out that he became a single dad to his son. you would see the antiques of ik joon for being funny and lovable while still being brilliant in his work. not to mention his skill in music for being lead singer and guitarist on their band. later you'd found out that ik joon helped the only resident in the general surgery to get close to jung won. as the story went on, we found out that ik joon had a little sister that jun wan fallen in love with, and ik joon himself had a long crush with song hwa, but he managed to keep it quiet until now. unfortunately, though ik joon finally confessed his feeling to song hwa, we didn't get to see her reply in season 1. hopefully ik joon's love story will unfold in season 2.
kim jun wan (jung kyung ho) is a cardiothoracic surgeon. he might seems cold at first, and a bit cruel, but later you'd find out that he was really care about his patients. he might not go high and low like jung won did, but he cared about them. he went to his patients' daughter wedding party and he was super anxious when his one of his patient finally got a transplant donor that he was worried he had fever that would cancel the surgery. he was also hard on his resident, but later we found out that he took care of his resident as well. at first he seemed to have bad luck on the romance department, partly because he had a bad taste in girlfriend. but later we found out that jun wan fell in love with ik joon's little sister and it was hilarious seeing him hide their relationship from ik woon. unfortunately, they were in long distance relationship at the end of first season, and things looked worrisome between them so, i do hope they have a good story in the second season. probably finally admitting their relationship to ik joon for a start? oh and by the way, he played guitar and sing a little too. i guess having an idol star girlfriend could come in handy..
then there's chae song hwa (jeon mi do), the only woman in the main cast. she is a neurosurgeon and a pretty good one. all of her colleagues pictured her as the perfect person, if there's one. she was punctual, great on her job, she was kind to her residents too. she had this thing about camping. it was quite funny seeing how she didn't buy a new shoes and keep using the same one for years even though it was a bit torn out, but she bought new camping stuffs though she never managed to go camping the whole weekend. however, she had big appetite and it was funny to see her compete with jun wan over food. and ik jun had her say a spell so she didn't get crazy over food. the only flaw about her was she couldn't sing, but they had to put her as lead singer on their band so she would sign to be one of the VIP's doctors. she also played the bass in the band. sounds so cool, right? unfortunately, as like any other love story, problem will arise from having only one girl in the group. we knew that ik joon was secretly liked her, but apparently, back in their college days, seok hyung was the one that confess his love for her the first time. even their friends didn't know about it until the current hospital director asked them on the first episode at jung wan's father's funeral. which shocked everyone, of course. oh well, i do hope things would go well between ik joon and song hwa though, as seok hyung has already decided to give up his feeling toward song hwa.
last one is yang seok hyung (kim dae myung). he's the only one that doesn't work in the surgery department. he is an obstetrician/gynaecologist. he was pictured as the odd one. he was very quiet, kept to himself, and he avoided the crowd. though at first people thought that jung won was rich because his dad was the former hospital director, but later we knew that he gave his almost all his money away in his daddy long legs program. so, their friends were shock when they found out that seok hyung was rich too. his dad was a CEO in some company, and he had a mistress, that's why his mom fell sick and after seok hyung was divorced, he lived together with his mom. he was a divorcee too, but he was already been divorced since first episode, but we didn't know why. but don't worry, at the end, he would probably had his love life get more explored in the second season because at the last episode, his ex-wife suddenly called him out of the blue, while he also just found out that his resident had a crush on him, but he told her to find someone else. but apparently the girl won't listen. anyway, as doctor, his patient also found him odd, but there's one scene that i like. when his patient found out that her baby has died in her womb and cried uncontrollably, seok hyung patiently waited for his patient to let out her emotion, and respected her time. he just waited, and somehow i think it consoles his patient though he didn't say anything. and all the other patients outside, though they were informed that the waiting time would be longer, they didn't complain (well, one of them did, but his wife told him to shut up), because they knew what kind of grief she was into. this is really beautiful, because here, the line in the OG department was crazy. almost every OG doctors have long lines of patients. and to make other people wait like that was an impossible thing to do, that's why people always see doctors as money making machine, and not someone that has compassion and empathy. doctors were rushed to see patient after patient and not given enough time to care more for their patient. by the way, seok hyung played the keyboard and sometimes sang too.
what i like:
- this drama truly pictures life of doctors. from their busy time, juggling between work, family and hobby. and also how works can get in the way in their relationship. and how exhausting it is to be a resident. there's a scene where song hwa's resident got lost track of time until he didn't know that it was morning already since he was always inside the hospital building and didn't see the sun at all. it was real. i was like that too back when i was a young doctor. we only remembered our night duty day and off day. and though all the main casts were good doctors, we can't deny that there are doctors who work for money like jun wan's colleague, or for publicity like song hwa's colleague. so this drama really pictured doctors' life.
- no antagonist. this is a life drama. whatever problems arise, it's natural to happen in day to day life, and not because it is in a drama. like seok hyung's resident when her partner was suddenly disappear, she was exhausted because she had to be in night duty almost every night. she was exhausted of course, but when her partner reappeared, she had mix feeling, between angry or relieve. and it's natural, and it does happen in real life.
- how all the main cast have almost enough screen time even though there are five of them, so we know them all proportionally.
- one drama with two outcome. not only the drama, but we also got a music band too. if you go to youtube, you could find them playing all their songs (only the ones that was played by the band, mido and falasol) live.
what i don't like:
- well, i don't have any problem with this drama, but probably some people might get bored because the drama has a bit slower storyline. but i don't mind. i enjoy the drama as it reminiscence of my old days.
rating: 10/10
binge worthy: yes
recommended for: people who likes medical drama, who doesn't mind slower storyline. this has a mix of a bit romance, but just a little bit. some laugh too thanks to jun wan and ik joon. if you decided to watch this drama, tell me which one do you root for, which one is your favorite. i bet many people adore ik joon, but he's a bit too flashy for me. somehow i'm rooting for jung wan. i'm hoping his relationship goes okay. and i want to see more of seok hyung too.
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