It wasn’t supposed to be drama for me. I had it on my list for a very long time but always postponed it choosing something different. I was just not in a mood for a medical drama so I’ve always found reason not to watch it. Firstly I’ve put it on my list because Lee Dong Wook was in it. Yes, I choose dramas based on who plays in it, sue me. But it seemed to not be enough. Until…

Yes, until I’ve figured out that Cho Seung Woo plays there as well, which totally bought me at this point. I have soft spot for this man and I watch everything with him since I’ve seen him in Sisyphus, what can I do.

Do you know when they teach you not to judge a book by it’s cover? I’ve did exactly that. I’ve just assumed that this is medical drama and I don’t want to have anything to do with it. I don’t know where this comes from, but medical series usually just bore me to death. That’s partially the reason I’ve still haven’t watch Hospital Playlist, even though everyone praises it for how good it is. But not for me. I think it’s just because I’ve watched so many episodes of Dr. House and ER in my time that I’ve just reached my limit for medical series.

But we’re getting off topic here.

So my first impression was wrong, this is not medical drama. I swear, you can count on one hand how many times action is actually patient related. There was even one scene when during doctors meeting one of them admitted that it was a long time since they’ve discussed patients health. Because it all comes down to politics. Hospital politics, but still. And the power play between doctors and new hospital director is very strong here. Usually is one against the other but soon we see that the sides are not really that obvious. The border between them changes often, we see character that was one on one side is suddenly on the other.

At first I was really not sure about this drama. I’ve found it pretty slow, with not interesting characters. But suddenly, character development occurred and oh my, it was a ride. The characters we thought were obvious, suddenly turned out to be absolutely not as we thought they were. And the crown example is Goo Seung Hyo (played by Cho Seung Woo), new hospital director. At the beginning he seems like a 100% bad guy, the one that comes to your hospital and wants only profits and good results. Corporate head that doesn’t get that doctors are here to save lives not sell supplements and make the quarterly plans. But soon we discover that his behaviour is not really that sided. We discover that the doctors are not su pure either. And when covering of patients deaths come to the public attention, more humane face of Goo Seung Hyo is visible. He may be a corporate head, but making the hospital profitable also means working according to the rules. So what’s happening with Seung Hyo is true character development. Our attitude towards him changes not because he has a sudden change of heart (although at one point it partially happens) but because we get to know him better. He behaves the same but now we know his motivations a little bit. We know his soft spot for animals and weird living situation with his parents (luckily explained later, but still pretty weird). He has an asshole of a boss but wants to do something good for the hospital, but is bound by corporate rules. I think that even Cho Seung Woo said (although I really don’t remember in which interview) something like Goo Seung Hyo is big for little ones, and small for the big ones. And I totally agree, he knows who to fight and who to bow to. The problem arises when it’s the one person he needs to do both to. He kind of finds himself between the rock and a hard place.

The thing is that Seung Hyo turns out not to be the worst that happened to the hospital and we’ll soon find out what really is.
What I also really loved about this drama is how subtle romantic motives are here. They may as well not be here and we wouldn’t notice but they make a nice breather from all of this political games. Plus you really hope something good finally happens to the main characters.

But I have to admit, the pace of the plot here is really slow. And you can feel it, the drama is not action packed, for most of the times, there’s no action at all. But if you like political drama, with a lot of suspense that might be something for you.

I’ve admired characters and how they were portrayed. I mean, with cast like this, I wouldn’t expect anything less than that, but we really have bunch of great and well known actors here. Like just to get some examples, Lee Kyu Hyun, playing Ye Sun Woo was just amazing in his role, the character himself was pretty complex but I think that actor just did a great job. And Yoo Jae Myung, playing Joo Kyung Moon, I mean I expect only the best from this man, after his roles in Iteawon Class and Stanger, just to name a few, but he always somehow manages to surprise me with his portrayal of the character.

So to wrap it up somehow. This is a slow drama with great characters so if you’re into that stuff, you’ll certainly like this one.