Beanie level: Jang Geu-rae

Because I got disappointed by My Demon I decided to try another similar fantasy drama and probably get disappointed by that too but I happened to really enjoy it. The fantasy drama being Doom At Your Service, spoilers ahead.

Back when this was released I was busy and the reviews seemed to be mixed so I didn’t pick it up but now I had some fantasy drama itch to scratch and I chose this one.
See I really enjoy fantasy drama flaws and all I mean I am one of the few people here that likes Angel’s last mission and I watched it weekly so it’s not even the binge watch magic that made it for me, so when I felt like last two episodes of My Demon sucked, I wanted to check if I have been burnt out by the genre and Doom At Your Service is how I checked it which made me think about what works and doesn’t work for me in this genre. Long post ahead.

I think the best thing about Doom At Your Service is Park Bo Young. She is so good and honestly forgot about that cause the last thing I saw her in was Strong Woman and I really do not like that one. Maybe if I watched this weekly I would have felt these storylines were redundant but when I was binge watching I felt like the show was making a point by showing nothing changes the fate of our leads and the initial premise remained intact. Seo In Guk is also really good as the tragic and sad male lead. I think the leads in My Demon were also great they were also pretty much the best thing about the show and both shows demanded very different leads, like My Demon’s leads were way more eccentric and comedic and Doom’s were much more serious much in line with the each of their shows tone but I felt that My Demon couldn’t really make the more tragic parts of the story land which is why the ending didn’t work cause if the tragedy didn’t land how would the ending work.

I think My Demon is really fun, it has so many tropes that I have found fun in the past and some nice fresh takes on a few of them but I think I have found why the mix of tropes show start off strong and then fizzle out for me, while the premise is fun these shows try to do too much, a chaebol power struggle, a killer on the loose, deities roaming around, contract marriage, past lives, repeating fates, comic relief gang, was present during your parent’s death and couldn’t save them and a few others that by the end nothing feels sincere. Meanwhile Doom has a decent number of flaws but I felt it came and focused on the story it wanted to tell which is why I cried when Park Bo Young felt helpless cause the entire show I saw her trying her best to change anything, I cried when she was anxious about him disappearing on their last day together, her family lacked a chaebol but I loved their bond with each other and the show did a good job of showing the history and depth those bonds have would I have a blown a gasket if I had seen this weekly and the main leads had 2 episodes where they forgot about each other, probably, but I felt why it happened made enough sense that I was okay with it. I loved seeing Seo In Guk becoming a human eating and sleeping in the end cause all those plot threads were established and running throughout the show when we reached the end. I feel if Doom was a 2023 show, PBY would have met SIG in the Joseon era as well where they both fell in love and she died and now he is angry at God and hates humans and they would have met again and fate is repeating itself.

I also liked the deities in Doom, like the God here was a new take on the concept and I felt that she really cared for our leads and that is why his reappearing also made more sense cause the God really seemed like someone who cared enough about him to help him out to return. This post is not me saying Doom is the better show, if you want a fun show I honestly feel My Demon is the easy choice. For me that fun came at the cost of the show feeling hollow at the end.

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    What a wonderful post and a great analysis of both dramas. There were parts of both
    Doom At Your Service and My Demon which were excellent and memorable. As you rightly said it is just that some things didn’t work, making the dramas feel uneven. While I don’t regret watching either dramas, neither managed to become a beloved drama despite many great moments.

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    Have you seen scripting your destiny?

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    but I don´t like that supernaturals become humans. it is either make the human supernatural for once. Because it opens new possibilities

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    Thank you!! I also put off watching DAYS for the same reason – mixed reviews and the overly pink banner/posters which reminded me too much of Shopping King Louis. But then I watched it. And I have to say it’s like one of my top fantasy romance dramas. So good.

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Finally got around to watching KDramas after a while so some quick thoughts:

The drama I was expecting I would watch in this current set of drama because it has both my faves: Welcome to Samdalri, Shin Hye Sun and Ji Chang Wook are my loves but the mixed reviews made me hesitant. The ones I did end up watching My Demon and Park’s marriage contract and when I watched the penultimate week episodes of both these shows I knew there was no way they could conclude in a way that would satisfy me but that is the norm for kdrama fantasies which is why I can be pretty lenient cause I know this but still these two ended up not working for me.

Park’s marriage contract the moment they decided that the female lead must go back in time that too before Joseon Tae Ha’s death there was no winning and then they went on to make some other questionable choices as well. But I wasn’t burned that hard by this one. I was never really very into the show. The show that did burn me was well My Demon, the first half of the show loved it, till ep 14 I still enjoyed it despite many others already hopping off the train, I was still on it, after ep 14 my expectations for a satisfying ending lowered but still maybe a somewhat decent ending but na the show honestly just went off the rails. The main couple was cute and I liked that we saw a couple actually being a couple. I want to elaborate more exactly why the conclusion is so flat for me but that would be too long.

Next, a show I have no intention to watch because I found the webtoon it is being adapted from very flat: Marry My Husband I finished the webtoon in one sitting, I liked the mechanics of how her fate can be changed but the male lead had no trait to him except being really in love with the female lead so once she had managed her new life to be on track my interest dropped. So to those who have read the webtoon is the adaptation an improvement?

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Finished When I Fly Towards You, absolutely loved it, the main pairing is just so nice. I have seen enough Chinese youth dramas to know how the plot will go and these days I thought pure fluff dramas don’t do anything for me and I just get bored. But I was hooked on this fluff youth drama. So below are my thoughts on why it works.

The biggest reason I love this is the cast, the casting for this drama is on point. Zhang Miaoyi knows how to play a cute female without being grating, she is just adorable. Zhou Yiran is charming as the smitten male lead, he has this nice low voice that just suits his character, when you watch the show they absolutely feel like their characters and not actors playing characters. The rest of the squad does a great job as well, for once a cdrama secondary couple is engaging as well.

The next reason is the characterization, tbh I have liked the cute female lead likes and chases the cold male lead romances in the past, these proactive female leads getting a cold guy to gradually love them makes for a fun watch. But there are abundant frequent issues when this trope is played out and again now that I have seen enough of them I have a lower tolerance for these issues in newer dramas with this trope and I am happy to share that WIFTY imo doesn’t embrace those aspects of the trope. Our male lead while being cold is from the start a nice dude. He had his own problems in life that led him to be a certain way but it is nowhere used as an excuse for him to be rude to others and the female lead, he is just a quiet and nice guy. Female lead is very much her own person, she likes the male lead a lot and just goes for it but in no way is she portrayed as someone dumb, she is actually a very self aware girl aware of her strengths and weaknesses, confident and logical too basically I loved them both. Additionally they both have good chemistry with each other so I wasn’t bothered with them getting together in ep 19 out of 24.The final episodes are full of fluff but I liked them together so I didn’t even get bored with the typical fluff scenes.

Lastly, it is a drama that is nice to watch aesthetically, and has a very comfortable pacing, a job well done by the people behind the scenes as well.

I am not saying this drama had no flaws, it has some things I would still tweak but I don’t want to nitpick something I enjoyed so much, so definitely a recommendation for the beanies from me, if they are into cute romances.

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    this show has a strong resemblance to It started with a kiss, specially FL’s acting just so similar to Ariel Lin’s, except not annoying… AL was quite annoying in first few episodes..

    This is classic High school drama of every year.

    The writer for this and Hidden love is same

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      Definitely a classic storyline and a familiar story to most of us but I think this one worked cause they made the personalities use in the trope more palatable to a modern audience and like I said I loved the cast. A good cast that has chemistry can often make classical and familiar storylines work.

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        i am agreeing, but we get this agreeable HS story almost every year.. for this year it is this.

        I am watching the drama, liking it.. but not exactly waiting for every next episode.. that makes me think how much a cast’s chemistry etc can do wonders (Vs Hidden Love.. and all other- romance dramas no matter the genre that were released in last few years)

        anyways, cheers to good stuff.. hope they keep coming

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See you in my 19th life’s second ep is much better, I was a bit meh on ep 1, Shin Hye Sun has such a charismatic screen presence, Ahn Bo Hyun’s male lead was also cute.

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Okay cause I rewatched Healer and went through K2 highlights. I remembered why I liked Ji Chang Wook so much. Like Suspicious Partner was one of my early live watch dramas, maybe that’s why but I didn’t like it one bit and every JCW project after that had bad reviews so he became a forgotten kdrama crush. But yesterday I felt like giving a drama of his chance again so I picked Lovestruck City.
From what I remember back when it aired people weren’t a fan of the interview format it went for, hated Kim Ji Won’s character, thought nothing much happened. The weecapper for this one particularly didn’t seem to enjoy it. Personally I thought the show read like a longer western romance movie with the will they won’t they archetypes rather than the regular k-drama. If it was a weekly release while it was on air I think I can understand why so many felt like the first few episodes meander and are redundant, but as a long movie the pacing feels much more natural as I don’t feel like I am stuck in a rut with these characters for weeks. As such I enjoyed the show (barring the Minho storyline), I don’t mind these mockumentary, interview formats so it wasn’t a damper for me. Thought Kim Ji Won’s character as messed up as she was, was still relatable so while her choices could be frustrating I could still see where she was coming from.

Also I thought JCW made his whiny character work, he was charming as well, I wouldn’t say this is great, but it was a fairly decent city romance show. I think if your expectations are a longer western romance movie you could enjoy this.

The casting for this does set expectations way too high though I feel both made a nice pair and were well cast. I would like to see them together again someday.

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So I rewatched Healer after a long while which made me remember why I liked JCW and PMY so much after this show. JCW was so good as this action kdrama hero and PMY embodies this spirited journalist. After this rewatch I watched some K2 action scenes. Now I suddenly want to watch another JCW action drama, also K2 really ramped up the music for its action, so much fun. Do we have any other high octane action dramas in recent years? I am in the mood to watch these.

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Watching love to hate you and it is doing a lot of things well but I feel sometime it goes a bit too hard on not like other girls, women have several shades and media has been stuck on some shades for ages so any change from that is a breath of fresh air but at this point in the show our ml likes the fl cause she is not like other girls and idk it just rubs me the wrong way. I am still enjoying this, it gets points by simply not having a murder sub plot.

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    The “not like other girls’ aspect is an issue for me as well, especially how the other female characters are portrayed. I feel there’s a little bit of critique here in how female characters are portrayed in romance dramas versus real women but having both actresses in real life be exactly like their on-screen personas undermines this point.

    I’m enjoying it as well for what it is, but it is neither as ground breaking nor as modern as I was led to expect. If anything it feels a little dated.

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      I keep thinking of Secret Garden while watching even though there’s no body swap. I’m not sure why anyone would think this drama is ground breaking, it’s all things we’ve seen before, except for maybe the FL’s upfront sexual history, but even with that everything is very familiar here.

      (Congrats on your sparkly tracksuit btw)

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For the past two weeks I was in such a big cang lan jue/ love between fairy and devil phase, not like the most original drama and I have seen more than a few squibbles about the final episodes but I still really enjoyed it so much, I had given up hope on enjoying xianxia for a while now, once you know all its tropes by hand there really isn’t anything else but lbfad just hit all the right spots for me. Also dylan wang, his dubber and esther yu were fantastic, I had heard about dylan not being that great of an actor prior to this but maybe he had his watershed moment with this one cause he for the most part nailed it. Also esther was actually really great especially as the show went on, I know people don’t like her voice but I got used to it early so not a deal breaker for me.

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    So was I. It was such a good ride. It totally occupied my mind for the duration it aired. I don’t have much issue with the show overall. I feel since it was all around excellent, people become extremely critical too. Well, yes I would’ve liked 2 extra minutes in the finale for the main couple or some explanation, they have released enough epilogues to satisfy me as well (their written posts). The actors did a really good job under the director and producers. The writing was tight and that’s what made it different from usual xanxias.

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Not watching Alchemy but I appreciate its existence? Like it looks and feels different than the regular kdrama and that alone makes me want to root for it. I was expecting it to crash and burn cause idol actors plus neither of the leads pull big ratings and while hong sisters have made hits it is still a bold attempt and King was an indication that people won’t blindly watch based on the writer either, so yeah while it isn’t the next Goblin or anything but to see it doing relatively fine makes me go yayy the doors for fantasy kdrama haven’t been closed…yet

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Wish there was a youtuber like avenuex for kdramas, I feel like javabeans had the personality for it, maybe dramabeans can try branching out to such stuff.
Anyway avenuex is a fun cdrama youtuber.

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    I haven’t watched any of the dramas she mentioned but I have so much fun watching it
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf9N4Zfg9PE

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    Same. I love her knowledge and I find it refreshing that she can be critical eloquently. She’s also a long time viewer of dramas so does not start declaring the most recent hit of the year as the best of all time. I especially love her rant videos that tear the very bad ones apart. I don’t watch all the dramas that she does, but her videos are enjoyable anyway.

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Just watched start up ep 3, don’t know if this drama will be good by the end but I will always remember this episode fondly, I say if people are not interested at all, read the recaps and watch the episode anyway and have a good laugh.

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    Agreed. It sucks when a drama starts off so good and ends so poorly (aka Her Private Life). It’s been a rough 2020, so don’t disappoint Start Up!

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      Huh, I thought 2020 was a good year for dramas (might just be me though). I also liked HPL for its entire run.

      I can think of plenty of shows that lost steam as they went on though.

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        I think that I was SO disappointed with the Eternal King that I didn’t want to watch other Kdramas for a while. Tale of the Nine-Tailed is also pretty good too.

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          LOL, I think there were quite a few very good shows this year — Diary of a Prosecutor, I’ll Find You When the Weather is Nice, A Piece of Your Mind, Hospital Playlist — as well as some shows which, while flawed, I otherwise quite enjoyed — Flower of Evil, Do You Like Brahms?, Dinner Mate. Of the shows I’m watching right now, this and 18 Again are really really good.

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K-drama wikipedia pages now have nielson info about the number of viewers of each episode which is very interesting. It shows how ratings differ across timeslots like for example Monday Tuesday tends to have higher ratings even with lower number of viewers. As of now I have only compared a few tvn shows to check. I don’t use ratings as a complete measure of success because there are several shows that even with lower ratings generate more buzz but I guess I still realised that these numbers are not meant for comparison.

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Just finished mystic pop up bar, it was such an enjoyable watch. I loved the main trio and all the other side characters too. I know HJE is not everyone’s favorite but I feel she did a good job here also she looked so good, whether in her hanboks or casual wear. I know people compare it to Hotel Del Luna and they are really similar shows but the show still manages to feel fresh and I really enjoyed the fantasy world building. Anyway really glad this show was recommended to me by a friend.

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    I’m watching it too! Been watching it with my kids (that happened kind of accidentally, they caught me watching it and kind of hopped in on ep 3, and don’t seem to be freaked out by the “evil spirits”), and find it really enjoyable and heartwarming!

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    It is such a great show. I’m glad that you enjoyed watching it.

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    This was a surprise for me. I was expecting quirky and it is, but it is so heartfelt as well. Didn’t expect to cry and there were a few episodes where I was sobbing. Such a gem of a show.

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      I was expecting quirky as well and was shaken by how heartfelt it was.

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So I am currently watching it’s okay and I am really enjoying but it has some issues I want to touch upon and maybe even discuss here. I don’t want to be hugely negative about a drama I am liking so I will list some positives out as well.

The main thing I like about this drama are the main 3 characters, I love that they are multidimensional with firm characterizations. I like how the drama makes me think and analyze which is not something a lot of kdramas are able to do. I also really like the emphasis on perspectives in various forms which leads to interesting discussions. Like for example in ep 8 we compare GT and MY to Beauty and the Beast and I find it interesting how the show itself emphasizes on how we can interpret the development of their relationship. Is it built on MY’s dubious acts to get GT closer to her or is built on GT’s love and acceptance of MY regardless of her anti social personality.

However my main issue with the show is the psychiatric hospital, several people have pointed out how the staff seems to be biased against MY for no reason but even aside from that I have a few problems. Firstly the director who is supposedly famous for his job, which I don’t get at all because it seems MY is doing that job for him in this show. I love MY’s character and I understand her actions but I don’t like how the show presents her actions as solutions. It feels as if they are undermining actual therapy since it is MY’s actions that always start the recovery process, it reinforces the beliefs Asians have about therapy and therapists in a way. I would really appreciate if they show a patient who recovers through actual therapy and not by MY’s serum of truth. Second the staff is dumb, why would you allow a violent person to meet with his victim with only an incompetent nurse watching over them. If you have violent patients and are allowing violent visitors then the hospital should have proper security to deal with such issues.

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    I understand and agree with what you’ve said about the staff at the hospital and do wish that they would show patients going through and benefiting from therapy.

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    Agreed. I like the main characters and the cinematography but to really enjoy the show you have to not think much. Which director would do any of the things this guy does? Hire a problematic relative to teach a class? Suspend her and bring back also on whim. The staff is even worse and very unprofessional. The fact so many of MY’s actions turn out to be beneficial for the patients does feel contrived and it’s the same as the latest eps spending so much effort on her mother’s hauntings, it’s a way to make her character more relatable and likable. It’s a romcom, they feel they have to do it otherwise people would not ship the romance. It’s not my favorite choice for this plot but I understand and it works and many people like it.

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    The hospital and its staff are definitely weak links in this show. And, yes, I thought it was stupid that the violent ex-husband was allowed to just meet with his victim with no supervision. Yes, we got that moment when Gang-tae lost self-control, but I wish we could have advanced the plot in a way that didn’t sacrifice common sense.

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beanies who watch IOTBO on Netflix, was this scene in the episode?
https://twitter.com/kdramasnail/status/1277319319999754242

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    It wasn’t.

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      This is the issue I have with Netflix, they edit out important stuff. I happened to see this on Twitter and I was like how did I miss this?

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        The same thing happened during Arthdal. I won’t say it’s a Netflix problem, since they only air what is provided to them. Anyways, can anyone verify is the clip even shown on tv? Or is it a special clip for social media?

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          I’m thinking it’s a separate video because on the top, it had the “Weekly (Sat,Sun) broadcasts at 9pm”. They dont usually have that for the actual episode.

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            I think that might be the case too. But looking back at the first 2 eps, I think both Kang-tae and Moon-sung each narrated a story at the end of each episode similar to this. Maybe this one is just cut for time, since I don’t think it’s really adding much to the episode besides that Jae-su also cries reading it. Lols

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          The tweet says it’s an epilogue. I thought we were being robbed off a scene

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    No it wasn’t but thanks for sharing!!

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    It wasn’t

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    Nope it wasnt.

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    They shared it on their Youtube channel, The Swoon. https://youtu.be/_aGYrEcl-Vw

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I love it when Seo Ye Ji narrates anything, she narrates a summary of a story for like 2 minutes in ep 2 but it is one of the most memorable scenes.

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    the chemistry is killer..
    She is gorgeous in the role in all sense

    drama is soo good..

    Any theories.. anyone? – clearly whoever killed their mom also tried to kill or torture SYJ’s character.. that is why she rips butterflies apart.. killer has a tattoo?? (stepsister’s mom?) 😛

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    HER VOICE

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Watched the first ep of the new Kim Soo hyun show, I won’t give a verdict for now, it uses typical kdrama tropes which was a bit sad to see but the premiere also had some positives. The biggest one being the animation and the stories, things like that really appeal to me. And the next biggest positive was Seo Ye Ji, I just really like her, her character isn’t unique, in fact I thought of IU in hotel del luna in her very first scene but I really love how she acts and speaks, I found myself replaying even the most insignificant of her dialogue, she is just that magnetic for me.
The show can still end up being a train wreck for all I know but the premiere in itself was decent in my opinion. 7/10 for the premiere.
SPOILER
As for the childhood connection trope I feel it got cleared up today, so while the trope is there at least it might not be a last minute reveal to add conflict.

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I like Hospital Playlist a lot but I won’t really be sad if none of the pairings work out. I will be discussing my reasons here:

Ik Sun and Joon Wan: In my opinion the show never delves in to who they are as a couple, what are their similarities, their differences, we never truly see them confiding in each other and because we mostly see Joon Wan, Ik Sun’s feelings for him feel vague. I am not saying the show should do more for them, their romance is one of the many plot lines but because their moments seem so surface level, I won’t be sad if they end up going different ways.

Winter Garden: I love the two characters and I am rooting for them, but I don’t want Gyeo Wool to be the reason Jeong Won changes his ambitions. The show has repeatedly stressed on the fact that Jeong Won wanted to be a priest since he was young, however they have not convincingly shown that Jeong Won’s feelings for Gyeo Wool are greater than his longtime ambition. What I want is for Jeong Won to realize he is extremely happy with his current profession and that he wants to continue doing it and after that realization eventually pursue Gyeo Wool.
will continue in the comments

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    Seok Hyung and Min Ha: To be honest I am not exactly a fan of all the residents that are of the opposite gender being attracted towards the professor and I feel like Seok Hyung and Min Ha would show a great mentor mentee relationship, Min Ha has a lot of potential as an independent character too, so I want her plot line to be more about her journey as a doctor.

    Any of the Song Hwa pairing: I honestly prefer the Ik Jun and Song Hwa pairing, really the only resident professor relationship I am somewhat rooting for is winter garden. Chi Hong is great, I just like Song Hwa as his mentor. I like the idea of Ik Jun and Song Hwa but I am fine even if it isn’t the end game, the show has established them as such good friends that I feel like even that is good enough.

    If somebody read all of this, thank you!!

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    lol..maybe he was waiting for his crush to materialize..but if she ain’t marrying, might as well become a priest 😛

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    Interesting POV and it’s refreshing to read an opinion that’s different from mine. 🙂

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    Jun Wan and Ik Sun: Although I’m totally for this ship and would be so devastated if they end up breaking up, I totally agree with what you’re saying. We saw them together really fast, we don’t know why and when Jun Wan started to even like Ik Sun. I wish they showed some sort of flashback to show this, just so we’re more convinced that the relationship has some sort of foundation. Though I feel like together as a couple, they’re really compatible and I love that Jun Wan is just different with her, like there’s a sweetness to him that he just doesn’t show when he’s with his friends and definitely not with his colleagues.

    Winter Garden: Definitely agree, even though Ik Jun is really supportive of the relationship, I feel like it’s too early to push for this relationship now . At this point, we need Jeong Won to sort of really rethink what he wants in life, he obviously love kids and loves his job. I feel like he’s too focused to the idea of being a priest to see that and question it – if Gyeo Wool could be a catalyst (at least) for him to rethink his priorities, I kind of won’t mind.

    Seok Hyung and Min Ha: Agreed. Nuff said. Though as you said, I’d like to see more of a mentor-mentee relationship with them more. I love that Min Ha is really learning a lot from him, not just technically as a doctor but also how to be a good person overall.

    Song Hwa and Ik Jun: This is the ship for me!! We’ve seen the signs, Ik Jun has finally confessed his feelings. She’s already being a great partner to him without realizing it, she’s taken care of U-Ju quite a few times and adores him. I think it’s because they’re really good friends as well, but it’s so great that they just get each other. UGHHH THIS SHIP I CANNOT.

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Because of Hospital Playlist I was suddenly in a reply series mood and was watching some reply 1988 scenes, back when I first watched the show in 2016 I was a kdrama newbie whose eyes were glued to the subtitles and so I probably didn’t pay a lot of attention to the performance, but now when I can pretty much understand what a character says even without subtitles I have realized that hyeri’s line delivery was not the best.

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After episode 8 I have decided Chu Min Ha is my favourite resident in Hospital Playlist.

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