“Hospital Playlist” (슬기로운 의사생활): Season 1

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
May 29, 2020

☆☆☆☆
Lee Ik-Joon (played by Jo Jung-Suk)
Ahn Jung-Won (played by Yoo Yeon-Seok)
Kim Jun-Wan (played by Jung Kyung-Ho)
Chae Song-Hwa (played by Jeon Mi-Do)
Yang Seok-Hyung (played by Kim Dae-Myung)

Good news for fans of “Hospital Playlist”: There will be a second season slated to release in 2021. With that in mind, the season finale last night makes a lot more sense, leaving loose ends to be tied up for the five main characters.

That this series revolves around the friendship between the main characters is no coincidence. It was written by screenwriter Lee Woo-Jung and directed by Shin Won-Ho — the masterminds behind the superb “Reply” anthology. The lead characters are all doctors at the prestigious Yulje Medical Center in Seoul. Ik-Joon and Joo-Wan are childhood friends, who met the other three on their first day of medical school.

It’s improbable that all of them would land at the same hospital in real life, but it makes for a nice storyline. All are overachievers who are renowned in their specialties. But in many ways, each is broken by heartache. Two are divorced, one was cheated on and the fourth is torn between his love of medicine and his wanting to serve God. As for the fifth, he comes across cold and self-centered in the beginning, until he allows himself to fall in love with his best friend’s sister.

They share the kind of familial friendship where they order extra food for each other and rarely eat alone. Because what is food when it can’t be shared with those you care about?

Instead of inserting characters who spiral out of control into “Melrose Place” caricatures, the showrunners gave each character time to develop as brilliant, but flawed, human beings, whose normal lives are sometimes extraordinary.

For stress release, they gather together in the basement of Seok-Hyung’s house, where he lives with his mother. (His philandering chaebol father left the family and lives with his mistress. His mother refuses to divorce him, not because she still loves him, but because she doesn’t want to give him what he wants.) It’s here, singing off key (save for Ik-Joon) but still practicing hard, that they let loose a bit.

Though Seok-Hyung has the least flashy role and is initially presented in an unflattering light as a shy mama’s boy, it was his storyline that intrigued me the most. There is a vignette that is tragic. He has to tell a mother that her baby will die shortly after birth. His calm voice and demeanor is comforting, but his words cut through her heart. Before the delivery, he gives specific instructions to two nurses: One is told to cover the baby’s mouth when he’s born; the other is told to play music loudly. It sounds inhumane. But he wanted to prevent the mother from having to relive the horrific memory of hearing her newborn cry, right before he died.

My heart had a difficult time handling that scene. But it was beautifully done.

There are some moments when it’s difficult to tell when we’re seeing a flashback vs. what’s current. The different hairstyles help, except in the case of Seok-Hyung, who had the same look throughout.

One of my favorite aspects of the series was the relationship between Woo-Joo (played by the precious child actor Kim Joon) and his dad Ik-Joon. The chemistry the two shared was on point and realistic.

The series also deals well with the concept of whether men and women can be friends with each other without getting romantically involved. Two of the friends are romantically interested in Song-Hwa — one is immediately turned down, while the other waits for her response. The latter’s fear is that because he expressed his feelings to her, their friendship could suffer, regardless of the outcome.

Meta Moments: Yoo Yeon-Seok, who portrays pediatric surgeon Jung-Won, was the second male lead in “Reply 1994.” His “Reply” co-star Go Ara guest stars as Ik-Joon’s famous actress ex-girlfriend named…Go Ara. And three actors from “Reply 1988” make cameo appearances. Sung Dong-Il plays Jung-Won’s oldest brother. And Kim Sun-Young and Choi Moo-Sung portray a hospitalized patient and her husband, respectively.

Airdates: Twelve episodes — ranging from 80- to 88-minutes long — aired on tvN from March 12 to May 28, 2020.

Spoiler Alert: In the 12th episode, there’s a lot of potential romance that could flourish in the next season: Ik-Joon confesses to Song-Hwa that he likes her; Seok-Hyung rejects his colleague’s confession that she wants to date him (but it seems it’s because he doesn’t want her to get hurt in his drama-filled life more than anything else); Jung-Won returns the affections of Gyeo-Wool, the in-demand resident who fell in love with him upon first sight; and Jun-Wan and Ik-Soon give a long distance relationship a try, with him in Seoul and her in London for the next three years completing her doctorate.

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