Two high school academic rivals run into each other by chance years after graduation.  But despite the pair both achieving their dreams of becoming successful doctors, they are both suffering from extreme stress and burnout.  While one of them has lost his clinic to an expensive law suit, the other left her job in a fit of anger.  Now the pair will reconnect as they try to put their lives and careers back together.  And they soon realize that the person who was once their biggest competition is now their best companion and supporter.

Park Shin Hye as Nam Ha Neul

Nam Ha Neul devoted her whole life to studying every waking second and getting the best grades possible.  But after bombing the most important test of her life, Ha Neul ends up studying medicine at a small, less prestigious school than she had dreamed.  But she didn’t let that stop her.  Now she is a successful anesthesiologist at a big hospital.  But as pressures from the job and being taken advantage of by her superiors begins to take its toll, Ha Neul finds herself fighting serious clinical depression.  Fed up with it all, she quits her job, but now she isn’t sure what to do with her life. And when she comes home to find her old classmate living on her rooftop, she is sure life is just being cruel.  But because she doesn’t want to impose on her family, she finds herself confiding in Jeong Woo more and more. And they begin to depend on each other for support and encouragement.  

Nam Ha Neul is driven and hard-working.  But she has sacrificed many of the joys of growing up.  She has had very few close friends and she doesn’t really know how to relax or have fun.  But overcoming her depression is going to require her to learn how to think about something besides work.  And lucky for her, Jeong Woo has lived his life which a much freer frame of mind, and he is willing to help distract her from her professional troubles.  Park Shin Hye tends to play serious, overfocused characters well, and Ha Neul is no exception.  And since this is her first role since her marriage and the birth of her son, it was wonderful to have her back on my small screen!

Kong Seong Ha as Lee Hong Ran

Lee Hong Ran is Ha Neul’s best friend.  They are both anesthesiologist.  But Hong Ran’s life is complicated by the fact that she is a single mother to a young son.  Because of her hectic schedule, she sends her son to stay with her mother and aunts during the week, but tries to spend time with him on her days off.  When a handsome young doctor in her building offers to help her catch some bugs to impress her son, they begin a sweet friendship that natually turns to love.

♥ Dae Young and Hong Ran

I really loved this seond lead couple.  They skipped all the ugly love triangles and let these two lonely, single parents have their own love story.  I could have done with more scenes for this pair, but I liked everything I saw.  Their interactions both with each other and their kids was honest and realistic.  The topic of single parents is becoming increasingly more common in kdramas, but its rare to see 2 characters in the same series.  And I liked that they could each help the other.  

 ♥ Mental Health

The topic of mental wellness has been a trend of discussion around the world lately.  And especially among health care workers, who were extremely overworked through the pandemic.  Netflix recently postponed a drama about residents out of respect for the current resident shortage.  This is a subject that is timely and relevant.  I’m always glad to see shows that are willing to tackle these kinds of important issues.

Over the Top Acting

The humor in this drama was often based on over the top acting, whether it was cutsie moments with our leads or fighting among Ha Neul’s family.  The level of maturity seemed to take an instant dive in an effort to get a laugh.  And if this had happened a couple of times, I could have overlooked it, but it just continued to the point of being cringe-worthy.  All of this cast are talented.  There is no reason they needed to try so hard to create humorous moments.  

Complicated Mystery

The whole mystery component of this drama was a bit too confusing.  The whole “who installed cameras in the office, and what happened to the disk drive” story was convoluted and not that interesting.  The courtroom scenes felt out of place with the rest of the drama.  I kept forgetting there was a legal case at all.  I see what they were trying to do but it didn’t really work for me. 

Since our villain has already passed away from his injuries, “Doctor Slump” gets to spend the last episode giving us lots of happy endings.  Ba Da has finally found a purpose for his life and is doing well working in his uncle’s restaurant.  Dae Young and Hong Ran are happy together and seem to be creating their own little family.  Ha Neul gets an offer to study abroad, and Jeong Woo gets points for encouraging her to go even though he doesn’t want her to.  But in the end, the offer is taken back so she can’t go.  But she is back at work and her depression seems to have improved to the point where she doesn’t need therapy anymore.  Jeong Woo opens a new clinic, but he is keeping things smaller and more manageable this time around. He has learned the beauty of life/work balance.  The final scene shows the couple finally getting to watch the sunrise together and the epilogue shows a montage of the happy couple’s wedding photoshoot.

A young teacher has avoided dating her whole life because of a family curse that makes them turn into dogs if they kiss someone.  But following a work drinking party, she kisses a fellow teacher, mistaking him for the man she has a crush on.  Now every night for 100 nights, she turns into a cute little dog.  And after that time she will become a dog forever, unless she can break the curse.  Breaking it requires the same person who kissed her to kiss her again in dog form.  But she has two major problems. First, the guy she kissed doesn’t seem interested in her and second, he is deathly afraid of dogs.  So she sets out to befriend him, help him overcome his fear of dogs, and eventually gain his help in breaking the spell.  And as she gets to know him, she will discover that this teaching rival that she had once despised as cold and uninteresting actually has a sweet, charming side.

Park Gyu Young as Han Hae Na

Han Hae Na is a high school Korean language teacher.  She avoids romantic relationships because of a family curse that causes her to turn into a dog if she kisses someone.  But when she gets drunk at a work party, she finally decides to take the risk and confess her feelings to Bo Gyum, who is a fellow teacher. Unfortunately she ends up kissing Seo Won instead.  Now every night she turns into a dog until morning.  But there is a simple way to break the curse.  She just needs Seo Won to kiss her while she is still a dog.  But as luck would have it, Seo Won is deathly afraid of dogs.  So she is going to have to help him get over that fear if she is going to avoid living the rest of her life as a dog.  And she has 100 days to make it happen.  But more important than the spell itself is the story of how it all began and who else had a part in the original curse.  

Han Hae Na is friendly and outgoing.  She has always found Seo Won’s cold personality to feel condescending and rude.  But when she is forced to befriend him and spend time with him, she begins to see that he is not at all the person she had assumed.  And her desire to help him with his fear of dogs becomes less about saving her own destiny, and more about helping him heal from his past trauma.  Park Gyu Young plays this kind of spunky, optimistic character well.  I liked her in this role, and I enjoyed watching her relationship with Seo Won develop.

Yoon Hyun Soo as Choi Yool

Choi Yool is Seo Won’s nephew.  He is also a student at the high school his uncle teaches at.  And when Yool accidentally discovers the truth about Hae Na’s curse, he vows to do whatever he can to help her break it.  Yool develops a crush on Hae Na but in the end, he has to concede to his uncle, Seo Won, who finally succeeds in winning her heart.  

♥ Choi Yool

I really loved the character of Choi Yool.  The way they handled his crush on Hae Na made him come across as mature and well-grounded.  And the relationship between him and Seo Won was touching and fun.  I did wonder at first if they would put him with Ji Ah, but that didn’t work out for him either.  I think it would have been really easy to paint him as childish and jealous, but I am so glad they gave him more depth of character than some of the average “second leads”.

 ♥ The Dog Story

I enjoyed the concept of the dog curse, and although the story sounded a little weird, it was well told.  I especially liked the first half of the show when they were focused on the curse, how to break it, and how to keep it a secret.  I think this portion of the series was easily the strongest and most interesting.  I didn’t like some of the other elements quite as well as the central story itself.  

Uncle’s Story

I loved the idea of an uncle who had been unsuccessful at removing the curse.  He is the cautionary tale of what happens if you don’t get your second kiss.  But his storyline was strangely non-cohesive.  The scenes of the very old, sick dog are heartbreaking, but then we move on to his miraculous transformation back to a human and he just seems fine.  Then he loses his voice but mysterious gets it back again with absolutely no explanation.  I’m not sure what the point of his character is most of the time, and they did nothing to explain any of it in a way that makes sense or makes me care.  

Flashbacks and Repetition

Even with only 14 episodes, this drama seemed a bit too long for the material they had.  The use of repetition in the story and endless flashbacks to the the same scenes over and over began to lose their appeal over time.  Particularly toward the end of the drama, there seemed to be more memories then new material.  Which is a shame, because I think there are other parts of the story they could have focused on if they had removed some of the overused scenes.

Pretty much everyone gets a happy ending in this one.  The final episode starts with Hae Na getting all her memories back.  Then we jump forward one year to catch up with all our characters.  Now that the curse is broken and Bo Gyum’s revenge is complete, he and the Vice Principal have disappeared.  Dong Cheol finally is back to being a human with a voice.  After a rough patch, he and Ms. Yoon get back together and are moving forward in their relationship.  Yoo Na and Woo Taek officially define their relationship and get engaged.  Once Ji Ah graduates, she goes to find Bo Gyum and confess her feelings for him.  The couple share a special time together as they release lanterns into the sky.  I hope Bo Gyum can be honest now and return her love.  After hiding the fact that they are dating, our lead couple decide to go public.  Seo Won has overcome his fear of dogs and he and Hae Na adopted a dog of their own.  The drama ends with Hae Na’s voiceover about how they are learning to enjoy the normal things in life together.